SBC Life Articles by Kevin Ezell

As racial tensions and rioting spilled out into the streets of Baltimore last month, Southern Baptist church planters were among the first to offer help and hope to those around them, says Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board. Ezell shares about one of those pastors, Michael Crawford of Baltimore's Freedom Church.

A new church plant's success story is a reminder of the Gospel's power, writes North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell. In the church's first year, Mosaic Church of Lloydminster in Alberta, Canada, has seen more than 200 people come to faith in Jesus -- 44 of those new believers have been baptized.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) -- Recently the North American Mission Board shared good news that Southern Baptist church plants were up 5 percent in 2014. We still have a lot of catching up to do because our church planting efforts lost pace with population growth decades ago, but hopefully last year's increase will begin a new trend. In addition to starting more churches, we must pay close attention to the health of these new congregations. Do they have staying power? Are they reaching people for Christ? Do they give to missions causes? In short, are they having an impact? We cannot and will not sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) -- If you watch Major League Baseball in March, you'll see players you've never heard of on the diamond. That's what spring training is all about -- young players from a team's farm system showing what they can do against major league talent. The farm system plays a critical part in building a winning team. At the North American Mission Board (NAMB) we also believe in the important role a farm system plays in fulfilling our mission to help Southern Baptists start evangelistic churches. That's why we've designed a developmental pathway -- centered around the local church -- for the church planters of tomorrow. And here's the good news -- just a few years into this effort we are already seeing great fruit.

ALPHARETTA, Ga., (BP) -- Southern Baptists planted 985 new churches in 2014 -- a 5 percent increase over 2013 church starts. This is very good news as we work toward diminishing the church-to-population deficit that steadily grew larger over the last century in the United States and Canada. It is also good because new churches, on average, reach people for Christ at a higher rate than existing churches. These are churches like Mosaic in Alberta, Canada. They launched on Easter 2014 and have already seen 200 people give their lives to Christ, with 40 of them being baptized. They started giving to the Cooperative Program shortly after they launched.

Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board, shares reasons why gifts to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions make a difference.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) -- As each year transitions into the next, we see a lot of "list" stories looking back on the best and worst of the preceding 12 months. Some of these stories can be useless and annoying, but the idea is still not a bad one if we keep the right focus.

The way we live our lives on this side of eternity has a great impact on the other side, Kevin Ezell writes, noting that everyone has a part in the Great Commission -- "old or young, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, blue collar, white collar or no collar."

Kevin Ezell, writing on Pastor Appreciation Month, notes that pastors do "incredible work on Kingdom causes" yet often are "desperate for refueling."

Hunger is not someone else's problem; it's our problem as Southern Baptists, writes Kevin Ezell, North American Mission Board president. Through Global Hunger Relief, he notes, we are working together to do something tangible to help our neglected neighbors.