ORLANDO – Before hearing some of the metrics about Southern Baptist mission work in North America during the 2026 SBC Annual Meeting in Orlando June 10, Kevin Ezell brought to the stage several missionaries and staff members who represent the face behind those numbers.
Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board (NAMB), opened his presentation by introducing church planting missionaries Tyler and Ashley Martin. The Martins were featured missionaries during the 2025 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering (AAEO) campaign after moving from Texas to Bar Nunn, Wyoming, to start a church.
During the AAEO Week of Prayer when their stories were most prominently told in Southern Baptist churches, Ashley was in the early stages of her fight with cancer.
“What you see is a church planter leading his church in reaching people while at the same time, navigating his family through an obvious crisis,” Ezell said.
Many churches heard their story, and their family received cards and other notes of encouragement and prayer while they were going through a challenging season where Ashley had to drive from Wyoming to Salt Lake City for treatments.
“I feel like everything was just perfectly God’s timing because even though we don’t know what’s going on, God knows what’s going on,” Ashley said. “We were selected to be Annie Armstrong offering missionaries, church planters, before we found out that we were going to be going through a cancer battle.”
Tyler, focused on caring for his wife and while still leading his new church plant, relying on the Lord’s strength as he did so. He also learned the ways the church steps up in challenging times.
“A Southern Baptist is a person who shows up when you can’t,” said Tyler. “When we couldn’t do things on our own, we were met with an unbelievable outpouring of love, support, and help from our Southern Baptist family.”
Many times throughout their fight, Tyler said he and Ashley both experienced an extraordinary sense of calm despite it all.
“Southern Baptists, thank you for how you love missionaries and how you enable your mission boards to take care of their missionaries in times like this,” Ezell said.
NAMB Evangelism team equips, encourages churches to share the Gospel
Ezell celebrated the five straight years of baptism increases Southern Baptists have seen from 2021 to 2025 and noted how the Gospel movement does not happen by accident. It happens because churches make evangelism a priority.
“In 2025, Southern Baptist churches baptized 263,075 people,” Ezell said. “That is the fifth year in a row that baptisms have gone up. The last time that happened, Harry Truman was in the White House.”
In total, Southern Baptists baptized 1.1 million people over the last five years, and Ezell welcomed four of NAMB’s evangelism team leaders to share about ways they have ministered in their respective areas.
“What we really need more than anything is our people living on mission every day,” said Tim Dowdy, NAMB’s vice president of evangelism before sharing the evangelism resources available to equip believers to do that, including an app called Gospel Coach.
J.J. Washington, NAMB’s senior director of evangelism, introduced the AI training tool that helps people “get reps” to practice sharing their faith with a chatbot.
“It’s not a campaign. It’s a life,” Dowdy said. “It’s the life of a follower of Jesus. We’re meant to share and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus.”
Many Southern Baptists have questions about ministering to the next generation, and Shane Pruitt, NAMB’s director of next gen evangelism, said students are hungry for the truth.
“I’ve seen more young people – teenagers, colleges students, young adults – make professions of faith in Jesus Christ Lord and Savior of their life the last five years of ministry than in the last 20 years of ministry combined.” Pruitt said. “And I’m hearing that over and over again from churches and on campus ministries.”
Catherine Renfro is NAMB’s director of women’s evangelism, hosting conferences and working with Southern Baptist ministries to spur women on to share the Gospel in their contexts.
“I just think it’s so exciting to see that ladies, when they realize that not only can God use them, He will use them if they’re just simply willing and available,” said Renfro.
Pointing to the consistent increases to the AAEO, including $71.1 million in 2025, Ezell thanked Southern Baptists for making ministry in North America possible.
Those gifts “are Southern Baptists saying, ‘We’re all in,’ and we’re incredibly grateful,” Ezell said. “We’re all in for what? For those decisions, and every decision has a name.”
Ezell then highlighted the story of a young missionary, Noemi Kunkel. After growing up in the Mormon church, she came to faith through GenSend Summer missionaries, and eventually, Kunkel would transition to becoming a GenSend Summer missionary herself.
“That’s why I do what I do, for the Noemis out there,” Ezell said. “I’m convinced that people want to hear the Gospel far more than we want to share it.”
There are so many other people out there that Southern Baptists need to reach, Ezell said, before encouraging Southern Baptists to take seriously the command to pray for and share the Gospel with the lost.
Ezell reports on NAMB’s ministries in 2025
Ezell then transitioned to his report to the convention, leading with figures related to church planting. In 2025, Southern Baptists planted 699 new churches, the highest number of churches planted in a single year since 2016.
“With this growth, Southern Baptists have now planted more than 12,000 new churches since 2010,” Ezell said. “That is something to celebrate.”
In evangelism, Ezell reiterated the year-over-year increases in baptisms while also highlighting the various regions that have experienced growth, such as Ohio and New England.
Send Relief worked directly with more than 1,900 churches across North America and Puerto Rico in 2025 for compassion ministry, which led to more than 84,000 people hearing the Gospel.
Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) responded to 84 crises in 2025, prepared 233,000 meals, and served more than 414,000 hours doing recovery work. They shared the Gospel more than 18,000 times and reported more than 1,500 professions of faith.
Chaplains serving in the military and in public service presented the Gospel nearly 115,000 times and recorded more than 19,000 professions of faith in 2025.
“The harvest is still abundant. The lostness is still real. The harvest is waiting. Let’s get to work,” Ezell said. “Thank you Southern Baptists for all that you do to allow the North American Mission Board to serve and reach people all over North America.”
Ezell responds to questions following his report
Following his report, Ezell received three questions from messengers. The first dealt with the relationship between church planters and local associations. Ezell shared that NAMB encourages but does not require engagement with an association.
A second question focused on NAMB’s ministry to Native Americans, and Ezell encouraged churches to raise up church planting missionaries to serve every ethnicity, including Native Americans.
The third question asked about a pastor’s cohort NAMB previously offered, and Ezell stated that NAMB had to discontinue the cohort to allocate more resources to support church planting while encouraging pastors to launch cohorts in their own cities or communities.
