Portal:Baptist/Selected article
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The Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland (ABC) is a group of 115 autonomous Baptist churches in Ireland working and fellowshipping together in evangelism, training and caring ministries. The Association only acts on behalf of the churches for the work which the churches have agreed to do together. (More...)
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The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a United States-based, mostly conservative Christian denomination. The name "Southern" stems from its having been founded and rooted in the South. The SBC became a separate denomination in 1845 in Augusta, Georgia, following a regional split with northern Baptists over the issue of slavery in the US South.
It has become the world's largest Baptist denomination and America's largest Protestant body with over 16 million members and more than 42,000 churches. Southern Baptists put a heavy emphasis on the individual conversion experience including a public immersion in water for baptism and a corresponding rejection of infant baptism. Hence, membership statistics do not include infants or children who have not received believer's baptism. SBC churches are evangelical in doctrine and practice. Specific beliefs based on biblical interpretation can vary somewhat due to the congregational governance system that gives autonomy to individual local Baptist churches. Historically, Baptists have played a key role in encouraging religious freedom and separation of church and state.
Since the 1940s, SBC churches have spread to all the states and has lost some of its regional identity. While still heavily concentrated in the US South, the SBC has member churches across America and has 42 state conventions. (More...)
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In Christianity, baptism (a word derived from Greek baptizo: "immersing", "performing ablutions") is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which one is admitted as a full member of the Christian Church and, in view of some, as a member of the particular Church in which the baptism is administered.
The most usual form of baptism among Early Christians was for the candidate to be completely submersed in water. The Catholic Church popularized the common trend of sprinkling the forehead with water.
Baptism has traditionally been seen as necessary for 'salvation'. Martyrdom was identified early in church history as baptism by blood, allowing martyrs who had not been baptized by water to be saved. Later, the Catholic church identified baptism by desire, by which, when joined with repentance for their sins, and charity, those preparing for baptism who die before actually receiving the sacrament are considered to be saved.
By analogy, the English word "baptism" is used of any ceremony, trial, or experience by which one is initiated, purified, or given a name. See Other initiation ceremonies below. (More...)
