AFFILIATIONS

At Temple, we gladly associate ourselves with three important groups of churches for the purpose of seeing lives changed by experiencing the transforming love of Jesus Christ.

  1. The Lebanon Baptist Association is made up of Baptist churches in our area desiring to serve the Lord throughout our region, to reach more people in Christ's love, and to see the Gospel spread through church planting. 

  2. The Mississippi Baptist Convention is made up of Baptist churches from across our state committed to work together to impact our state for Christ. 

  3. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is made up of about 45,000 churches and about 16 million members. It is the largest association of Christian churches in America. SBC churches include every race, nationality and ethnic group. Each Sunday, services are held in over 110 language groups. Also, it is one of the fastest growing groups. The SBC baptizes over 1,000 new Christians a day in the U.S., and begins nearly 5 new churches a day.

What are the advantages of affiliating with the SBC?

  1. It allows us to identify ourselves with other Christians around the world who are known for their commitment to the Bible. Unlike other groups, the SBC has no man-made creed... the Bible is our sole authority. 

  2. It allows our church to participate in the largest missionary organization in the world. Through the SBC's Cooperative Program, we help support more than 5300 international missionaries and 25,000 new church plants among 1183 distinct people groups around the world. 

  3. It allows us to cooperate in evangelism and church planting projects here in North America, disaster relief ministry throughout the US, and many other ministry efforts that are in keeping with our church's mission. 

  4. It allows us to be a part of a tremendous mobilization of church members around the country. About 100,000 Southern Baptist each year participate in short-term mission and disaster relief projects, at home and abroad. 

  5. It allows us to be a part of training, through our six seminaries, about 12,000 pastors and others each year who are called to vocational ministry. 

  6. It allows us to be a part of the LifeWay Christian Resources, the largest publisher of religious materials in the world. Orders come from over 70 countries around the world.