Expert: Bruce Gourley - 11/27/2007

Question
What is the difference between SOuthern Baptist and Baptist?

Answer
Hello Wil,

Southern Baptists are one distinct group within the denominational family of Baptists; there are some 250 different groups of Baptists worldwide, and around 60 or so million members of Baptist churches total, of which Southern Baptists claim about 15 million.

The Southern Baptist Convention is one of the more conservative groups (theologically and politically) of Baptists, similar to that of independent fundamentalist Baptists.  Over 200 of the different Baptist groups worldwide hold membership in the Baptist World Alliance, an organization representing Baptists worldwide (as the name implies). Although Southern Baptists helped found the BWA in 1905, the fundamentalist turn of the SBC beginning in the 1980s led the SBC, three years ago, to withdraw from the Baptist World Alliance (making them one of only a few dozen Baptist groups worldwide which are not a part of the BWA).

The Southern Baptist Convention owns six seminaries and two mission agencies, among other boards and agencies. Other Baptist groups have similar entities, although most not on the scale of the SBC. On the other hand, SBC growth in terms of membership and contributions has been on a downward trend  for sometime now (Southern Baptist church contributions to the Convention are down about 40% over the past two decades), while some other Baptist groups (especially African-American groups in America and Baptists in general in the Southern Hemisphere, and American Baptists in the U.S. to a much smaller degree) are experiencing numerical growth.

There is much more, of course, and a good online source about Baptists in general is www.baptisthistory.org

I hope this helps,

Bruce Gourley