Monthly Archives: January 2011

At the end of April, Tornados ravaged the Midwest killing people in six states, and creating countless injuries and property damage. It’s not only deeply changed the lives to those in its path but has captured the nation’s attention with death tolls a little under 300 just in Alabama. With photos of destruction and sadness filling the news, many are not sitting idly by. Many churches have stepped up to help provide shelter, food, and whatever they can do to help.

In Barstow County in Georgia, Grace Baptist Church has become the main donation site for food and clothing for victims. Journey Community Church in Evans, Georgia is collecting water to send to states that were hit the hardest. New Passion Church of Georgia has been collecting generators, chain saws, flashlights, tents, work gloves and batteries so they can help people re-build what was lost. Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church had a drive through line for people to drop off their donated goods such as personal hygiene items, diapers, batteries, non-perishable food and water. The items will be sent to tornado victims in Eclectic and Tuscaloosa.

It’s not all donations, some churches are serving by opening their doors to other disaster relief organizations. Virginia’s Bellamy United Methodist Church has opened its doors to serve as a command post for the Red Cross and Salvation Army. First Baptist Church of Huntsville Alabama is working with the Huntsville-Madison County Emergency Management Agency to be the site for cleanup volunteers to report.

Florida’s Longwood’s Northland Church’s disaster response team started preparing immediately to head Alabama to help. They even have a mobile kitchen that feeds up to 30,000 people per day. Also in Florida, Good News Outreach Pentecostal Holiness Church has received over 14,000 pounds of food that they are distributing to those in need.

The disaster relief efforts have even unified churches across state lines. Freedom Church in Central Indiana sent a tractor-trailer of supplies to Alabama. Highlands Church in Birmingham will be receiving the supplies and distributing them to their community.

Many more churches are organizing and helping than the ones that are named here. There is one unifying way all those churches and more are benefiting the victims- prayer and hope. Prayers usually don’t make the evening news but they are coming from all of the United States, and have untold results. As the recovery continues, once the houses are rebuilt, healing will still be going on, and the churches will still be helping by providing the spiritual support and community the victims will need to recover.

The Baptist church is a Christian denomination that dates back to 1609 in Amsterdam. The pastor at the first Baptist church was a English Separatist named John Smyth. Primarily seen to be founded out of the disagreement with Puritans (Protestant) beliefs over adults only baptism (which Smyth believed in), there is also a views that says it developed from an extension of the Anabaptist traditions or that it existed since the time of Christ. The first Baptist was established in the USA, in 1639 by Roger Williams.

Currently, the Baptist denomination is said to have 43 million followers worldwide at the turn of the 21^st century, and the Baptist World Alliance claims to have more than 150,000 congregations with a total of more than 37 million members.  However there are associations, the Baptist denomination gives the power to the local and individual church to make decisions on things such as religious hierarchy, leadership, and decisions outside the main Baptist beliefs. Because of this autonomy, Baptist churches usually function as a non-denominational churches unless associated with a particular association.

There are two main denomination associations in the United States, the Southern Baptist Convention (also known as the Southern Baptist Church) and the American Baptist Church (also known as the North American Baptist Church). The Baptist denomination primary holds a congregational governance system, that aside from some core beliefs, gives the power and decisions to the individual churches. The Baptist church also recognizes only pastors and deacons as religious leadership (opposed to, say, Priests in the Catholic religion).

The Southern Baptist Convention started in 1845 in Georgia. With currently over 16 million members, the Convention refers to the denomination itself and the annual meeting it hosts. The Convention sponsors about 10,000 home and foreign missionaries, covering 153 nations of the world.

The American Baptist Church claims 43 million members around the world with 5,500 congregations in the United States.

There are associations out of the United States, such as the Baptist World Alliance (BMA). The first Baptist World Congress (meeting) was in 1905 in London, and formed BMA. The BMA currently claims to have 210 Baptist groups as members, which means over 47 million members worldwide. The membership reaches 200 countries.

Because of its worldwide reach and profound influence over the past century, people often recognize Baptist churches for their beliefs in baptism by immersion.  Baptists are known for their teachings that all believers have the opportunity to have a one on one relationship with the Creator God through the intercession of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice on the cross.  If you are searching for a church body that believes in freedom from sin and security for eternity, the Baptist church might just be the place for you.