Fifteen years ago, Southern Baptists rallied around a simple, biblical conviction: we must send. Out of the Great Commission Resurgence emerged a fresh strategy – Send North America (now called Send Network) – to help churches plant evangelistic, Bible-anchored congregations in the places of greatest need.
I remember those early days well. Our church launched in late 2009; and though I didn’t have an SBC background, we affiliated with the SBC for two reasons that still ring true: the Cooperative Program, and the SBC’s renewed commitment to historic, conservative doctrine. That recommitment set the stage for a decade and a half of united, cooperative mission.
Planting in a culture we barely recognize – and still seeing fruit
No one needs convincing that ministry soil has grown harder. Secularization has accelerated in cities, suburbs and rural communities; moral norms have shifted; trust in institutions has declined. Over the last 15 years, our nation has witnessed the legalization of same-sex marriage, the prominence of LGBTQ+ debates, the sexual abuse crisis, a worldwide pandemic, enflamed racial tensions and an unrelenting spotlight on abuse and accountability across religious life.
Most denominations have declined in this climate. And still, Southern Baptists kept planting. The encouragement we find in our persistence is not anecdotal.
Across North America, newer churches are disproportionately reaching people. Recent analyses of SBC Annual Church Profile data by Lifeway Research show that congregations founded since 2000 are the most likely to be growing, and the regions most likely to see growth in the past five years are the Northeast and the West – precisely where Southern Baptists have concentrated church-planting energy.
Our family continued to plant where lostness is high, and since 2010, Southern Baptists have started more than 11,000 new churches. In 2023 alone, churches planted 652 new congregations, and 61 percent of those identified as minority- or multi-ethnic – an honest snapshot of the mission field we’re reaching.
In 2024, Southern Baptists added 964 total new congregations, including 767 church plants – an increase of nearly 18 percent year over year (see Baptist Press and the NAMB Annual Ministry Report). In Canada, the Canadian National Baptist Convention celebrated a record 38 new plants in 2023 and another record in 2024 with 55 plants (See NAMB 2024 in Review).
Evangelistically, new churches are shouldering a significant load – especially outside the South. In the most recent year with available data, nearly a third – 29 percent – of all reported baptisms in states outside the South came from churches started since 2010.
We’re also seeing the diversity of the harvest reflected in our Send Network Orientations. New planters each year represent multiple language groups and a wide variety of contexts – evidence that we are seeking to reach the nations now represented in our neighborhoods, as God sends laborers into every kind of community.
Our aim is not merely to start services; it’s to start disciple-making, multiplying churches that bear fruit long after the launch team has finished its work. To that end, we’ve invested deeply in assessment, training, coaching and care – contributing to a four-year survivability rate that has risen to nearly 90 percent in recent reporting (NAMB Annual Ministry Report).
Where would we be without these plants?
If you subtract the last 15 years of planting from the map, the picture looks markedly different – especially outside the South. Newer congregations are contributing outsized shares of baptisms and growth in places historically thin with Gospel presence. In other words, the data tell a hopeful truth: evangelistic, multiplying churches in hard places are bearing fruit (see Lifeway analysis and NAMB Annual Ministry Report).
Are there headwinds? Absolutely. Culture is complicated; institutions – churches included – must constantly earn trust through integrity, transparency and care. But there are also signs of spiritual momentum: rising baptisms and record generosity for missions and new congregations being born in neighborhoods where Christ is not yet known. The work is hard, and the Lord is at work.
Fellow Southern Baptists, I’m grateful – to God first, and to the faithful people of the SBC whose generosity and grit have kept “send” at the heart of who we are. I’m also hopeful. Hard soil does not intimidate the Lord of the harvest. Over these 15 years, we have planted amid cultural upheaval, shifting moral norms and rising secularism. And still, Jesus is building His church.
So, let’s keep doing what Southern Baptists do best when we’re at our best: seek first the kingdom, stick together as a family and think multiplication. The fields are ready. The moment is urgent. And the story God is writing through a sending people is far from finished.
Published November 21, 2025