National Baptist Convention, USA: What to know about largest Black Protestant group in US

The National Baptist Convention, U.S.A. (NBCUSA) is gathering in Baltimore for its 2024 annual session and most importantly will decide on new leadership.

The Rev. Jerry Young, a Mississippi pastor, has led the Nashville-based denomination as its president for 10 years. Young now looks to cede the reins to someone new, though a smooth succession plan isn’t a guarantee this time around.

Due to a controversial and unexpected change in the methodology for nominating candidates for the Sept. 5 presidential election, only one candidate has qualified for the ballot. Four additional candidates who didn’t qualify are disputing the process that ultimately caused their ineligibility and have been leading a joint campaign to protest the election as it’s currently set.

If that joint campaign is successful at rallying supporters to Baltimore, the denomination may face an unprecedented leadership crisis.

Here's what to know about the denomination and its wider significance in American society.

National Baptist Convention, U.S.A. members and notable institutions

The National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., which often is known as the NBCUSA, is one of four major Black Baptist denominations in the U.S. and is the oldest and largest of the four.

Though reports on statistics about the denomination have been inconsistent for the past decade, the NBCUSA says on its website its estimated total membership is 7.5 million. An external reporting citing the most recently available data, which is from 2010, estimates total membership at 5.2 million and total churches is 10,358.

Those membership and church estimates have likely fallen since those reports, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate effect on historically Black congregations.

But the NBCUSA still remains influential, notwithstanding its connections to prominent pastors, community leaders, and civil rights leaders and organizations.

In Nashville alone, the denomination is affiliated with churches like First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill, a congregation at the center of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Likewise, the denomination’s flagship school, Nashville’s American Baptist College, was the training ground for many well-known Civil Rights leaders such as the late John Lewis.

American Baptist College is next door to the NBCUSA headquarters at the Baptist World Center, where administrative staff and the Sunday School Publishing Board have offices.

The publishing board used to work out of the famous Morris Building in downtown Nashville, which the denomination officially sold last year. The NBCUSA is also widely known for its influential and well-resourced Home Mission Board and Foreign Mission Board. The denomination has also been focusing on disaster relief through its office of disaster management.

How its top priorities align with similar denominations to bridge historic divisions

National Baptist Convention, U.S.A. leaders and many of its churches are slightly more conservative than other Black Protestant denominations on certain socio-cultural issues, such as LGBTQ+ rights and women in ministry. But those differences are minor compared to the denomination’s top priorities, many of which overlap with sibling groups.

Through specific NBCUSA commissions, each with its own board leadership, the denomination has invested significant energy on affordable housing, health disparities and education and criminal justice.

Meanwhile, a commission on social justice is largely invested in voter registration and voter rights initiatives, a focus that has gotten the attention of national political leaders. Signaling the important role NBCUSA-affiliated churches play in ensuring voter turnout, largely to support Democratic candidates, President Joe Biden visited Young’s church in 2020 before the Mississippi primaries that year and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the NBCUSA annual session in 2022. Harris is now the Democratic presidential nominee in the November election.

The other three major Black Baptist denominations — the Progressive National Baptist Convention, National Baptist Convention of American International, and the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America — are focused on many of the same issues as the NBCUSA, a commonality that has helped the four groups find alignment after their historical divisions.

The National Baptist Convention of America formed out of a schism in the NBCUSA in 1915 over a dispute about the Sunday School Publishing Board’s ownership, while the Progressive National Baptist Convention splintered off the NBCUSA in 1961 due to disagreements about attitudes toward Civil Rights activism.

But the four denominations have since found opportunities to come together, convening for the National Baptist Joint Board Session in 2005 and again in 2008. The joint summit held its third-ever meeting in January in Memphis, an event that sparked headlines when the Rev. Gina Stewart became the first woman to preach at a National Baptist Joint Board Session event and reportedly an NBCUSA-sponsored event.

Why the choice for Young’s successor bears unique uncertainty

The decision facing the NBCUSA at its 2024 annual session in Baltimore to vote for a new president has bearing on the denomination’s administration and its public witness.

As president for the past 10 years, Young sought to enhance ministries focused on disaster relief and voter turnout, among others, and he also sought to elevate the denomination’s profile to a wider audience. In an affirmation of his success with the latter goal, Young delivered an opening benediction for the Democratic National Convention in 2020.

The NBCUSA president serves as the denomination’s chief executive and serves five-year terms. The president, presidential cabinet members, representatives of NBCUSA-affiliated agencies and state conventions, and 37 at-large representatives comprise the NBCUSA Board of Directors, which manages denomination business outside the four-day annual session.

In a presidential election when an incumbent isn’t running for reelection, there are typically several candidates on the ballot. This year, Connecticut pastor Rev. Boise Kimber is the only candidate on the ballot due to the controversial procedural changes. A majority vote against Kimber would nullify the election and restart the two-year-long nomination and election process.

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on social media @liamsadams.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: National Baptist Convention, USA: Largest Black Protestant group in US