NASHVILLE (BP) – “It’s working,” North American Mission Board (NAMB) President Kevin Ezell said of NAMB’s strategy for reaching North America with the Gospel. Since 2010, Southern Baptists have planted more than 8,200 churches. As Ezell shared that number, a map of North America depicted the success with dots representing where churches have been planted over the last decade. Those churches, Ezell said, make up nearly 17 percent of all churches across the Southern Baptist Convention. … [Read more...]
NAMB-IMB 2021 Send Conference registration open
ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Registration for the 2021 Send Conference is open. Jointly hosted by the International Mission Board (IMB) and the North American Mission Board (NAMB), the event will take place on June 13-14 in Nashville ahead of the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Annual Meeting. Separate registration is required for the Annual Meeting. Last year, Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference officers asked NAMB and IMB to plan and produce this year’s event. The decision … [Read more...]
Altered for pandemic, Crossover evangelism event will precede SBC annual meeting in Nashville
NASHVILLE (BP) – For more than 30 years, Southern Baptists have focused on working together to serve and reach those in the host city of the SBC annual meeting through an evangelism emphasis called Crossover. This year’s approach in Nashville will differ from previous years, but Southern Baptists are cooperating to help churches in Middle Tennessee minister to their communities. “Crossover will continue its legacy of pushing back spiritual darkness in the SBC host city, which is, this … [Read more...]
Southern Baptist response continues as record-breaking storm season persists
CENTRAL AMERICA (BP) – Hurricane Iota has sights set on Central America, making it the second major hurricane to hit the region following Hurricane Eta’s Nov. 3 landfall. Iota is the 13th hurricane and record-breaking 30th named storm during an historic 2020 hurricane season. Eta took the lives of dozens of people after generating landslides and flooding, and Iota arrived in northern Nicaragua Monday night (Nov. 16) as a category 4. The National Hurricane Center warned that the storm … [Read more...]
Annie Armstrong offering falls $20 million short of goal
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) – Southern Baptists gave a total of $49.3 million to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering (AAEO), the North American Mission Board announced, Oct. 5. The amount was $20 million short of the $70 million goal and fell below last year’s total of $61.4 million, perhaps because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “For the last three years in a row [2017-2019], Southern Baptists broke the record for giving to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering,” said NAMB president Kevin Ezell. “This … [Read more...]
Global Hunger Relief supports Southern Baptist hunger ministries worldwide
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) – As COVID-19 travels around the globe, it has created a food crisis for much of the developing world. Spread of the disease and the ensuing lockdowns affected supply chains as well as humanitarian support according to a report from WORLD Magazine. In South Asia, economic shutdowns hit day-laborers in the suburbs between major cities and rural towns especially hard. Most of their job opportunities – as drivers, construction workers and custodians – were put on hold, … [Read more...]
After finding new life, Missouri church will host NAMB Replant Summit
GREENWOOD (BP) – Ten years ago, after several years of decline, the future for a 175-year-old Southern Baptist church in Greenwood, seemed bleak. But a sister church in the area embraced the dwindling congregation and helped them recover their place in the community. In August, the reborn and growing church will host the North American Mission Board's Replant Summit to help others learn how to do the same. "The First Baptist Church of Greenwood has an incredible testimony," said Mark … [Read more...]
Southern Baptists donate 200,000+ masks, protective equipment items to medical workers
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) - As COVID-19 cases continue to increase in the United States, many medical facilities have faced shortages of masks and other protective gear. In response, Southern Baptists have donated more than 228,000 sets of protective equipment to hospitals and healthcare workers in different states. On Thursday (March 26), the U.S. surpassed China as the nation with the most confirmed cases of the virus. Southern Baptist donations include more than 172,000 N95 masks and … [Read more...]
NAMB church planting missionaries adjust to COVID-19 crisis
ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Eight months ago, Gregg Gober and his family arrived in New York City, ready to begin the process of launching a new church. Hope Community in Brooklyn had just started gaining momentum when the COVID-19 virus brought life in the city – and the world – to a halt. "We had just moved the church out of our apartment," Gober said. "We started renting space in an old synagogue. Last Wednesday (March 11), we had more people than we've ever had, and this was a momentum killer … [Read more...]
Tomorrow’s missionaries serving today through GenSend
SAN DIEGO — Southern California sounded like a vacation spot to Ebbie Davis at first, not a location for serious mission work. Besides, the seminary degree she was working on at the time focused on international church planting, not North America. But as she looked at an opportunity to serve in San Diego through the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) GenSend program, a friend asked some questions about what her time there would entail. “I said, I’d be working with a church plant … [Read more...]
Answering life’s questions for Mongolians in Denver
DENVER — Thousands of people move to North America every year, many coming from nations and regions that have historically been difficult to reach with the gospel. Mojic Baldandorj, a 2020 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering Week of Prayer missionary, immigrated to the United States specifically to revive Maranatha Mongolian Church in Denver and reach out to the large community of Mongolian immigrants who live there. “America is a big mission field,” Baldandorj said. “We can see so many … [Read more...]
Missionary steps into unknown — one hour from home
CINCINNATI—Kirk Kirkland felt a stirring in his soul to start a church in the inner city. For seven years, he served as an associate pastor at the Baptist church where he grew up in Dayton, Ohio. “We got the sense that maybe God was calling us out from this place of comfort,” Kirkland recalled, “where we lived just a couple of blocks from our church and we got paid every Friday—kind of living the American dream.” Every year during a missions conference, he would hear testimonies from … [Read more...]