Is Crossroads affiliated with any denomination?
Yes. Crossroads Memorial Church is part of the Southern Baptist denomination.
What is a Southern Baptist Church?
In 1845 a group of Baptist churches met in Augusta, Georgia, and agreed to begin cooperating together to do missions work around the world. From there the denomination began and grew. Today there are over 16 million Southern Baptists and some 42,000 churches. The denomination exists so that churches can cooperate together to do missions work on a local, state, national and international level. The main way that Southern Baptists work cooperatively is by giving money to the Cooperative Program (CP).
The Cooperative Program funds the following:
Six Southern Baptist seminaries for theological training of church leaders
The North American Mission Board (NAMB) for mission work in the United States and Canada
The International Mission Board (IMB) for mission work around the world
The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) which is the public policy arm of the SBC and is dedicated to addressing social, moral, and ethical concerns with particular attention on their impact on American families and their faith.
GuideStone Financial Resources which allows workers in Southern Baptist entities and churches to invest in a retirement program
The Southern Baptist Foundation which was established to provide a wide range of investment and estate planning services for Southern Baptist Convention agencies, institutions and individuals. Its objective is to support the Convention in its goal of spreading the gospel.
Crossroads Memorial also cooperates with churches on a local level to do work in Central Montana through the Triangle Baptist Association, and we cooperate with other Montana churches through the Montana Southern Baptist Convention to do work in our state.
Why not just be an independent church?
We are an independent church. No one, other than the Lord Jesus, tells a Southern Baptist church what to do. All Southern Baptist churches are independent but choose to work together or cooperate to train and send out workers to spread the Gospel around the world.
What are the advantages of affiliation with SBC?
It allows us to identify with other Christians around the world who are known for their commitment to the Bible. Southern Baptists have no man-made “creed”. The Bible is our only authority.
It allows our church to participate in the largest missionary organization in the world. Through the SBC’s Cooperative Program we help support over 5100 international missionaries serving 950 people groups in 153 countries around the world and over 5300 missionaries in North America.