This class introduces participants to biblical discipleship and Nova Church membership over 4 weeks. It discusses the history and structure of Southern Baptists, including their cooperative funding model that supports over 10,000 missionaries. It also summarizes the vision and values of Nova Church in removing barriers and sharing Christ's love.

1. To the Nova Church
EXPLORING MEMBERSHIP Group
This 4 week class is designed to introduce
participants to:
5.Biblical Discipleship – 2 weeks
6.Nova Church Membership – 2 weeks

2. Who are Southern Baptists?
 The organizational structure of the SBC was the brain-
child of Richard Furman;
 He was instrumental in the founding of the Charleston
Baptist Association in 1792 and the South Carolina Baptist
Convention in 1821;
 Furman died in 1825, 20 years before his vision for a
unified organization of Baptists in America was fulfilled;
 The SBC was formed in Augusta, Ga. in 1845

3. Who are Southern Baptists?
 The purpose statement adopted by the original 236
messengers established the SBC “for the purpose of
carrying into effect the benevolent intentions of our
constituents by organizing a plan for eliciting, combining,
and directing the energies of the who denomination in one
sacred effort – for the propagation of the gospel . . .”
 That ‘plan’ became a reality 80 years later with the
adoption of “The Cooperative Program;”
 The CP allows the 45,000 churches of the SBC to support
over 10,000 career missionaries and 6 seminaries;

4. Who are Southern Baptists?
 There are 42 State Conventions, 1,125 local Associations,
45,000 churches and over 16 million members making it
the largest protestant denomination in the country;
 Over 5,000 career missionaries serve in the United States,
Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, and
American Samoa as North American Mission Board
missionaries or church planters;
 Over 5,000 career missionaries serve in 153 other nations
around the world ;

5. Who are Southern Baptists?
 By design, every Southern Baptist Church is a fully
autonomous body. A church “cooperates” by choice, but
no ecclesiastical hierarchy exists to issue mandates;
 Each church decides what portion of their funds are
forwarded to the Cooperative Program. Currently Nova
Church is giving 5% of undesignated funds to the CP.
Some churches give as much as 25%;
 Funds are forwarded to the state Baptist convention,
which keeps a portion for missions within the state. The
rest is forwarded to the national convention for dispersal;

6. Who are Southern Baptists?
 SC Baptists are working toward a 50/50 split, beginning
this year;
 This kind of giving allows Southern Baptists to support
Missions, Education, & Benevolence. We fund colleges,
seminaries, & Bible institutes. We fund children’s homes,
homes for the aged, and hospitals. We fund crisis
pregnancy centers, disaster relief ministries, & counseling
services;
 One missionary is quoted as saying, ‘The sun never sets on
your Cooperative Program dollars at work.’

7. Who are Southern Baptists?
 www.sbc.net
 www.namb.net
 www.imb.org
 www.wmu.com
These websites can provide most of the information needed to
clearly understand the vision, purpose, plan, & work of
Southern Baptists around the world.

8. Who are Southern Baptists?
 Locally, Southern Baptist Churches choose to cooperate in
local Baptist Associations. There are 1,125 local Baptist
associations nationally;
 Some, but not all, associations benefit from Cooperative
Program funding. Colleton Baptist Association receives
NO CP funding;
 Local associations are comprised of autonomous churches
joining together to accomplish missions that most churches
could not do alone;

9. Who are Southern Baptists?
 Local Baptist Associations depend on the direct missions
gifts from member churches;
 Nova Church currently gives 5% of undesignated funds to
the Colleton Baptist Association;
 Our local association helps to support: ABC Regional
Hispanic Ministry, Covenant Counseling Center, Colleton
Christian Women’s/Men’s Job Corps;
 Our Association consists of 31 cooperating churches, all of
which average less than 200 in attendance;

10. Who are Southern Baptists?
 Southern Baptists practice baptism by immersion as an
ordinance. This means that baptism is symbolic as a
representation of death to sin & self and resurrection to a
new life in Christ;
 Southern Baptists view communion/Lord’s Supper as an
ordinance – the drink symbolizing the blood of Christ and
the wafer/bread symbolizing the body of Christ. This
ordinance is served as a memorial to the sacrificial death
of Christ;
 Southern Baptists view the Bible as the inspired word of
God without error & authority for issues of faith and life;

11. What is the Nova Nation?
 Nova Church launched on January 8, 2012, after being
birthed by God in August of 2011;
 Nova’s “Rules of Order” are contained throughout a book
called “The Bible;”
 To be a part of Nova’s leadership constellation, one must
be comfortable with servanthood;
 Nova’s 11 core values reveal the priorities of the church
community;

12. What is the Nova Nation?
 Nova’s vision can be stated succinctly as ‘Removing
Barriers, Building Bridges, and Sharing the Love of
Christ.’
 We seek to engage our context with a ‘Great Commission’
mentality that seeks to use creative, Christ-honoring
methods to reach, win, & develop those apart from Christ
and deploy them into the world as ministers of the gospel
in everyday life;
 Nova Church will have expectations of members,
primarily that they strive to live according to the teachings
of God’s word;