Baptists

Baptists are individuals who comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers (believer's baptism, as opposed to infant baptism), and that it must be done by complete immersion (as opposed to affusion or sprinkling). Other tenets of Baptist churches include soul competency (liberty), salvation through faith alone, Scripture alone as the rule of faith and practice, and the autonomy of the local congregation. Baptists recognize two ministerial offices, pastors and deacons. Baptist churches are widely considered to be Protestant churches, though some Baptists disavow this identity.

Diverse from their beginning, those identifying as Baptists today differ widely from one another in what they believe, how they worship, their attitudes toward other Christians, and their understanding of what is important in Christian discipleship.

Historians trace the earliest church labeled "Baptist" back to 1609 in Amsterdam, with English Separatist John Smyth as its pastor. In accordance with his reading of the New Testament, he rejected baptism of infants and instituted baptism only of believing adults. Baptist practice spread to England, where the General Baptists considered Christ's atonement to extend to all people, while the Particular Baptists believed that it extended only to the elect. In 1638, Roger Williams established the first Baptist congregation in the North American colonies. In the mid-18th century, the First Great Awakening increased Baptist growth in both New England and the South. The Second Great Awakening in the South in the early 19th century increased church membership, as did the preachers' lessening of support for abolition and manumission of slavery, which had been part of the 18th-century teachings. Baptist missionaries have spread their church to every continent.

Olivet Baptist Church (Chicago)

Olivet Baptist Church is located in Chicago, Illinois. The congregation first formed in 1861 through the merger of two African-American congregations. The church has been at points the largest African-American church in the United States, and one of the largest Protestant congregations in the nation. The congregation increased greatly in size in the 1920s due to the Great Migration, when the church provided services and structure to Southern blacks who had relocated to the north, bringing the congregation to 11,000. By the 1940s the congregation numbered 20,000.

As of 2012, the church is still in operation in Chicago.

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Coordinates: 41°50′18″N 87°37′00″W / 41.8382°N 87.6167°W / 41.8382; -87.6167

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