Southern Baptist Convention

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a United States cooperative ministry agency serving missionary Baptist churches around the world. The words Southern Baptist Convention refer both to the denomination and its annual meeting of delegates.

Related Topics:
United States - Baptist

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Because Baptist churches believe strongly in the local autonomy of the church, the SBC is a cooperative organization by which churches can pool resources, rather than as a body with any administrative control over local churches. It maintains a central administrative organization based in Nashville, Tennessee. However, this organization has no authority to direct the affairs of any of its affiliated churches. The convention's sole response to any "wayward church" is that it can refuse to seat that church's messengers at the annual convention.

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The SBC is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, claiming 16 million members. According to the Religious Congregations Membership Study, the Convention had 15,922,039 members in 41,514 churches in the United States in 2000. It has 1,200 local associations, 41 state conventions and fellowships, and supports thousands of missionaries worldwide (over 10,000 in 2005).

Related Topics:
Protestant - United States - 2000

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The SBC is by far the largest of any of the Baptist groups in America, and also the largest of the so-called "mainline denominations". There are more Southern Baptist congregations in America than of any other religious group, including the Catholic Church (although there are three times more Catholics in the United States).

Related Topics:
Baptist - Catholic Church

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Their greatest numbers are in the southern United States, where in the past they exerted considerable influence (some southern states have little or no legalized gambling or state lottery, and many southern state counties or portions thereof prohibit alcohol sales, because of strong SBC influence). However, the SBC has congregations in all 50 states.

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