Talk:National Missionary Baptist Convention of America

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Assessment comments The following comments were left by the assessors: (edit · refresh) The words convention and association are not words that are difficult to comprehend. For example the democratic and republican national conventions hold meetings to establish an agenda and elect leaders of their party. This organization does the same thing as do all such organizations that have a national or international presence. I would suggest that wikepedia use he dictionary link to help establish each work to these single words to help readers that have a very low or base line uderstanding or education and/or that have very little presence of knowledge.

I'm having difficulty establishing what this organization does, and it's relative importance. I find the text confusing primarily due to the near-total use of passive voice, and the large number of unqualified, general statements. The essential definition of the organization and it's purpose is unclear, and Google queries yield no help since the org's official website isn't operational, and the remainder of the <600 Google hits seem to involve only passing mentions of the NMBCA.

Much of the information in the article presumes an insider's level of knowledge and/or interest.

Ordinarily I would copyedit such an article, but there are too many unqualified statements here in order to rewrite with guaranteed accuracy.

[edit] Some examples of the problems within the text

1. "According to the 2002 National Missionary Baptist Convention of America Journal, there were 14 state conventions, 39 district associations, and 260 churches."
   • What's a convention? What's a district association? How do they relate to this organization?
2. "The National Missionary Baptist Convention of America is an association serving as a medium of cooperation and fellowship for African-American missionary Baptist churches."
   • What does this statement really mean? What is a "medium of cooperation and fellowship"?
3. "Membership is an estimated 80,000."
   • Individual people? Churches? Religious institutions? Who reckoned the estimate? When and on what bases?
4. "Ensuing elections led to frustration..."
   • ???
5. Handbook of Denominations
   • Which edition of this text did the author of the article consult?
6. "The Convention meets three times a year - In February (Winter Board Meeting), in June (Summer Board Meeting) and in September (Annual Session)."
   • The value of this kind of information in an encyclopedia article is questionable. Moreover, since readers don't know anything at all about these meetings (purpose, substance, the number and roles of the attendants/representatives, ostensible or stated goals, meeting/convention format, or anything else), why should even an interested reader care?

–Ringbang 15:56, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

I think you have done us a service to point out that the article could be confusing to those who do not already have at least some working knowledge of Baptists. With my limited knowledge of this particular group, I will hope the Convention will get its web site back online so some of these things can be consulted there.

1. "What's a convention? What's a district association? How do they relate to this organization?"
   • I'll try to add something. Perhaps extended explanations of Baptist polity would best be addressed in the Baptist article and simply linked to here. Almost all Baptists that organize on a national convention level have a similar organizational structure. Should we write that into every article on Baptist conventions? That would seem to get redundant.
2. "What is a 'medium of cooperation and fellowship'?"
   • In this case a "medium" would be "an agency by which something is accomplished" (American Heritage® Dictionary). Through it, the churches cooperate in missions, benevolence, and educational enterprises and fellowship with one another.
3. "Individual people? Churches? Religious institutions? Who reckoned the estimate? When and on what bases?"
   • This number would be members of all congregations cooperating with NMBCA. Some churches maintain membership in more than one of the National Baptist bodies. That, coupled with lack of communication, make true membership figures hard to come by.The number must have come from the Convention web site. It doesn't match either the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches number (2,500,000, which is very likely too high) or the Baptists Around the World number (200,000). http://www.thearda.com/test2/yearbook/D1456.html
4. "Ensuing elections led to frustration..."
   • ???
5. Handbook of Denominations "Which edition of this text did the author of the article consult?"
   • This group is mentioned in the 11th edition. I'll add that one.
6. "The Convention meets three times a year - In February (Winter Board Meeting), in June (Summer Board Meeting) and in September (Annual Session)." "The value of this kind of information in an encyclopedia article is questionable."
   • Being an information junky and a researcher of Baptists, I would find it at least interesting, if not valuable, to know they meet three times a year. Whether it meets "encyclopedic standards" might be a different question. That the board meetings are in February and June is probably more than anyone but an insider would need to know.

I'll think about this awhile, check the Convention website for possible future "working status", and try to make some edits on this article. Perhaps someone else will chime in as well. - Rlvaughn 01:29, 18 November 2005 (UTC)