Swedish Baptist General Conference
Nearly 160 years ago, Swedish immigrants settled in the United States, having come to America primarily because of religious persecution. These followers of Christ had a strong conviction about the Bible as the Word of God. They believed in believer’s baptism by immersion. And they had a strong conviction about living a holy life as followers of Jesus Christ. They began to reach other Swedish immigrants with the life-changing message of the Gospel, and eventually organized as a fellowship of churches, called the Swedish Baptist General Conference.
Baptist General Conference
The Baptist General Conference became the new name of our family of churches by 1945 as English became the predominant language used in our churches, and as more and more non-Swedish churches were planted and organized. While the landscape of the U.S. dramatically changed, the core values of the BGC remained the same. We continued to affirm unequivocally, the Bible as the Word of God. A clear conviction about believer’s baptism and regenerate church membership remained strong. And the same concern and conviction for distinctive, strong, Christ-like living in a pagan and secular world, characterized our movement. As a missional movement the Baptist General Conference became a beautiful multi-ethnic, world-wide family of believers and churches, diverse, yet committed to the common mission of fulfilling Christ’s great commission for the church.