Joe Conway

NASHVILLE (BP) -- The 22 students from The Church at Lifepark had no idea they would be the first of thousands. Student minister Paul Coleman registered his Mount Pleasant, S.C., group for the 2015 Send North America Conference when online reservations opened last year. More than 13,000 people have followed their lead. The conference, to be hosted at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena, Aug. 3-4, is sponsored by the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell shared highlights of a year of ministry expansion and introduced what he called "NAMB Phase II" to messengers in Wednesday morning's (June 17) session at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. "I want to thank Southern Baptists for their generous and sacrificial support for the Cooperative Program and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering," Ezell said. "Thanks to the leadership of our pastors and the generosity of our congregations, the Annie offering was up 2 percent this past year.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- "What if?" That was the question posed to more than 2,600 attendees of the June 15 Send North America Luncheon at the SBC Pastors' Conference in the Greater Columbus Convention Center, host to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. The event promised a glimpse into the future of missions in the SBC from the presidents of the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board.

SAN DIEGO (BP) -- Openness -- to the Gospel, to people, to change, to God's leading -- has helped Victor Schloss find confidence in God's calling on his life. The 31-year-old church planter serves San Diego as city missionary for the North American Mission Board's Send North America focus. At the heart of Schloss' ministry is a passion to see broken lives reconciled. Experiencing brokenness in his own life, and witnessing it in others during his former career as a sheriff's deputy, helped Schloss follow his call to church planting.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) -- The Send North America Conference has gained a major partner for the Aug. 3-4 sessions at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena. North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell has announced that the International Mission Board is partnering with NAMB to make the Send North America Conference fully comprehensive in missions scope.

BOSTON, Mass. (BP) -- The fall tour of the North American Mission Board's Send North America Experience debuted Sept. 8 at Tremont Temple Baptist Church. More than 1,100 attenders lined up around the block passing the final resting place of Paul Revere and dozens of other patriot's headstones on their way to hear a message from David Platt, worship with the Passion Band and learn more about living life on mission. Aaron Coe, NAMB's vice president for mobilization and marketing, recounted that D.L. Moody, Billy Sunday and Billy Graham have preached in senior pastor Denton Lotz's pulpit in Boston, Mass. He is one in a line of prominent preachers who've led the nation's first integrated congregation. Coe hinted that history is not finished with Tremont. "A group of ordinary Baptist men felt called by God to build a church that did not charge for pews [a custom common in colonial America]," Coe said. "They believed that every life on mission matters. We believe that every life on mission matters. It is time for the church to stop making excuses and take action." Coe led the gathering, made up of many Bostonians, and scores of people from around the northeast, to pray for the city, its leaders and for Jesus to be known in the region. One of those Bostonians was Drew Dolan, a mechanical engineering student at Northeastern University. He was there with fiancée Amada Bringhurst to hear Platt and "explore what God is doing here in Boston and see how we can be a part." Platt, newly elected president of the International Mission Board, reminded the ethnically diverse gathering not to underestimate the power of God's Spirit. "I want to encourage you and exhort you that God has placed you here for a reason," said Platt, who remarked that some eight out of 10 residents of the northeast do not have a relationship with Christ. "What will you do with your moment? "Don't underestimate what God can do with ordinary people. God uses ordinary people with extraordinary power from the Spirit of God to accomplish His purposes. Every Christian has been commissioned to preach the Gospel and empowered to share the truth. And never dilute the essence of the Gospel," Platt, who used the example of the church founded at Antioch by ordinary followers of Christ [Acts 19:11], said. "Every major move of the Spirit of God is the result of prayer for the power of God," he noted. "Do not let prayer be a supplemental part of your life or your church. Prayer must be a fundamental part of your life and your church." The event, one of more than 20 scheduled across the U.S. and Canada, is a prelude to NAMB's Send North America Conference, Aug. 3-4, 2015, in Nashville. The Boston attenders also provided an offering of more than $6,000 to help fund a Boston church plant. Boston is one of 32 Send North America cities where a concentrated focus on church planting is part of the Send North America strategy. It is a strategy that resonates with Boston tour stop participant Cameron Liner. "We all moved here from Oklahoma to be a part of what God is doing in Boston," Liner, speaking of his wife and friends, said. "Tonight was a great reminder that we have to continue to follow God in obedience. If you know you need to do something, you need to do it." Liner is a member of Charles River Church, planted by Curtis Cook. Cook and his team were hosts for the Boston tour stop. Cook also serves as city coordinator for Send North America: Boston. Coe told the gathering that one goal of the tour stop was to encourage believers and remind them they are not alone.

A task force designed to address declining baptisms among Southern Baptist churches released its full report on May 12.

WARREN, Mich. (BP) -- Massive flooding in Michigan affecting tens of thousands of homes and businesses has opened the door for ministry by Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) volunteers.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) -- Many church planters -- Dhati Lewis and D.A. Horton among them -- define urban as the meeting place of diversity and density. Both men are urban church planters and have been described as practical missiologists. "I have a passion for urbanization -- it needs to change the evangelical landscape," Lewis, director of Send North America's Rebuild Initiative with the North American Mission Board, said. "You can't talk about urbanization without talking about globalization and how it affects the church." As an example of urban trends, USA Today reported that in 2013 public transit use in the United States rose to its highest level in a half century. Since 1995 the number of people who ride on buses, trains and subways is up 37 percent, surpassing the population increase of 20 percent over that same timeframe. In most cities, Lewis noted, people will find a shift in urban communities toward wealthier residents, businesses, and an increase in property values. "In Atlanta they moved to decentralize poverty by eliminating concentrated low-income housing, dispersing people as much as possible," he said. A trend of more people living in poverty in rural and suburban areas than in cities began in 2006 and continues. Lewis cites an Aug. 9, 2013, article in USA Today reporting on a study by The Brookings Institution on suburban poverty and how its rise impacts the political, social and economic landscapes. There is a redistribution of the poor taking place, he noted. According to the Brookings report, during the last decade "major metropolitan suburbs became home to the largest and fastest-growing poor population" centers in the United States. Tapping U.S. Census data and the American Community Survey five-year estimates from 2007 to 2011, the study found poverty increased in the vast majority of congressional districts during the 2000s. Poverty grew in 388 of the 435 districts. Many of these included portions of the "suburbs within the largest 100 U.S. metropolitan areas." Rebuilding When Lewis isn't leading Send North America's Rebuild, an effort to help urban churches create systems for healthy discipleship, he pastors the inner-city congregation, Blueprint Church.

BOULDER, Colo. (BP) -- Travis Kunckel had no idea his selection of a temporary base of operation for his consulting business would lead to the proprietor's spiritual transformation. The same is true for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers who played a role in her baptism.