I’m in Phoenix this week sweating it out at the annual meeting for Southern Baptists. In essence, the gathering is a giant, two-day church business meeting with thousands of people. Robert’s Rules of Order keeps the chaos at bay. Every year I’m here, ballot in hand. I love my tribe.
Many of my readers may not be familiar with the Southern Baptist Convention. That’s understandable—there are plenty of other networks, associations, and denominations that do kingdom work. For this post, I’ll share ten key facts about the SBC.
- The SBC is often called “America’s largest Protestant denomination.” However, in all technicality, we’re a convention not a denomination. The SBC does not have a top-down denominational structure. We’re a collection of ministries supported by a cooperating network of churches.
- Every church within the SBC is locally autonomous, meaning each church makes their own decisions about staff, budget, programs—everything. Since each SBC congregation is self-governing, there is no head office in Dallas, Nashville, or Atlanta giving orders to churches. The cooperation of churches within the SBC is completely voluntary.
- With almost 50,000 churches, the SBC is not geographically bound to the American South. We have churches in every state.
- Most SBC churches cooperate at the local, state, and national levels. The local association level is typically a small group of churches in one area focused on community-specific needs. The state level helps fund a broader work, such as children’s homes. The national level includes eleven agencies, such as seminaries and mission boards.
- The funding mechanism for mission work is called the cooperative program, a “mighty river” that is way too complicated to explain in a blog post.
- Baptists in general, and Southern Baptists specifically, have a history of being a “contentious lot.” We tend to fight, mainly over non-essentials. The crazy uncles make our annual meetings more fun, since anyone can approach the mic and say whatever they want.
- The SBC receives direction once a year at the annual meetings. Representatives from churches, called messengers, gather for two days to hear reports from agencies, vote on budget allocations, and elect agency trustees, among other items.
- In 1814 Baptist across the United States came together in the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination, often called the Triennial Convention, since it met every three years. However, by 1844 the Southern Baptists and Northern Baptists were split over the issue of slavery. When the Northern Baptists would not send Southern missionaries who held slaves, the Southern Baptists formed their own convention in 1845. It’s a terrible part of our history, but we’re righting our wrongs. In 1995, we adopted a resolution apologizing for our racism. In 2012, we elected our first African-American president, Fred Luter. And in one of my favorite SBC moments, we adopted a resolution in 2016 against the Confederate Battle Flag after a bold stand from James Merritt.
- From the 1960s to the 1990s the SBC went through a major transition—away from liberal theology and towards conservative theology. The struggle was called the Conservative Resurgence by supporters and the Fundamentalist Takeover by detractors.
- The SBC has a legacy of evangelistic zeal, but this fervor is fading. For several years in a row, SBC baptisms have declined. The main reason is the waning of evangelism and discipleship in SBC churches.
To all my SBC readers, see you in Phoenix! See more from Sam here.
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My Facebook friend Fred Smith recently posted this :
Not my Lord, then not my Saviour
Walter Chantry makes the following comments:
Often Christ turned crowds away by insisting that ‘whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple’ (Lk. 14:33). He was not speaking of abundant life nor of ‘victorious’ giants of the faith…He demanded this turning from everything to himself as a condition of discipleship for everyone.
The young ruler would turn from earthly riches to heavenly or he would cling to earthly riches and perish…The sinner must know that Jesus will not be a Savior to any man who refuses to bow to him as Lord…Christ knew nothing of the man–made twentieth–century suggestion that taking Jesus as Lord is optional.
For him it was no second step which is essential for great blessings but unnecessary for entering God’s kingdom. The altered message of today has deceived men and women by convincing them that Jesus will gladly be a Savior even to those who refuse to follow him as Lord. It simply is not the truth!
Jesus’ invitation to salvation is, ‘Come, follow me’…Practical acknowledgment of Jesus’ Lordship, yielding to his rule by following is the very fibre of saving faith…Believing is obeying. Without obedience, you shall not see life! Unless you bow to Christ’s scepter you will not receive the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice. That is just what Jesus said to the ruler
(Walter Chantry, Today’s Gospel – Synthetic or Authentic? (Edinburgh: Banner, 1970), pp. 55, 59-60).
The comments on this post are also enlightening. See them here.
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