ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Send Network’s efforts in 2024 underscored the important role new, gospel-focused churches play in reaching North America and the world.
“The early Church understood when God births a church, he has the nations on his heart,” Send Network President Vance Pitman said at the Send Network Gathering in Boston. “They weren’t focused on just growing a church. They embraced the plan of multiplying disciples and churches that the nations would know him.”
The two Send Network Gatherings, one in Long Beach, Calif., and the second in Boston, featured the theme “Multiplication for Movement” to reflect the need to multiply disciples and new churches to fulfill the Great Commission and reach the world.
Between the two events nearly 2,000 missionaries, pastors and other ministry leaders received training and encouragement, alongside a time of refreshment and fellowship.
The marquee events helped propel the church planting organization’s broader strategy to assist churches in raising up and sending out missionaries to engage communities, make disciples and start new churches.
Send Network carried out its broader strategy of mobilizing churches by launching its Mobilization Pathway. One step within that pathway are Send Network’s Sending Labs, and nearly 500 churches attended a lab in 2024. Those labs help churches develop a three-part multiplication strategy that centers on discipleship, ministry training and developing a church planting residency.
Earlier in the year, Send Network and the North American Mission Board (NAMB) announced that Southern Baptists had started 652 new churches over the prior year, marking more than 11,000 churches planted by Southern Baptists since 2010.
Highlighted within that number were Canada’s record 38 churches planted. From 1954 to 2010, there were just 250 churches planted there, but over the last 13 years, Canadian Baptists have planted 203 churches, according to Canadian Baptist National Convention Executive Director Jeff Christopherson.
“Our partnership with the North American Mission Board (NAMB)’s Send Network is a key factor in how the CNBC has become the fastest-growing denomination in Canada,” Christopherson said.
Send Network also hosted two orientations for new church planting missionaries, the first in April and a second in November. The events featured more than 370 church planting missionaries between them and represented more than 14 different language groups as planters from a variety of different ethnic backgrounds reach the nations in North America.
Send Network’s vision is to see God expand his kingdom by one percent in North America over the next decade, by reaching 2.75 million lost people.
“If we are going to see this vision happen,” Pitman told new church planters, “we’ve got to plant churches with a passion to multiply and reach nonbelievers.”
Send Network’s Global Vision Trips continued in 2024 as church planters embraced the opportunities to travel to several different locations around the world to engage with International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries. Those efforts continue bearing the fruit of “Kingdom collaboration” as planters recognize a need to encourage their people to think globally as a church from their inception.
Send Network announced in 2024 that Jose Abella would lead Send Network Español, an effort launched in early 2022 to expand church planting work among the Hispanic population, a demographic that has grown to nearly 20 percent of Americans.
“I love being a part of our network of churches to reach this ever-growing population,” Abella said. “It’s my joy to collaborate to that end together with NAMB and Send Network. It makes me proud to be part of our faith family.”
NAMB’s historic Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® reached a record high $74.7 million in 2024 in large part because of the role Send Network missionaries played in promoting the offering. NAMB featured Send Network church planting missionaries in Las Vegas, Florida and Philadelphia in 2024.
The offering represents collective funding from tens of thousands of churches and individuals whose gifts go directly to the mission field.
The updated NewChurches.com site launched in 2024. The site, which is powered by Send Network, is designed specifically for church planters and multipliers. Packed with articles, courses, and resources, NewChurches.com offers tools and content for every stage of church planting and encourages gospel-centered engagement in communities.
As part of its ongoing efforts to reach the various people groups in North America, Send Network hosted a group of more than 60 pastors, wives and ministry leaders during a three-day Arabic Church Planting Conference.
“This last year has been an exciting one for Send Network as we press on in our mission to help new churches multiply in North America and beyond,” said Noah Oldham, executive director of Send Network. “I’m eager to see how God continues to build this family of churches planting churches everywhere for everyone as we seek to expand his Kingdom by equipping and sending church planters to engage their cities, make disciples and plant new churches.”
Published December 11, 2024