BAPTIST HISTORY Lesson 27 Formation of the Southern Baptist Convention

The Work of the Triennial Convention (formed 1814) I. Foreign Missions II. Home Missions John Mason Peck 1832 The American Baptist Home Missions Society

III. Education Columbian College (1821) William Staughton ( ) Newton Seminary (1825) IV. Publishing The Latter-Day Luminary (1822) American Baptist Missionary Magazine 1825 General Baptist Tract Society The Baptist Tract American Baptist Publication and Sunday School Society (1840) Judson Press

III. Sectionalism A. Basic distrust between the North and the South over slavery The occasion for the breakup was disagreement over slavery, but this was not the cause The cause of the breakup was the assumption of legislative power by the acting board of the General Missionary Convention (Triennial) I.Campbellism Three Divisive Controversies II. Anti-missionary movement III. Sectionalism

B. Chronological Overview – harmony still existed between North & South – letter from English Baptists concerning abolition – Secretary Bolles replied; group of Boston Baptist sent separate reply the next year – Richard Fuller’s ‘neutrality resolution’ – Georgia Baptists submitted James Reeve as candidate for Home Missions support – Alabama Baptist Convention sent hypothetical question to the GMC “If any one should offer himself as a missionary, having slaves, and should insist on retaining them as his property, we could not appoint him. One thing is certain, we can never be a party to any arrangement which would imply approbation of slavery.” “American Baptists Anti-Slavery Convention” held in NYC. Resolution denouncing slavery sent to Baptists in the South.

Formation of the Southern Baptist Convention The Consultative Convention: Augusta, GA, May 8-10, 1845 William B. Johnson, Johnson’s “ Address to The Public” Cause was constitutional Principles of New Convention would be those of the Old Convention Object of New Convention was to extend Messiah’s Kingdom & the Glory of God Reasons for Separation: Constitutional Missionary Imperative Ecclesiology Home Mission Work

A painful division has taken place in the missionary operations of the American Baptists. We would explain the origin, the principle and the objects of that division, or the peculiar circumstances in which the organization of the Southern Baptist Convention became necessary. Let not the extent of this union be exaggerated. At the present time it involves only the Foreign and Domestic Missions of the denomination. Northern and Southern Baptists are still brethren. They differ in no article of the faith. They are guided by the same principles of gospel order…. We do not regard the rupture as extending to foundation principles, nor can we think that the great body of our Northern brethren will so regard it. Original Constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention Responses to Division North: societal method strengthened Triennial Convention renamed American Baptist Missionary Union American Baptist Publication Society American Baptist Home Mission Society American Baptist Education Society All remained independent societies through the end of the 19 th century

Foreign Mission Board (FMB) Richmond, VA was the headquarters James B. Taylor first corresponding secretary J. B. Jeter first president Earliest fields: China, Liberia, Nigeria and Brazil Gospel Mission Controversy T. P. & Martha CrawfordChurches to the Front Charlotte Diggs “Lottie” Moon ( ) We believe there are men and women in our Southern Baptist churches who but require to be assured of the pressing demand for more laborers in some specific field, in order to respond, “Send us.” We believe, too, that the money needed is in the denomination and that it will be forthcoming. We are convinced that the brethren and sisters at home will not allow these missionaries which God has blessed so abundantly to languish for want of more laborers or of material support. In this faith we wait, believing we shall hear from home that the needed re-inforcements will be sent. Lottie Moon, “Notes from North China,” Foreign Mission Journal (June 1874), in Keith Harper, ed., Send the Light: Lottie Moon’s Letters and Other Writings, p. 178

Home Mission Board (HMB) History is less auspicious than the FMB The Tichenor Administration, I. T. Tichenor ( ) Territorial Tensions with Northern Baptists The most important denominational leader of the final decades of the 19 th century 1864 – War Department allowed American Baptist Home Missions Society workers to occupy SBC properties Henry Moorhouse, Corresponding Secretary of the ABHMS favored expansion into Southern areas 1894 – meeting at Fortress Monroe, Virginia “comity agreement”

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary James P. Boyce ( ) “Three Changes in Theological Education” Provide a first rate graduate education for men with a college degree and a quality practical education for men without classical training Provide special courses and further educational opportunities for those men aspiring to teaching and writing ministries and original scholarly research Maintain a clear theological identity through the use of a confession of faith that all professors must affirm in order to teach at the school The Abstract of Principles John A. Broadus ( ) Basil Manly Jr. ( ) 1877 – relocates to Louisville, KY