Southern Baptist Convention

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist organization, the largest Protestant, and the second-largest Christian body in the United States. The SBC is a cooperation of fully autonomous, independent churches with commonly held essential beliefs that pool some resources for missions.

Churches affiliated with the denomination are evangelical in doctrine and practice, emphasizing the significance of the individual conversion experience. This conversion is then affirmed by the person being completely immersed in water for a believer's baptism. Baptism is believed to be separate from salvation and is a public and symbolic expression of faith, burial of previous life, and resurrection to new life; it is not a requirement for salvation. The denomination has a male pastorate, often citing 1 Timothy 2:12 as the reason it does not ordain women. All affiliated churches deny the legitimacy of same-sex marriage, saying that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, and also that all sexual relations should occur only within the confines of marriage. Other specific beliefs based on biblical interpretation vary by congregational polity, often to balance local church autonomy.

In 1845, the Southern Baptists separated from the Triennial Convention to uphold the institution of slavery, as American society divided over racial attitudes preceding the American Civil War. In 1995, the denomination apologized for racial positions in its history, and at present, the Southern Baptist Convention is racially diverse, with one in four congregations having a nonwhite majority. Since the 1940s, it has spread across the United States, with tens of thousands of affiliated churches and 41 affiliated state conventions. Beginning in the late 1970s, a conservative movement began to take control of the organization, and it succeeded in taking control of the SBC leadership by the 1990s.

Self-reported membership peaked in 2006 at roughly 16 million. Membership has contracted by an estimated 13.6% since that year, with 2020 marking the 14th year of continuous decline. Mean organization-wide weekly attendance dropped about 27% between 2006 and 2020. The Convention reported increased participation and a slowing of the rate of overall membership decline in 2024, with 12,722,266 members reported.