SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Some Southern Baptists in California have started an alternative state convention that will compete with the 67-year-old California Southern Baptist Convention for denominational loyalty.
California is the fourth state to witness such a move, joining Texas, Missouri and Virginia. In those states, alternative Baptist conventions have resulted in competition with the more traditional organizations for contributions and membership.
Ron Wilson, a Los Angeles-area pastor, said he helped create the California Baptist Conservative Coalition. “We’ve got three things we’re going to do,” Wilson said. “We’re going with a 50–50 split [of contributions] with the national convention and the [new] state convention. Our statement of faith will be the Baptist Faith and Message. And we are going to meet three times a year.”
Wilson said the purpose of the group is to give more to the national SBC in order “to have more money spent on actual missions.”
The current division of funds in the traditional California State Baptist Convention is 28 percent for the SBC and 72 percent for the state convention’s own ministries, much of which is spent to start and assist California Baptist churches.
Wilson said nonprofit status for the group has already been processed and approved by the U.S. government. Leaders at the traditional California Southern Baptist Convention, however, said they had not received any formal word about the new group.
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