In May of 1845, Southern Baptists meeting in Augusta, Georgia, formed the Southern Baptist Convention and elected William B. Johnson of South Carolina as its first president. Meetings were held every two or three years until the 1870’s when the Convention became an annual gathering. From 1845 until 1897, reports of the meetings were called Proceedings. Beginning in 1898, the title changed to Southern Baptist Convention Annual. The publication records the business of the Convention, including at various times reports, statistics, sermons, state convention information, and lists of staff, trustees and committees. The minister list appearing at the end of various SBC Annuals is not available online until 40 years from its date of publication. This includes pastors, ministers of education, ministers of youth, associate ministers, mission pastors, ordained ministers, chaplains, evangelists, etc., but does not include entity staff lists, trustee lists, state convention lists, committee lists, or other such directories.

The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention holds copyright to all issues in all formats of the Southern Baptist Convention Annuals and Proceedings as stated in the volumes. The Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives provided copies of the Proceedings and Annuals to Baylor University for this cooperative digitization project.

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