HANNIBAL – SEND Missouri of the North American Mission Board (NAMB) is meeting with pastors and seeking church planters for new Southern Baptist work in the state.
Jason Zellmer, Director of SEND Missouri, met with more than a dozen pastors and church officials in Hannibal, Dec. 15. Several future church plant sites were identified and updates were given on several other plants in progress.
“There is a shortage of church planters for the amount of churches we need to plant. We need hundreds in North America,” Zellmer said. “We have to raise them up in our churches.”
Zellmer said the goal is to plant 600 new North American churches in the coming years. Since 2010, more than 8,200 churches have been planted in North America.
SEND Missouri is getting the word out at various conferences across the state.
At the Hannibal conference, they also announced four new statewide training centers to be held at churches and association buildings in Hannibal, Columbia, Cape Girardeau and Springfield. These are in addition to Send Network programs in St. Louis and Kansas City. Tentative dates for the quarterly SEND meetings are Feb. 22 in Springfield, May 24 in Columbia, Aug. 23 in Cape Girardeau, and Nov. 29 in Hannibal.
A SEND network gathering is this spring in St. Louis. A church planting retreat is Sept. 15-17 in Winfield.
Residency builders events, to teach how to set up residence programs in the churches will also be held in 2022, with one in Kansas City in January. The plan is to have a total of six residency builders conferences.
“We don’t plant churches. Churches plant churches,” Zellmer said, adding that pastors and church leaders are invited to participate in the events.
Zellmer also pastors Redemption Road Baptist Church in Winfield.
For more information on SEND Missouri, contact Zelmer at jzellmer@namb.net or go to the website: sendnetworkmissouri.org.