Affiliations

We are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention

and the Florida Baptist Convention

Meet Southern Baptists

For almost 170 years, Southern Baptists have sought to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all people everywhere. The Southern Baptist Convention was formed with a Gospel vision. Its founding charter identifies its singular focus: …for the purpose of eliciting, combining, and directing the energies of the Baptist denomination of Christians, for the propagation of the Gospel…

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has grown to be a network of more than 50,000 cooperating churches and church-type missions banded together to make an impact of God’s Kingdom. While no two Southern Baptist churches are alike, there are certain commonalities that bind Southern Baptists together, regardless of ethnicity, socio-economic status, language, or locale. What we offer here is an overview to help tell the story of what God is doing in and through the people called Southern Baptists.

Who Are Southern Baptists?

Southern Baptists are as varied and diverse as the cities, towns, neighborhoods, and rural communities where you may find them. Each autonomous Southern Baptist church is unique; only when viewed together can one grasp the diversity that is the Southern Baptist Convention. Southern Baptist churches represent a broad range in…

  • size — very small to very large
  • culture — Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, and every subculture within each region
  • age — very young to very old
  • ministry setting — inner-city, storefront, suburban, small town, open countryside, cowboy, motorcyle
  • ethnicity — Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, and numerous other ethnic groups
  • worship style — traditional, contemporary, and everything in between

What Southern Baptists Believe

Southern Baptists believe that the Bible reveals the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. For that reason, Southern Baptists have summarized their biblical convictions in the confession of faith,

The Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M). While Southern Baptists are not a creedal people, requiring churches or individuals to embrace a standardized set of beliefs, they are a confessional people. The BF&M represents the confessional consensus of “certain definite doctrines that Baptists believe, cherish, and with which they have been and are now closely identified” (BF&M, preamble).

The first five articles of The Baptist Faith & Message affirm the historical, orthodox, evangelical beliefs concerning The Scriptures, the Person and Works of God, the nature and fall of Man, God’s gracious provision of Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and God’s Purpose of Grace — that God is the One who initiates and completes the work of salvation.

The next six articles affirm historical, biblical Baptist positions on the Church, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the Lord’s Day, the Kingdom, the doctrine of Last Things, and Evangelism and Missions.

The final seven articles summarize a number of distinctively Southern Baptist commitments to Christian Higher Education, Stewardship, Cooperation, The Christian and the Social Order, Peace and War, Religious Liberty, and The Family.

The entire Baptist Faith and Message is available online at www.sbc.net/bfm.