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Baptists have a rich and deep heritage, long predating the Southern Baptist Convention. Emerging from the English Separatist tradition in the 17th century, Baptists were a people marked by a commitment to the authority of Scripture, believer’s baptism, regenerate church membership, and the autonomy of the local church. These convictions took hold in the American colonies, where Baptists began organizing themselves not under a national banner, but through local associations—voluntary partnerships for mutual encouragement and gospel cooperation.

But as the 19th century unfolded, a new and urgent burden was growing among Baptists in America: the call to the nations. Baptists believed that obedience to Christ meant more than local faithfulness—it meant global proclamation. In 1814, that burden led to the formation of the Triennial Convention, a national missionary society committed to foreign missions. From the beginning, national cooperation among Baptists was not built on bureaucracy, but on a shared passion to see Christ preached among the nations.

That same passion gave birth to the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845. While its origins were marked by the painful reality of division over slavery—a reality we must acknowledge and grieve—what united Southern Baptists from the outset was not merely a shared regional identity, but a commitment to the Great Commission. The first entity formed by the newly established Convention was the Foreign Mission Board, a signal that reaching the unreached was not a peripheral concern but the very heart of our cooperative efforts.

Throughout our history, Southern Baptists have been at our best when we’ve kept sound doctrine and global mission at the center. We have launched seminaries, supported missionaries, planted churches, equipped pastors, and trained future generations—not for the sake of building a name, but for the sake of making Christ known.

And yet, along the way, there have been distractions and dangers that have threatened to pull us from our task. Internal squabbles, theological drift, political entanglements, and personal rivalries have, at times, threatened to fracture our fellowship and obscure our mission. There have been seasons when the mission suffered because the messengers lost sight of what mattered most.

But by God’s grace, there has also been repentance, renewal, and recommitment. Time and again, Southern Baptists have come back to our roots: a people gathered around the Word of God, united by a confessional commitment to the gospel, and driven by a burden to reach the nations.

Today, we face new challenges—cultural upheaval, generational divides, declining baptisms, and growing polarization. But our calling remains unchanged: to proclaim Christ faithfully and to cooperate for the sake of the gospel.

We must not let secondary matters derail our primary mission. We must not trade doctrinal clarity for cultural relevance. We must not allow our cooperation to become cold bureaucracy or our fellowship to turn into factionalism. The stakes are too high, and the mission is too great.

The world is still in need of the gospel. The nations are still waiting to hear of Christ. And our churches, large and small, urban and rural, old and new, still have a vital role to play in this sacred calling.

Let us remember who we are: a people formed for mission, anchored in truth, and united in hope.

Let us recommit ourselves to the task: making disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded.

And let us do it together—as Southern Baptists, not in name only, but in conviction, in cooperation, and in courageous obedience to the risen Lord

I was a Baptist before I was a Christian. Yes, I understand and affirm the biblical doctrine of regeneration. What I mean, is I have been in a Southern Baptist Church from the time I was born. I grew up in Southern Baptist childrens and youth ministries. I was a Royal Ambassador, I went to a Georgia Baptist College, and I got my M.Div. from Southern Baptist’s flagship seminary, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I was ordained in a Southern Baptist Church and I pastor a Southern Baptist Church. I am 40 years old, but I am grateful for the men and women who contended for the faith 100 years ago and cooperated together the make Christ known among the nations.

Southern Baptist have a rich confessional heritage in the Baptist Faith and Message and have a rich spirit of cooperation in mission through the cooperative program. It was this 100 year anniversary of The Baptist Faith and Message and the Cooperative Program that prompted the creation of this ministry, “Doctrine and Mission: Grounded in Truth, Going Forward in Mission.”

Doctrine and Mission are often pitted against each other, but Southern Baptist have proved they are not. We must be committed to both theological depth, growing deeper in our understanding of God and His word, and missional breadth, taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

This is what I love about Southern Baptists. We are fiercely committed to doctrine and mission. This ministry was established to encourage others in both sound doctrine, and in a commitment to the Great Commission. It is created with Southern Baptists in mind, by a southern baptist, but it is not exclusively for southern baptists. Perhaps you are from a different denominational heritage. I hope that you too will be committed to both doctrine and mission, developing your own mind as you study God’s Word, and directing your steps to make Christ known in the world.