The Confessional Baptist Association is an association of

Reformed Baptist Reformed Baptists (sometimes known as Particular Baptists or Calvinistic Baptists) are Baptists that hold to a Calvinist soteriology (salvation). The first Calvinist Baptist church was formed in the 1630s. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith ...

churches in the United States. The headquarters is in

Mansfield, Texas Mansfield is a suburban city in the U.S. state of Texas, and is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex area. The city is located mostly in Tarrant county, with small parts in Ellis and Johnson counties. Its location is approximately 30 mile ...

History

On November 12–13, 1996, fifteen Reformed Baptist churches met at Heritage Church in

Fayetteville, Georgia Fayetteville is a city in and the county seat of Fayette County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 18,957, up from 15,945 at the 2010 census. Fayetteville is located south of downtown Atlanta. In 2015 ...

to begin the planning of a national association of churches. Four months later on March 11, 1997, the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America was founded in

Mesa, Arizona Mesa ( ) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, Maricopa County, in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is the most populous city in the East Valley (Phoenix metropolitan area), East Valley section of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. It is bordered by ...

. The union was founded in 1997 as the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America by 24 member churches from 14 states. In 2022, it is renamed Confessional Baptist Association.

Theology

The association's churches all subscribe to the '' 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith''. The association's General Assembly has noted that their adherence to this Confession means "the model for (association) churches is

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

and not one of a number of competing contemporary ones."

Theological training

ARBCA founded the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies (IRBS) at

Westminster Seminary California Westminster Seminary California is a Reformed tradition, Reformed and Presbyterianism, Presbyterian Christianity, Christian seminary in Escondido, California. It was initially a branch campus of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia un ...

which provides training for seminarians as part of studies toward a Master of Divinity degree program.

Missions

In 2000, ARBCA merged with the Reformed Baptist Mission Services (RBMS), a foreign missions organization. RBMS, though founded 12 years before the ARBCA, now acts as the foreign mission arm of the association. The association is recognized by the

U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

as an endorsing agency for United States

military chaplain A military chaplain ministers to military personnel and, in most cases, their families and civilians working for the military. In some cases they will also work with local civilians within a military area of operations. Although the term ''cha ...

References

External links

* {{Presbyterian and Reformed denominations in the United States Reformed Baptists denominations in North America Christian organizations established in 1997 Baptist denominations established in the 20th century Organizations based in Pennsylvania