ALPHARETTA, Ga. –- To reach North America with the gospel, churches need to raise up and send missionaries into cities, towns, and communities who will engage their neighbors with the gospel, make disciples, and start new churches. In 2025, dozens of Send Network One Day events sought to foster a movement of churches to zero in on that task.
“Thousands gathered for Send Network One Day events across North America,” said Send Network president Vance Pitman. “Entire churches caught the vision: the whole family for the whole mission. God stirred His people to join in His kingdom activity.”
For each gathering, local Send Network leadership planned the event and rallied local missionaries, churches, and fellow believers as they designed the events to inspire and equip attendees to join in God’s mission.
All told, 5,418 people attended 31 events spread throughout North America.
Send Network, the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) church planting arm, hosted these events primarily in churches, with First Baptist Church of Alpharetta serving as the location in the Atlanta area.
Send Network Georgia director Ryan McCammack spoke to the need for churches and believers to work together—to cooperate—for the sake of the mission by following along with Paul’s missionary endeavors in the Bible.
“When we cooperate together, when all of us link our arms…we can do so much together,” McCammack said after describing how the churches who invested in the church he planted, Gospel Hope Church in Atlanta, were about to become “spiritual great-grandparents.” A church Gospel Hope helped to plant was preparing to start yet another new church.
“Part of what drove Paul to cooperate was his understanding that our mission is to make Christ known everywhere,” said McCammack. “Feel the weight of that word: everywhere. Make disciples of all nations.”
“Our mission is vast,” McCammack later said in his message. “And no single church and no single individual can possibly tackle it alone. We can’t fight that battle on our own. We are not able to do that. If we’re going to make a dent in the darkness, it will take all of us. There is no shortage of work to do.”
James Summerlin, pastor of Charleston Baptist Church in Charleston, Illinois, attended the Send Network One Day event in Chicago.
“Every time we’ve attended a NAMB event, we’ve walked away renewed and refreshed,” Summerlin said. “This network keeps the focus on planting churches and advancing the Kingdom of God, and we’ve felt that passion from the very beginning.”
Pitman attended or spoke at several of the events, including the one at First Baptist Alpharetta. He addressed the centrality of mission in the narrative of Scripture and the need to make it central in the life of the local church.
“Mission is not what we do for God. Mission is what God is doing. It’s the whole metanarrative of Scripture,” said Pitman. “From Genesis to Revelation, we read the story that God is on a mission, redeeming a people to Himself.”
“We’re living in the greatest days in the history of Christianity to be alive,” he continued. “There are more people coming to faith today on a daily basis around the world than at any other moment in human history.”
God invites individuals and churches to be a part of that mission even though he does not need us, Pitman said.
David Manner, executive director of the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists, attended Send Network’s One Day event in Kansas City. Attendees came from several different states, Manner said, and the “localized approach reminded our Kansas and Nebraska leaders that we are more effective when we partner across state convention borders.”
“Since Kansas City is divided by the Kansas and Missouri state line, Send Kansas City already models this united effort,” Manner continued. “So, those leaders from outside metro-Kansas City—representing Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, and Iowa—also caught the vision of partnering together to multiply disciples and churches for God’s Kingdom.”
Looking ahead to 2026, Send Network will be hosting another series of One Day events throughout the year across North America.
“Church planting isn’t just one method among many,” Pitman said, looking ahead to next year. “It is the missionary strategy modeled by Jesus, commanded in the Great Commission, and carried out in the Book of Acts. It’s the pattern we return to again and again.”
Send Network One Days provide an opportunity for leaders, missionaries, and churches to worship, pray, and be equipped to join in that mission, Pitman said.
There will be 30 Send Network One Days in 2026. To learn more and register for the Spring 2026 One Day events, visit www.sendnetwork.com/oneday. The Fall 2026 One Day events will be available to register in early 2026.
Published December 15, 2025