View source for Missionary Baptists

{{Short description|Christian denomination in the United States}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox religious group
| group = Missionary Baptists
| flag = [[File:Christian flag.svg|border|150x150px]]
| flag_alt = A white banner with a red Latin Cross charged upon a blue canton
| flag_caption = The [[Christian flag]]
| popplace = [[Southern United States|American South]]
| religions = [[Christianity]]
| scrips = [[The Bible]]
| langs = [[English language|English]]
}}
{{Baptist}}
The Missionary Baptist church is a [[Christian denomination]] that emerged in the [[Southern United States|American South]] during the late [[19th century]]. '''Missionary Baptists''' [[Schism in Christianity|separated]] from the [[Southern Baptist Convention]] due to [[Theology|theological]] differences. Missionary Baptists [[Belief|believe]] in the [[classic]] tenets of the [[Baptists|Baptist]] [[polity]]: the [[autonomy]] of local [[Church (congregation)|congregation]]s and the view that [[Believer's baptism|baptism]] and church membership are reserved for mature congregants. The defining characteristic remains an enduring insistence on local church autonomy.

In the [[United States]], two sizable Missionary Baptist church [[Nonprofit organization|associations]] operate today: the [[American Baptist Association]] (ABA), established in 1924, and the [[Baptist Missionary Association of America]] (BMAA), established as the North American Baptist Association in 1950. The collective membership totals over a million people.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Tull |first=James E. |date=1997 |title=Landmark Movement |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Religion in the South |location=Macon, Ga. |publisher=[[Mercer University Press|Mercer]] |page=400 |isbn=0-86554-588-X |lccn=97214301 |oclc=37706204 |ol=305677M}}</ref>

== History ==
Missionary Baptists grew out of the [[missionary]] controversy that divided Southern Baptists in the American South during the late 19th century, with Missionary Baptists (a term used by adherents of the [[Landmarkism|Landmark Movement]]) following the pro-missions movement position.<ref name=Garrett212>{{cite book|title=Baptist Theology: A Four-Century Study|author=Garrett, James Leo Jr. | author-link=James Leo Garrett Jr. |year=2009 | publisher=[[Mercer University Press]]| isbn=978-0-88146-129-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=epEHq0mTsKgC&pg=PA212|page=212|access-date=2011-01-08}}</ref> Those who opposed the innovations became known as "anti-missions" or [[Primitive Baptists]].<ref>Byron Cecil Lambert, ''The rise of the anti-mission Baptists: sources and leaders, 1800–1840'' (Arno Press, 1980)</ref> Since arising in the late 19th-century, the influence of Primitive Baptists waned as "Missionary Baptists became the mainstream".<ref name=Garrett212 />

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Scott |first=Dalton B. |date=1948 |title=The Organization and Subsequent History of the Center Point Baptist Church |location=Hazen, Arkansas}}
* {{cite book |author=State Association of Missionary Baptist Churches of Arkansas. History and Archives Committee |date=1994 |title=Pioneer Faith: The History of Missionary Baptist Associations and Churches in Arkansas from 1818 to 1920 |location=Texarkana, Texas |publisher=[[American Baptist Association]] |oclc=31509125}}
* {{cite book|last1=Wardin|first1=Albert|title=Baptists Around the World|date=1995|publisher=Broadman and Holman|isbn=0805410767}}
* {{cite journal |last=Wyatt-Brown |first=Bertram |date=November 1970 |title=The Antimission Movement in the Jacksonian South: A Study in Regional Folk Culture |journal=[[Journal of Southern History]] |volume=36 |number=4 |publisher= |pages=501–529 |jstor=2206302}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* [http://mb-seminary.com/home Missionary Baptist Seminary]

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[[Category:Missionary Baptists| ]]
[[Category:19th-century controversies]]
[[Category:19th-century establishments in the United States]]
[[Category:Baptist denominations established in the 19th century]]
[[Category:Baptist denominations in the United States]]
[[Category:Baptist missions]]
[[Category:Bible-related controversies]]
[[Category:Independent Baptist denominations in the United States]]
[[Category:Landmarkism]]
[[Category:Religion in the Southern United States]]
[[Category:Schisms in Christianity]]
[[Category:Christian denominations founded in the United States]]