The Southern Baptist Convention is taking steps to change its name. There are good reasons for doing so since the SBC has expanded well beyond its traditional stronghold in the southern United States.

Critics of the fundamentalist takeover of the denomination, like myself, could argue that the name Baptist no longer fits very well either. Current SBC leaders run roughshod over cherished historic Baptist principles of local church autonomy, priesthood of the believer, religious liberty, freedom of the press and the opportunity for individuals to dissent without being discarded.

The SBC is no longer marked by voluntary cooperation around missions, but by strict allegiance to an ever-narrowing orthodoxy and an irrational suspicion of — and often disdain for — all who fail to conform.

For years, these fundamentalist leaders harped that Southern Baptists lacked their strong commitment to spread the gospel. Now in power, these same leaders seem hell bent on destroying every effective mission partnership — from local Baptist associations to the worldwide fellowship of the Baptist World Alliance -- in an ongoing effort to purify the denomination.

Don’t believe it for a second when an SBC leader tells you missions and evangelism are the convention’s priorities. Control and conformity are their priorities, and the result is an immeasurable, negative impact on effective Christian witnesses from international settings to associational community ministries.

Though called the Southern Baptist Convention since its 1845 founding in Augusta, Ga., many name changes have occurred within the denomination. Some older Baptists have experienced B.Y.P.U., B.T.U., Church Training, Discipleship Training and more during a lifetime of Sunday nights.

The mission boards were reorganized and renamed several years ago. Soon the Annuity Board will become GuideStone Financial Resources in the same way the Baptist Sunday School Board became LifeWay Christian Resources to give the SBC publisher a shot at the larger evangelical market.

Name changes can help clarify one’s identity and mission. I made my own case for changing the geographically limited name of Southern Baptists years ago in an editorial titled, “When you move the team, change the name.”

Astute observers, however, will note that the recent proposal by SBC President Jack Graham is about something much larger than a new moniker. A Baptist Press release about Graham’s announcement said he was calling for a name change that would reflect the fact Southern Baptists are a nationwide and a worldwide body of believers.

Students of SBC life know well that Southern Baptists, by their own defining documents, are a U.S. body that relates to other Baptists of the world. The SBC has never had worldwide members.

Churches started by Southern Baptist missionaries are part of national bodies in those particular nations or regions of the world. And for nearly a century, the SBC has worked in voluntary partnership with a multiplicity of these Baptist fellowships through the Baptist World Alliance.

Graham’s claim that the one reason he has proposed the name change is to “strengthen and lengthen our witness here in America and around the world” signals a significant shift from the way Southern Baptists have functioned and related in the past.

With a broader name and a fist full of dollars pulled from the BWA, Graham and other SBC leaders seem poised to take a recruitment trip abroad. The divisiveness created within this American body over the past two and half decades is now being exported — first by the firing of veteran missionaries, then by the unfounded criticism of the BWA, and now by the apparent efforts to enlist Baptists from beyond the U.S. borders.

For many of the world’s Baptists, the power-hungry aggressiveness of SBC leaders will repel rather than attract. For others, the financial incentives will be very alluring. And a few might even share the SBC’s fundamentalist perspective.

Whatever the case, SBC leaders are looking at more than a mere name change. They want to grow their convention abroad.

So regardless of country or continent, you too can be warmly received into the ranks of Southern Baptists — or whatever brand name they choose. Just follow the simple three-step process Baptists on these shores have come to know in recent years.

Bury your Baptist principles, sign on the line and don’t ask questions.