In 1925, the Southern Baptist Convention convened in Memphis, Tenn. At that momentous meeting, messengers made two decisions with far-reaching consequences. First, they adopted the Baptist Faith and Message. Second, they launched the Cooperative Program as a unified funding strategy for Southern Baptist ministries. In remarks to the SBC Executive Committee earlier this year, SBC President Clint Pressley rightly referred to the Baptist Faith and Message and the Cooperative Program as the “two rails” of the SBC.
Our confession was born of controversy. For the first 80 years of SBC history, we had no Convention-wide confessional statement. The reason is not because Southern Baptists were not confessional. Most local churches had confessions. Most Baptist associations had confessions. Many state conventions had confessions. Our three seminaries at the time had confessions. Southern Baptists were clearly a confessional people, and had been since our founding.
There was little felt need for a denominational confession prior to the mid-1920s because we enjoyed widespread doctrinal consensus. The rise of modernist theology changed that. When some liberal pastors and professors began accommodating Darwinism, Southern Baptists responded by adopting a revised and expanded version of the New Hampshire Confession as the Baptist Faith and Message 1925.
Over the years, controversy has continued to result in revisions and amendments to the Baptist Faith and Message. In 1963, we revised the confession primarily in response to some seminary faculty teaching neo-orthodox views of Scripture. In 1998, we amended the confession to include a statement on the family that addressed progressive views that were becoming popular in American culture. In 2000, we again revised the confession to clarify our conservative theology on the other side of the Inerrancy Controversy. In 2023, a minor revision clarified that there is only one pastoral office in the New Testament, and that only men are biblically qualified to serve in that role.
Because of the historic relationship between controversy, confessionalism, and cooperation, it can be tempting to think of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 primarily in those terms. But thousands of local churches have adopted the confession since the turn of the century. In some cases, that decision might have been mostly symbolic or perfunctory. But in an increasingly post-denominational age, our confession can play an important role in helping churches understand what it means to be a Southern Baptist.
New members join our churches from all sorts of backgrounds. Some are new believers who might not know much at all about the Christian faith. Others are longtime Christians who have been nurtured in other denominational traditions or nondenominational churches. Still others might have been Southern Baptists for all their Christian life, but they have little idea of what that means. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 is the best resource we have for helping all these types of new members — and every type of long-term member — to understand the faith and practice of Southern Baptists.
The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 reminds us that:
- Southern Baptists are orthodox believers who affirm the primary doctrines of the Christian faith.
- Southern Baptists are evangelicals who hold to a conservative biblical understanding of Scripture and salvation.
- Southern Baptists are Baptist followers of Christ who affirm a regenerate church membership, believer’s baptism by immersion alone, congregational polity, local church autonomy and religious liberty for all people.
- Southern Baptists are Great Commission Christians who are committed to evangelism, discipleship and church planting among all peoples.
- Southern Baptists are culturally engaged believers who care about the implications of the Christian faith for authentic human flourishing.
As we prepare to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Baptist Faith and Message, I want to urge pastors and other ministry leaders to teach our confession in 2025.
— Nathan Finn is professor of faith and culture and executive director of the Institute for Transformational Leadership at NGU. He is also the recording secretary of the SBC.