CARY, N.C. – The North American Mission Board (NAMB) and N.C. Baptists announced a new church planting partnership in the state, known as SendNC, on Tuesday, Sept. 27.
In 2014, North Carolina ranked in the top-ten most religious states in the U.S., but even then, the metrics utilized to measure religiosity were down from seven years prior. If the state has trended with the rest of the nation, then those numbers continued trailing slowly downward.
A key avenue N.C. Baptists see in reversing that trend is to energize churches to plant more churches throughout the state.
“This partnership allows us to more than double our church planting efforts and allows churches of all sizes to be obedient to the Great Commission in planting churches,” said Todd Unzicker, executive director of N.C. Baptists.
“N.C. Baptists always want to do what is best for missionaries and church planters in order that more people come to Christ,” Unzicker said. “The SendNC partnership makes that a reality and in essence turns every city, town and hill in North Carolina into a Send City.”
The best way to reach communities without a gospel witness is to send missionaries into those areas with a focus on evangelism and discipleship that leads to a new church being planted. In the New Testament, the model is local churches sending out disciples who in turn make disciples and launch new churches.
“The church is God’s plan A for reaching a lost and dying world,” Unzicker said. “And SendNC gives N.C. Baptists the best vehicle to plant more churches to see God’s kingdom come to North Carolina as it is in heaven.”
The partnership combines the best of N.C. Baptists’ existing church planting leadership and their relationships with Send Network’s church planter development pathway, said Unzicker. Send Network, NAMB’s church planting arm, has honed its strategy for coaching, training and providing care for church planters, helping to increase the longevity and sustainability of new churches planted by Southern Baptists.
“This is an exciting day as the partnership between NC Baptists and Send Network goes to the next level,” said Send Network President Vance Pitman. “I look forward to working together to see more churches planting churches in North Carolina with a heart for the nations.”
SendNC is one of 25 such partnerships Send Network has with state conventions and local associations across North America, as Southern Baptists cooperate together for the sake of the Great Commission.
“’On Mission Together’ is not just the N.C. Baptists’ slogan,” Unzicker said. “We live out what it means to be sent together when we join with other Baptists across North America to see the gospel go to all peoples.”
Published September 27, 2022