SBC needs more gospel conversations, prayer, NAMB’s Ezell says

In updating Southern Baptists about how God has used the North American Mission Board (NAMB) over the past year, NAMB President Kevin Ezell said the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) needs a “gospel conversation resurgence” if declining baptism numbers are to turn around.

“If one member from each of our 47,000 churches shares the gospel each day, it would result in over 17 million gospel conversations in a year,” Ezell told messengers at the 2017 SBC annual meeting June 14 in Phoenix. “Can you imagine what would happen if Southern Baptists had that many gospel conversations?”

“NAMB will do its part” in this effort, Ezell assured, sharing how the Send Conference, co-presented by NAMB and the International Mission Board, challenges and equips believers to be on mission to share Jesus in everyday life. More than 8,000 have attended the conferences this year with another scheduled for July in Orlando, Florida.

In addition NAMB’s Three Circles Life Conversation Guide has more than 2 million copies in circulation and the phone app has been downloaded more than 93,000 times.

Shifting to how NAMB missionaries are evangelizing North America, Ezell said, “Church planting is evangelism.”

In 2016, Ezell said Southern Baptists started 732 new churches in North America with 232 new affiliations for a total of 964 new congregations.

“Your missionaries are reaching people for Christ,” Ezell said. “More gospel congregations will lead to more gospel conversations.”

Church plants also are growing the SBC footprint. In several state conventions, churches started since 2010 account for more than 20 percent of all SBC churches. In the Penn-South Jersey, Minnesota-Wisconsin and New York state conventions, 30 percent of all churches were started since 2010. One-third of all SBC churches in the New England convention are post-2010 plants and in Canada, it’s 47 percent.
But church planting begins with prayer, Ezell said.

“I want to urge you, and really beg you, to pray for our church planters,” he said as he introduced an intentional effort to involve every church and church member in planting through prayer support by registering at PrayForPlanters.com.

“You are the missionary-sending centers,” Ezell said. “You are the church-planting centers.” (BP)