Southern Baptists have been missionary minded since their first day and their first action. When 293 delegates gathered in 1845 in Augusta, Georgia, for the inaugural meeting of the convention, their first resolution expressed the desire to “organize a convention for the propagation of the gospel.” Before leaving Augusta, they had formed foreign and domestic mission boards, and appointed presidents to lead these efforts. These entities were the new Southern Baptist Convention’s priority, and they remain so to this day.
The budget passed by messengers to the 2024 Southern Baptist Convention meeting approved a $190.3 million allocation budget that designates 50.4% to the International Mission Board and 22.8 % to the North American Mission Board (the modern counterpart to the Domestic Mission Board of 1845). But a lot of history lies between Southern Baptist beginnings and today.
An era of challenges
Even a casual reading of history reveals major obstacles that affected the early growth of Southern Baptists’ missionary enterprise. A devastating civil war left the American South in ruins, and the years following that war were lean for the churches in that region. By the end of World War One, the entities of the convention were more numerous, in debt, and unable to make realistic plans for growth. Funding had become the major obstacle in the convention’s primary mission.
Although the denomination’s entities were not independent of the convention, they were funded as if they were unrelated institutions. In what was called a “societal” method, the convention’s entities — including our mission boards — competed with one another as they solicited designated offerings from the churches in the same way independent efforts might petition for financial support. The results were unpredictable, inconsistent, and the furthest thing from strategic.
The 75 million campaign
The financial situation had become desperate by 1919. That year, the convention in Atlanta approved a plan to expand the state and national work of the denomination, and to settle its debts. A goal of $75 million was set and George Truett was appointed to lead the campaign.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Gary Ledbetter and originally published by the Pathway.
