NEW YORK CITY (BP) — North American Mission Board (NAMB) trustees approved the 2024-2025 budget and celebrated missionaries serving as church planters and in compassion ministry throughout the metro New York City (NYC) area as they gathered for meetings Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 7-8.

On Monday, trustees fanned out across the Big Apple, visiting church planting missionaries who are starting churches in key areas throughout the city’s five boroughs.

In Harlem, trustees met Luke Calvert who is planting Cultivate NYC church. As Calvert shared details about his church’s ministries and the people they are trying to reach, trustees prayed as they walked the perimeter of Morningside Park, a 30-acre public park that borders Columbia University on one side and neighborhoods on the other.

“We have been able to see more than 3,000 people engaged with the gospel in the last two years,” Calvert said. “That has resulted in 25 salvations and 16 baptisms.”

Calvert’s church has engaged the largest number of people through an annual Family Days event they host. The church also serves kids through a literacy program.

On Staten Island, trustees visited with Safwat Attia who is planting a church for Arabic speaking residents. In Manhattan, trustees met three additional church planters.

Monday evening, trustees gathered for dinner and heard from several missionaries who are ministering throughout metro New York City. NAMB President Kevin Ezell began the dinner by updating trustees on the Send Relief and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) efforts throughout the Southeast related to Hurricane Helene and describing the preparations underway for a response to Hurricane Milton in Florida.

Send Network President Vance Pitman led a panel discussion about church planting in New York City which featured James Roberson, who planted Bridge Church in Brooklyn in 2014. The panel also included John Welborn, Send Network director for New York, and Garrett Raburn, who launched Mission City Church in Brooklyn in 2021.

“What we didn’t realize was the greatly increased logistical work you have to do,” Raburn said. “That means everything — planning, administration, budget, expense, time, stress, everything. The only way it works is if you say New York is worth it and the gospel is worth it. That’s the only way the math is going to work for you.”

After a slow and difficult first few years, which included pre-launch work during the COVID-19 pandemic, Raburn shared that his church had recently baptized eight people in eight days.

Monday night’s dinner also included a panel featuring chaplaincy ministry and a recognition of Taylor Field, who is retiring after serving 38 years as a compassion ministry missionary in New York City.

Jonathan Jarboe, chairman of NAMB’s board of trustees, presided over Tuesday’s full board meeting. Trustee Frank Williams, who pastors Wake Eden Community Baptist Church in the Bronx, opened the meeting with a devotion out of 2 Timothy 1:8-12.

In his report to trustees, Ezell celebrated some of the milestones and progress NAMB has seen since 2010 but also emphasized that “now is the time to accelerate, not tap our brakes.”

“We are at a unique place,” Ezell said. “We are positioned for God to use us in incredible ways. I truly believe God is going to do something far greater than any one of us can accomplish. But we can see Him do it together.”

Earlier in the meeting trustees approved a $147 million budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, a $10 million increase over last year’s budget. They also heard reports from each of NAMB’s primary ministry areas:

• In evangelism, David Mills, a trustee from Georgia, reported that since October 2023, NAMB’s evangelism team has led in-person training for more than 17,448 pastors, church staff and church leaders.
• From Send Network, trustee John Jenkins from Alabama shared that this year Canada will plant more churches than ever before in the history of the Canadian Baptist Convention. Also, in the western United States, church plants are up 20% so far this year, compared to 2023.
• Trustee Brian Nall from Florida reported that Send Relief continues serving state Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers who are responding to the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene and will do the same after Hurricane Milton.
• Mississippi trustee Tommy Mitchell, who chairs NAMB’s Chaplaincy Commission, shared that in the first two quarters of the year chaplains have reported 55,662 gospel presentations, 8,529 professions of faith and 1,111 baptisms.

NAMB’s next trustee meeting is scheduled for Feb. 3-4, 2025.