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NAMB year in review: Continued growth in baptisms, church planting stand out as Southern Baptists highlights for 2025

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ALPHARETTA, Ga. –- For the fourth consecutive year, 2025 saw Southern Baptists increase baptisms and plant at least 600 new churches while surpassing $70 million given to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering (AAEO) for the third consecutive year to support the worth of North American missionaries.

“The last decade has included plenty of challenging times, but I have been encouraged to see Southern Baptists rally around the mission of reaching North America with the gospel,” said North American Mission Board (NAMB) president Kevin Ezell. “NAMB exists to support pastors and churches as they equip their people to reach their communities through evangelism, church planting, and compassion ministry.”

Evangelism

Once the Annual Church Profile data came in for 2024, Southern Baptists had baptized 250,000 people, a number not reached since they baptized 254,000 in 2017. From 2021 to 2024, Southern Baptists witnessed year-over-year increases in baptisms four for the first time in decades as churches continue their efforts since the 2020 pandemic low.

Nills Recinos, a member of First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, prays over a couple who recently began attending the church. The couple responded to a Gospel invitation during a block party hosted in Exall Park by the English- and Spanish-speaking congregations of First Baptist Church. The event was part of Crossover 2025, an evangelistic outreach held June 2-8 ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. (Photo by Luc Stringer)

The greatest percentage increases were in Wyoming at 64 percent, Arizona at 42 percent increase, New York at 38 percent, and Indiana at a 36 percent increase.

NAMB’s evangelism team hosted dozens of regional trainings for pastors and leaders on how to create a culture of evangelism in their churches and ministries to continue building on the momentum. The team also conducted trainings for next gen leaders and women’s ministry leaders.

Throughout the year, NAMB’s evangelism team welcomed pastors and other ministry leaders, along with their wives, to Refresh Retreats. The primary goal of the retreats is to provide a place of rest and rejuvenation that equips them to return to their church renewed for the task of reaching their communities.

Crossover’s outreach events held by Dallas churches ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting led to 711 decisions for Christ as 89 churches participated with nearly 3,000 volunteers serving to reach neighborhoods in and around the Dallas metro area.

Church Planting – Send Network

The ‘Class of 2024’ church plants totaled 767 church starts, including 83 replants. The number was an 18 percent increase over 2023’s church planting totals and marked four consecutive years of at least 600 new churches planted by Southern Baptists.

Send Network, NAMB’s church planting arm, introduced One Day events to equip more individuals and churches to enter the mission field and develop strategies to become multiplying churches. More than 5,400 people attended 31 regional events hosted throughout the United States.

217 newly endorsed church planters gathered at Send Network Orientation at the North American Mission Board (NAMB) building in Alpharetta, Ga., last week. The diverse group represented 182 Sending Churches, 8 different languages, 30 U.S. states, and 4 Canadian provinces. (NAMB photo)

The theme focused on encouraging the “whole family for the whole mission” since all kinds of churches and missionaries are needed to reach the vast population of North America.

NAMB also established a new Send Network partnership with the Baptist Convention of New York.

In New England, reports underscored an increase in Southern Baptist presence since 2018. Southern Baptist’s missions effort through Send Network and the local partners in the region highlighted the ways cooperation fuels mission impact.

Compassion Ministry – Send Relief

Southern Baptists recognized the 20-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The historic storm mobilized thousands of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) volunteers and galvanized SBDR as one of the top three volunteer disaster relief organizations in the United States.

Send Relief supported SBDR’s efforts in Appalachia one year after Hurricane Helene’s 2024 left devastation across the Southeast that culminated in monumental flooding in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee. North Carolina and Tennessee Baptists facilitated the rebuilding of hundreds of homes in the region.

The year began with major wildfires in and around Los Angeles, and California Baptists ministered to survivors alongside Send Relief and the local churches in the area.

The United States missed a major hurricane landfall. SBDR volunteers focused primarily on recovery work from 2024’s hurricanes, flooding in Texas, wildfires in the West, and other local disasters. Volunteers served more than 414,000 hours, served more than 233,000 meals, and witnessed more than 1,535 professions of faith in 2025.

Send Relief Journeymen works a patio project at Overland Church in Fort Collins, Colo., during the Send Relief Serve Tour. (Send Relief photo by Rob Witzel)

Outside of compassion ministry, the Send Relief Serve Tour continued in 2025 with five stops in North America and two international trips. In North America, Serve Tour visited San Diego, Virginia Beach, Va., Evansville, Ind., Columbia, S.C., and Fort Collins, Colo.

More than 3,800 volunteers from nearly 300 churches served more than 20,000 people. They shared the gospel more than 6,300 times.

Read more about Send Relief’s year in review, read this story.

Chaplaincy

The United States Army chaplaincy celebrated 250 years of existence in 2025, and as the largest Protestant endorsing agency for military chaplains, NAMB honored the sacrifices chaplains have made through the years to minister to soldiers in and outside of combat zones.

Every year, chaplains, both in the military and in other vocational settings, see thousands of people profess faith in Christ, and two Southern Baptist chaplains stepped into the top roles in the U.S. Air Force as Chief of Chaplains and Deputy Chief of Chaplains.

Retired U.S. Army Major General Doug Carver, NAMB’s executive director of chaplaincy, addressed the SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas, and his team equipped chaplains during their annual reception as well as at training events throughout the world.

Other NAMB Highlights

NAMB’s Luncheon during the SBC Pastors Conference in Dallas featured worship from Steven Curtis Chapman, entertainment from comedian Michael Jr., and the surprise blessing of a family whose children were diagnosed with a rare genetic condition that limits their life expectancy.

The Replant team at NAMB honored pastor Jason Mayo of Southern California as their Replanter of the Year. Through an event for associational leaders, they also debuted new resources designed to assist associations who are striving to see renewal come to their churches.

During a February meeting of NAMB’s trustees, Ezell shared a quote from Annie Armstrong that served as a challenge to Southern Baptists for 2025 and beyond:

“The future lies all before us,” Ezell quoted Armstrong. “Shall it only be a slight advance upon what we usually do? Ought it not to be a bound, a leap forward, to altitudes of endeavor and success undreamed of before?”

“I’m thankful we are where we are,” Ezell said to the trustees. “But it’s time to do more. We must do more.”

Link to this story once it’s ready to go.

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