In recent years, the conservatism of the SBC leadership has drawn some criticism and caused some defections. But by every objective measure, the denomination is thriving -- more than 16 million members, a new record, in more than 42,000 churches, in every state, with total offerings and gifts of nearly $9 billion a year.
Our report begins in an SBC megachurch near Atlanta.
The 11 o'clock service Easter Sunday at the First Baptist Church of Snellville, Georgia. The senior pastor is also the outgoing president of the Southern Baptist Convention -- Dr. James Merritt.
Dr. JAMES MERRITT (President, Southern Baptist Convention): You see, we do have a message, folks. Jesus is alive. We do have a mission. We're going to tell everybody we know, Jesus is alive.ABERNETHY: First Baptist Snellville is a big operation: 3,500 worshippers each Sunday and a $7 million budget. Services are televised nationally and in nearly 40 other countries. So Merritt divides his extraordinary energy three ways: he is a corporate-style CEO and an international spokesman for the Southern Baptist Convention, as well as pastor to his people.
Merritt insists the church as a whole has just one overarching responsibility -- to tell others about Jesus -- to convert if possible, but at least to inform.
Dr. MERRITT: Because it's the number one task that God gave to the church. General Motors is in the transportation business. Kroger or Publix or Winn Dixie -- they're in the food business. Well, the church is in the evangelism business. That's why we're here.
ABERNETHY: The best-known Baptist practice is baptism by total immersion. The heart of Baptist experience is being born again into what is called a personal relationship with Jesus.
LESLIE CLEVENGER (Southern Baptist): I've asked Him into my life and He's the most important person in my life and He's the only reason that I live. And there's only -- I guess He's my only purpose.MARK HILTON (Southern Baptist): You give Him everything. You just lay it all over to Him, you develop a relationship. It's just exactly like I talk to you. I get up and talk to Jesus every day.
BARBARA DAVIDSON (Southern Baptist): He's very, very real to me. My words may not be real smooth and eloquent, but I know He loves me, and anyone who would give their son to die for me -- I certainly would not give my son to die for you. So when I think that God did that for me, that's pretty incredible.
ABERNETHY: Baptist worship services usually end with an invitation to all who have not already done it to give their lives to Jesus. James Merritt's are powerful calls.
Dr. MERRITT: Let's stand to our feet. Choir, begin to sing. I begin to watch and pray. You begin to come, right now where you are. That's right. Come on to Jesus, where you are.
ABERNETHY: Baptists prize what they call soul freedom -- the conviction that no creed, no hierarchy, and no government should tell Baptists what to believe. Every Baptist church is autonomous, and Baptists are vigorous defenders of the separation of church and state.
The government, say Baptists, must stay out of religion.
In the 1970s and '80s, concerned that Baptist seminaries and other church operations agencies were becoming too liberal, conservatives won control of the denomination and installed fellow conservatives in every important job. Richard Land, president of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, was part of the successful campaign.
Dr. RICHARD LAND (SBC): The whole controversy was about one issue -- one doctrine and one doctrine alone -- and that was the infallibility and the authority of the word of God. We have a considerable latitude for different interpretations about what the Bible says, but we don't have any latitude for understanding about what the Bible is. It is the inherent, infallible word of God.ABERNETHY: One of those the new SBC leaders opposed was James Dunn, formerly head of the denomination's Washington office.
They honestly believed, I'm sure, that the denomination was going to hell in a handbasket in what they called liberalism if we kept confronting seminary students with what I call education instead of indoctrination.
BETH SLADE (Southern Baptist): It doesn't all boil down to the politics, it all boils down to the love. I don't think that God meant for us to be nitpicky about every word and every verse.
ABERNETHY: For James Merritt, the Israel resolution has special evangelical significance.
Dr. MERRITT: I really believe that the Scriptures teach that we can even usher in the second coming of Christ by the whole world hearing the gospel, because Christ himself said he would not come back until the gospel's been preached to the whole world. We now have the technology to do it. I think that Southern Baptists have the manpower. I think we have the financial resources to help be a big part of making that happen.
