SBC History

This week we begin our exploration of the 2023 Resolutions with a look at Resolution 1 on Revitalization and Replanting. Stay tuned for more about each of the resolutions and to hear from the original authors!

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We are excited to introduce conventional business, a podcast centered around the people, polity, and procedures of the Southern Baptist Convention. Hosted by Keith Myer and Luke Holmes, the show will take a deeper look at some events of the Southern Baptist Convention. This could be entities, meetings, procedures, resolutions, motions, and more. Tune in to find out. Subscribe through all your favorite podcast feeds.

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EW Perry might be one of the best preachers that you have never heard of. He was born in 1882 and died in the 1960s. He was a long time pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Oklahoma City and the first African-American man to preach before the southern Baptist convention. He did so at the invitation of RG Lee in 1949. This is very special audio that you’re hearing today because to my knowledge this is the only recording of him preaching!

You can read more about Dr. Perry and his life’s work here.

There are many reasons to read good history.  Biographies and general histories remind us of those who have come before us, and can shine light on current events.  The history of the Southern Baptist Convention and it’s leaders and members can both inform and inspire us as we work together to take the Gospel of Christ across the world.

Right now there is lots of down time in the middle of the COVID-19 Pandemic. It can be a great time to read as history and biography can remind of the sacrifices, mistakes, and triumphs of those who came fore us. Below are some of the stories of the people and places of the SBC.  Some are short reads, others are longer works, but all will educate you.

Take a look, find a book, and read some about SBC History.

GENERAL OR INSTITUTIONAL HISTORIES

The Southern Baptist Convention

Jesse C Fletcher

This book marked the 150th anniversary of the SBC and covers the convention from 1845-1994

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The Shantung Revival 

Duane Culpepper

Called “the greatest revival in Baptist history.” Read the story of this remarkable work of God through Southern Baptist Missionaries in China. 0

The Inside History of FBC Fort Worth and Temple Baptist in Detroit

J. Frank Norris

This is the history of the SBC’s most colorful character, including how he pastored churches in Ft Worth and Detroit at the same time, shot a man in his office, and coined the term “fundamentalist”

Fibers of our Faith

The Herschel Hobbs Lectures are a series of lectures given at Oklahoma Baptist University on the topic of Baptist history and life.  They contain fascinating glimpses into Baptist historical life.

LifeWay Legacy

Jimmy Draper

A Personal History of LifeWay Christian Resources and the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention

BIOGRAPHIES

B Frank Belvin: God’s Warhorse

Belvin was a leader in Outreach to Native Americans in the state of OK. Published by New Hope (WMU) in 1986

The Story of Yates the Missionary

This is the first book published by the Sunday School Board in 1898. It tells the story of Matthew Yates, one of the early missionaries of the SBC

Read it online for free at the link above

Never Too Late: One Woman’s Journey in Mission Service

This is the story of Lolo Mae Daniel, who became a missionary with the FMB after retiring as a school teacher at the age of 60. Published by the WMU in 1988.

M Theron Rankin – Apostle of Advance

Rankin was an IMB missionary to China who spent time in a Japanese prison camp in WWII, and later Exec Director of the IMB.

Mr. President, Mr. President!” Three voices spoke almost as one. “Mr. President, do I have the floor?”

The president’s gavel hammered vigorously. “The Chair recognizes Brother Stealey.”

“Mr. President, we must settle this evolution issue at once,” Clarence Stealey said. “Let the messengers to this annual session of the Southern Baptist Convention vote now. It’s the most pressing matter before us in 1925. Brother Burts’s money report can come later.”

“Mr. President!” shouted Bronson Ray taking advantage of Stealey’s pause, “the editor from Oklahoma may think other matters are more important than money. But that’s because he doesn’t have the foreign missionaries looking to him for their salaries. He doesn’t have debts piling higher every month and precious little money coming in to pay them. I tell you we are in a bad way. This Convention must do something before it leaves Memphis…”

The gavel beat out an insistent interruption.
“Gentleman, Gentleman!” said President McDaniel. “Let’s get on with the order of business. Brother Charles Burts has been standing here for ten minutes now to give his report. We shall hear him now.”

Burts eyes moved over the big room, and then back to the paper in his hand. He read slowly, his voice lifting slightly as he accented certain words and phrases. His was the first annual report of the Future Program Commission, of which he was general director. The report set forth and named the new unified budget of the denomination.

“From the adoption of this report it shall be known as the Cooperative Program,” read Burts.
The report was adopted in routine fashion by messengers anxious to get on with debate on evolution. With that action, the the Cooperative Program was launched May 13, 1925 at the Southern Baptist Convention in Memphis, TN.

The Cooperative Program was almost overlooked in the beginning. State papers were concerned with debts and debate. Few messengers paid attention to it or caught its significance.

Our Cooperative Program By W. E. Grindstaff, Sunday School Training Course material 1965 Published by Convention Press

Such humble beginnings for something that most Baptist’s would be quick to praise now. Something that seems to be an indispensable part of Baptist life is less than 100 years old and got off to a slow start, as Grindstaff later discusses in his book. Grindstaff served as pastor of several churches in Oklahoma after attending Oklahoma Baptist University, and later served the BGCO and was director of Cooperative Program Promotion with the Stewardship Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, so this is an area he is well familiar with. There were several failed attempts at funding the work of Southern Baptist before this, such as the Judson Memorial Fund, the $75 Million Campaign, and the many special pleas made by agencies to churches every week across the country. Until the Conventions agencies paid off most of their outstanding debts with the “Hundred Thousand Club” from 1933-1943, the CP was slow in getting going.

Once it finally started rolling, it funded untold salvations, missionaries, block parties, and baptisms, among other things. There has been much discussion about the future of the CP, and of the way that we need to fund our work among the nations.   But as I read this book, by a man commissioned by the Southern Baptist Convention to write a training course to educate all Southern Baptists on the Cooperative Program, I was struck at the time it took them to reach the conclusion of the CP, and the time, again and again, it took to fine tune it. I know that we have now reached that time again, but I doubt the CP will be scrapped any time soon.  It will be tweaked, challenged, changed, and more, as it has throughout it’s history. Obstacles arise, new ideas come forth, and we must do the best to continue to push the gospel, to our neighbors and the nations.  The history of the SBC is one of change, believe it or not.  We tried whatever we could to get the name of Jesus out to the world.  Some attempts were ill advised, some were spectacularly successful.

The history of the CP is well documented, but don’t think that everyone was in agreement with it. Grinsdstaff records the sentiments of three people who left that convention in 1925.

“Happiness of former conventions was not on the face of delegates.  This was due, perhaps, to the depressing effect of our huge debts.”  CW McEloy

“The Convention was the least satisfying of all I have attended in twenty-five years.”  TC Skinner

“The Convention struck no high tide.  We seemed to not be together.”  Frank L Hardy

At a time when they just voted to start cooperating, to institute the great CP, it was felt as if nothing was accomplished.  It feels like the SBC is more divided than ever now, so it’s good to be reminded that this is not a new spot in history!  Although our concerns are many, and there are difficulties to overcome, we can look at history and see God worked through that time and is working through ours as well.

There were many varied opinions that were put forth, and tempers flared as the SBC fought to figure out the best way to fund God’s work.  At the time, it seemed like there were more pressing issues to deal with, but there is no more pressing issue than sharing the Gospel.  As we continue to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the world, we must continue to work together, finding new and creative ways to work together, as we have before.

We won’t all agree on every single detail.  We are Baptist’s, after all.   But by the grace of God we will continue to work together to take the good news of Christ across the street and across the world.  I trust the leaders God has blessed us with in the SBC, and trust the heart of it’s pastors and members to put Christ first above all.

I recently had the chance to read a short little story about the life of M. Theron Rankin.  He served as a missionary to China for many years before becoming president of the International Mission Board from 1945-53, before dying of leukemia at a young age. This sketch of his life was written by his brother, and contains a few details and anecdotes about his life and ministry.  Although  it’s very brief it was greatly encouraging to me.

While serving in China in the late 1930’s he lived under the threat of war with Japan and the rising threat of communist China.  When Japan was threatening to invade China, he was ordered home by the Foreign Mission Board three times before he finally replied “It may be that some of us will have to die for Christ in this generation. My place is in China.”

Rankin paid the price for that, and spent several weeks pinned under enemy fire in the mountains before being captured by Japan and spending more than a year in an internment camp.  Upon his release and return to the states, he was made the president of the IMB where he served faithfully until his death.

“The convincing power of the witness we seek to give the world…, will be determined by what Southern Baptists do about what we profess. Professions of great faith cannot be substantiated by small action and giving.”

If you can find this book, or any other stories about this great Southern Baptist, you will be encouraged.

Over the history of the Southern Baptist Convention there have been many gifted preachers. Those men have been used by God to provide timely and prophetic sermons that have guided, shaped, and corrected the course of individuals, churches, and the SBC. In this series we will look at some of those sermons. Even though most of these men will be dead, the message that they preached lives on because of the truth of the ever living Word of God.

RG Lee was the pastor at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis from 1927-1960. (!)  He served as President of the SBC, and was called “a veritable paragon of excellence in the preparation and delivery of sermons” by WA Criswell.

His most famous sermon is Payday Someday. He is said to have preached it over 1200 times across the SBC.  Take the time to watch it below or read it here.

Did God mean what He said, Or was He playing a prank on royalty? Did pay-day come? “Pay-day—Someday” is written in the constitution of God’s universe. The retributive providence of God is a reality as certainly as the laws of gravitation are a reality. And to Ahab and Jezebel, pay-day came as certainly as night follows day, because sin carries in itself the seed of its own fatal penalty.

 

There are many reasons to read good history.  Biographies and general histories remind us of those who have come before us, and can shine light on current events.  The history of the Southern Baptist Convention and it’s leaders and members can both inform and inspire us as we work together to take the Gospel of Christ across the world.

Summer can be a great time for reading histories.  If you are on vacation or with kids at camp, or just have some slow days, history and biography can remind of the sacrifices, mistakes, and triumphs of those who came fore us. Below are some of the stories of the people and places of the SBC.  Some are short reads, others are longer works, but all will educate you.

Take a look, find a book, and read some about SBC History.

GENERAL OR INSTITUTIONAL HISTORIES

The Southern Baptist Convention

Jesse C Fletcher

This book marked the 150th anniversary of the SBC and covers the convention from 1845-1994

 

 

 

 

The Shantung Revival 

Duane Culpepper

Called “the greatest revival in Baptist history.” Read the story of this remarkable work of God through Southern Baptist Missionaries in China. 

 

 

The Inside History of FBC Fort Worth and Temple Baptist in Detroit

J. Frank Norris

This is the history of the SBC’s most colorful character, including how he pastored churches in Ft Worth and Detroit at the same time, shot a man in his office, and coined the term “fundamentalist”

 

 

Fibers of our Faith

 

The Herschel Hobbs Lectures are a series of lectures given at Oklahoma Baptist University on the topic of Baptist history and life.  They contain fascinating glimpses into Baptist historical life.

 

 

LifeWay Legacy

Jimmy Draper

A Personal History of LifeWay Christian Resources and the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHIES

B Frank Belvin: God’s Warhorse

Belvin was a leader in Outreach to Native Americans in the state of OK. Published by New Hope (WMU) in 1986

 

 

 

 

The Story of Yates the Missionary

This is the first book published by the Sunday School Board in 1898. It tells the story of Matthew Yates, one of the early missionaries of the SBC

Read it online for free at the link above

 

 

Never Too Late: One Woman’s Journey in Mission Service

This is the story of Lolo Mae Daniel, who became a missionary with the FMB after retiring as a school teacher at the age of 60. Published by the WMU in 1988.

 

 

 

M Theron Rankin – Apostle of Advance

Rankin was an IMB missionary to China who spent time in a Japanese prison camp in WWII, and later Exec Director of the IMB.

The recent conference marking the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has sparked many conversations across the SBC about race and racism.  Sermons by Matt Chandler, Russell Moore, and David Platt and other in and out of SBC life have all been called simply products of current social justice trends, or meant to please men and not God.  Discussions online and in person have been heated as people discuss how much churches and the SBC should push for racial reconciliation today.

One of the most common responses to those calling for racial reconciliation is that we just need to focus on the gospel, and that the rest will take care of itself.  The application of the gospel in the area of racial reconciliation has been called cultural marxism, social justice, or obscuring the gospel. 

This article will share a short history of racial reconciliation in the SBC, sharing people and institutions who have worked to do more than just acknowledge and repent of the legacy of the SBC, but have pushed for racial equality on the basis of the gospel. The goal is to show that those who speak for racial reconciliation today are continuing a long line of baptist leaders who  have stood for the same things. 

This is not meant in any way to make light of the past of the SBC, which has been well documented elsewhere. We need to acknowledge the past of the SBC and repent of it.  But repentance is not enough.   Al Mohler writes clearly on this topic.

“The Southern Baptist Convention was not only founded by slaveholders; it was founded by men who held to an ideology of racial superiority and who bathed that ideology in scandalous theological argument. … We bear the burden of that history to this day. …It is not enough to repent of slavery. We must repent and seek to confront and remove every strain of racial superiority that remains and seek with all our strength to be the kind of churches of which Jesus would be proud — the kind of churches that will look like the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

As segregation and Jim Crow loomed large in America in the first half of the 20th century, Southern Baptists did little to stop it. The majority of SBC members and leaders were at the least complicit in racism, and others led out in it freely. Of those who spoke against it, Dr. TB Maston was the most vocal.  As early as 1927 he challenged the racial prejudices of the South. Using the biblical premise that “God is no respecter of persons” Maston urged Southern Baptist’s to accept all races as equal.  Maston’s book “The Bible and Race” takes eight different passages from the Bible and considers the impact these passages should have on our understanding of race.  Maston dispels such heretical views as the “Curse of Ham.” A professor at SWBTS, he wrote many books that touched on the subject of race, but The Bible and Race was his most influential book.  

In 1949 EW Perry was the first African American to address the Southern Baptist Convention at it’s annual meeting.  When the convention met in Oklahoma City that year Perry was  pastor of Oklahoma City’s historic Tabernacle Baptist Church, where he served from 1915 to 1969. At the time of his address he was serving as President of the National Baptist Convention and was called a brother in Christ by SBC President RG Lee.

The Home Mission Board made concerted efforts to reach out to Black Baptists in America, and hired Emmanuel McCall as the first African American employee at the Home Mission Board in 1968. Other SBC leaders  worked to promote a biblical view of race as well, like Henlee Barnette, who invited Martin Luther King Jr to preach at SBTS in 1961.  Foy Valentine at  the Christian Life Commission worked to give the SBC a biblical understanding of race, often too much pushback from members and churches in the SBC. 

As time passed SBC individual and entities continued to buck against racism in the SBC. 

SBCLIFE writes

Some of the earliest racial barrier breaking occurred in the six SBC seminaries. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, began teaching black students on its campus in 1942 in a “Negro Extension Department.” Initially, they received instruction from professors and graduate students in vacant faculty offices since a Kentucky law prohibited educational institutions from teaching both white and African American students as pupils.

Garland Offutt earned the number of credits necessary for the master of theology, and the faculty granted him a degree in 1944, making him the first black graduate of any Southern Baptist seminary. During the mid-1940s, Southern began allowing black students to sit in classrooms with white students in violation of state law. The seminary officially admitted black students in 1951.

As president Duke McCall explained, “We decided to ignore the law. We thought we had moral ground—and probably the legal ground as well—to ignore it.”

Theology professor Wayne Ward recalled an incident when a police officer arrived at his class to issue a warning about violating the law. When the officer showed some hesitation to enter the class, Ward told him God would punish him if he arrested anyone.

Similar activities took place at SWBTS, which enrolled black preachers in 1942.  The other SBC seminaries integrated long before was required by law.  In 1968 Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, California, claimed it had more black students than any other seminary on the west coast and more foreign students than all other west coast seminaries combined.

It was not all good news though. Southern Baptists remained bitterly  divided on how to approach the issue of racial reconciliation.  Racism still abounded in the SBC. It was the official or unofficial policy of many churches to deny membership to African Americans.  Foy Valentine and the CLC wanted to put an end to that practice. 

During the 1964 annual meeting in Atlantic City, the Christian Life Commission put forward a resolution that recommended that the SBC approve an open door policy for churches, regardless of race, and pledge to support laws designed to guarantee the legal rights of African Americans. The resolution also urged Southern Baptist to “give themselves to the decisive defeat of racism.” The resolution was defeated in a close vote.  In response, a 90 year old retired pastor put forward a resolution, sent to committee, that called forced integration of schools unbiblical and only got more racist after that.  At that same meeting the SBC refused to be part of a joint committee of various national baptist groups, in part because of their unwillingness to join hands with black churches. 

That years outgoing President K Owen White said that the SBC had made strides in race relations, but that baptist ecclesiology did not allow the SBC to institute reform on it’s churches. 

“We are making progress–good progress–but by the very nature of our democratic, New Testament way of life we shall do more by proceeding prayerfully, lovingly, and courageously upon the local level than by making great, sweeping pronouncements.” (5/20/64 BP)

In 1965 the Home Mission Board and the Christian Life Commission sponsored “Race Relations Sunday” across the SBC.   Baptist Press reported that “Some said “Praise the Lord” but others regarded it as evil when the Southern Baptist Convention observed its first Race Relations Sunday,” showing that there was still great tension among churches over the issue.  (2/24/65 BP)

Later in 1965, Baptist Press reported that

Thirteen of the 29 state conventions affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention either adopted resolutions on race relations, accepted African American churches into the convention fellowship, or commended the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission for its leadership in the area of race relations (11/24/65) BP

At the Sunday School Board in Nashville, Executive Secretary-Treasurer James Sullivan worked hard to bring about racial equality.  In 1953 Sullivan integrated the cafeteria at the SSB making it the first integrated company cafeteria in Nashville.  In 1967 the SSB helped organize a group of businesses to promote job equality for women and minorities.  In that article from BP Sullivan stated that “Since 1953 the board has made no distinction in its salary structure between men and women, Caucasian and non-Caucasian. Fringe benefits and other such matters have been the same. Employees are paid by job description regardless of sex or ethnic background.” (10/17/67 BP)

Through the years the SBC passed various resolutions against individual and systemic forms of racism and urging members to follow the teachings of Christ regarding the value of all mankind.

The 1978 “Resolution on Racism” noted that racism existed “in both individuals and the structure of society” (emphasis added) and that “racism continues to deprive minority persons of practical means of advancement.”

In 1989 in Las Vegas the “Resolution on Racism” urged “That our agencies and institutions seek diligently to bring about greater racial and ethnic representation at every level of Southern Baptist institutional life.”  http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/897/resolution-on-racism

Among these resolutions, the 1995 “Resolution On Racial Reconciliation On The 150th Anniversary Of The Southern Baptist Convention” stands out the most.  In it the SBC apologized for it’s role in perpetuating slavery in the past, and opposition to secure civil rights for all.  This resolution was a landmark decision in the SBC, but was preceded by other calls for racial healing.  In 1993, Southern Baptist spokesman Richard Land, director of the Christian Life Commission, called for white Christians to initiate racial reconciliation. (4/29/93 BP)

The SBC has continued to speak for racial reconciliation.  In 1996 they spoke against the recent rash of arson at African American churches. In 2009 they voiced joy at “our nation’s pride in our continuing progress toward racial reconciliation signaled by the election of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America.” In 2007 they spoke against the Dredd Scott decision on it’s 150th Anniversary, in 2015 they urged SBC churches to “increase racial and ethnic diversity in church staff roles, leadership positions, and church membership.“  Most recently, they passed resolutions against the use of the Confederate flag in 2016 and against the Alt-Right in 2017. 

The recent calls for racial reconciliation are only the latest in a long line of voices within the SBC calling for repentance for the past, and positive steps for the future.  Those who spoke up in the past did so at great risk. Sadly, those who speak up today face some of the same obstacles. The SBC has not always made the right decisions regarding race and slavery, and has apologized for those decisions. But as Mohler, points out, “repentance is not enough” in our day and age. We must seek to remove every strain and thought of racial superiority in the SBC.   Racism still exists in America and it is our duty as citizens of another kingdom to speak against it.  The history of racial reconciliation shows that while the SBC has a tainted past, there is also have a long line of leaders who have pointed us towards the gospel and towards reconciliation.