The first Virginia Baptist church was organized in Prince George County in 1715 and was a General or Arminian church. Other General Baptist churches were constituted in northern Virginia and part of what is now West Virginia. Afterwards Calvinistic Baptist churches were organized in northern Virginia which affiliated with the Philadelphia Association.

There was no national organization to unite the widely scattered Baptists in America until the Triennial Convention was organized in Philadelphia in 1817 to promote foreign missions. Many of the Baptist churches in the South, including those in Virginia, joined this organization.

At the time, there was little vocal opposition to slavery. Then the Abolitionist movement arose which condemned slavery. Many in the Triennial convention opposed the practice of appointing slaveholders as missionaries. For this and other reasons, the Baptist churches in the South, feeling they were being discriminated against, decided to withdraw and form a new convention. This was carried out with almost complete agreement between North and South.

The Southern Baptist Convention was organized in 1845 in Augusta, Georgia. Virginia Baptists were instrumental in forming this new body and furnished some of the first officers. The new convention, which began with about 365,000 members, has grown to 16 million members at the present time.

At its inception the purpose of the convention was declared "to provide a general organization of Baptists in the United States and its territories for the promotion of Christian missions at home and abroad and any other objects such as Christian education, benevolent enterprises, and social services which it may deem proper and advisable for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God."

Two mission boards were set up under Convention control. The Foreign Mission Board was located in Richmond and the Home (Domestic) Mission Board was situated initially in Marion, Alabama, and later moved to Atlanta, Georgia. In recent years, the names have been changed to the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board. Other agencies were created such as the Sunday School Board, a publishing house and bookstores.

Education was an early concern of Southern Baptists. While denominational colleges were formed in the various states, the Southern Convention established seminaries for training ministers. The first of these, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was opened in 1859. It was followed by Southwestern, New Orleans, Golden Gate, Midwestern and Southeastern seminaries, all of which are still in operation.

The denominational headquarters is located in Nashville, Tennessee. An executive committee directs the day-by-day operations.

The Southern Baptist Convention as a whole has always been a relatively conservative organization of churches and state conventions. Those who were elected to convention-wide office tended to be those with mainstream views as compared to the Convention at large. By the 1970s a group of Southern Baptists had become dissatisfied with what they felt were non-conservative beliefs and teachings of those who led the convention and taught in its seminaries and they sought to change that. At the annual meeting of the Convention in 1979, they were successful in electing as president one of their number by persuading the more conservative churches to send full slates of delegates. Since that time, this very conservative group (often referred to as "fundamentalists") has continued to elect the president and other officers. By doing so, they have controlled all appointments to boards and agencies, requiring that all appointed adhere to the principles they have set.

By the early 1990s, the fundamentalists had gained complete control of all the boards and agencies, and the "moderates" who had prevailed from the beginning of the Convention have been excluded from any leadership roles.

As discussed in Baptist Distinctives, Baptists traditionally were not a creedal group. They did adopt a Faith and Message statement in 1925, and amended it at the convention in 1963. Since 1995, the statement has been amended at two conventions to include more fundamentalist beliefs concerning the role of women, to emphasize the inerrancy of the Bible, and to remove some of the elements which were traditionally included in Baptist distinctives. Further, all convention employees, agency members, seminary employees and students at seminaries must affirm the present version of the Baptist Faith and Message statement.

Because of these changes, many among the moderates began constituting new organizations of like-minded Baptists. These include the Alliance of Baptists and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has refused to label itself a separate denomination, and does not hold its annual gathering during the Southern Baptist convention meeting. However, it seems more likely to separate in the near future. The Fellowship now appoints missionaries and chaplains and supports them. Its headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia.

Also, moderates have begun new seminaries for training ministers, and at present there are eleven of these schools fully accredited and granting degrees. One of those is the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. It shares a campus with the Presbyterian seminary in northside Richmond.

Because of disagreement with Southern Baptist policies, state conventions in Virginia and Texas have adopted budgetary changes which have resulted in sending less money to the Southern Baptist Convention. Fundamentalists have begun separate state conventions in both states. There is much change still ongoing within Baptist life. However, because Baptist churches have always maintained individuality at the congregational level, these changes need not create any significant change within the local church. Some congregations have aligned strictly with one group or another, but the vast majority have proceeded with the attitude that they will not be changed by disagreements outside the congregation.

In summary, those of fundamentalist views control the Southern Baptist Convention and continue to change its structure to more closely conform it to their beliefs.

Written by John S. Moore.