Mergers between Baptist Denominations

Hi, Ben...

If memory serves me correctly, there have been a few denominational mergers throughout history. I believe the AME Church is the result of a merger. At some time there was a merger in the Presbyterian Church. The United Methodist Church is the result of a merger, as well as the United Church of Christ. There are probably others that I am unaware of.

For what appears to be a pretty good treatment of the history of various denominations, see:

http://members.aol.com/bob78999/denominations.html

There was a book out several years ago, and it may still be in print. I think the book was called Handbook of Denominations. I have a copy floating around somewhere, but I can't put my hands on it right now. Anyway, this book gives the histories of many denominations, including mergers and splits. If you're really interested in the histories of the various denominations, it just might be worth a trip or a call to your local Christian book store to find this book.

Or use one of the search engines (my favorite is Comet Cursor because it attaches itself as a line near the top of your web browser), enter "denominations" and start browsing. You may be surprised at all the information that is out there!

God bless you!
Keith

 

Hi, Ben...

Here is some more information on the book I mentioned earlier. The name of the book is Handbook of Denominations in the United States, by Frank Spencer Mead. The original was published years ago, but there are periodic updates.

AMAZON.com has an edition from May 2001 for $14 (list $20) at their web site. BARNES & NOBLE (BN.com) has an edition from January 1997 for $12.80 (list $16) at their web site.

May God bless!
Keith

 

One of the great mergers of American Baptists was that of the Regular & Separate Baptists in the late 1700's/early 1800's. Most of these churches dropped the terms and adopted the name United Baptist. But in every merger that takes place, the result is usually three groups instead of two or one - the new majority mergered group and the minorities from both sides that didn't agree with the merger.

 

Dually-aligned churches are not that unusual, since baptists are defined by their local congregation not by the national, cooperative bodies of which they are members. Our church supports the Alliance of Baptists, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and the United Church of Christ.

Nationally, the Alliance of Baptists continues to be in dialogue with the UCC about establishing a cooperative relationship with them that is much like the one that the Disciples currently has.

Joshua

[ February 10, 2003, 08:37 PM: Message edited by: Rev. Joshua ]

 

Dually-aligned churches are not that unusual, since baptists are defined by their local congregation not by the national, cooperative bodies fo which they are members. Our church supports the Alliance of Baptists, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and the United Church of Christ. </font>[/QUOTE]Dual allignments have been common in the American Baptist Churches for some time.

We have congregations dually alligned with the UCC, Disciples of Christ, National Baptists, Progressive National Baptists, SBC, Baptist Alliance, CBF, and even a few ABC/United Methodist, ABC/Presbyterian churches.

Often when churches have different polities they are "Federated" churches rather than dually alligned churches.

Timothy Bonney

 

Hi, Timothy. Welcome to the Baptist Board. Will look forward to seeing your posts across the Board. Hope you find the Board a blessing as well.

 

Thanks for the welcome!

Timothy

 

I think it's really interesting to learn about all the different strains of "Baptist". I'm not against the many different branches out there, but I hate to see the confusion that is apparent simply by the fact that some churches choose to belong to two different associations OR they conveniently do not label WHICH group they are affiliated with on their sign or marque. I think if a Baptist Church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention or the American Baptist Association or whatever, then they need to indicate that below their name. Would cause a lot less confusion overall.

I have a particular gripe with the Baptist groups who claim to be "Landmark" in nature, although I was told that there is no Landmark Baptist Association, many of them choose to use the word "Missionary" in their name. Since there is also a Missionary Baptist Association, it would make the average observer wonder why they use the word Missionary in their name. I see confusion even with other church groups as well, such as The United Church of Christ denomination as well as the Congregational Church which sometimes has dual affiliation and some are either of one group or the other. There is nothing wrong with having some denominational boundaries as far as name and affiliation go. I just hate to see churches that try to be so ecumenical that they forget what group they belong to or what association they pay dues to. It makes very little sense to me for any church group, Baptist or otherwise, to have two affiliations (or associations). That's just my personal opinion though.