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Their "Contact Us"page lists Valley Forge, PA, as a mailing address, and King of Prussia, PA, as their "Location." Article shows both as location. Samatva (talk) 01:34, 13 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I will find the figures soon, but ABC-USA is not the second largest Baptist denomination in the United States. At least one, if not more, of the historicly African-American Baptist denominations is bigger. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jleeper (talk • contribs) 00:12, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

I disagree..In the first Place the First Baptist Church of Zanesville, Ohio is the mother church of the Northern/American Baptist Convention...They have placques from the Convention confirming this...also there are black churches that belong to this group...including the Union Baptist Church of Zanesville, Ohio. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.129.210.119 (talk • contribs) 22:47, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Why no discussion of the differences in theology between regions and the recent departure of the Pacific South West? 76.95.97.189 (talk) 23:40, 27 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Feel free to find a reliable source to cite, and add it. —Angr 07:21, 28 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Split Over Homosexuality Issue

The Pacific Southwest region (ABCPSW), which included 300 church congregations in Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada, officially separated from the ABCUSA denomination by unanimous vote of the ABCPSW board on May 11, 2006. This decision was taken after an overwhelming majority of the church delegates voted in favor of withdrawal from the Covenant of Relationship with the ABCUSA on April 29, 2006. The split was based on what the region regarded as inactivity by the denomination in refusing to discipline congregations that have taken an inclusive position towards their homosexual members. The region noted that the denomination had declared same-sex relationships to be incompatible with Christianity. Yet, the denomination had allowed congregations that welcomed sexually active gays, lesbians and bisexuals to remain in the ABCUSA. A notable example was a lesbian pastor in Massachusetts, who united with her partner in a ceremony at her church and was elected President of the Ministers Council of Massachusetts and a member of the Ministers Council Senate of the ABCUSA.

www.religioustolerance.org/hom_abc.htm

"American Baptist churches to split over gay issue," Deseret News, Salt Lake City, 2005-SEP-24, at: http://findarticles.com/

Robert Marus, "American Baptist region withdraws, may trigger split in denomination," 2005-SEP-13, Associated Baptist Press, at: http://www.abpnews.com/

Gregory Tomlin, "Split among American Baptists over homosexuality is final," Baptist Press, 2006-MAY-18, at: http://www.bpnews.net/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cogpdm (talk • contribs) 13:26, 14 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

i am fresh Graduate in one of the Bible school in Nigeria, i am interesting in joining your church and also want to work in your church as a minister of the gospel, i'm an evangelist. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.71.148.151 (talk) 12:51, 12 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

my name is Baboloki Johnson, i come from Botswana small country next to South Africa, i have started a small church in a village, i need your assisstace iterms of Bibles and books to other papers to be used to evangelise in the community my adress is Mr. Baboloki Johnson P O BOX 10748 Selebi Phikwe Botswana Southern Africa Africa your assisstance is highly appriciated — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.76.247.92 (talk) 13:33, 18 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Good luck with that! 143.85.18.26 (talk) 19:42, 19 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Is this American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA), or a predecessor, the church denomination which had a mission church and school in Lodge Grass, Montana, for Crow indians and perhaps other native americans? I ask because Montana historic site documentation for the Chivers Memorial Church states it was owned by the "National Ministries of American Baptists" (was a redlink) based in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. That source is possibly incorrect about the proper name of the church denomination. I see here in this article that ABCUSA "maintains headquarters in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania." --doncram 16:26, 15 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Doncram: The Chivers Memorial Church is indeed connected to ABCUSA. "National Ministries of the American Baptists" was the name of the American Baptist Home Mission Society from 1972 to 2010. The Society is the missions organization of the ABCUSA. I've redirected the National Ministries red link to the ABHMS page. Ltwin (talk) 02:36, 16 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks so much! It would be good to have National Ministries of American Baptists and/or National Ministries of American Baptist Church USA show in bold somewhere in the ABHMS page, conveying that those are alternative/previous names, too, perhaps? But this is good already to help out readers at the Chivers Memorial Church page. --doncram 02:47, 16 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Nathan B2 has made changes to hundreds of articles about Christian denominations, replacing the term "Christian denomination" with "association of churches". The American Baptist Churches USA is definitely a denomination--a mainline Protestant denomination to be specific. Will someone monitor these rapid and undue changes? desmay (talk) 21:51, 27 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for monitoring and checking that. The ABCUSA is most definitely a mainline Protestant denomination. There is virtual unanimity among socio-religious scholars in that regard. SeminarianJohn (talk) 21:19, 9 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The American Baptist Church USA (ABCUSA) is the mainline Baptist denomination in America. This should be its shortest description. It is originates with the first Puritan Baptist settlers here in America, where they organized the Triennial Convention. The ABCUSA is the continuation of the Triennial Convention as its reorganization, not a "break". This is obvious, and it explains why every non-southern historical Baptist congregation is ABCUSA. Most of its churches are not theologically liberal, according to this article. According to ABCUSA's official website and this article, Rev. Dr. Gina C. Jacobs-Strain is the General Secretary of the American Baptist Churches, where the organization is divided in 33 'regions', which include historical state conventions and regional associations. Please do not question this changing the article without explaining why. Heidon (talk) 19:44, 18 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

You seem to be presenting the Baptists as a continuation of the Puritans without citing any references and this is not a mainstream view. Academic references, such as this one, state the following:

Baptist appeals to religious liberty and the rights of conscience made no sense to most colonial Americans. Baptists were false teachers — generally ignorant and always obstinate. New England Puritans distrusted and despised Baptists. Baptists undermined all order. Even after Parliament enacted toleration in Great Britain in 1689, Massachusetts authorities used their laws to injure and intimidate Baptists. Massachusetts leaders initially ruled that legal toleration did not apply to Baptists — it applied to the legally established Congregational churches alone.

You do not have consensus for repeatedly adding the "Puritan" adjective throughout this article and other related articles. "Puritan Baptist" is a nonsensical term. I hope this helps. With regards, Anupam^Talk 05:58, 19 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The presentation of Baptists as Puritans by User:Heidon has affected other articles too, such as this one, with the edits being properly reverted by User:Remsense. Anupam^Talk 15:24, 20 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Anupam Thomas Helwys was a Puritan, and it is presented this way in the National Biography Heidon (talk) 11:39, 23 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Anupam The Baptist tradition comes from Puritanism, just as Congregationalists and English Presbyterians. The term "Puritan Baptist" or associating Baptists to Puritans is in fact used by scholars and Christians, such as Gavin Ortlund Heidon (talk) 11:38, 23 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Mainstream sources do not present Baptists are Puritans, but rather those who were persecuted by the Puritans. The Congregationalists are indeed the successor to the Puritans, but the Baptists are not. Anyways, the main discussion for this is occurring at the talk page of the Baptists article. Please participate and make your case per WP:BURDEN. Anupam^Talk 17:43, 23 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The infobox claims: "Liturgy: Mostly High-church". Several edits ago, @DivaR8ch edited this to say "Low-church", with a descriptive edit summary, but @Heidon immediately changed it back, with no edit summary, to the current "Mostly High-church". There is no citation. A glance at the article on High church should tell you that this is not accurate of Baptists, unless there is some unusual evidence to the contrary. Low church is closer to the truth, although I doubt whether anything belongs under the "Liturgy" field at all. I propose to edit accordingly. Micler (talk) 22:49, 26 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

For context, I am an ordained American Baptist Pastor who works for one of the Mission organizations related to ABCUSA. It’s primarily a low church tradition. I know of one American Baptist Church that uses an archaic high church liturgy, but it is literally one church. We are congregational in polity, so churches can use any liturgical form they want. DivaR8ch (talk) 23:08, 26 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Baptist here, I'd like to emphasize that from a theological perspective, beautiful and detailed worship, is not the same thing as High-Church. Low-church congregations can have similar architecture, but if you were to compare a Baptist or Methodist church, for example, to a Catholic church, worship would be very different. Theology is also a key contributor to determining a high\low-church distinction. The Based Baptist YT (talk) 02:11, 1 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. High Church usually denotes a connectional adjudication structure, adherence to the components of the Latin Mass, even when in local languages, and high Eucharistic theology with a concept of “sacraments.” ABCUSA lacks all these elements. Our adjudicatory structure is voluntary in membership. Our churches are governed congregationally. We don’t have sacraments. DivaR8ch (talk) 15:06, 1 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]