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

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

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;

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 ;

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;

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.’

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.

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;

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;

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;

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;

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;