This week in Christian history: Pope elected, Isaac Backus dies, Baptist Convention formed

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, November 19, 2023

Baptist Foreign Mission Convention formed – Nov. 22, 1880

In this file photo, congregants attend the National Baptist Convention USA meeting in Memphis, Tennessee, on September 10, 2009. | AP Images/Lance Murphey

This week marks the anniversary of when a meeting of African American church leaders was held that led to the creation of the Baptist Foreign Mission Convention, a forerunner to the National Baptist Convention, USA.

Around 150 people from 11 states gathered in Montgomery, Alabama, to launch the BFMC, which had been centered on the goal of sending missionaries to Africa. The Rev. W. H. McAlpine of Alabama served as its first president.

In the years after the BFMC was formed, African American faith leaders also established the National Baptist Convention of America and the National Baptist Education Convention. These three ministry organizations would eventually merge to form the National Baptist Convention, USA, a historically black denomination that exists to this day.

“None of the three Conventions thrived separately. So in 1895, the three bodies effected a merger in a meeting held at the Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. The Reverend E. C. Morris from Little Rock, Arkansas, was chosen as the president of this merged body,” explained NBC, USA.