The '''Southern Baptists of Texas Convention''' (SBTC) is an association of conservative and fundamentalist Southern Baptist churches in Texas. It is formally affiliated with the national Southern_Baptist_Convention. SBTC was organized in 1991 as the ''Conservative Baptist Fellowship of Texas'', and changed its name to ''Southern Baptists of Texas'' in 1995. The group initially operated within the Baptist_General_Convention_of_Texas (BGCT), and sought closer cooperation between the BGCT and the SBC, resulting from the "conservative-moderate" dissension taking place within both groups. However, the BGCT's formal disassociation from the SBC and alignment with the Cooperative_Baptist_Fellowship led SBT to organize into a separate state convention in November of 1998, at which time it took its present name and formally affiliated with the SBC. SBTC believes in the inerrancy of Scripture, salvation only in Jesus Christ, and the primacy of the local church. SBTC established missions and evangelism as its major emphasis. SBTC holds to the 2000 SBC Baptist_Faith_and_Message. SBTC's purpose is to provide a medium for cooperation in missions and ministry, and to provide for relational fellowship and accountability for conservative Southern Baptists in Texas. SBTC's headquarters are in a 30,000 ft² (2,800 m²) facility, opened in 2004, in Grapevine,_Texas. Jim Richards serves as the Executive Director. Its official publication is the ''Southern Baptist Texan'' and Gary Ledbetter currently serves as its editor. As of June 2006, 1,776 churches were affiliated with the SBTC. SBTC affiliated churches may be either "uniquely affiliated" (solely affiliated with SBTC) or "dually affiliated" (affiliated with both SBTC and BGCT). The SBTC has spawned at least one new area association (the North_Texas_Baptist_Association) to form as a conservative response to the existing BGCT associational structure. ==Support of non-SBC Baptist Entities== SBTC currently supports two entities, Jacksonville_College (a two-year college located in Jacksonville,_Texas) and Texas Baptist Home (a home for unwed mothers located in Waxahachie,_Texas), which although affiliated with SBTC are not SBC affiliates, but are aligned with the Texas arm of the Baptist_Missionary_Association_of_America (BMAA). BMAA is a separate and distinct national Baptist denomination with no formal affiliation to the SBC. ==External link== *SBTexas.com - the official site of the Southern Baptists of Texas ==Sources== *''Texas Baptist leaders respond to new convention'', by Herb Hollinger, BP News, November 25, 1997 Category:Associations_in_Texas Category:Religion_in_Texas Category:Southern_Baptist_Convention