Although I have been the pastor of an SBC church for seven years, I attended my first convention annual meeting in June of 2024. I will describe what happened in the next three videos. However, in this first video we will look at the Southern Baptist Convention itself–what exactly is it?
Many people outside the SBC are surprised to hear that the SBC actually has no authority over any church. Every SBC church is completely autonomous and considered Southern Baptist for two reasons–they are “closely associated” with the Baptist Faith & Message (the SBC doctrinal statement) and financially support at least one SBC entity.
The SBC entities are:
Executive Committee
NAMB
IMB
ERLC – Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
Lifeway Christian Resources
Theological Seminaries (6 of them)
Guidestone Financial Resources
In this video, we will look at how the SBC allocates its funds. We will also consider some major changes we made at my church because of some concern with the higher levels of the SBC and to be more efficient in our missions giving.
