American Baptist Church
American Baptist Churches in the USA is the current name of Northern Baptist Convention founded in 1907. The name was changed in 1950 to American Baptist Convention, and the current name was adopted in 1972. Historically, the ABCUSA descends from the old Triennial Convention formed in 1814, a loosely structured foreign missions organization. Baptists in the south withdrew support from the Triennial Convention and formed the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845, utilizing a more centralized organizational structure for carrying on missionary and benevolent enterprises. The majority of churches in the north continued to work through loosely associated societies for missions and benevolence, until the formation of the Northern Baptist Convention. The Baptist churches in the north have not grown to the extent of those in the south, perhaps being more liberal and less evangelical, and having greater ecumenical interests. In 1996, the American Baptist Churches in the USA had 1,504,573 members in 5801 churches.
