Summit Woods and the Southern Baptist Convention 

Background

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) was founded in Augusta, Georgia in 1845, as churches (293 messengers from 9 states) created a means by which they could cooperate to fund mission work across the world. Today the Convention is comprised of more than 46,000 churches. The SBC is essentially governed by messengers sent by local member churches at an annual meeting. In between annual meetings, the Executive Committee, made up of members of local SBC churches, conducts the necessary business of the convention which must then be affirmed each year by the messengers. The SBC has created several entities, each with its own governing board of trustees that assists churches to do together what they could otherwise not do alone. The International Mission Board (IMB) is one such board who oversees sending short-term and career missionaries across the globe to start new churches in areas outside North America. Trustees for each of the boards of SBC entities are elected by the messengers at each annual meeting. 

SBC churches voluntarily participate with one another because of their shared basic theological beliefs as defined in the Baptist Faith and Message (2000). Since 1925, the Cooperative Program has been the primary funding mechanism by which each SBC church voluntarily contributes, creating a budget of around $190 million (2025-2026). 

Summit Woods, from our inception in 1998, has been in friendly cooperation with the SBC. Unlike mainline denominations, the SBC possesses no authority or external influence over SWBC and the decisions our congregation chooses to make. Our congregation is autonomous in how we determine what we will do with our participation in ministry. The SBC is also an autonomous voluntary convention of churches who chooses who they will maintain partnership with, based on their doctrinal statement and commitments. 

Why We Participate 

As the churches in 1845 desired to create a fellowship for the purpose of joint missions endeavors, SWBC continues to participate in the SBC for those same reasons. Having a significant sending agency such as the IMB allows us to fully fund missionaries we send to various parts of the world. Though the SBC is large, local churches like ours can still have very specific participation with missionaries as we contribute to the Cooperative Program as a whole. In addition to international missions, the SBC supports training future church leaders through six seminaries (Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, being one of them). The SBC also helps to fund church planting and strengthening churches in North America as well as disaster relief around the world. Our contribution to the Cooperative Program gives us a hand in these various ministries. 

How We Participate 

SWBC has several partnerships connected with the SBC. We have a strategic ongoing partnership with Midwestern Seminary, allowing us to have a hands-on approach in training future pastors through our four-year pastoral internship. Our international partners in Central Asia are connected to and funded through the Cooperative Program. We have sent members to assist with regional disasters through the SBC’s Disaster Relief agency. We also connect with churches within the SBC who align more directly with some of our unique theological and methodological convictions with the aim of planting and strengthening like-minded churches in our area and throughout the world (i.e., the Pillar Network). Every year, we set aside a portion of our budget to invest in SBC work whether through the Cooperative Program or through direct support of SBC related missionaries (i.e., Central Asia). We also send three messengers each year to the annual meeting to participate in the governing of the convention. 

While the SBC maintains a large population of member churches and thus a wide range of nuanced practices and beliefs, the Baptist Faith and Message (2000) remains a fundamental evangelical and baptistic framework within which we can operate. At the same time, we participate more robustly (financially and practically) with networks within and adjacent to the SBC who align in more detailed ways theologically and methodologically with SWBC (i.e., The Pillar Network, ACME and NETS).  

Issues 

Because of its size, the SBC garners significant media and social media attention. Controversial issues related to women in pastoral ministry, sexual abuse and abortion to name a few. To date, the SBC has maintained convictions generally in line with SWBC’s doctrinal commitments on these and many other issues. While a broad range of practices and doctrinal nuances exist within the almost 47,000 SBC churches, the Baptist Faith and Message maintains fundamental evangelical and baptistic commitments. 

Last week, SWBC sent Bret Capranica, Calvin Plank and William Tiffin as messengers to the annual SBC meeting. We will bring a report to the church on significant events and issues addressed at the meeting (June 9-11). 

Each year when the convention gathers, pray for messengers to have wisdom as they vote on the budget, motions brought from the floor, resolutions (non-binding annual statements on cultural and theological issues) and hear reports from each of the entities.