The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. In 1845 the Southern Baptists separated from the Triennial Convention in order to support slavery, which the southern churches regarded as "an institution of heaven". During the 19th and most of the 20th century, it played a central role in Southern racial attitudes, supporting racial segregation and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy while opposing interracial marriage. In 1995, the organization apologized for its history. Since the 1940s, it has spread across the United States, having member churches across the country and 41 affiliated state conventions.
The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) is an international Baptist association of Christian churches with an estimated 51 million people in 2023 with 253 member bodies in 130 countries and territories. A voluntary association of Baptist churches, the BWA accounts for about half the Baptists in the world. It is the 8th largest Christian communion.
Charles Jerry Vines is an American preacher and former pastor of what was then the nation's third largest Southern Baptist church, the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida. Like his former co-pastor Homer G. Lindsay Jr., Vines is well known for his conservative and sometimes controversial public stances, as well as his wide-reaching influence in the Southern Baptist Convention and the local political arena. He retired from the First Baptist pulpit on February 7, 2006, and was succeeded by Mac Brunson. On February 4, 2007, Brunson named Vines Pastor Emeritus of the church.
Jack Frasure Hyles was a leading figure in the Independent Baptist movement, having pastored the First Baptist Church of Hammond in Hammond, Indiana, from August 1959 until his death. He was well known for being an innovator of the church bus ministry that brought thousands of people each week from surrounding towns to Hammond for services. Hyles built First Baptist up from fewer than a thousand members to a membership of 100,000. In 1993 and again in 1994, it was reported that 20,000 people attended First Baptist every Sunday, making it the most attended Baptist church in the United States. In 2001, at the time of Hyles's death, 20,000 people were attending church services and Sunday school each week.
John Gill was an English Baptist pastor, biblical scholar, and theologian who held to a firm Calvinistic soteriology. Born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, he attended Kettering Grammar School where he mastered the Latin classics and learned Greek by age 11. He continued self-study in everything from logic to Hebrew, his love for the latter remaining throughout his life.
Richard Albert Mohler Jr. is an American evangelical theologian, the ninth president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and host of the podcast The Briefing, where he daily analyzes the news and recent events from an evangelical perspective.
Wanda Elizabeth "Beth" Moore is an American Anglican evangelist, author, and Bible teacher. She is president of Living Proof Ministries, a Christian organization she founded in 1994 to teach women to know and love Jesus through the study of Scripture. Living Proof Ministries is based in Houston, Texas. Moore, who is "arguably the most prominent white evangelical woman in America," speaks at arena events and has sold millions of books.
Wallie Amos Criswell, was an American pastor, author, and a two-term elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1968 to 1970. As senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas for five decades he became widely known for expository biblical preaching at a popular level, and is regarded as a key figure in the late 1970s "Conservative Resurgence" within the Southern Baptist Convention.
Beginning in 1979, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) experienced an intense struggle for control of the organization. Its initiators called it the conservative resurgence while its detractors labeled it the fundamentalist takeover. It was launched with the charge that the seminaries and denominational agencies were dominated by liberals. The movement was primarily aimed at reorienting the denomination away from a liberal trajectory.
Jack Graham is the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.
Edwin Barry "Ed" Young is the founding and senior pastor of Fellowship Church. He is a New York Times and Amazon Best-Selling author, with an international ministry that includes the televised broadcast, Ed Young Television, C3 Global, the C3 Conference, and Fellowship Live.
Johnny M. Hunt is an American evangelical Christian pastor, author, and who served as the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was also formerly senior pastor of First Baptist Church Woodstock, in Woodstock, Georgia. He was the first Native American president of the SBC. He previously served as the Senior Vice President of the Evangelism & Leadership division of the North American Mission Board—the church planting and domestic evangelism arm of the SBC—speaking nationally to church leaders and congregants about sharing the Christian Gospel.
Wilcrest Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Houston Texas. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.
The Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland is a Baptist Christian denomination based in Ireland. The headquarters is in Moira, Craigavon.
The Canadian Baptists of Western Canada, formerly the Baptist Union of Western Canada, is a moderate Baptist Christian association of churches in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Headquarters is in Calgary, Alberta. The union is one of four components of Canadian Baptist Ministries.
The Alaska Baptist Convention (ABC) is an autonomous association of Baptist churches located in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is one of the state conventions associated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The first Southern Baptist church in Alaska was established in 1943, with just 17 members, and the ABC was formed in 1946. Today, Alaskan Southern Baptists are the largest Protestant denomination in Alaska with over 20,000 members.
The Arizona Southern Baptist Convention (ASBC) is an autonomous association of Baptist churches in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is one of the state conventions associated with the Southern/Great Commission Baptists.
Ronald Wayne Floyd is an American Baptist pastor, and a former Southern Baptist executive. Ronnie was the Senior Pastor of Cross Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch located in Northwest Arkansas, and served as the 61st president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2014-2016. He resigned his post as Senior Pastor in 2019 to become the full-time CEO of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee and run the day-to-day operations of the denomination. His resignation on October 14, 2021 coincided with mounting pressure in the wake of the SBC sexual abuse scandal.
Morris H. Chapman was elected president and chief executive officer of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee on October 1, 1992. In September 2009 he announced that he would retire from this position effective September 30, 2010.
Harry Edward (Ed) Litton Jr. is an American evangelical pastor who was the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, elected in June 2021. He also serves as the senior pastor of Redemption Church in Saraland, Alabama.
