Baptist General Conference Churches

Worship in the Baptist General Conference follows the historic free church tradition, with, however, a contemporary flair. While there is no particular pattern evident among all the churches, there is a strong influence from the praise-and-worship style and a concern to establish seekers services. Some churches are finding ways to enhance the celebration of the Lord's Supper. The Baptist General Conference, a denomination of more than one thousand churches in the USA, also has an autonomous Canadian counterpart and more than one thousand churches in other nations of the world. The member churches are strongly autonomous, so they are free to establish their own form of government, hire the pastor of their own choice, and decide just how much to involve the local church in the affairs and goals of the denomination. Organized more than one hundred years ago, this denomination sprang from the desire of Swedish Baptist congregations to accomplish things that no one congregation could ev…