HISTORY OF BAPTISTS FORMATION OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION Growth is always a great blessing for churches. No one wants to be in any place that is stagnant or in decline. Baptist people were about to see continual growth. In the years following the Civil War, Baptists begin to grow significantly. With churches more and more spread out across the land, it was increasingly difficult to maintain contact, unity, and accountability. Although there was a need for some type of organization that bound Baptists together, our fierce determination to avoid being “under any governing board of men” made it difficult to agree on a solution. The first “organization” that was joined by churches but had no authority over Baptist churches were mission “societies” in England. William Carey led in the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society in England in 1792. In this country, the first voluntary, cooperative linkage was through “associations”. These were formed to connect churches within a geographical area (although that area might be large). In 1707, the first association was formed in and around Philadelphia, PA. It was promised that this new “entity” of an association would not rob the local church of any of its authority or freedom. Initially, their functions were to provide….. 1) A means to support mission work. 2) Unity around mission support with a “society” giving full attention to that “one” focus. 3) A way to “do” the work and still maintain total church freedom and autonomy. American Baptists were pressed into deciding what to do “together” to provide for international mission work. In 1812, Adoniram and Ann Judson along with Luther Rice sailed for India to be missionaries for a different denomination. While on their long voyage and through reading Scripture, they determined that they believed what the Baptists taught and they wanted to become missionaries for the Baptists. The problem was that there was no Baptist foreign mission society in America to support anyone on the foreign fields. So, the Northern and Southern states formed many “missionary societies” to gather money to send in support of those on the field. May 18, 1814, 33 messengers from across the land came to Philadelphia to form an international mission society called the General Missionary Convention. Since they agreed to only meet every three years, the group came to be called the Triennial Convention. In 1824, Baptists formed a society for tract and publication distribution and in 1832 another was formed for the support of “home” missions. DEFININITION AND DIFFERNTIATION OF TERMS…… WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “SOCIETIES” AND “ASSOCIATIONS” OR DENOMINATIONAL SUPPORT FOR MINISTRY AND MISSION WORK?

Societies are focused on “one function”. Their leaders and supporters give to “one and only one” ministry or mission cause. So, every time a new ministry or mission field is begun, a new society must be formed to support the work. Over time, the churches grow weary of every society wanting to come make an appeal to the church for money. And, the various “societies” each have to be great at fund raising to continue to exist. Over time, the sheer number of “independent” groups seeking funding and involvement in societies will collapse because of the giving fatigue generated in churches and the competition between groups to get the church dollars. “Association” or “Denominational” support means that churches give to the Association or Denomination. The Association or Denomination has a formula worked out of which “group” gets a set amount of all monies that churches give. In this way, the church gives faithfully to the “Association”. The Association has a pre-determined amount that they will forward to each entity of missions or ministry. The work is done with all churches giving to a centralized order of distribution. The churches do not have to have every group come in the course of a year and ask for money. The pastor simply encourages the church to give and each church determines how much of the income from contributions will be forwarded in a cooperative effort to aid in funding those things that are necessary and are bigger in scope than the local church could ever do alone. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------At the time that Baptists were forming their international and home mission work as well as the publication society, there were already deep lines of division forming over numerous social, cultural, economic, and political issues. Each region of the new nation were upset over the direction of different issues. The Northern Businessmen, the Western farmers, and the Southern planters did not see eye-to-eye on much. They continually revived the old disagreements that the colonists had faced. They were deeply divided over how the new constitution should be interpreted, what constituted legal power, and similar concerns. The most critical point of division was the slavery issue. Northern and Southern citizens both opposed slavery in the infancy of the nation. But, it would not be long before things changed. The continual “push” by England that slaves needed to be a part of the economy of America because of the significant impact that slavery could make, great pressure was put on this new nation. Soon, that pressure to adopt slavery changed the face of America. Northerners realized the great profits that could be had in human trafficking of slaves. The South’s large farms and plantations needed many field hands to successfully manage and operate the huge task of making massive planting pay off with abundant harvests. There is a misconception about the South and slavery. At the peak of slavery in the South, twothirds of the families did not own any slaves. Baptists, who for the most part, were in the poorer group in early American history were not slave holders. Baptist people were not the strong

supporters of slavery (for the most part) due to lack of desire to hold slaves, lack of need, and lack of funds to buy slaves. The ugly institution of slavery was a blight on this country. Most Americans hated the fact that slavery was a part of our new nation and their antagonism against it was growing stronger with each passing year. With this much “rift” between the North and South, Slave holder and non-slave holder, state church supporters that did not give up desires for the Church of England to be “the church”, and independent faith practitioners that were determined to be “free”, the need for some kind of denominational control, accountability, and oversight was becoming more evident. That sentiment was felt more strongly by Southerners. Specifically, they wanted to form their own mission body. They felt that the Northern-based mission society was not adequately meeting the needs of the South. The division between the views of those in the North versus those in the South were so deep that W.W. Barnes, a Baptist historian, stated that there would have been a separation eventually even if there had not been a slavery-abolition issue. Once Congress voted as a bloc to upset the balance between slave holding and non-slave holding states, the issue of slavery took on new “fronts” in the battle….moral, spiritual, political, economic, and social. The resulting angry debates were ugly. The topics debated included the interpretation of the constitutions of the societies on slavery, the right of Southerners to receive missionary appointments, the authority of a denominational society to discipline church members, and the neglect of the South in the appointment of missionaries. The sparks were flying and a fire was just about to ignite! In 1844, Georgia Baptists requested that the Home Mission Society appoint a slaveholder to be a missionary in Georgia. Following lots of debate, the request was denied. Alabama Baptists made a similar request to appoint within a few months a slave holder to the foreign mission field through the Foreign Mission Society. The Foreign Mission Society also said no. Virginia Baptists called a meeting of the Baptists of the South to convene in Augusta, Georgia, in 1845 to discuss “the best means of promoting the Foreign Mission cause, and other interests of the Baptist denomination in the South.” 293 Baptist leaders gathered at the First Baptist Church of Augusta on May 8, 1845. That group represented the 365,000 Baptists throughout the southern states. After some time of prayer, discussion, and voicing their concerns that more could be done for the Kingdom work if the Southerners separated from their Northern counterparts to form a separate Baptist body for missionary work, the separation was adopted. Methodists had already made that move and Presbyterians would do so later. So, on May 10, 1845, The Southern Baptist Convention was organized under a new constitution and that action was ratified a year later in Richmond. It was noted by the Southern Baptist Convention President, William B. Johnson that…. 1) North and South were still spiritual brothers.

2) The separation was only to affect the home and foreign mission societies. 3) It was not to affect the Tract Publication work…that would still be done for both groups by the same entity. 4) This new body would be permitted to appoint missionaries to home and foreign fields. Southern Baptists were now faced with even more challenging issues. What kind of body would this new “Southern Baptist” group be? How could this denomination work “for” the churches without having authority “over” the churches? Again, there was ever a deep conviction that God’s people should be individually accountable to God alone and that church autonomy was a “must”. This determination to be self-governing and each member responsible before God “alone” for their actions had been the impetus behind societies. Since societies were a loose grouping of churches to simply give to a common cause, they were viewed as non-threatening. Societies, however, had a very difficult time securing unity and effectiveness among the churches and their missionaries The flaws in societal giving and operations were rapidly becoming evident. The centralized function of an association or denomination seemed to be much more effective and efficient. The Baptists meeting in 1845 rejected the method of having a society for each kind of Christian endeavor beyond the local church. They chose to move toward the old Associational plan whereby one general convention would be closely related to the churches for all Christian ministries. The belief was that a Convention could provide safeguards while protecting the authority of local churches. They did this initially by appointing a Board of Managers for the home and foreign mission work that would report to the Convention. That set the stage for the formation of more “Boards” that would follow in years to come for the various entities of Southern Baptist work. The Civil War and its aftermath disrupted the programs of the convention. Lots of issues continued to create bitterness and division…..sectional rivalry, economic depression and inflation, the black exodus from white churches, lingering and persistent organizational questions, doctrinal differences, etc. In spite of all of this turbulence, Southern Baptist ministries continued to grow. The deep divide between North and South did not end just because hostilities ended. The wounds emotionally, spiritually, relationally, and economically were very deep. At one point, the Northern Baptists sought to explore the possibilities of reuniting with the Southern Baptists, but the Southern Baptists did not have the desire to return to “society” form of denominational work and therefore, the reunion attempt failed. Along with “internal” issues among Baptists, there were forces at work “within” Baptists that would eventually pull out to form separate churches. Those of a different mindset created additional confusion in the midst of all that was transpiring. The “camps” of alternate views had followers and created further divisions among Baptists. Some of those that were at work “among us” to divide us were….

1. Thomas Campbell, and his son, Alexander. They would form the Church of Christ and later the Christian church over issues of baptism being essential for salvation and the teaching that a person could lose their salvation.

2. Landmarkism – J.R. Graves in the 1850’s moved from Vermont to the South and bashed the formation of any conventions. “Landmark” Baptists believe that we can trace Baptist people through known Christian groups all the way back to the disciples. Thus, the various groups through history become the “landmarks” of Baptist existence from the disciples to the present. To do that joins Baptists to some strange and errant groups of people.

3. Anti-mission movement. It is just what it sounds like….the move against any type of mission work. Primarily espoused by hyper-Calvinism, the belief was that God will save those of the Elect only and anyway. So, we do not need to be evangelistic since He will save His own. For those that aren’t in the Elect, witnessing to them is a waste of time and money. Mission work had steadily grown since the formation of the foreign and home mission boards. In 1846, the Foreign Mission Board sent two missionaries to China and had an annual income of $11,735. By 1891, the Board had raised $2,000,000 and had 91 missionaries serving in six nations. One of those missionaries to China was a deeply committed lady named Lottie Moon. In 1887, she appealed to Southern Baptist Women to gather a special mission offering at Christmas for foreign missions. The challenge was accepted and a goal was set for $2000. The offering that was raised was $3,315. That was the beginning of the great mission Christmas offering that has raised over $1,000,000,000 for international missions over the years. Over the next 50 years, the Southern Baptists would form additional groups to oversee vital work needed to support the local church. A Bible Board and a Sunday school board were formed but failed during the time of the Civil War. In 1888, Southern Baptists formed an organization for all of the churches in the South. Southern Baptist Women launched an organization with Annie Armstrong as their first executive secretary. In the 1880’s, there was a stirring for Southern Baptists to break their ties to the American Baptist Publication Society in Philadelphia and form their own publishing house. Not all Baptists supported such a move and there was a significant amount of resistance. After much debating and writing of articles on the subject, Southern Baptists formed the Sunday School Board (now Lifeway Resources) in 1891 with their headquarters in Nashville, TN. This Sunday School Board marked the era of moving the new Convention toward being a true denomination.

This SS Board was highly effective in promotion and financing of many ministries, developing methods for church growth, church training, unifying the denomination through common literature for all churches for all Southern Baptists. That unifying effort was a significant factor in the expansion of Southern Baptists in the twentieth century. (This material is my “digest” of an article written by Robert A. Baker {1910-1992}. Dr. Baker was professor of Church History, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX).