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In 1998 there were 120 churches that left the Baptist General Convention of Texas and formed the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. The SBTC was formed by churches that were alarmed at the liberal leadership in the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Now the SBTC has more than 1,500 churches as members.
Paul Pressler, a retired judge from Houston, says the formation of the breakaway group was a necessary move. "What happened was the Baylor Alumni Association was activated with Baylor money to take over the Baptist General Convention of Texas for the liberal forces," he says.
However, conservative Texas Baptists have rallied and become a force in their own right. Pressler says, "I note that last year the new Southern Baptists of Texas Convention gave almost as much money to the cooperative program as did the old Baptist General Convention of Texas -- I think it was $10 million versus $8 million." The largest portion of the SBTC budget goes to missions and evangelism.
As an architect of the conservative movement within the Southern Baptist Convention, Pressler admires the organization's methodology as one of its greatest strengths. "We are a voluntary group of over 43,000 churches -- no central organization can control the local church," he says, "and so we cooperate on those things that are beneficial."
As an example, the conservative Baptist leader points to the wide-scale success of the denomination's worldwide missions outreach. "For instance," he notes, "we support 5,400 international missionaries through a common fund, and these missionaries do not need to raise their own support, so they can spend all their time doing their mission work."
Several years ago Pressler wrote a book called A Hill On Which to Die (Broadman and Holman, 1999), which dealt with the battle between conservatives and liberals for control of the Southern Baptist Convention.
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