Bryant Wright, (center) president of Send Relief — Southern Baptists’ compassion and crisis response ministry — visited Valdosta, Ga., to encourage pastors, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) volunteers and residents who had been impacted by Hurricane Helene.
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) — A banner year for church planting in Canada, a third straight increase in baptisms and another record year for giving to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering featured prominently in the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) ministry in 2024.
Southern Baptists contributed $74.7 million for the Annie offering, setting a record in seven of the last eight years. NAMB and the International Mission Board (IMB) jointly announced record highs for their annual offerings, with $206.8 million given to the IMB’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
Send Network — Church Planting
When NAMB announced the total number of churches Southern Baptists planted in 2023, the count of 652 new churches pushed Southern Baptists beyond 11,000 churches planted since 2010.
For the Canadian National Baptist Convention (CNBC) 2023 was also a milestone year in church planting with the 38 churches planted setting a record for churches planted in Canada in a single year. NAMB president Kevin Ezell featured those gains in church planting during NAMB’s presentation at the 2024 SBC annual meeting.
CNBC executive director Jeff Christopherson pointed out that from 1954 to 2010, there were 250 churches planted, but over the last 13 years, Canadian Baptists have planted 203 churches.
“Our partnership with the North American Mission Board’s Send Network is a key factor in how the CNBC has become the fastest growing denomination in Canada,” Christopherson said.
Other church planting highlights included more than 370 new church planting missionaries attending one of two Send Network Orientations held in April or November. More than a dozen languages were represented at the events.
Send Network also hosted two major gatherings for church planters, pastors, and other ministry leaders for a combined attendance at the two events, one in Long Beach, Calif., and another in Boston, of nearly 2,000 people.
Evangelism
Lifeway reported that in 2023, Southern Baptist churches saw an increase of 26 percent in baptisms, and NAMB recognized several of the Southern Baptist state convention executive directors during the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting in Indianapolis to underscore the tireless work they do to encourage pastors and churches to focus on the task of evangelism.
Every year, NAMB hosts Crossover, an outreach event hosted in the location of each year’s SBC annual meeting. Working with the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana, local associations and churches, Southern Baptists visited more than 9,000 homes and shared the gospel with more than 5,300 people, which resulted in 185 people making professions of faith in Christ.
NAMB’s evangelism team traveled throughout North America to conduct evangelism trainings based on NAMB’s Evangelism Kit, which assists ministry leaders with creating a culture of evangelism in their church or ministry. Throughout 2024, the evangelism team trained more than 17,000 pastors and other ministry leaders.
The evangelism team also led training events for youth leaders and collegiate leaders, as well as a new conference dedicated to women’s evangelism. NAMB’s Refresh Retreats culminated in an event in Puerto Rico that saw an historic participation rate for pastors and ministry leaders on the island.
Send Relief — Compassion Ministry
Hurricanes Helene and Milton pounded the Southeast in 2024 and Send Relief supported the efforts of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) as hundreds of trained volunteers and churches engaged in crisis response. SBDR prepared more than 1 million meals, assisted more than 5,500 families with recovery work and saw more than 200 professions of faith across more than 40 response sites.
The Send Relief Serve Tour kicked off in Augusta, Ga., and sparked a series of tour stops in North America — Dallas, the West Virginia coalfields, Flint, Mich., and Brownsville, Texas. Send Relief mobilized 2,800 volunteers who served more than 13,000 people through various projects and more than 220 people gave their lives to Christ.
During its Send Luncheon at the SBC annual meeting, NAMB highlighted fostering and adoptive families by providing financial assistance to those in the midst of the adoption process, and Send Relief hosted a breakfast to champion support for refugee ministry.
Chaplaincy
More than 3,300 Southern Baptist chaplains were hard at work in 2024 and NAMB’s chaplaincy team reported on their 2023 efforts as chaplains — ranging from members of the Armed Services to those ministering to public service men and women, those in hospitals and those in prison — shared the gospel more than 95,000 times and saw more than 18,400 people profess Christ in 2023.
NAMB, which serves as their endorsing agency, honored those chaplains during the SBC annual meeting at a chaplains luncheon and during NAMB’s presentation to the SBC as Doug Carver, NAMB’s executive director of chaplaincy and a retired Major General in the U.S. Army, opened the SBC annual meeting.
Replanting, Associational Ministry, Resources and Trustees
NAMB’s church replanting efforts continued as Mark Clifton’s team recognized its annual “Replanter of the Year,” Troy Gause in New Orleans. Clifton’s team served leaders of normative-sized churches during a luncheon at the SBC annual meeting as they continue to focus on rural churches and others struggling to keep their doors open.
Hundreds of associational mission strategists (AMS) gathered in Alpharetta to be part of the AMS Excellence Summit where attendees received training and heard from SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg and SBC President Clint Pressley via a video call.
The resources team produced a new podcast called Equipping Pastors with Ken Whitten, NAMB’s national director of pastoral leadership, released a special episode of “The Dying Church Planter,” revamped NewChurches.com, a site powered by Send Network and created resources that encourage churches to start church-based schools.
GenSend, NAMB’s summer-long missions experience for college students, wrapped up its 11th year with more than 350 students reporting nearly 4,500 gospel conversations during their summer.
NAMB and IMB came together in early 2024 to launch the Diaspora Missions Collective as a ministry that seeks to enhance Southern Baptist missions efforts among refugees and internationals in North America and around the world.
NAMB’s trustees gathered three times in person as part of their responsibility to help steward NAMB’s ministries for Southern Baptists, meeting in Puerto Rico, Atlanta and New York City.
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Brandon Elrod writes for the North American Mission Board.)
