Chapter 12
DEVELOPMENTS INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
The previous chapter focused on the American civil rights movement and controversies between theological conservatives and progressives among Baptists in the English-speaking world. These important themes often dominate discussions of Baptist history in the second half of the twentieth century. However, several additional topics deserve more attention than they sometimes receive. Developments in the geopolitical realm have brought many changes to Baptist life. Baptists in numerous countries have grown numerically, founded denominational bodies and related institutions, and developed indigenous leaders who are increasingly influential within the wider Baptist movement. Meanwhile, among the oldest Baptist groups, especially in the English-speaking world, a number of important trends emerged in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The extent to which these developments will affect Baptist identity and practices in the coming decades remains to be seen.
Global Baptist Developments
Most Baptists have been committed to foreign missions since at least the early decades of the nineteenth century. For a century and a half, missions primarily entailed North American and British Baptists sending missionaries to establish churches in Continental Europe, Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. By the time the Baptist World Alliance was formed in 1905, Baptists were beginning to establish denominational bodies outside the English-speaking world, though around 97 percent of all Baptists were still in North America and the British Isles. Despite two world wars and the threat of global communism, by the mid-twentieth century Baptists were increasingly becoming a global movement. Many of the oldest “mission fields” became home to thriving Baptist movements. At the same time missionaries began planting Baptist churches in new fields, often among “unreached people groups” with minimal Christian presence. The growth and maturation of Baptists worldwide is part of the story of the dramatic growth of evangelical Christianity in the Global South over the course of the twentieth century.
Baptists in Asia
Asia was the earliest Baptist foreign mission field, beginning with the work of William Carey and his colleagues in East India in 1793. Other early fields included modern-day Bangladesh (1795), Burma (1813), and Thailand (1833). By 1904, Baptists in Asia and Oceania combined numbered around 160,000. A century later Baptists in Asia alone had grown to 5.3 million, which was around seven times the number of Baptists in Europe, including the British Isles, where the Baptist tradition began. By the early twenty-first century, nearly half of all Asian Baptists (2.4 million) were located in India. However, these numbers should be viewed as conservative estimates since, in many Asian nations where Islam was the official religion, large numbers of “underground” Baptist churches existed outside of formal denominations. The same held true in communist China, which was discussed in chapter 10. China’s vast network of underground churches made it difficult to tabulate the number of Baptists (or other Christian groups).
By 2011, three different Baptist denominations in India each had more than 400,000 members: the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (519,000), the Orissa Baptist Evangelistic Crusade (405,000), and the Samavesam of Telegu Baptist Churches (475,000). The dramatic growth among Indian Baptists coincided with the end of British colonialism in 1947. By midcentury many Western missionaries were pulling out of long-term mission stations, and nationals were taking greater ownership of outreach and education. Local Baptists joined Western missionaries in spreading the faith and establishing new churches in previously unreached parts of India and the rest of South Asia, including the predominantly Muslim nations of Pakistan and Bangladesh, which were part of British India until 1947. They then united as a single nation before a bitter civil war led to separation in 1971.
The greatest Baptist success story in all of Asia occurred in Nagaland, a state in northeast India. American (Northern) Baptist missionaries began working among the Nagas and other northern tribes in the 1830s. Baptist growth in the area became dramatic following World War I, in part due to a charismatic revival. Baptist missionaries oversaw education in the region on behalf of the British government, establishing local village schools, Bible schools, and a theological seminary. In 1950, the missionaries turned over control of their assets to a newly formed indigenous denominational body, the Council of Baptist Churches in North East India. The Council was made up of five constituent conventions, the largest of which was the Nagaland Baptist Church Council. Nagaland Baptists experienced another spiritual awakening in the late 1970s, leading to further numeric growth. By 2012, approximately 80 percent of the citizens of Nagaland were Baptists, which was the highest concentration of any state in the world.
Naga Translation of the Hymn “Jesus Loves Me”
Ili Jesuana Laishi,
Khikala jila, in a
Vare chiwui lāirikli,
Pālaga I shitsanga
Ma, ili laishi
Lāirikli iya
A second important Baptist mission field in Asia was Myanmar, known in the English-speaking world as Burma prior to 1989. Adoniram and Ann Judson initiated work in Burma in 1813 (see chap. 5). In 1865, Burmese Baptists formed the denominational body now known as the Myanmar Baptist Convention. The largest groups represented within the convention were the Karens and the Kachins, tribal minorities outside the mainstream of Burmese society. Myanmar remained an important mission field for American Baptists until the 1960s, when Western missionaries were expelled from the country by the communist government. Nevertheless, Baptists saw dramatic growth, especially among the Karens. Beginning in the late 1940s, Karen Baptists in Myanmar sent missionaries to work among Karen peoples in Thailand. The Myanmar Baptist Convention founded the Myanmar Institute of Theology in 1927, which remained the leading Protestant seminary in the region into the twenty-first century. As of 2011, the churches of the Myanmar Baptist Convention included more than 900,000 baptized members plus another half million unbaptized regular attendees. Like the American Baptists who first evangelized them, Myanmar Baptists remained strongly committed to the ecumenical movement.
Baptists have also enjoyed a strong presence in South Korea. Though Presbyterianism has always been the dominant form of Christianity in Korea, Baptists have been active in the Korean Peninsula since the 1890s. Prior to the late 1940s, Japanese occupation and then the Communist Party made life difficult for all Christians there. In 1948, the region was divided into North Korea and South Korea; the former was communist while the latter was democratic. The Communist Party virtually prohibited Christianity in North Korea. In 1949, South Korean Baptists formed the Korean Baptist Convention. Growth was initially slow, due to both the Korean War (1950–53) and division among Baptists in the 1960s. By the 1970s, however, Korean Baptists began growing at a steady rate and developed a strong denomination with close ties to the Southern Baptist Convention. South Korean Baptists became key participants in the Baptist World Alliance in the latter years of the twentieth century. By 2012, South Korean Baptists were sending missionaries to numerous other nations, many of whom worked with Korean expatriates and emigrants. North Korea remained almost totally closed to Christianity.
Billy Kim was the key leader among South Korean Baptists for over five decades. In 1960, Kim became pastor of the Suwon Central Baptist Church, where he served until 2004. During his tenure the church grew from ten members to more than 12,000. Kim was converted and called to the ministry while an international student at Bob Jones University. Though not a fundamentalist, Kim was a theological conservative who emphasized personal evangelism and developed close ties with Baptists in America. In addition to his pastoral work, Kim founded numerous parachurch ministries, served as chairman of the missionary radio ministry called the Far East Broadcasting Company, and served as the translator for Billy Graham’s 1973 evangelistic crusade in Seoul. The latter was Graham’s largest ever campaign, attracting more than 3 million people in three days. Kim also became a leader among global Baptists, serving as president of the Baptist World Alliance from 2000 to 2004. At the end of Kim’s tenure as BWA president in 2004, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to defund the organization after the BWA received the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship into its membership the previous year. SBC leaders claimed the BWA tolerated liberal theology and was characterized by an anti-American attitude. Kim publicly expressed his disappointment with the decision of the SBC, a group with which he had long enjoyed a friendly relationship.
Africa has been an important mission field for Baptists since the turn of the nineteenth century. The earliest Baptist strongholds were in West Africa and the southern part of the continent. Until the mid-twentieth century, missions were often intermingled with Western colonialism, periodically creating friction between missionaries and nationals. Between 1950 and 1980, most African nations became independent of colonial powers. Decolonization was peaceful and democratic in some nations while others experienced civil wars, coups, and violent revolutions. A new generation of missionaries, mostly from North America, went to previously unengaged nations in Africa throughout this period. African Baptists increasingly formed their own denominations during the latter half of the twentieth century. By 2011, the African continent was home to approximately 10.2 million Baptists in a wide variety of conventions, associations, and independent churches. Only North America had more Baptists (40 million) than Africa. The growth was remarkable; the total number of Baptists in Africa tripled between 1991 and 2011. Baptists were strongest numerically in Nigeria (3.5 million) and Uganda (1.5 million).
Southern Baptists initiated mission work in the British colony of Nigeria in 1850. Numeric growth was relatively slow for two generations, though a Nigerian Baptist Convention was formed in 1919. The convention remained the largest Baptist group in the nation. Nigerian Baptists began growing at a more rapid rate in the 1930s. After Nigeria gained its independence in 1960, the growth became even more pronounced. Nigerian Baptists worked closely with Southern Baptist missionaries in forming numerous institutions such as hospitals, colleges, a theological seminary, denominational programs, and an auxiliary Woman’s Missionary Union. In addition to the Nigerian Baptist Convention and the smaller Mambilla Baptist Convention (26,000 members), Nigeria was home to many African Indigenous Churches with baptistic polity. African Indigenous Churches arose during the twentieth century among nationals, almost wholly independent of Western influences. As of 2011, Nigeria had more Baptists than any other nation in the world besides the United States.
Uganda, also a longtime British colony, experienced a series of revivals between the 1930s and the 1960s, mostly among the nation’s Anglicans. Ugandan Baptists almost certainly benefited from the final years of the revivals. Conservative Baptists from America initiated Baptist mission work in Uganda in 1961, followed by Southern Baptists the next year. Uganda became an early stronghold among Baptists in East Africa, which had been mostly unengaged by Baptist missionaries during the colonial era. Ugandan Baptists faced significant persecution throughout the 1970s when dictator Idi Amin, a Muslim, forced virtually all missionaries out of the country. But following Amin’s ouster in 1979, Ugandan Baptists began to grow at a significant pace. Uganda Baptist Seminary, founded in 1988, retained close ties with Southern Baptists. As of 2011, Uganda had two different Baptist groups: the Baptist Union of Uganda (1972) and the Uganda Baptist Convention (1982).
Baptists in other parts of Africa had varied experiences, though Baptist movements grew in most parts of the continent. The one notable exception was North Africa, where Baptists and other Christians had virtually no presence due to the influence of Islam. West Africa was home to the earliest Baptist missionary work on the continent. War-torn nations such as Sierra Leone and Liberia have historically been the focus of African-American Baptist missionaries. Baptists grew in those areas but not at nearly the rate of Baptists elsewhere in Africa. Baptists in Cameroon, which was a historically British Baptist field, were strong, numbering around 175,000 by 2011. In the East the Kenya Baptist Convention included more than 800,000 Baptists. In the South, Baptists were strongest in Malawi and Zambia, with approximately 250,000 church members in each nation. Zambian Baptists operate a theological seminary.
In Central Africa, by the early twenty-first century the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire, was home to almost 2 million Baptists in ten different denominational bodies. Baptist growth in the DRC was remarkable because the nation was devastated by two horrific civil wars. Central Africa was also home to one of the most significant African Indigenous Church movements, led by the controversial Baptist lay teacher and alleged healing prophet Simon Kimbangu (1887–1951). Based on his reading of John 14:15–17, Kimbangu believed he was the Holy Spirit in the flesh, a belief he passed on to his followers. Though Kimbangu died in prison and his followers were fiercely persecuted, in 1959 the Kimbanguist Church was legally recognized. As of 2011, it included approximately 3 million members. The leader of the Kimbanguist Church was Simon Kimbangu Kiangani, the grandson of the movement’s founder.
Baptist missionaries became active in Latin America during the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Latin America includes Central America, South America, and the Caribbean Islands. Most of the region embraces Roman Catholicism, at least culturally, due to the work of monastic orders that accompanied Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors to the New World in the sixteenth century. The earliest Baptist fields were Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Often individual Baptists who relocated to these regions because of business interests pioneered mission work. Eventually denominational mission boards, especially those of Southern Baptists and Northern Baptists, became active in Latin America. Most Latino nations, with the exception of some of the Caribbean Islands, gained their independence between the early nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As of 2011, Latin America had more than 2.8 million Baptists. By far the largest Baptist presence was in Brazil, which was home to nearly 2 million Baptists in three different conventions. No other Latin American nation had 100,000 Baptists, though Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, Venezuela, and Chile were each home to more than 50,000 Baptists.
Baptist work in Brazil began in 1871 when Southern Baptist ex-Confederates relocated to the nation and established a church. The expatriates appealed to the SBC Foreign Mission Board to send missionaries to Brazil. In 1882, the first Baptist church for Brazilian nationals was founded at Salvador, Bahia. In 1907, Baptists formed the Brazilian Baptist Convention (BBC). The BBC retained close ties to Southern Baptists and modeled its denominational structure after the SBC. The BBC formed foreign and domestic mission boards that together employed more than 500 missionaries by midcentury, many of whom served in surrounding Latin American nations. Brazilian Baptists also established numerous colleges and theological seminaries, though many of the former later became secular state colleges. By the 1960s Southern Baptist missionaries had turned over most of their evangelism and church planting work to Brazilian Baptists, though they continued to partner closely with the BBC in theological education; the presidents of Brazilian seminaries were normally SBC missionaries. In 1960, the Baptist World Congress met in Rio de Janeiro.
Brazilian Baptist life changed dramatically after the 1960s. Pentecostalism became a growing influence in the nation, leading to a split in the BBC. Baptists who embraced Pentecostal practices such as glossolalia, or “speaking in tongues,” formed the National Baptist Convention of Brazil in 1967. Some Brazilian Baptists, especially in the BBC, began to embrace a more progressive outlook during the 1960s while others remained committed to more conservative theology. In the late-1990s, Southern Baptists shifted their missions strategy to focus on unreached people groups, embracing a trend that came to dominate evangelical missiology. In the ensuing years SBC missionaries largely left Brazil to focus on North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Theological education was turned over to Brazilian nationals, though some Baptist missionaries from America continued to raise their own support to serve as missionary professors. This general pattern was repeated across Latin America. Independent Baptist fundamentalists, who have long been active in Brazil, continued to focus on evangelism and church planting. Reformed Baptists engaged in church planting and theological education following the withdrawal of Southern Baptists. Richard Denham, a Reformed Baptist missionary, founded Editora FIEL (Faithful Publishers), which translated Calvinistic writings from English into Portuguese.
In Mexico the earliest Baptist work commenced in the 1840s in what is now Texas. In 1859, James Hickey, who worked for the American Bible Society, relocated from Missouri to Mexico to distribute Bibles. Hickey and his wife, another American expatriate named Thomas Westrup, and two Mexican nationals named José María and Arcadio Uranga planted the first Baptist church in modern Mexico in 1864. It was the first non-Catholic church there of any kind. By 1869, six more churches had been established. In 1870, Westrup became a missionary with the American Baptist Home Mission Society. Five years later, in 1875, Westrup’s brother John Westrup Jr. became a missionary with the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board. In 1903, Baptists established the National Baptist Convention of Mexico (NBCM).
The Mexican Revolution, which lasted from 1910 to 1920, disrupted Baptist growth, but in the years following the NBCM began expanding its ministries. Mexican Baptists founded three universities and theological seminaries in Mexico City and Oaxaca. By the 1960s Mexican Baptists were growing numerically and expanding their infrastructure, though they still partnered closely with Southern Baptists. As in Brazil, that changed in the late-1990s with the implementation of a new strategy by the newly renamed International Mission Board of the SBC. Tensions between Southern Baptists and Mexican Baptists lingered into the early twenty-first century as a result of the SBC’s removing its missionaries from Mexico. However, independent Baptists, Reformed Baptists, and Seventh Day Baptists continued to work in the nation. Beginning in the 1980s, Mexico emerged as a convenient place for Baptist churches and schools in America to send short-term mission teams.
In Cuba, Baptists began informal work in the 1860s; and by the 1880s both the Florida Baptist Convention and the SBC Home Mission Board had adopted Cuba as a mission field. The Spanish-American War between 1895 and 1898 interrupted this work, but by the turn of the twentieth century, Cuba had become a key home mission field for Southern Baptists. An Eastern Baptist Convention and Western Baptist Convention were established in 1903 and 1905, respectively. The Cuban Revolution of 1959 and the transition to Marxism in 1961 significantly disrupted Cuban Baptist life for a season. Several dozen pastors and two SBC missionaries were arrested and sentenced to hard labor in 1965; all were released after a few years. Over time, restrictions were relaxed, and Cuban Baptists began to grow at a significant pace. Baptists from other nations, including America, were allowed to work with Cuban Baptists in short-term mission initiatives under the sponsorship of the Baptist World Alliance. By 2012, four denominations of Cuban Baptists had nearly 60,000 members. Beginning in the 1990s, moderate Baptists in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Alliance of Baptists partnered closely with many Baptists in Cuba while Southern Baptists, especially in the Florida Baptist Convention, focused on ministering to the nearly 900,000 Cuban-Americans who lived in south Florida.
In the 1960s some Latin American Christians, initially in the Roman Catholic Church, began to apply a Marxist social critique to their context and identify more closely with the poor and politically oppressed. The movement was given its name, liberation theology, following the publication of the influential book A Theology of Liberation (1971) by the Peruvian Catholic priest Gustavo Gutiérrez. While the best-known liberation theologians were Catholics, Latino Protestants, including Baptists, were affected by the movement. Latino Baptist theologians such as Orlando Costas of Puerto Rico, René Padilla of Ecuador, and Samuel Escobar of Peru attempted to appropriate insights from liberation theology without abandoning their evangelical heritage. They called their approach “integral mission” because it integrated evangelism and social justice. Each of these men was educated in North America or England, and Romero and Escobar taught in American seminaries. Padilla and Escobar were speakers at the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 1974, hosted by Billy Graham. At Lausanne they helped convince Anglican theologian John Stott, chairman of the committee drafting the Lausanne Covenant, to include the importance of social justice in the statement. When the Lausanne Covenant was adopted, it prioritized global evangelism, but it also stated: “We affirm that God is both the Creator and the Judge of all people. We therefore should share his concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society and for the liberation of men and women from every kind of oppression.”
A Latino Baptist Theology of Mission
Summing up, then, mission as service in Jesus’ name involves proclamation of the gospel of salvation; life in fellowship in the body, which is the church; worship and prayer in Jesus’ name; and the multiplicity of tasks Jesus’ disciples perform in response to human needs. . . . Today mission should consist of service—service both of the spiritual in proclaiming the Word and of the physical in meeting human needs, according to Jesus’ model and in his name.
Baptists in Oceania
Australia was claimed by England in 1770 and settled as a penal colony in 1788. Within a generation at least some Baptists were present on the continent. In the early 1830s John Saunders began serving in Australia on behalf of the Baptist Missionary Society, and in 1836 the oldest surviving Baptist church was established in Sydney. The congregation’s present name is Central Baptist Church. Later that decade Scottish Baptists began to work in Australia. By the late nineteenth century, Thomas Spurgeon of Spurgeon’s College (the famed preacher’s son) had taken a special interest in Australia and was sending graduates of the school to become pastors of churches all over the continent. While German Baptist congregations and indigenous independent Baptist churches were also established, most Australian Baptists maintained close ties to the Baptist Union of Great Britain. The Baptist Union of Australia was formed in 1926. British Baptists began planting churches in New Zealand in 1851. The Baptist Union of New Zealand was established in 1882.
In the twentieth century Australian Baptists have focused their mission work on reaching aboriginal peoples in their nation. Foreign missionaries have been active in South Asian nations such as Bangladesh since the 1880s and, more recently, in Papua, New Guinea, since 1949. The Baptist Union in Australia sponsored five theological colleges while the Baptist Union of New Zealand sponsored two theological colleges, one of which served the Maori, the people group that is indigenous to the nation. Baptists in Oceania continued to foster close ties with British Baptists. Since the 1980s a growing number of independent fundamentalist Baptists and Reformed Baptists have planted churches in Australia and New Zealand. These congregations did not affiliate with the Baptist Unions. Baptists in Papua New Guinea formed a Baptist Union in 1977, which became the largest Baptist denomination in Oceania. As of 2010, Oceania had more than 165,000 Baptists, almost half of whom were part of the Baptist Union of Papua, New Guinea (approximately 80,000). The Baptist Union of Australia included around 62,000 members while the Baptist Union of New Zealand was home to approximately 23,500 members.
Key Trends, Threats, and Trajectories
In addition to the civil rights movement and theological battles between conservatives and progressives, Baptists were affected by several other important developments from the 1960s onward. Some Baptists viewed these trends as evidence of renewal while others considered them signs of declension. Some of these trends were outright threats to Baptist Christianity or even Christianity in general. This section briefly introduces some of the key developments that influenced Baptists into the twenty-first century, especially (but not exclusively) in the English-speaking world. These developments will influence how future historians recount the Baptist story.
“Miraculous” Gifts
In the first decade of the twentieth century, Christians in several nations began to argue that certain miraculous spiritual gifts that were practiced in the New Testament had been restored, particularly glossolalia, or “speaking in tongues.” Known initially as Pentecostals, advocates of these gifts normally argued that speaking in tongues evidenced that a believer had been baptized in the Holy Spirit, a special empowering that occurred sometime after one’s conversion. The Pentecostal movement in America, which is typically dated to the famous Azusa Street Revival in 1906, birthed a number of new denominations, though early on it had relatively little effect on Baptists. The Pentecostal Free Will Baptists, formed in North Carolina in 1959, were a noteworthy exception. Beginning in the 1960s, a growing number of non-Pentecostal Christians reported speaking in tongues and practicing other miraculous gifts. This new wave of miraculous gifts, known as the charismatic movement, provoked heated controversy in most denominations. “Continuationists” embraced the miraculous gifts to varying degrees while “cessationists” contended that such gifts ceased with the end of the apostolic era. Cessationists argued that speaking in tongues and prophesying were special apostolic gifts that demonstrated the authority of the men Jesus commissioned to establish the church and write the New Testament. These gifts were no longer necessary since the apostles were long dead and their authoritative word had been canonized in Scripture, cessationists said. Some cessationists believed that practicing the so-called miraculous gifts undermined the supreme authority of Scripture. Many Christians were unconvinced of cessationism but did not practice any miraculous gifts, remaining “open but cautious” toward the phenomena.
Baptists responded to the charismatic movement in different ways. In North America a number of Baptist churches, especially in larger denominations, embraced the miraculous gifts by the late 1970s. Canadian Baptist and charismatic theologian Clark Pinnock advocated the miraculous gifts in numerous writings throughout the 1970s and 1980s while several Southern Baptist professors offered a more cautious assessment in their books Glossolalia: Tongue Speaking in Biblical, Historical, and Psychological Perspective (1967) and Speaking in Tongues (1973). Charismatics in the ABC-USA formed the American Baptist Charismatic Fellowship in 1981 while Southern Baptist charismatics published Fulness Magazine and held an annual conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Perhaps the most famous Baptist charismatic was Pat Robertson, an ordained Southern Baptist who founded the Christian Broadcasting Network (1960), ran for president of the United States (1988), and founded the Christian Coalition (1989). Many African-American Baptists embraced the charismatic movement, resulting in the formation of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship in 1994.
The charismatic movement proved controversial among Southern Baptists. In 1975, some proposed to exclude charismatic churches from the SBC. The effort failed. Nevertheless, Southern Baptists remained almost uniformly negative toward practices such as speaking in tongues, prophesying, and being “slain in the Spirit” (fainting under the apparent power of the Holy Spirit). Many Baptist associations disfellowshipped charismatic churches between the 1970s and 1990s, Southern Baptist seminaries did not employ professors who were openly charismatic, and the convention’s two mission boards each enacted policies to prevent open charismatics from serving as missionaries. In 2005, the International Mission Board adopted a policy forbidding “private prayer languages,” a devotional form of glossolalia, among its missionaries, provoking a significant controversy when a dissenting trustee began writing about his opposition to the policy on the Internet. Other groups that were predominantly cessationist included Free Will Baptists, Reformed Baptists, Landmark Baptists, and independent Baptists.
Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Reject Speaking in Tongues
RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention meeting in Austin, Texas, November 13–14, 2006, declare that Southern Baptists in Texas typically believe that the modern practice of private prayer languages lacks a tangible foundation in Scripture; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we are opposed to unscriptural teaching relating to speaking in tongues, whether such speech be done in private or public; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we encourage the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention not knowingly to employ consultants and ministry staff who participate in or promote views or practices contrary to the position described herein; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we encourage all Southern Baptists to be patient, kind, and loving toward one another (1 Corinthians 13:4–8) regarding this ancillary theological issue, which ought not to constitute a test of fellowship; and be it finally
RESOLVED, That we encourage all Southern Baptists to refocus their attention upon the public and intelligible proclamation of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the divine Trinity, Who became a man, died on the cross, and arose from the dead, so that those who believe in Him may have eternal and abundant life.
Outside North America, Baptists tended to be more open to miraculous gifts. Many British Baptists embraced the charismatic movement. By the early twenty-first century, the two largest churches in the Baptist Union were multiethnic charismatic congregations pastored by immigrants from Africa. Kingsley Appiagyei, a native of Ghana who was elected president of the Baptist Union in 2009, established both congregations. In the Global South many Baptist groups were charismatic, reflecting larger trends. Many Australian and especially New Zealand Baptists were charismatic. In Brazil the National Baptist Convention was charismatic. Perhaps a majority of Baptists in Africa were charismatic, though some, such as the Zambian Reformed Baptist pastor Conrad Mbewe, remained vocal cessationists. In Asia many Korean Baptist congregations and Chinese Baptist house churches embraced the charismatic gifts.
Evolving Worship Styles
One way the charismatic movement affected even noncharismatic Baptist churches was through the rise of “praise and worship” music. Praise and worship music was an offshoot of the contemporary Christian music (CCM) movement, which began in the 1960s with artists such as Larry Norman and 2nd Chapter of Acts. Many of the earliest CCM artists were charismatics who were converted through the Jesus People movement. As CCM became more popular in the 1970s and 1980s, a growing number of churches adopted a “contemporary” approach to their worship gatherings. Short praise choruses supplanted traditional hymns, guitars and drums replaced (or at least supplemented) pianos and organs, and dress became more casual in worship services. New Bible translations such as the Living Bible (1971) and the New International Version (1973) used updated language that resonated with many baby boomer Christians better than the older English of the King James Bible. While many, if not most, proponents of contemporary worship services did not advocate glossolalia, prophecy, or being slain in the Spirit, contemporary worshippers did adopt moderate charismatic practices such as raising their hands or dancing during congregational singing.
Many churches, including Baptist churches, experienced turmoil during the so-called worship wars of the 1980s and 1990s. Advocates of more traditional forms of worship, whether revivalistic or lightly liturgical, criticized contemporary worship as tasteless, trendy, or even irreverent while champions of the new approach argued that the new forms resonated with both younger Christians and the unchurched. For proponents of praise and worship music, content was more important than style. Many Baptist congregations lost members when pastors or music ministers introduced praise choruses, exchanged the organ for a guitar, or began reading from modern Bible translations. Many churches, especially larger congregations, avoided division by offering both traditional services and contemporary services to appeal to as many worshippers as possible. Denominational meetings and other conferences often tried to incorporate multiple styles of music for the same reason.
By the early 2000s many more traditional congregations had incorporated contemporary music, added a wider variety of instruments into their worship services, and gravitated toward a more casual style of dress. Music ministers were increasingly called “worship leaders” or “worship pastors,” and many Baptist seminaries adapted their music programs to accommodate changing musical tastes in local churches. Some of the artists writing what were now called “modern worship” songs were Baptists, particularly those associated with the Passion collegiate conference started by Southern Baptist minister Louis Giglio in 1997. Many churches, influenced by missiological strategies, adopted more contextual approaches to worship, with music, dress, and other elements of worship reflecting the cultural context. Members of “cowboy churches” dressed in spurs and baptized new converts in feeding troughs, members of “biker churches” wore Harley-Davidson Tshirts and heard sermon illustrations about motorcycle culture, and members of “hip-hop churches” wore baggy jeans and listened to soloists perform gospel-themed hip-hop songs.
The pendulum later swung again as some Baptists reacted to the trend toward contemporary worship by embracing a more liturgical approach. A growing number of Baptists, especially in the millennial generation (born since 1980), adopted practices such as liturgical Scripture readings, weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper, the reading of prayers, and the recitation of creedal statements such as the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed. Baptists who identified with the “emerging church” movement sometimes added elements such as liturgical dance, iconography, painting, and sculpting during worship services. In 1997, a group of moderate former Southern Baptists drafted a document titled “Re-Envisioning Baptist Identity: A Manifesto for Baptist Communities in North America,” often shortened to “The Baptist Manifesto.” Its signatories, who came to be called “Bapto-Catholics,” advocated a postmodern approach to theology, liturgical worship, and a greater sense of ecumenism. Bapto-Catholics successfully convinced the centennial Baptist World Congress in 2004 to recite the Apostles’ Creed at their meeting.
Five Affirmations of “The Baptist Manifesto”
I. We affirm Bible Study in reading communities rather than relying on private interpretation or supposed “scientific” objectivity.
II. We affirm following Jesus as a call to shared discipleship rather than invoking a theory of soul competency.
III. We affirm a free common life in Christ in gathered, reforming communities rather than withdrawn, self-chosen, or authoritarian ones.
IV. We affirm baptism, preaching, and the Lord’s table as powerful signs that seal God’s faithfulness in Christ and express our response of awed gratitude rather than as mechanical rituals or mere symbols.
V. We affirm freedom and renounce coercion as a distinct people under God rather than relying on political theories, powers, or authorities.
Ecclesiological Developments
Baptists have experienced significant ecclesiological developments in the past generation. During the 1980s many churches adopted a “seeker-sensitive” approach. The most famous seeker-sensitive church was the nondenominational Willow Creek Church in South Barrington, Illinois. In the seeker-sensitive model, a church’s worship services function as outreach gatherings aimed primarily at converting non-Christians and reintegrating disaffected believers back into church participation. In many respects the seeker-sensitive movement was a post-revivalist strategy that was aimed at reaching middle-class suburbanites.
One of the most influential early seeker-sensitive churches in America was Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, which was planted by Rick Warren in 1980. Warren is best known for his book The Purpose-Driven Life (2002), which within five years had sold more than 30 million copies and become the best-selling nonfiction hardback in history. Saddleback Church was a Southern Baptist congregation, though the church did not use “Baptist” in its name and downplayed its denominational affiliation. By the early twenty-first century, many Baptist churches, especially newer congregations, did not include “Baptist” in their names. One denomination embraced this approach when the Baptist General Conference changed its name to Converge Worldwide in 2008. This trend reflected the postdenominational ethos of American Christianity.
Offering Spiritual Seekers a Life of Purpose
It’s not about you.
The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.
A second ecclesiological development was the advent of multi-site congregations. In the late 1990s a growing number of churches, including Baptist churches, began to gather in more than one location. Some of the multi-site churches were long-established congregations such as Second Baptist Church of Houston, Texas, while others were new church plants. Proponents argued that a multi-site approach made it easier for a church to reach its community since the church was gathering in more than one location. Many churches had already begun adopting home Bible studies, or “cell groups,” often as a replacement for Sunday school, as early as the 1980s; in some cases additional church meeting sites evolved out of these groups. Some multi-site churches had live preaching by a “campus pastor” at every site while others used live video feeds or prerecorded sermons by their main preachers at satellite locations. Critics of multi-site churches questioned whether more than one location really constituted more than one church, queried whether a multi-site strategy was preferable to traditional church planting, and criticized the use of video sermons rather than live preaching. Some observers said multi-site strategies were compatible with connectional ecclesiologies such as Presbyterianism but incompatible, or at least in tension, with the traditional Baptist understanding of a gathered church.
A third ecclesiological development was the growing popularity of the multiple elders model of church governance in Baptist congregations. While some Baptist churches have had multiple elders off and on since the seventeenth century, this approach had never been widespread. Even in churches large enough to employ multiple staff members, often the “senior pastor” was the only minister considered to be an elder. That began to change in the 1990s. Multiple elder ecclesiology appeared in at least three different versions. Some churches, especially in the seeker-sensitive movement, treated elders as a church board. In this model the elders were typically unpaid laypeople with leadership skills. Others, especially some Reformed Baptist churches, adopted a semi-Presbyterian approach that differentiated, at least implicitly, between “teaching” elders and “ruling” elders. While the former were ministerial staff and sometimes other unpaid members with the ability to preach or teach, the latter were simply members who were good role models and strong leaders. Proponents of these versions of elder governance often expressed concerns about or even rejected congregational polity. The final version, popularized by Mark Dever of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, made no distinction between teaching and ruling elders and strongly affirmed congregationalism. All elders were seen as pastors, all elders both led and taught, and all elders were required to meet the biblical qualifications spelled out in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:5–9. Proponents of multiple elder models noted that the New Testament normally spoke of elders in the plural while opponents of these models countered that at least some versions were too Presbyterian and/or conflicted with congregational governance.
Resurgent Calvinism
The mid-twentieth century witnessed a revival of Calvinistic theology among many evangelicals. It began in Britain where some of the early pioneers were Martyn Lloyd-Jones and J. I. Packer. Lloyd-Jones spent his ministry in pedobaptist churches but personally rejected infant baptism and practiced believer’s baptism by pouring while Packer was an evangelical Anglican. Lloyd-Jones’s annual Puritan Conference provided a venue for Calvinists to gather while Banner of Truth Publications reprinted classic works in Reformed theology, especially by Puritans. Many Baptists were influenced by this trend, most notably Erroll Hulse of Leeds and Geoffrey Thomas of Wales. These Reformed Baptists, as they came to be known, rallied around the Second London Confession (1689), which was frequently reprinted during this era. They embraced a Baptist version of covenant theology, emphasized the regulative principle of worship, and viewed the Lord’s Day (Sunday) as the Christian Sabbath. By the early twenty-first century, a growing number of Reformed Baptists in the British Isles combined Calvinism with a belief in the charismatic gifts. These same trends were evident to a lesser extent in Australia and New Zealand.
By the 1960s Calvinism was also influencing Baptists in North America. Early Reformed Baptist pioneers included Al Martin of New Jersey, Walter Chantry of Pennsylvania, and Bill Payne of Ontario, each of whom established informal fraternal ties with their British counterparts. Reformed Baptists tended to focus on church-based ministerial education rather than accredited seminaries and divinity schools. Many Reformed Baptists had close contact with Presbyterians, and often those Reformed Baptists who did seek a formal theological education did so in Presbyterian seminaries such as Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. By the early twenty-first century, Reformed Baptists had grown substantially, though it was difficult to know exact numbers since not everyone defined “Reformed Baptist” in the same way. The largest group of self-designated Reformed Baptists was the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America (ARBCA), established in 1997, which by 2013 included approximately eighty congregations in thirty states and Canada. ARBCA sponsored the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies housed at Westminster Seminary California. In addition to ARBCA churches, many churches that affirmed the Second London Confession were either independent of any group or were part of a denomination, often the Southern Baptist Convention.
Not all Calvinistic Baptists identified as Reformed Baptists. As early as the mid-1950s, Calvinistic Baptists who tended to be dispensational rather than holding to covenant theology began to withdraw from the SBC, the ABC-USA, and the independent Baptist movement. These “Sovereign Grace Baptists” rallied around the annual Sovereign Grace Bible Conference, which was established in 1954 and hosted by Thirteenth Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky. The key leaders of the Sovereign Grace Baptists included Henry Mahan, pastor of Thirteenth Street Church, and evangelist Rolfe Barnard. D. J. Ward, who pastored churches in Tennessee and Kentucky, spearheaded a similar movement among African-American Baptists a generation later when he launched an annual Sovereign Grace Bible Conference in 1985.
In the early 1980s some erstwhile Reformed Baptists began to promote what they called “new covenant theology,” a position that combined elements of both covenant theology and dispensationalism. Key early proponents of new covenant theology included evangelist John Reisinger, John Zens, publisher of the journal Baptist Reformation Review, and Georgia pastor Ron McKinney, who published a widely read magazine titled (in a nod to Spurgeon) The Sword and the Trowel. Churches that held to new covenant theology often adopted the First London Confession (1646) rather than the Second London Confession, claiming the former was more distinctively Baptist while the latter was a “baptized” version of covenant theology. Several new covenant churches formed the Continental Baptist Churches in 1983 while others remained independent of any formal association or network. By the turn of the twenty-first century, tension existed between the Reformed Baptists who affirmed covenant theology and those Calvinistic Baptists who affirmed new covenant theology. In addition to these two groups, some Baptist Calvinists, especially among independent Baptists, continued to advocate dispensationalism.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Calvinism began to become more controversial within Baptist denominations, especially the SBC, which for a century or more had occupied theological space somewhere between Calvinism and Arminianism. In 1983, Founders Ministries was established by Florida pastor Ernest Reisinger to promote Calvinism within the SBC. Founders Ministries was so named because many of the leading pastors and theologians in early Southern Baptist life were Calvinists. Founders hosted an annual conference, sponsored a quarterly journal, and published books and pamphlets related to Reformed theology. In 1993, Albert Mohler became the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Mohler identified with the broadly Calvinistic theology of the Abstract of Principles; under his leadership Southern moved in a more Calvinistic direction, though not uniformly so. Mark Dever was identified with Calvinism as much as his ecclesiological views. Many SBC Calvinists looked to non-SBC Calvinistic theologians for inspiration, especially John Piper, whose church in Minneapolis was part of the Baptist General Conference, and R. C. Sproul, a Presbyterian scholar with a large following. In 2006, Mohler, Dever, and two non-Baptist Calvinists launched Together for the Gospel, a large biennial conference that promoted Reformed theology. Younger Southern Baptists increasingly embraced Calvinism, though many opted for a more moderate “four-point” Calvinism that still affirmed general atonement. Calvinistic Southern Baptists were part of a larger “New Calvinism” movement that transcended denominations.
Southern Baptists Navigate Tensions over Calvinism
Cooperation
We affirm that Southern Baptists stand together in a commitment to cooperate in Great Commission ministries. We affirm that, from the very beginning of our denominational life, Calvinists and non-Calvinists have cooperated together. We affirm that these differences should not threaten our eager cooperation in Great Commission ministries.
We deny that the issues now discussed among us should in any way undermine or hamper our work together if we grant one another liberty and extend to one another charity in these differences. Neither those insisting that Calvinism should dominate Southern Baptist identity nor those who call for its elimination should set the course for our life together.
Confession
We affirm that The Baptist Faith and Message, as adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000, stands as a sufficient and truthful statement of those doctrines most certainly held among us. We affirm that this confession of faith is to serve as the doctrinal basis for our cooperation in Great Commission ministry.
We deny that any human statement stands above Holy Scripture as our authority. We also deny that The Baptist Faith and Message is insufficient as the doctrinal basis for our cooperation. Other Baptist Confessions are not to be lenses through which The Baptist Faith and Message is to be read. The Baptist Faith and Message alone is our expression of common belief.
Calvinism led to conflict in many Southern Baptist churches and associations, especially when Calvinistic pastors were called to lead non-Calvinistic churches. In 2007, the Building Bridges Conference brought together Baptist Calvinists and non-Calvinists to discuss the disputed doctrines. In 2008, non-Calvinists hosted the John 3:16 Conference to critique Reformed theology. Both of these conferences resulted in books. Southern Baptist bloggers debated Calvinism on the Internet, and pastors published books on the topic. In 2012, a group of SBC non-Calvinists drafted a document titled “A Statement of the Traditional Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation.” These “Traditionalists” distanced themselves from both Calvinism and Arminianism and claimed their views represented the majority of Southern Baptists. That same year Frank Page, president of the SBC Executive Committee, appointed a task force to make recommendations about how Calvinists and non-Calvinists could better cooperate in the SBC. The resulting document, titled “Truth, Trust and Testimony in a Time of Tension,” focused on theological commonality and called for Southern Baptists on all sides of the debate to cooperate around the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 for the sake of the Great Commission.
Threats to Religious Liberty
Religious liberty has been a chief concern for Baptists since their earliest days. Beginning in the latter decades of the twentieth century, new threats presented new challenges and led to new partnerships. For Baptists worldwide the leading threat to religious liberty was either militant Islam or secularization, depending on context. For Baptists (and other Christians) in predominantly Muslim lands, persecution could be fierce when governments embraced a more radicalized version of Islam. Some Islamic nations passed laws discouraging or even outlawing conversion from Islam to Christianity. New converts in many nations were kidnapped, tortured, or even killed. In some Muslim lands the only evangelicals of any kind were Western diplomats and other expatriates. From time to time, even Western Baptist missionaries were persecuted and martyred. For example, three Southern Baptist missionaries were murdered in Jibla, Yemen, in 2002. Two years later four International Mission Board missionaries were killed in Mosul, Iraq, including Larry and Jean Elliott, who served as Southern Baptist missionaries from 1978 until their deaths on March 15, 2004.
For Baptists in the West, secularization was a much greater threat. In America in the 1960s, Supreme Court decisions removed teacher-led prayer and Bible reading from public schools. Though most Baptists applauded these decisions at the time, by the 1980s some theologically conservative Baptists had come to see them as violations of the first amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom. Even Baptists who were comfortable with the Supreme Court rulings pushed back against efforts to curb voluntary student religious clubs and moments of silence in public schools based on a secularist interpretation of the first amendment. Some Baptists were nervous about “faith-based initiatives,” programs where federal and state governments offered funding to religious organizations that provided social services. Some Baptists balked at these programs because they considered them government sponsorship of religion. Others were concerned that organizations accepting government funds would be required to restrict their evangelistic outreach or institute hiring practices in conflict with their values.
In the first decade of the twenty-first century, homosexuality became increasingly accepted in Western nations. This trend presented several challenges to religious liberty. Same-sex marriage was legalized in several American states, beginning with Massachusetts in 2003. Canada legalized homosexual marriage in 2005 while Great Britain passed a law to that effect in 2013. Also in 2013, the US Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, opening the door for the federal government in America to legalize same-sex marriage in the coming years. Many Baptists in America were concerned that the legalization of same-sex marriage would lead to restrictions of religious freedom ranging from the loss of tax-exempt status to prosecution for refusing to perform or support wedding ceremonies for homosexual couples. In Canada, Baptists and other Christians feared that preaching against homosexuality could result in prosecution under that nation’s hate-speech laws. In Sweden a Pentecostal pastor was prosecuted under a hate-speech law in 2003.
Abortion presented a different set of religious liberty challenges. When the US Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, many Baptists were ambivalent, though by the early 1980s most Baptists were pro-life opponents of abortion on demand. Theologically conservative Baptists especially believed that abortion was at least normally murder and violated the “sanctity of human life.” The abortion issue was arguably the most important reason many Baptists identified with political conservatism during this period; the Republican Party’s platform officially opposed abortion beginning in 1976. When Congress passed the Affordable Health Care Act in 2010 mandating universal health care in America, many Baptists and others were concerned that it forced Christian business owners to pay for, or delegate others to pay for, abortion procedures. Many Baptists also believed the new law mandated unjustly that business owners pay for contraception, which the Roman Catholic Church opposed for religious reasons. In 2012, the Southern Baptist owners of the retail chain Hobby Lobby sued the federal government, claiming the new law violated their religious liberty because it required the company to fund certain forms of contraception that cause abortions. In June 2014, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby by a 5–4 majority. Several Baptist colleges also brought suit for similar reasons, winning their case in 2013. The Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (formerly the Christian Life Commission) supported the plaintiffs in each of these important lawsuits.
These threats led Baptists to work with others who shared their views on religious liberty, including other evangelicals, Roman Catholics, Orthodox Jews, and Mormons. This sometimes led to controversy. In 1994, Richard John Neuhaus and Charles Colson convened a group of Christian leaders who drafted a document titled “Evangelicals and Catholics Together.” Neuhaus was a Catholic priest and editor of the journal First Things. Colson was a former political aide to President Richard Nixon who served a brief prison sentence for his role in the Watergate scandal. Colson converted to Christianity prior to his incarceration, joined a Southern Baptist church upon his parole, founded the ministry Prison Fellowship, and authored numerous books, including the best-selling spiritual autobiography Born Again (1976). Though “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” addressed cultural engagement, it also called for more ecumenical unity between evangelicals and Catholics. Southern Baptists Larry Lewis of the Foreign Mission Board and Richard Land of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission signed the document, though they later asked that their names be removed after receiving criticism.
In 2009, more than 150 religious leaders signed the “Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience,” which called Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and evangelicals to cooperate in defense of the sanctity of human life, traditional views of marriage, and freedom of conscience and religion. Colson, Southern Baptist theologian Timothy George, and Catholic legal scholar Robert George drafted the document. Numerous Southern Baptist leaders signed the “Manhattan Declaration,” including several prominent pastors, theologians, and college and seminary administrators. As with “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” some criticized the “Manhattan Declaration” for promoting ecumenism between Roman Catholics and evangelicals. Nevertheless, the religious liberty threats posed by secularism increasingly led Baptists to build partnerships that once seemed unimaginable.
Possible Trajectories
By the second decade of the twenty-first century, it was unclear how these trends and threats might evolve into more settled trajectories. Many questions remained unanswered. What will Baptist identity mean in an increasingly postdenominational milieu? How closely will different Baptist groups cooperate with one another and with groups of other Christian traditions—including groups that once persecuted Baptists? How will Baptist worship and ecclesiology continue to evolve in various contexts? As Baptists become increasingly open to so-called miraculous gifts, will some Baptist groups be assimilated into the wider charismatic movement? Will future Baptists be more Calvinistic, more Arminian, or will most continue to try and carve out a position between these two points on the theological spectrum? Will Baptists in the majority world soon be sending missionaries to plant Baptist churches in secular Western nations? These and other questions demonstrate that the Baptist story will likely take many more interesting turns before it is completed.
For Further Study
Allen, David L., and Steve W. Lemke, eds. Whosoever Will: A Biblical-Theological Critique of Five-Point Calvinism. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2010.
Anderson, Justice C. An Evangelical Saga: Baptists and Their Precursors in Latin America. Maitland, FL: Xulon Press, 2005.
Blumhofer, Edith L., Russell P. Spittler, and Grant A. Wacker, eds. Pentecostal Currents in American Protestantism, chapters 8 and 11. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1999.
Dever, Mark E. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, 3rd ed. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013.
Hansen, Collin. Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists, chapters 1, 2, and 4. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008.
Johnson, Robert E. A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches, chapters 5, 6, and 7. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Music, David W., and Paul Akers Richardson. “I Will Sing the Wondrous Story”: A History of Baptist Hymnody in North America. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2008.
Nettles, Thomas J. By His Grace and for His Glory: A Historical, Theological, and Practical Study of the Doctrines of Grace in Baptist Life, 2nd ed., chapter 11. Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2006.
Waggoner, Brad J., and E. Ray Clendenen, eds. Calvinism: A Southern Baptist Dialogue. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2008.
Wardin, Albert W., ed. Baptists Around the World: A Comprehensive Handbook. Nashville, TN: B&H, 1995.
Watson, Edward. “A History of Influence: The Charismatic Movement and the SBC.” Criswell Theological Review 4, no. 1 (Fall 2006): 15–30.
White, Thomas, Jason G. Duesing, and Malcolm B. Yarnell III, eds. First Freedom: The Baptist Perspective on Religious Liberty. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2007.
Questions for Discussion
1. How has the Baptist movement developed in Asia? In what specific areas were Baptists most successful? Summarize the influence of Billy Kim among South Korean Baptists.
2. How has the Baptist movement developed in Africa? In what specific areas were Baptists most successful? What heretical teaching did Simon Kimbangu pass on to his followers?
3. How has the Baptist movement developed in Latin America? In what areas were Baptists most successful? What role did liberation theology and integration mission have among the people of Latin America?
4. How has the Baptist movement developed in Australia?
5. What is the distinction between continuationists and cessationists with respect to miraculous gifts? Describe the various ways Baptists responded to the charismatic movement. Which of these positions do you think presents the best argument from Scripture regarding miraculous gifts and speaking in tongues? Explain your answer.
6. Describe the changes in Baptist worship styles during this period. Which of these perspectives on or styles of worship best resembles what your church practices?
7. Identify three ecclesiological changes among Baptists since the 1960s. How did opponents of these changes challenge the changing ecclesiological tide? Do you have any reservations regarding any of these trends? Explain your answer.
8. Describe the resurgence of Calvinism among Baptists since the 1960s. How did this issue threaten Baptist cooperative efforts? What movements and conferences came about as a result of increased awareness of Southern Baptist Calvinists? What document did Frank Page call for Southern Baptists to rally around regardless of their perspective of Calvinism?
9. Provide examples of how persecution and secularization impacted the practice of religious liberty among Baptists and other Christian groups in the early twenty-first century. What current issues appear to limit the free expression of religion?