Southern as applied to Baptists describes a religious denomination, not a geographic area. At first, Southern Baptists occupied the southern region of the United States; they now live in all fifty states. With mission work all over the world, they are truly a global people.

Southern Baptists make up the largest non-Catholic denomination in America. We claim over 38,000 churches and more than 15,000,000 members. We do not always agree on some Biblical or doctrinal matters. Still, Southern Baptists hold in common certain beliefs that shape our identity.

Southern Baptists, as a denomination, began in May 1845, in Augusta, Georgia. Yet our faith roots deeply in English and early American religious life. In 1609 John Smyth formed the first Baptist church in Holland. Two years later Thomas Helwys organized the first English Baptist church. In 1639 Roger Williams founded the first Baptist church in America. This church, in Providence, Rhode Island, still exists.

As Baptists migrated into the South, we brought our doctrines and styles of worship. In the late seventeenth century, one group settled in Charleston, South Carolina. In the mid 1700s another group came to Sandy Creek, North Carolina.

The Charleston group stressed an educated ministry and structured worship. The Sandy Creek Baptists emphasized evangelism, revival, and freedom to express feelings in worship. All these elements can be found among Southern Baptists today.

American Baptists split in May 1845. Northern Baptist leaders resisted the appointment of slaveholders as missionaries. Baptist leaders of the South disagreed and resented what we called unfair control over our life. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) grew out of this rift.

But the young convention still showed a commitment to missions and evangelism. Its constitution called for cooperation from the churches to spread the gospel. This concern remains at the heart of the denomination. The North American and International Mission Boards, formed in 1845, still send missionaries today.

Throughout our history, Southern Baptists have carried out diverse ministries. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, founded in 1859, and five other seminaries train ministers. Since 1891 the Lifeway Christian Resources has produced materials for Bible study and spiritual development.

Where major doctrines are concerned, Southern Baptists share many of the great essentials of the Christian faith with other Christian bodies. However, some beliefs are especially important to us:

1. Southern Baptists believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God. For us it is authoritative, reliable, and never misleading. It is the guide for faith and practice. In the Scriptures God has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and has declared His purpose for all creation.
   
2. Each person is able to come to God for himself or herself. There is no need for a third party to tell a person how to pray, how to interpret the Scriptures, or how to vote in church. All believers are ministers or servants of God. This is called the priesthood of believers.
   
3. Southern Baptists insist that for one to be baptized into a church's fellowship, he or she must claim Jesus as Savior and Lord of life. Thus, only believers may be baptized. Baptists practice baptism by immersion. We hold that baptism is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It also symbolizes the fact that the new believer has died to his or her old life and has been raised to live a new life with Christ.
   
4. Southern Baptists believe in the right of each church to manage its affairs with no central authority except that of Christ Himself. Freedom does not rule out cooperation. The Southern Baptist Convention enables churches to pool and distribute our money for supporting ministries in North America and around the world. This plan is called the Cooperative Program.
   
5. Southern Baptists affirm that God has assigned specific duties to the state and to the church. The 1963 Baptist Faith and Message states: "Church and state should be separate." Baptists object to government interfering with the church.

From our beginnings, Southern Baptists have valued the freedom of the individual before God. We have placed a high priority on the authority of the Bible. We have insisted on the right of each church to govern itself. Southern Baptists are a diverse people, but we have worked together to carry out Christian education, evangelism, missions, and many other ministries in the United States and around the world.