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49-522: In Christianity, evangelism or witnessing is the act of preaching the gospel with the intention of sharing the message and teachings of Jesus Christ . It is sometimes associated with Christian missions . Christians who specialize in evangelism are often known as evangelists , whether they are in their home communities or living as missionaries in the field, although some Christian traditions refer to such people as missionaries in either case. Some Christian traditions consider evangelists to be in

98-459: A dā‘ī , while one giving sermons on a Friday afternoon is called a khatib . The sermon or homily has been an important part of Christian services since Early Christianity, and remains prominent in both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism . Lay preachers sometimes figure in these traditions of worship, for example the Methodist local preachers , but in general preaching has usually been

147-489: A congregationalist polity emphasizing local church autonomy. Local churches are organized into 33 regions; the ABCUSA General Board makes policy for the denomination's national agencies. However, board resolutions are not binding on local congregations. Three-fourths of the representatives to the ABCUSA General Board are nominated and elected by the regions. One-fourth of the representatives are nominated by

196-467: A Christian message and usually accompanied by an opportunity to respond with a prayer for salvation . New opportunities for evangelism have been provided in recent decades by increased travel opportunities and by instant communications over the internet. Instant chalk board drawings (while storytelling), using bright poster chalk on large boards, along with ventriloquism and humor, have also been used in schools and churches and at beaches and river banks. In

245-469: A distributor of these American Christian films in France, if Christian films are considered proselytism, all films are a form of proselytism, since films of all genres could each be said to carry a message. Preacher Preachers are common throughout most cultures. They can take the form of a Christian minister on a Sunday morning, or an Islamic imam . A Muslim preacher in general is referred to as

294-690: A function of the clergy . The Dominican Order is officially known as the Order of Preachers ( Ordo Praedicatorum in Latin ); friars of this order were trained to publicly preach in vernacular languages, and the order was created by Saint Dominic to preach to the Cathars of southern France in the early thirteenth century. The Franciscans are another important preaching order; Travelling preachers, usually friars, were an important feature of late medieval Catholicism. In most denominations, modern preaching

343-592: A leadership position; they may be found preaching to large meetings or in governance roles. In addition, Christian groups who encourage evangelism are sometimes known as evangelistic or evangelist . The word evangelist comes from the Koine Greek word εὐανγέλιον (transliterated as euangelion ) via Latinised evangelium as used in the canonical titles of the Four Gospels , authored by (or attributed to) Matthew , Mark , Luke , and John (also known as

392-544: A proposal to withdraw from the ABCUSA over its refusal to discipline those regions that have supported homosexual-friendly policies. The Indiana-Kentucky region has also proposed a change in the denomination's bylaws that would prohibit the transfer of churches into another region if removed from the region because of the issue of homosexuality. In 2006, American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest split from

441-960: Is Solomon . American Baptist Churches USA The American Baptist Churches USA ( ABCUSA ) is a Baptist Christian denomination established in 1907 as the Northern Baptist Convention , and named the American Baptist Convention from 1950 to 1972. It traces its history to the First Baptist Church in America (1638) and the Baptist congregational associations which organized the Triennial Convention in 1814. Headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania , ABCUSA

490-530: Is considered mainline , although varying theological and mission emphases may be found among its congregations, including modernist , charismatic and evangelical orientations. American Baptist Churches USA have their origins in the First Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island , now the First Baptist Church in America , founded in 1638 by the minister Roger Williams . Regarded by

539-605: Is different from 'pastor' (Chinese: 牧師 ). A preacher in the Protestant church is one of the younger clergy, but they are not officially recognised as pastors until they can prove their capability of leading the church. Preacher is also the supposed author of the Book of Ecclesiastes . Preacher is one translation of the Hebrew word קהלת ( Qoheleth ). There is much debate about the identity of this preacher; many believe it

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588-606: Is incompatible with Biblical teaching." However, the denomination has never officially adopted the board's statement, and has also stated "We respect and will continue to respect congregational freedom on this issue". The ABCUSA has 16 affiliated universities and colleges affiliated with it , and a number of home and foreign missionary societies such as the American Baptist Home Mission Society and International Ministries . Among its universities and colleges, some are also dually-affiliated with

637-614: Is kept below about 40 minutes, but historic preachers of all denominations could at times speak for well over an hour, sometimes for two or three hours, and use techniques of rhetoric and theatre that are today somewhat out of fashion in mainline churches. In many churches in the United States, the title preacher is synonymous with pastor or minister , and the church's minister is often referred to simply as "our/the preacher" or by name such as "Preacher Smith". However, among some Chinese churches, 'preacher' (Chinese: 傳道 )

686-789: Is still the Word of God , yet shouldn't be taken completely literally. American Baptists believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God and the final authority in matters of faith. The ABCUSA affirms the Trinity , that the one God exists as three persons in complete unity: God the Father , God the Son , and God the Holy Spirit . They confess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord through whom those who believe can have fellowship with God. He died, taking on

735-516: The Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists founded in 1993, an association favorable to the inclusion of homosexuals, a belief contrary to a resolution adopted by the denomination. So far, at least seven regions in the ABCUSA (Evergreen, Wisconsin, Rochester-Genesee, Metro Chicago, Metropolitan New York, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia) support full inclusion of homosexuals into Baptist life. Many ABCUSA churches have also partnered with

784-632: The Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists , which formed at the 1993 Biennial Meeting. However, several other ABCUSA regions and churches have opposed affirmation of homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgender identity. In 2004, the ABC Central Region reaffirmed the 1992 resolution. At its 2005 annual meeting, the West Virginia Baptist Convention, which had a history of proposing resolutions opposing liberal views on homosexual inclusion, narrowly rejected

833-569: The Four Evangelists ). The Greek word εὐαγγέλιον originally meant a reward given to the messenger for good news ( εὔ = "good", ἀνγέλλω = "I bring a message"; the word " angel " comes from the same root) and later "good news" itself. The verb form of euangelion , (translated as "evangelism"), occurs rarely in older Greek literature outside the New Testament , making its meaning more difficult to ascertain. Parallel texts of

882-672: The Foursquare Church , was the first woman to use radio to reach a wider audience in the United States. In 1951, producer Dick Ross and Baptist evangelist Billy Graham founded the film production company World Wide Pictures , which would make videos of his preaching and Christian films. In 1960, more than half of the Protestant American missionaries were evangelical. American and European Pentecostal missionaries are also numerous, Pentecostalism can develop independently by non-foreign residents in various regions of

931-680: The National Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist Convention. Approximately 40% of its membership were men and 60% were women, and the ABCUSA's churches were 73% non-Hispanic white , 10% Black or African American , 1% Asian , 11% Hispanic or Latino American , and 5% multiracial or other. Theologically, the Pew Research Center's 2014 study determined 83% of the ABCUSA believes in God with absolute certainty, and 15% believed fairly certainly; 73% believed religion

980-629: The National Baptist Convention or the Progressive National Baptist Convention . Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City is one of the many African American churches jointly affiliated with the ABCUSA and National Baptist Convention. Since 1970, the ABCUSA and Progressive National Baptists have officially partnered. The ABCUSA consists of 33 regional associations and conventions: In 1925, there were just over 1.4 million members. Membership peaked in

1029-871: The Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Chicago in 1913 and the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1925. The name of the convention was changed in 1950 to the American Baptist Convention (ABC), and it operated under this name until 1972. It was the second step at bringing together on a national level Baptists with ties to the mission societies. The ABC was characterized from 1950 to 1966 with annual resolutions at its conventions having to do with

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1078-404: The civil rights movement and race relations. Without exception, these resolutions were progressive and genuinely encompassing. They addressed both the need for individual change in attitude and action, and the need for broader social change that could only be instituted through political action. As in many cases, the rhetoric of the annual conventions was sometimes ahead of local activity, but

1127-454: The separation of church and state . Having a congregational polity , early Baptist churches in America operated independently from one another, following an array of Protestant theological paths, but were often unified in their mission to evangelize. In the 18th century, they sometimes created local congregational associations for support, fellowship, and work (such as the founding of Brown University in 1764). The evangelical mission led to

1176-690: The 90's (and now in the 2000's) Geoffrey Moran of Australia uses these "old school" methods as they are now new again for both children and adults. Ventriloquism is also returning to radio in the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy style. In 1831, the Presbyterian Mission Agency was founded by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America . Various evangelical mission organizations have specialized in evangelism throughout history. In 1792, BMS World Mission

1225-567: The ABCUSA Nominating Committee and are elected by the regions. The General Secretary of the ABCUSA executes the policies and decisions of the General Board. Rev. Dr. Lee B. Spitzer was called as ABCUSA General Secretary on May 8, 2017. A substantial portion of the ABCUSA consists of historically and predominantly African American churches that may have joint affiliations with the ABCUSA and historic bodies such as

1274-598: The ABCUSA, performs same-sex marriages. In 2013, an ABCUSA congregation in Washington, DC , ordained the denomination's first openly transgender pastor. The ABCUSA has consistently allowed each congregation to determine whether or not to perform same-sex marriages, or ordain LGBT clergy. The ABCUSA General Board voted in 2005 to amend the declaration We are American Baptists to define marriage as "between one man and one woman" and maintain that "the practice of homosexuality

1323-839: The American Baptist Education Society (1888). In 1845, a majority of Baptists in the South withdrew support from the Triennial Convention—largely in response to the decision of its delegates to ban slave holders from becoming ordained missionaries—and formed the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The Triennial Convention was loosely structured, and the SBC offered Baptists a more centralized organizational structure for carrying on missionary and benevolent work. In contrast, however,

1372-538: The American Baptist regional bodies; one-fourth would be elected as at-large representatives, or in the official terminology, "Nationally Nominated Representatives". These representatives would be "chosen so as to provide the necessary balance among the Representatives in respect of racial/ethnic inclusiveness, geographic area, age, gender, and desirable skills. The American Baptists Churches USA has

1421-514: The Gospels of Luke and Mark reveal a synonymous relationship between the verb euangelizo ( εὑαγγελίζω ) and a Greek verb kerusso ( κηρύσσω ), which means "to proclaim". Evangelism can include preaching or distributing bibles, tracts, newspapers and/or magazines, by the media, street evangelists, etc. The Bible records that Jesus sent out his disciples to evangelize by visiting peoples homes in pairs of two believers (cf. Luke 10:1–12 ). In

1470-464: The Holy Spirit leads them. The ABCUSA affirms the ordination of women . Homosexual issues have been a point of contention in the ABCUSA since the 1987 Biennial Meeting. In 1992, the ABCUSA General Board adopted a resolution that stated, "We affirm that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching." Since 1995, regional conventions of the church have carried out excommunications of various churches which have become members of

1519-669: The South after the American Civil War , as well as working on issues of health and welfare. Many of their missionaries and members had worked as teachers in the South. In 1911, most of the churches of the Free Will Baptist General Conference merged with it. Due to the development of theological liberalism in some affiliated seminaries, such as Crozer Theological Seminary , conservative seminaries have been founded by convention pastors, including

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1568-697: The Triennial Convention afforded local churches a higher degree of local autonomy, a more traditional characteristic of Baptist polity. The majority of churches in the North continued to work through these separate cooperating societies for missions and benevolence. In 1882, May Jones became the first ordained woman minister in the convention. The Northern Baptist Convention was founded in Washington, D.C., on May 17, 1907. Charles Evans Hughes , then Governor of New York and later Chief Justice of

1617-507: The United States , served the body as its first president. The purpose of the Northern Baptist Convention was to bring about a consistent cooperation among the separate Baptist bodies then existing. It was the first step in bringing together Baptists in the North "with ties to the historic American Baptist mission societies in the nineteenth century." These had contributed to establishing many schools for freedmen in

1666-418: The United States, then a student at Dallas Theological Seminary. In 2007, there were over 10,000 Baptist missionaries in overseas missions around the world. Some consider evangelism to be proselytising , while others argue it is merely free speech. The fact that evangelicals speak about their faith in public is sometimes criticized by the media and it is often associated with proselytism. According to

1715-511: The convention due to the convention's laxity with churches on enforcing a 1992 resolution that opposes the inclusion of homosexual people and have been renamed Transformation Ministries . The convention responded that it wanted to respect the autonomy of local churches and that it did not want to carry out excommunications . Each local congregation is autonomous and permitted to perform same-sex marriages if they opt to do so. For example, Calvary Baptist Church (Washington, D.C.) , affiliated with

1764-564: The convention had excluded them from decision-making positions, even while working with good intentions on behalf of black American Baptists. The following year, Dr. Thomas Kilgore Jr. , pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Los Angeles, was elected the first black president of the convention. The 1968 convention also voted to create the Study Commission on Denominational Structure (SCODS). Its recommendations changed

1813-536: The denomination gradually made progress. In 1964, it created the Baptist Action for Racial Brotherhood (BARB), which early the next year produced a pamphlet outlining actions for change in local churches. In 1968, the national convention was challenged by "Black American Baptist Churchmen Speak To the American Baptist Convention," demands that challenged how the denomination had "conducted its business relative to black American Baptists." The black churchmen said

1862-660: The denomination in a variety of ways, after being adopted at the 1972 convention. To reflect its new structure, the convention in 1972 changed its name to the American Baptist Churches USA. Rather than relying on decision-making at the annual convention by whichever churches happened to send delegates, the SCODS restructuring resulted in the following: A General Board was composed of duly elected representatives from geographically designated districts. Three-fourths of those representatives would be elected by

1911-487: The early 1980s at around 1.6 million. Since the beginning of the 21st century, membership began to decline and stagnate again, with the ABCUSA reporting 1,145,647 members in 5,057 churches at the end of 2017. According to a census published by the denomination in 2024, it claimed 4,802 churches and 1,107,206 members. The majority of its congregations are concentrated in the Midwest and Northeast United States . Numbers of

1960-558: The establishment of the national Triennial Convention in 1814, a collaborative effort by local churches to organize, fund, and deploy missionaries. The ABCUSA descends from this Triennial Convention. Through the Triennial Convention structure a number of mission-oriented societies were formed, including the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (1814), American Baptist Home Mission Society (1832), American Baptist Publication Society (1841), and

2009-543: The evangelicals, freedom of religion and freedom of expression allow them to discuss their faith like they would discuss other topics. Christian films made by American evangelical production companies are also regularly associated with proselytism. According to Sarah-Jane Murray, screenwriting teacher at the US Film and Christian Television Commission United, Christian films are works of art, not proselytism. For Hubert de Kerangat, communications manager at SAJE Distribution,

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2058-593: The more dogmatic Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a heretic for his religious separatism , Williams was banished into the New England wilderness where he and his followers created the settlement of Providence and later, the colony of Rhode Island . Williams is credited with being the founder of the Baptist movement in America, the founder of the state of Rhode Island, and the first highly visible public leader in America to call for

2107-681: The most wealthy and affluent American families , such as Rockefeller family , are American Baptists. According to a study by the Pew Research Center in 2014, 21% of its members were aged 18–29; 28% 30–49; 32% aged 50–64 and 19% aged 65 and older. While 51% of its membership were Baby Boomers , the Silent Generation , and the Greatest Generation , the remainder were Generation X , older millennials , and younger millennials, making it slightly younger than

2156-540: The same text, Jesus mentioned that few people were willing to evangelize, despite there being many people who would be receptive to his Gospel message . The child evangelism movement is a Christian evangelism movement that originated in the 20th century. It focuses on the 4/14 Window which centers on evangelizing children between the ages of 4 and 14 years old. Beginning in the 1970s, a group of Christian athletes known as The Power Team spawned an entire genre of Christian entertainment based on strong-man exploits mixed with

2205-500: The second-largest source of missionaries in the world, after the United States and ahead of England. In July 1999, TopChrétien, an evangelical Christian web portal and social network , was launched by Éric Célérier, pastor of the Assemblies of God of France and Estelle Martin. In January 2007, GodTube , a site for sharing videos related to Christianity, especially evangelical, was founded by Christopher Wyatt of Plano, Texas in

2254-487: The sins of the world, and was resurrected, triumphing over sin and death. ABCUSA churches recognize two ordinances: believer's baptism and the Lord's Supper . Baptism is by immersion, and those being baptized must be of an age to understand its significance. Believing in the priesthood of all believers , the ABCUSA avoids using creeds, affirming the freedom of individual Christians and local churches to interpret scripture as

2303-802: The world, notably in Africa, South America, and Asia. Youth with a Mission was founded in 1960 in United States by Loren Cunningham and his wife Darlene. The Christian Broadcasting Network was founded in 1961 in Virginia Beach , United States, by Baptist minister Pat Robertson . In 1974, Billy Graham and the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization organized the First International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne . In 2004, South Korea became

2352-1228: Was founded in Kettering , England by William Carey . In 1814, the American Baptist International Ministries was founded by the American Baptist Churches USA in United States. In 1865, OMF International was founded by Hudson Taylor in England. In 1893, in Lagos in Nigeria, SIM was founded by Walter Gowans , Rowland Bingham , and Thomas Kent . Samuel E. Hill, John H. Nicholson, and William J. Knights founded Gideons International , an organization which distributes free Bibles to hotels, motels, hospitals, military bases, prisons, schools, and universities, in Janesville in Wisconsin, United States, in 1899. In 1922, Canadian evangelical evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson , founder of

2401-469: Was very important and 24% considered it somewhat important. About 42% of members attended churches at least once a week, while 41% attended once or twice a month; 16% seldom or never attend church. An estimated 69% prayed daily, and 19% prayed weekly. Among its membership, 48% read Scripture at least once a week, and 15% once or twice a month; 53% believe the Bible should be taken literally, while 27% believe it

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