By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer
ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – Send Network Louisiana churches celebrated a Gospel harvest to start the new year, producing 141 decisions for Christ and 68 baptisms by 44 church plants during the first three months of 2025.
Additionally, the church plants reported 1,234 Gospel conversations and an average of 64 in weekly worship attendance, according to a recent first quarter report by Send Network Louisiana.
Send Network Louisiana Director Lane Corley said the partnership with the North American Mission Board, which went into effect Aug. 1, 2023, has helped the state further its God-sized vision to see His Kingdom expanded in Louisiana by one percent over the next decade.
“The Gospel continues to advance to new people in Louisiana through church planting,” Corley told the Baptist Message. “We also continue to engage every people group with new Hispanic, Asian, Arabic and multiethnic works. Replanting continues to be a major priority with dozens of churches in need of radical revitalization. We need planters, re-planters and partner churches for opportunities all across Louisiana.”
Researchers estimate that 62 percent of approximately 4.6 million Louisianans are lost (about 2.85 million). If this church planting and soul winning initiative is successful in the state, 28,875 Louisianans will be added to the Kingdom through 231 new churches planted in the state by 2033 (based on each reaching 125 people with the Gospel). These salvations will be in addition to those recorded by already established Louisiana Baptist congregations.
Since the partnership began, the new church plants that currently receive Cooperative Program funding through the North American Mission Board and Louisiana Baptist missions and ministries team, have reported, collectively: 1,031 salvation decisions, 678 baptisms and more than 15,130 Gospel conversations.
Moreover, Corley said that replanting churches is still a significant need across Louisiana, as 25 churches close their doors for good every year. In April, more than 50 people came to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary specifically to attend the annual Replant Bootcamp, an orientation event for potential re-planters and pastors who want to get their respective churches involved in a replant project.
Currently, 11 replants are receiving funding and care through Send Network Louisiana.
Additionally, church planting continues to help Louisiana Baptists grow in diversity. Sixty-six percent of current church plants are non-Anglo (11 Hispanic, nine multi-ethnic, seven African American, one Asian, and one Arabic).
“Church planters are being assessed, cared for and equipped,” Corley said. “Churches are stepping up to become Supporting, Sending, and Multiplying Churches. We’re glad to see momentum building for kingdom advancement through church planting.”
Corley said 2025 already is looking bright, noting that 15 church planting candidates already are in the pipeline to be assessed this year.
He added that support continues to remain strong among Louisiana Baptist congregations for partnering with church plants and developing future church planters. He said that 49 churches attended training events held in February and March in Lafayette, New Orleans and Shreveport and were helped in designing a strategy and process to raise up, develop, and send out church planters, re-planters and missionaries from their membership.
Corley thanked the NAMB for investing in the state’s church planting efforts. In 2024, NAMB distributed $319,828.35 in monthly church planter supplements, startup grants and planter benefits.
“We’re grateful for Southern Baptist churches who contribute through the Cooperative Program, and give to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions and the Georgia Barnette State Missions Offering for investing in church plants that are reaching new people with the Gospel across Louisiana,” Corley said.
Interested in becoming a church planter or a sending church? Visit SendNetwork.com.
