"The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is term referring to both the denomination and its annual meeting of delegates, both at the national level and local levels. The SBC is the largest Baptist group, and the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, claiming 16 million members. According to the Religious Congregations Membership Study, the Convention had 15,922,039 members in 41,514 churches in the United States in 2000. Because Baptist churches believe strongly in the autonomy of the local church, the SBC is a cooperative organization by which churches can pool resources, rather than as a body with any administrative control over local churches. It maintains a central administrative organization based in Nashville, Tennessee, which has no authority over its affiliated state conventions, local associations, or individual churches or members. Its \"confession of faith\", the Baptist Faith and Message (2000 edition), is also not binding on churches or members (see \"SBC Beliefs\" below)."@en . . . "Southern Baptist Convention"@en . . "The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is term referring to both the denomination and its annual meeting of delegates, both at the national level and local levels. The SBC is the largest Baptist group, and the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, claiming 16 million members. According to the Religious Congregations Membership Study, the Convention had 15,922,039 members in 41,514 churches in the United States in 2000."@en .