[AMA Series] Southern Baptist Convention/Great Commission Baptists
Don't forget, the other Baptists are hosting an AMA today - go say hi and ask them stuff!
Greetings and good morning, r/Christianity! Welcome to the SBC AMA. Hunker on down, and let's palaver.
Your Panelists
Bios (Added as they come in)
/u/GaslightProphet: My name is GaslightProphet, and somehow, I ended up a baptist. Raised in an areligious household, I came to faith at a Methodist youth group in high school before embarking on a spiritual journey that would lead me through non-denominational, charismatic, mainline and mainline churches, with brief pit stops in Buddhist philosophy and Bahai'ism, before heading to the Catholic Church where I was baptized (sprinkled), took first communion, and was confirmed. Saint's name was Michael.
Anyways, after finding each of those experiences unsatisfying to one degree or another, I found myself in want of a place to really worship and adore Christ - through every stop on my spiritual journey, that's what I was after. I had the good pleasure to find it after visiting a church towards the end of college in Washington, DC (where I studied International Relations and Creative Writing). The Church, much to my eventual surprise, was a Baptist Church with a strong Calvinist theology - something that I had assumed died out centuries ago when I first heard about it in high school World History.
As it stands now, I am becoming increasingly more comfortable with Reformed theology (see flair), and very happy with my church as a whole. I was baptized Easter of 2013. Though I don't have any formal degrees in religious studies, I do occasionally teach at Sunday school and facilitate community group/bible study discussions.
I was originally born in Canada, though grew up in the American midwest and south, before moving to DC where I currently live with my wife, and work as a communications specialist for a secular, internationally-focused, non-profit.
I've also recently started a blog: www.callingallwayfarers.wordpress.com. Keep an eye out for posts on the Church and Transgender individuals, and one on doubt in the next week or two.
/u/capedcrusaderj: I was not raised in church and my family was not christian. My mother was open to lots of things and really got into Wicca. My grandmother started taking me to church in my adolescence because I did not want to stay at home, lots of domestic violence. The church was Southern Baptist.
I accepted Jesus Christ as a teenager and after that I went to live with my grandmother fulltime as my mother passed away(my father died early on in my childhood).
I went to a Baptist College and got a degree in Christian studies. I pursued a MDIV after from a southern baptist seminary.
I affirm the BFM 2000. I fall more into amillennialism(which is a rare find in SBC from my experience). I'm more of a free will guy than a reformed guy. any other questions I'll be glad to answer.
What is this SBC Thing?
The Southern Baptist Convention, or Great Commission Baptists, is an organization of over 46,000 congregations and 16 million members, based in the United States, compromising both the largest Baptist and Protestant denomination. The SBC's origins came out of a relatively ugly and dark place - a dispute with northern Baptists over whether or not slave-owners could be ordained missionaries. Today, the SBC is making substantial strides in overcoming it's past, hosting major conferences and discussions on racial reconciliation, apologizing and renouncing racist roots and practices, and making dedicated efforts to recruit minority populations. In 2012, the SBC elected Fred Luter, Jr. as it's first African-American president.
In addition to the congregations, the SBC is also composed of various missions agencies (the SBC was, in fact, organized to support missions work), primarily NAMB (North American Missions Board, headed by Kevin Ezell) and the IMB (International Missions Board, headed by David Platt). The SBC is also a major provider of emergency and relief aid, via Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. The SBC runs six theological seminaries, in Kentucky, Texas, Louisiana, California, North Carolina, and Missouri.
Finally, the SBC operates financial services, news outlets and publishing houses, as well as the ERLC (the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission), the public policy arm of the SBC, currently headed by Russel Moore.
So What Do We Believe?
It's complicated.
It's important to note that baptism, generally speaking, has two major markers - practice of credobaptism (believer's baptism), and local church soverignty. That means that while we may organize together, SBC churches do not exist in a hierarchy the way, for instance, the Catholic Church does, with local churches at the bottom, bishops above them, archbishops above them, and the Pope at the top. This leads to a fairly diverse body of believers.
However, the SBC has issued numerous position statements on a number of issues. There is a large focus on biblical theology and missions work, and political beliefs tend towards the conservative, especially around abortion and LGBT issues. Compounding the controversy, the SBC is also a complementarian denomination, allowing women to serve on boards, faculties, mission teams, church and organizational staff, deaconates, but not as pastors/elders. Baptists recognize two ordinances: baptism and the Lord's Supper, and practice baptism exclusively by immersion.
Ask us anything!
Posted Jun 5, 2015, 1:09 PM UTC · edited