In 2024, our church joined the Southern Baptist Convention. Why would a 192-year-old church decide to join the SBC? Here are four reasons why we joined.
First, our goal requires help. Our church is healthy by many metrics. We are healthy financially and have a large reserve. We have people from birth to 98 attending in a normal week. We worship, disciple, and do outreach. We give over 10% of our income to missions. We support church planters in 7 countries. If all we cared about was being a healthy church, then the main thing we need from the SBC is good seminaries to train future pastors. If our goal was to grow in health or numbers, then we could go to outside organizations and leaders for curriculum and training. We have a different goal, though.
We pray a three-pronged prayer regularly: that every person in our state and country hear the gospel, that every community have a gospel-preaching church, and that every church have a godly and faithful pastor. We cannot do that alone. Our town is small enough that we can share the gospel with every person. In November, we went to every door in our town. As soon as we get beyond our town, we cannot do it alone. We cannot make sure that every person in our west-central Illinois region hears the gospel, every person in our 12 million-person state hears the gospel, that every person in the world hears the gospel. We cannot be the sole answer to our prayer that every community have a gospel-preaching church. As soon as we pray an “every” prayer, then we need partners to accomplish that goal.
Second, since our prayer is clear, then we need groups of churches to partner with in each sphere of local, state, and national. The association, state convention, and SBC are the best groups at each level to see our prayers accomplished. There are other good groups doing the kinds of ministry we want to see. Almost none of them work in west central Illinois. Few of them are even in our state. An online organization is not the best way for us to find partners who will make sure that every community in our state and country has a gospel-preaching church.
Third, the local association, the state convention, and the SBC are the local bodies that believe like we do. We might call some other denominations brothers, but we disagree with them on core issues. We believe in the inspiration, inerrancy, authority, and sufficiency of Scripture. We believe in baptism by immersion after conversion. We are complementarian. We believe in congregational church government. These beliefs divide us from other churches. They also unite us to the three groups named. We are trying to follow Jesus as we understand his word and make specific, not generic, disciples. We have to join with like-minded believers and churches.
Fourth, the SBC is working to strengthen and start churches. This is the ballgame. Everything rides on us strengthening the churches to worship, disciple, and minister. Churches need help when they lose their way. No other group is close enough and strong enough to help local churches than the three levels of the SBC. Too many communities lack gospel-preaching churches and need someone from the outside to identify the need and send people to start those churches. There is no other group at the local, state, national, and international level that is working to start churches in every community like Southern Baptists.
We found a note in our church records that we raised $4.53 to send to missionaries to the Karen people of Burma in the 1840’s. Adoniram Judson was still in Burma but was returning to the United States that year because he was sick. We recently found out that there are Burmese refugees who live a few hours from us in Peoria, IL. Some of them are from the Karen people and are our brothers and sisters in Christ in a Baptist church in our state convention. We joined with Southern Baptists so that that story is repeated in every town, in every state, in every country, in every people group.
Joe Radosevich is married to Emma and father to 7 kids. He is pastor of Manchester Baptist Church in Manchester, IL and graduated from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He writes at josephfradosevich.com.