What is a Southern Baptist Church?
In 1845 a group of Baptist churches met in Augusta, Georgia, and agreed to begin cooperating together to do missions work around the world. From there the denomination began and grew. Today there are over 16 million Southern Baptists and some 42,000 churches. The denomination exists so that churches can cooperate together to do missions work on a local, state, national and international level. The main way that Southern Baptists work cooperatively is by giving money to the Cooperative Program (CP). The Cooperative Program funds the following: • The six Southern Baptist seminaries for theological training of church leaders • The North American Mission Board (NAMB) for mission work in the United States and Canada • The International Mission Board (IMB) for mission work around the world • The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) which is the public policy arm of the SBC and is dedicated to addressing social, moral, and ethical concerns with particular attention on their impact o
