STATESBORO, Ga. — W. Thomas Hammond, Jr., executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board (GBMB), and Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board (NAMB), announced a new partnership Sunday night with the aim of planting more churches in Georgia. The signing was held at First Baptist Statesboro at an inspirational service Sunday on the eve of the annual meeting of the Georgia Baptist Convention.
Hammond told Georgia Baptists that partnerships are essential to reaching the lost with the gospel. He referenced Phil. 1:4-5 in telling the assembly that “we partner together for the gospel.”
He expressed concern for churches that he described as pulling out and pulling away. “We’re going to need each other more,” he said, “until Jesus comes back.”
After describing the ways Georgia Baptists have succeeded in partnering together — including baptisms, higher education, and GBMB-sponsored church camps — Hammond mentioned one area where Georgia Baptists need to improve: church planting.
Our state, he explained, is growing rapidly with 200,000 more people calling Georgia home in 2022, and the expectation is that number will only increase. “The reality,” he explained, “is that we’re going to need to plant more churches.”
To that end, he said, the GBMB entered into a partnership with NAMB. That partnership is necessary, he expressed, because, “They know how to plant churches. They know how to do the assessments, and how to do training, and how to do the necessary equipping and mentoring and coaching. and what we have are the churches that say, ‘We want to plant churches in Georgia.’”
Hammond called Ezell to the stage to share his thoughts on the church-planting opportunities in the state. “The key thing is we’re doing this together,” Ezell said, “and we can celebrate new churches, together.”
Ezell continued, “NAMB does not plant churches, churches plant churches.” He then laid out the three steps to planting a church: engaging the city, making disciples, and planting a church.
“We could not be more excited to be partnering with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board to see more people reached for the gospel,” Ezell said, and we think the best evangelistic strategy is planting churches.”
Hammond and Ezell signed a formal agreement that specified what each organization would contribute to the partnership. The document lays out “the things that NAMB will do, and we can count on them for,” Hammond said, as well as “the things that the Georgia Baptist Mission Board and the Georgia Baptist Convention will do, and NAMB can count on us to do.”
Hammond concluded, “There is a partnership here that I pray will continue until Jesus comes back.
Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared at The Christian Index.
Published November 11, 2024