Christ’s People
Many millions of people who identify themselves as “Southern Baptists” In the United States and out across the world. That is a secondary description, because if they are truly Southern Baptists in the sense of ultimate values, they would first say, “We belong to Christ. We are his people.” They do not say this exclusively. They freely recognize that Christ has many loyal peoples and most of them are not Southern Baptists. However, every religious group must clearly identify itself in its relationship or lack of relationship with Christ, and Southern Baptists profess for themselves, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” He, by their choice and decision, is their Lord. The constant challenge is to acknowledge and obey Him in all things.
Southern Baptists began as a group of Baptist churches in the Southeastern part of the United States who in 1845 organized the Southern Baptist Convention as their cooperative instrument for missions, starting with international missions. It sent missionaries out into a few countries, at first. (Read more) Decade after decade, it expanded the number of nations to which it sent its laborers and it became, for many decades, the largest Evangelical missions agency in the world, starting or assisting Baptist churches in most nations of the world. These missionaries encouraged the new Baptist groups they helped form to organize themselves into national conventions or unions, similar to the SBC pattern. Southern Baptist missionaries helped start churches and helped train their pastors and had a great influence on what Baptists are like in many countries of the world. Meanwhile, in the United States, Baptists from the south moved westward and northward, until “Southern” Baptists are now seen in every state of the Union, including Alaska!
Most people called “Southern Baptists” are members of churches that are members of the Southern Baptist Convention. However, many others also consider themselves as “Southern Baptists” because their core doctrines and practices came to them either by missionary emissaries or because their personal faith in Christ first happened among Southern Baptists. Baptists in many parts of the world proudly identify themselves as Baptists of that nation and of its national Baptist organizations. And many of these will also say, when comparing themselves with other Baptists and other Christians, “I am Southern Baptist.” The label identifies them with values and practices that are common to Southern Baptists anywhere in the world.
This web page, as a result, is not an official webpage of the Southern Baptist Convention but is at the voluntary initiative of men and women who cherish Southern Baptist beliefs, purposes and values and are eager for them to be reproduced throughout the world.
