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The Mississippi Baptist Convention Board (MBCB) is an autonomous association of Baptist churches in the U.S. state of Mississippi. It is one of the state conventions associated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Formed in 1836, it was one of the original nine state conventions to send delegates to the first Southern Baptist Convention, organized in 1845. [1]
Prior to statehood, Baptist congregations near Natchez organized themselves in September 1807 into an association at Bethel church on Bayou Sara, although the previous year at Salem church six churches had met for the same purpose. [2] The Mississippi Baptist Association adopted 'articles of faith & gospel order', [3] and published their proceedings the following years with many references to Thomas Mercer and David Cooper. [4]
A second organization followed by the title of convention. The first Mississippi Baptist Convention lasted just five years, from February 1824, when it first met at Bogue Chitto Church in Pike County, to 1829, after meeting so much resistance that it was agreed that it be disbanded in 1828. [5] [6]
The second convention was formed on December 23–4, 1836. Its first president was Ashley Vaughan and its first corresponding Sscretary S. S. Lattimore. Lattimore was still its president in 1852. The corresponding secretary that year was W. J. Denson, and the Recording Secretary was J. T. Freman. [7]
In 1857, the convention established a newspaper, The Mississippi Baptist, with J. T. Freeman as its editor. [8]
In the same year, the convention expressed its opinion on the abolition of slavery, saying that it was an attempt "to detract from the social, civil, and religious privileges of the slave population". [9] Baptist churches in the state had been practicing segregation for some years. The convention had reported in 1938 "that some few of our Churches, and some of our Methodist friends, have adopted the plan of holding separate meetings for the blacks; and that such a course is general attended with an increased interest among them". [10]
Women's societies were some of the largest financial supporters of the convention in the early 19th century. In 1875, the convention formally recognized women's organizations. [10]
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers, and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul competency, sola fide, sola scriptura and congregationalist church government. Baptists generally recognize two ordinances: baptism and communion.
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. Organized in 1845 through separation from the Triennial Convention, the denomination advocated slavery in the United States. 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 U.S. states, having member churches across the country and 41 affiliated state conventions.
Reformed Baptists are Baptists that hold to a Calvinist soteriology. The first Calvinistic Baptist church was formed in the 1630s. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith was written along Calvinistic Baptist lines. The name “Reformed Baptist” dates from the latter part of the 20th century to denote Baptists who have adopted elements of Reformed theology, but retained Baptist ecclesiology.
Frank Stagg was a Southern Baptist theologian, seminary professor, author, and pastor over a 50-year ministry career. He taught New Testament interpretation and Greek at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary from 1945 until 1964 and at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky from 1964 until 1978. His publications, recognitions and honors earned him distinction as one of the eminent theologians of the past century. Other eminent theologians have honored him as a "Teaching Prophet."
No one...has ever taken the New Testament more seriously than Frank Stagg, who spent his entire life wrestling with it, paying the price in sweat and hours in an unrelenting quest to hear the message expressed in a language no longer spoken and directed toward a cultural context so foreign to the modern reader.
United Baptist is name of several diverse Baptist groups of Christianity in the United States and Canada.
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) is a Baptist theological institute in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Missions and evangelism are core focuses of the seminary.
Benajah Harvey Carroll, known as B. H. Carroll, was a Baptist pastor, theologian, teacher, and author.
Approximately 15.3% of Americans identify as Baptist, making Baptists the second-largest religious group in the United States, after Roman Catholics. Baptists adhere to a congregationalist structure, so local church congregations are generally self-regulating and autonomous, meaning that their broadly Christian religious beliefs can and do vary. Baptists make up a significant portion of evangelicals in the United States and approximately one third of all Protestants in the United States. Divisions among Baptists have resulted in numerous Baptist bodies, some with long histories and others more recently organized. There are also many Baptists operating independently or practicing their faith in entirely independent congregations.
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.
John Albert Broadus was an American Baptist pastor and President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The Triennial Convention was the first national Baptist denomination in the United States. Officially named the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions, it was formed in 1814 to advance missionary work and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In a dispute over slavery and missions policy, Baptist churches in the South separated from the Triennial Convention and established the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845. This split left the Triennial Convention largely Northern in membership. In 1907, the Triennial Convention was reorganized into the Northern Baptist Convention, which was renamed American Baptist Churches USA in 1972.
Missionary Baptists are a group of Baptists that grew out of the missionary / anti-missionary controversy that divided Baptists in the United States in the early part of the 19th century, with Missionary Baptists following the pro-missions movement position. Those who opposed the innovations became known as anti-missions or Primitive Baptists. Since arising in the 19th century, the influence of Primitive Baptists waned as "Missionary Baptists became the mainstream". Missionary Baptists do not constitute a distinct denomination, and many affiliate with the Southern Baptist Convention.
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.
William Carey Crane was an American Baptist minister, an educator, and the president of Baylor University from 1864 to 1885.
The Alabama Baptist Convention is an autonomous association of Baptist churches in the U.S. state of Alabama formed in 1823. It is one of the state conventions associated with the Southern/Great Commission Baptists.
The Georgia Baptist Mission Board is an association of Baptist churches in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is one of the state conventions associated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Formed in 1822, it was one of the original nine state conventions to send delegates to the first Southern Baptist Convention, organized in 1845.
The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSCNC) is an autonomous association of Baptist churches in the state of North Carolina. It is one of the state conventions associated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, the convention is made up of 77 Baptist associations and around 4,300 churches as of 2012. The convention is led by three officers, elected annually during the annual meeting of the convention. The three officers elected to serve the convention for 2022 are: President, Dr. Micheal Pardue, and First Vice-president, Rev. Quintell Hill and Rev. Jason Miller. The convention is also led by an Executive Director-Treasurer (EDT). The current EDT is Rev. Todd Unzicker, Georgia Bulldog fan, who was elected by the convention in May 2021.
Grenada College was a college for women, founded by Baptists, in Grenada, Mississippi in 1850.
James H. DeVotie (1814–1891) was a Baptist minister in the American South. Born in Oneida County, New York, he was a pastor in South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia. He was a co-founder of Howard College in Marion, Alabama, later known as Samford University near Birmingham. He was a long-time trustee of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He served as a Confederate chaplain during the Civil War. After the war, he worked for the Southern Baptist Convention.
William Allen Montgomery (1829–1905) was an American lawyer, planter and Baptist minister. Trained as a lawyer in Tennessee, he was a cotton planter in Texas in the 1850s and served as a Confederate chaplain in the American Civil War. He served as the President of Carson–Newman University from 1888 to 1892.