Baptist World Alliance AMA - The largest organization of Baptist Churches, Denominations, and Associations!
Aren't we just the tiny associations not part of the SBC? Well, actually, no!
There are 33 million baptists in North America. There are 16 million Southern Baptists. We are in fact, more than half. We will list our particular association by our names. Some, like the Texas Baptists and the Cooperative Baptist fellowship, also cooperate with one another (committees on committees and associations on associations!). Keep in mind there are many other BIG associational Baptist groups we do not represent: Like the American Baptist Churches USA, and the largest Historically Black churches are Baptist as well (The National Baptist Convention, the Progressive National Baptist Convention).
In fact, to really drive the point home, the Baptist World Alliance has a membership of more than 44 million Baptists worldwide--of many associations/ fellowships/conventions. This does not include non-associational (independent) Baptists or the Southern Baptist Convention) More than 2/3 of worldwide Baptists are not SBC.
Without further delay, here are our Baptists panelists.
/u/MilesBeyond250 Canadian Baptist Ministries
I've been operating within the Canadian Baptists of Ontario (CBOQ) for quite a few years now, I spent a couple years in a pastoral role at a CBOQ church in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), and now I'm working on my master's thesis which is focusing on Baptist history, and particularly Baptist relationship to Enlightenment though
Affiliation: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) and Texas Baptists (Baptist General Convention of Texas- BGCT).
I am a part-time youth minister and full time seminary student at a BGCT/ CBF-affiliated seminary in Texas.
I grew up Southern Baptist but transitioned to being Cooperative Baptist in college. The CBF arose from disaffected "moderates" within the CBF in 1991, as a result of the "Conservative Resurgence/ Fundamentalist Takeover" in the Southern Baptist Convention. Young earth creationism, complimentarianism, all became required for seminary and students, missionaries, and office workers in the SBC. When it became clear after 2 decades of these "Baptist wars" that more moderate theology would not be tolerated in the SBC, the moderates left.
For me, it was not as simple transition from Southern Baptists to Cooperative Baptist as you might imagine. In between, I was very anti-Baptist. I sojourned with Lutherans, Anglicans, Nazarenes, Presbyterians--anyone who wasn't "Baptist" or non-denominational (Baptist in disguise) I avoided. It was not until reading Stephen Holmes "Baptist Theology" that I realize there was something to be proud of in being Baptist and there was a thought-out history. I was very interested in Church tradition at this time: and I was surprised to find out there were some Baptists who agreed with me!
The Baptist General Convention is a unique animal. It's a state convention which is NOT under control of either the CBF or the SBC. It partners with both and...sort of...neither. It's sort of in between them theologically. It gets complicated. We can talk about that later.
It is really true, you can find a Baptist church which believes almost anything. Everything from footwashing pacifist Baptists, to Bapto-costals who speak in tongues, to Bapto-Catholic who follow the church calendar and do the stations of the cross. They are able to do this because of congregational autonomy.
The separation of Church and state, believer's baptism, autonomy of the local church, fighting for religious freedoms for all (like the Baptist Joint Committee on religious liberty does), keeping the two ordinances, are religious commitments.
We are not creedal, but many of our statements of belief, historically, were written not as litmus tests but to say to other Christians "Look, we're not heretics we promise!"
So when we say "Baptist World Alliance" don't think of a big organization which we all follow. It's a sort of umbrella organization that we partner with and sometimes organizes ecumenical dialogue. They have no power over local churches.
Which is why neither of the panelists can really speak for all Baptists. But we can give a general picture of Baptists and are generally familiar with Baptist History from Thomas Helwys to Martin Luther King, Jr.!
Ask Us Anything! (P.S. Sorry this is late. Here's a really Baptist excuse for being slow at getting responses out: I have a committee meeting!).
Posted Jun 11, 2017, 7:58 PM UTC