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Christianity along with its three major branches (Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy) is one of the largest religions in the world. These branches are further divided into a number of denominations around the globe. Baptist is one such Christian denomination, which is the third largest in the world. Baptist churches follow the belief that in order for an individual to be baptized into Christianity one needs to be old enough to choose the faith they wish to follow, unlike many other denominations that have new born babies baptized into Christianity.

In the USA there are many different denominations of the Baptist church. The five major denominations in the country are the Southern Baptists, The American Baptists, the National Baptists, the Independent Baptists and the International Baptists. These churches stem from the fundamental belief which gives the various churches the power to choose to believe what they feel is right. Therefore various Baptists congregation s may have their own distinct own way of preaching the Gospel.

The Southern Baptists is the largest among the others. This group of Christians was different from the others in a way; during the time of the civil war the southern churches supported slavery whereas the northern churches were against it. This is the reason the Southern Baptists became a separate entity, apart from the other Baptist churches. Of the many Southern churches, the Bellevue Baptist church is one of the largest in the United States, located in the Memphis, Tennessee. It has been ranked among the fastest growing churches in America. It can be easily spotted on Interstate 40 as the church which is marked by a display of 3 huge crosses - the centre one a 150ft tall cross flanked by two 120 ft crosses on either side.

The first service was held in 1903 by Dr. Henry Hurt who had envisioned the church to be one of the greatest in Memphis. The church is known to have been under the guidance of many great pastors and leaders such as Pastor Robert G. Lee, Dr. Ramsey Pollard, Dr. Adrian Rogers. Pastor Robert Lee was famous for his remarkable sermon Pay-Day Someday. The sermon was preached for more than 1200 times. He was addressed as ‘one of the towering giants of the 20th century’ by Billy Graham who had been introduced by Lee to the church in 1951, San Francisco. He retired after serving for 32 years as pastor. Dr. Ramsey Pollard was awarded the top achievement awarded for evangelism by the Tennessee Baptist Convention in 1962. Under the guidance of Dr Adrian from the year 1972 to 2005 the church’s membership grew from 9000 to over 29000. He is known to have prayed personally with four of the US presidents. The church functions with a mission statement of “Love god. Love people. Share Jesus. Make disciples.” One can always visit the church to experience the warm and inspiring message shared by its congregation. They organize a number of prayer services throughout the world with a mission to spread the Gospel.

Ethan Mitchell is the author of this article on Bellevue Baptist.