The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant body in the United States.
Anabaptist & Baptist1845grew out of Baptist
Southern Baptists formed a separate convention in 1845 amid disputes over whether slaveholders could serve as missionaries. The Convention formally repudiated slavery and apologised for its role in racism in 1995. Its churches are autonomous. The CSB is published by Holman, part of the Convention's Lifeway ministry, but is not a required translation for every Southern Baptist church.
The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant body in the United States. It was founded at Augusta, Georgia in 1845, when Baptists in the South separated from the national mission societies because those societies would not appoint a slaveholder as a missionary.
The break was over that question and no other. Baptists in the North and South had cooperated in missions for thirty years; when Georgia Baptists put forward a slaveholder for appointment as a test case, the Home Mission Society refused him, and the southern churches formed their own convention with its own boards 5,6. The convention grew with the South, and its churches became the region's dominant religious institution 5,6.
Two structures made it more than a loose association. The Cooperative Program, adopted in 1925, pools money from every church so that missionaries, seminaries and agencies are funded together rather than by competing appeals, and it remains the largest such arrangement in American Protestantism 1,11,5. The Baptist Faith and Message, first adopted the same year and revised in 1963 and 2000, states what the convention holds, while leaving each congregation free to govern itself 2,9,5. From 1979 a movement its supporters call the conservative resurgence contested and won every convention presidency for over a decade, replaced the boards and seminary faculties, and made belief in an inerrant Bible the test for denominational office; moderates who lost that fight formed the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in 1991 7,8,5.
The convention has since spoken about the reason it was founded. At its hundred and fiftieth anniversary in 1995 it passed a resolution that unwaveringly denounced racism, lamented and repudiated historic acts of evil such as slavery, apologised to African Americans for condoning and perpetuating individual and systemic racism, and asked forgiveness 4,5.
Southern Baptists are Baptists: baptism for believers by immersion, congregations that govern themselves, and no bishops. What the convention adds is a stated confession, the Baptist Faith and Message, and a conviction that the Bible is without error in all it affirms.
The 2000 revision states that Scripture is totally true and trustworthy and has truth without any mixture of error for its matter, and it removed a sentence present since 1963 saying that Jesus Christ is the criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted 2,9. It confesses the Trinity, salvation through faith in Christ alone, the two ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, and the return of Christ 2.
Two of its positions are argued about publicly. The 2000 statement restricts the office of pastor to men, and says that a wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband while affirming that both are of equal worth before God 2,9. And because congregations govern themselves, the convention cannot discipline a church, only decline to seat its messengers, which is the mechanism it uses when a church departs from the convention's stated positions 5,10,1. Missions remain the organising purpose: the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board send thousands of workers funded through the Cooperative Program 1,11.
Worship and practice
A Southern Baptist service is informal and built around preaching, with singing led by a band or a choir, a plain room, and an invitation at the end for anyone who wants to profess faith or join the church.
There is no prescribed liturgy and no lectionary; the pastor chooses the passage and the order 1,5. Music ranges from hymns and gospel to contemporary worship bands, and the convention's publishing arm supplies much of what American evangelical churches sing and study 1,12. Baptism is by immersion and follows a personal profession of faith, usually with the whole congregation watching, and the Lord's Supper is kept as a memorial, often monthly or quarterly 2,5. Sunday school and small groups carry much of the teaching, and Wednesday evening activities are common 1,12.
Scripture and Bible translations
Southern Baptists commissioned a translation of their own, the Christian Standard Bible, and their churches also read the New International, English Standard, New King James and King James versions. The convention holds Scripture to be without error.
The Baptist Faith and Message calls the Bible the record of God's revelation of himself to man, totally true and trustworthy, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds and religious opinions should be tried 2. That conviction was the axis of the conflict from 1979: the question put to trustees and professors was whether they affirmed inerrancy, and the answer decided appointments 7,5. Bible study material published by the convention's own house reaches far beyond it, into congregations of many denominations 1,12. Read here: the Berean Standard Bible, the King James Version that Southern Baptist preaching was built on, and the Majority Standard Bible. The versions guide sets out what Baptist bodies read today.
Documented use
The CSB is published by Holman Bible Publishers, a division of Lifeway, an entity associated with the SBC. Its interdenominational translation committee includes Southern Baptist and other conservative evangelical scholars; the CSB is not an official translation prescribed by the SBC. The NIV, ESV, NKJV and KJV are also encountered in Baptist churches.
King James
KJV-only advocacy is especially associated with parts of the Independent Baptist tradition. The KJV also retains an important place in some National Baptist and Primitive Baptist congregations, although representative usage data are limited.
These passages illustrate themes discussed in this profile; they are not a survey of members' favorite verses. Each is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible and links to its chapter. You can explore the text for study or personal reflection; memorization is optional.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Go and make disciples of all nations. The convention exists to do this together, and its whole funding structure is built for it.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.
All Scripture is God-breathed. The text at the centre of the convention's confession, and of the conflict that reshaped it after 1979.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. A convention founded to defend slaveholding has had to answer this verse, and in 1995 it did.
People
Lottie Moon1840 to 1912 Missionary in China for nearly forty years whose letters home built the convention's missionary giving; the Christmas offering that carries her name has raised billions.13
Annie Armstrong1850 to 1938 Organised Southern Baptist women for home missions and corresponded relentlessly on their behalf; the convention's home missions offering is named for her.14
W. A. Criswell1909 to 2002 Pastor of First Baptist Dallas for fifty years and twice convention president, whose preaching on an inerrant Bible gave the resurgence its rallying point; he had defended segregation in 1956 and later repudiated it.15
Paige Pattersonborn 1942 With Paul Pressler, planned and led the campaign from 1979 that made inerrancy the test for denominational office; fired as a seminary president in 2018 over his handling of abuse allegations.7
Fred Luterborn 1956 Pastor in New Orleans elected in 2012 as the convention's first Black president, seventeen years after its apology for its founding.5
Charlie Datesborn 1981 Chicago pastor who led his congregations out of the convention in 2020 over its statement on race, and whose departure was widely reported as a warning about Black churches leaving.5
Today
The convention reported about 12.3 million members in some 46,600 churches for 2025, down from a peak of over 16.3 million in 2006. It remains much the largest Protestant body in the United States.
Those figures come from the convention's own annual church profile, which churches complete themselves, so they are self-reported rather than audited 5,12. The decline has been steady for nearly twenty years, though the convention reported the rate slowing and attendance and baptisms rising in its most recent count 5,12. Its congregations have become considerably more ethnically diverse, and a growing share are Hispanic, Asian and Black, which the convention treats as its main area of growth 5,1. Money still moves through the Cooperative Program to two mission boards, six seminaries and an ethics commission, and the annual meeting of messengers from the churches is where anything contested is settled 1,3,11. The convention runs its own news service, which is how most Southern Baptists follow those meetings 16.
Words to know
ordinance
In Baptist and many other free churches, the word used for baptism and the Lord’ Supper: acts Christ commanded his people to keep, understood as obedience and remembrance. Churches that call them sacraments understand them as means through which God gives grace.
congregational government
Church government in which the members of each local congregation decide their own affairs, including choosing their own minister, with no bishop or presbytery above them. Congregations may join associations for fellowship and shared work, but those bodies advise rather than rule.
confession
In the Reformation churches, a written statement of what a church believes, such as the Augsburg Confession. In Catholic and Orthodox use, also the sacrament of telling one's sins to a priest.
canon
The list of books a community counts as Scripture. Jewish, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox canons overlap almost entirely and differ at the edges.
creed
A short statement of belief said together in worship. The Nicene Creed is shared by nearly every Christian tradition.
justification
How a person is made right with God. Luther's teaching that this happens by faith alone, as a gift, was the heart of the Reformation.
covenant
A solemn agreement that binds two parties. In the Bible, God's covenant with Israel at Sinai, and later covenants, shape the whole story.
Reformation
The movement that began with Martin Luther in 1517 to reform the Western Church, and that produced the Protestant churches.
Christmas
The Christian feast of the birth of Jesus on 25 December, kept since the fourth century; churches on the Julian calendar keep the same date on 7 January.
Because the national Baptist mission societies would not appoint slaveholders as missionaries. Baptists in the South separated in 1845 and formed their own convention and boards. The convention itself said in 1995 that its founding was defined by this defence of slaveholding, and apologised 5,4,6.
What is the Cooperative Program?
The convention's method of funding. Churches send a portion of their offerings to their state convention, which forwards a share to the national convention, and that money supports two mission boards, six seminaries and other agencies together rather than by separate appeals. It has been in place since 1925 1,11,5.
What was the conservative resurgence?
A campaign from 1979 to elect convention presidents who would appoint trustees committed to biblical inerrancy, and so change the boards and seminaries. Its supporters call it the conservative resurgence and describe it as recovering the convention's beliefs; those who lost call it a takeover. Moderates formed the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in 1991 7,8,5.
Can women be pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention?
The Baptist Faith and Message of 2000 limits the office of pastor to men, and the convention has removed churches with women pastors. Because congregations govern themselves, the convention cannot forbid a church to call one; it can only decline to seat that church's messengers. An attempt to write the restriction into the constitution failed in 2024 2,5,10.
Who decides things in the Southern Baptist Convention?
Messengers do, and only once a year. Each cooperating church may send messengers to the annual meeting, and they elect the officers, adopt resolutions and set the budget; between meetings the Executive Committee handles business but cannot make doctrine 1,3,5. No one can tell a Southern Baptist church what to preach, whom to call as pastor or how to spend its money, because each church governs itself. The convention's only sanction is to decline to seat a church's messengers, which is a decision about the convention's own membership rather than about the church's standing as a church 5,10.
Sources
Numbered references link the account above to its sources. These include the tradition's own documents and outside reference works. The review status below distinguishes source checking from completed member and scholarly review.
BibleVerse. “Southern Baptist Convention: where they came from, what they hold, and the Bible they read.” bibleverse.site, version 2026-09-07, https://bibleverse.site/denominations/sbc/
Awaiting review by a member of the tradition. First published 2026-09-07; last changed 2026-09-07. Years before the common era are written BC, and later years plainly, as the site's Christian pages do.
Found something wrong? Send it through the contact page. A correction checked against two sources is made within a week and logged in this page's change history.
