We are living in a day of “denomination” bashing. It seems the popular trend today is to be down on denominations and bash them. Southern Baptists are not exempt from this denomination bashing. Many are doing their best to portray Southern Baptists as a group of red-necked, ignorant, racist, blowhard fundamentalists.
Southern Baptists, like other denominations, are not perfect. We have our flaws and foibles. God is working on us making us a denomination He can use to make His glory, goodness and grace known to the nations of the world by making disciples of all nations. I am Southern Baptist by choice and conviction. I am proud to be a Southern Baptist.
Southern Baptists, in reality, are the most active and effective Evangelical group in the world. We now support more than 5,000 full time missionaries around the world. We have six vibrant seminaries, three of which are the largest in the world.
All this is supported by the churches. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a voluntary association of more than 40,000 churches. Each church decides for itself if it wants to be part of the SBC. Each church has the authority to make its own decisions – even in matters of faith. The SBC has no authority to tell its member churches what to do. Member churches decide what phases of the Convention’s various activities and programs it wants to participate in. Each church sets its own voluntary financial contributions, and chooses ‘messengers’, if it so desires, to participate in the annual Convention meeting. Those ‘messengers’ normally go uninstructed – they make their own decisions as to what they will vote for or against.
In return, the SBC supports missionaries all across North America, as well as in more than 160 other countries. It supports the six seminaries, provides health care insurance and retirement for ministers and church staff members, and has representation in Washington, DC. It operates a large publishing business, providing Sunday School material, a wide variety of books and other magazines, and with this a nationwide chain of Christian Book stores (Lifeway Bookstores). It also has adopted a statement of faith, The Baptist Faith and Message. This statement of faith is not binding on local churches. Nevertheless, the denomination’s statement provides “general instruction and guidance for our own people and others concerning those articles of the Christian faith which are most surely held among us.” It probably is safe to say that at least 95% of the churches accept without any question The Baptist Faith and Message statement.
There are still those who seek in different ways to destroy the good name of Southern Baptists. But Southern Baptists are a people who unapologetically believe the Bible to be the inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word of God; that God is the Creator and Upholder of all things; that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, established the church to be His body on earth, who died on a cross to be the atonement for our sins, and rose from the dead to be Lord of all; and who will return one day for judgment on this sinful world; and that the Holy Spirit is God resident in all who believe in Him, to be their Comforter, Counselor, Guide and Teacher. Each church is the body of Christ in its location, charged with the primary task of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to this lost world. We are human beings who often falter and miserably fail, but we are part of God’s people seeking to bring the world to the feet of Jesus Christ who is Lord of all.
Has the United States begun the same pattern of decline in membership, attendance and visibility that has led to the near collapse of the church in Western Europe?
