In the early twentieth century the Convention emerged from these disputations strongly committed to evangelism and largely untouched by the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy then raging in most of the other major denominations. In the latter half of the nineteenth century it also was rent by quarrels between antimissionary Calvinists and evangelistically oriented general Baptists (the latter won), and between Landmark exclusivists and ecclesiastically unstructured elements (which was indecisive). However, it suffered badly as a result of the Civil War (1861-65) and the subsequent withdrawal of its black members to form Negro Baptist churches. The growth of the fledgling SBC was slow but steady in the period 1845-61. Churches from eight states and the District of Columbia sent 293 representatives who voted to form the new Southern Baptist Convention. When Baptist abolitionists insisted that slaveowners be ineligible to serve as missionaries, and some Northerners even suggested that their brethren in the South withdraw from the Triennial Convention, Southern Baptists met in Augusta, Georgia, in May 1845 to discuss the matter. This divisive problem cut deep into American life because it was at once a political, economic, social, moral, and religious issue. Third, foremost, and the precipitating cause of the split was the question of slavery. Second, many Baptist leaders in the South objected to the neglect of their region by the Baptist Home Mission Society, one of the agencies of the Triennial Convention. First, there was a basic difference between North and South over the associational principle, Southerners tending to place more emphasis on the role of the association. Three factors led to this breakdown of national Baptist life. However, the Triennial Convention faltered in the pre-Civil War period and the southern churches withdrew to form their own organization. In 1814 the Baptist churches of the South joined with those of other parts of the country to form the Triennial Convention, a nationwide Baptist fellowship organized to promote missions, education, and youth work. A spinoff of the Great Awakening in New England, under Stearns's able leadership Baptist missionaries won thousands of people to Christ on the southern frontier in this period.
Baptists became the largest denomination in the South largely because of the great revival of 1755-75 and the work of Shubal Stearns (d.1784), a man of remarkable natural gifts and a profound sense of mission. for promotion of Christian missions at home and abroad and any other objects such as Christian education, benevolent enterprises, and social services which it may deem proper and advisable for the furtherance of the kingdom of God.” The Convention neither claims nor exercises authority over any other Baptist body, whether local church, association, or state organization.īaptists in the southern USA trace their origins to New England, and the Southern Baptist Convention to the older nationwide Triennial Convention. According to the constitution of the SBC, its purpose is to organize Baptist churches “. It is a voluntary organization of Baptist churches contributing financially to the programs of its various agencies. The largest non-Roman Catholic religious body in America.
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