Baptist Network created to oppose nationalism, foster Black church collaboration

(RNS) — Baptist leaders are creating a new network focused on Black churches and communities in light of what some see as growing nationalism among evangelicals and wider political decisions they feel are detrimental.

“The conflating of faith with this rightward drift and the infringement not only on the autonomy of the church but all issues related to justice, the Voting Rights Act, the deification of (conservative activist) Charlie Kirk and all of these things have given us great concern,” Pastor Gregory Perkins, spokesperson for The Baptist Network, told Religion News Service.

Perkins, who is the immediate past president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s National African American Fellowship, said a meeting was scheduled for Monday (June 29) at the Arlington, Texas, church of Pastor Dwight McKissic, one of the network’s conveners and a leader who successfully encouraged Southern Baptists to adopt resolutions criticizing the Confederate flag and condemning white supremacy in 2016 and 2017.

Leaders expected to attend or join the network are affiliated with groups such as the American Baptist Churches USA, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, Southern Baptist Convention and historic Black Baptist denominations such as the Progressive National Baptist Convention, National Baptist Convention of America and National Baptist Convention, USA.

Pastor Gregory Perkins. (Courtesy photo)

Their focus is not to become another denomination, but “a connector and a catalyzer,” Perkins said.

The network will comprise representatives of predominantly Black churches or denominations in North America but also aims to be racially inclusive, he added.

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The group, which plans to have its official launch in the fall at a meeting of dozens of leaders, said in a news release that they have “grown weary of being criticized or marginalized for addressing issues of race, immigration, poverty, and justice from a biblical perspective.”

Perkins said organizers had been in conversation about developing a network long before the Southern Baptists’ recent vote that could lead to a ban on women pastors but “the current climate within the SBC helped inform our needs, perhaps in a more expedited fashion.”

He said “like-minded Baptists” who are forming the new network also oppose the recent Supreme Court ruling “allowing the administration to take away the protected status of Haitian citizens, while inviting South African citizens to come.”

The new network, which will include mentoring, training and missions partnerships, is one of several recent attempts to address issues of concern by faith leaders of color in a collaborative way.

Perkins inaugurated the Black Collective of the Southern Baptist Convention at an event featuring representatives of various Caribbean and African fellowships just before the June annual meeting of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

“I wanted to send a message of unity amongst the diaspora, but also amongst the broader SBC family, because there had been this notion that we somehow were working in cross purposes,” he said.

A broader gathering featuring Black church leaders, The Black People’s Convention, is tentatively planned for February 2027 in Maryland, said Bishop Erika Crawford of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It would be a revival of an 1830 event in which African Methodist Episcopal Church founder Richard Allen brought together Black leaders of different faiths and organizations at his Philadelphia church.

“Today, we face a different moment — but the same urgency,” reads a description on a website about the upcoming convention. “Across this nation, we are witnessing the erosion of civil rights, widening economic gaps, threats to education, and ongoing challenges to our communities’ health, safety, and stability.”

Perkins said he thinks the various initiatives are sparked by a period where there are “coordinated actions that are intentionally disadvantaging communities of color, specifically Black and brown communities.”

“I do believe that there’s a coming together,” he said.

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