By Brandon Elrod, NAMB communications
BOSTON (NAMB) – A barber’s chair became an avenue for life change when church planting missionary Jacob Ambrose embraced an unexpected opportunity to obey the calling on his life.
“It was a really difficult time as we were getting settled into our house and the community,” said Ambrose, who moved from Louisiana to Boston to plant a new church. “I was in a moment of frustration dealing with some of those things when I realized I needed a haircut. I just looked up a barber on Google Maps and went to his shop.”
Shortly after Ambrose sat down, the man mentioned God a couple of times. “Up here, people don’t just talk about Jesus or God,” he said. “So, I had to follow up.”
The conversation turned to salvation and about the struggle to find a church.
“He tells me, ‘I don’t know of a Christian church I can go to,’” Ambrose said. “And he’s cutting my hair. We had just moved to Tewksbury to start the exact church he wants to go to. I said, ‘Bro, you’re not going to believe this.’”
His barber has since become one of nine people Ambrose has baptized since planting Valley Church in partnership with Send Network, the church planting arm of the North American Mission Board. Valley Church is one of several hundred churches Southern Baptists started as part of the class of 2025.
Overall, Southern Baptists planted 792 churches – 699 new plants and 93 replants – last year. Another 127 established churches affiliated with the SBC, and 32 new campuses were launched. The total number of new congregations added in 2025 reached 951.
Southern Baptists have planted or replanted more than 700 churches in four of the last five years. The 699 new plants marked the highest number since 2016. The total also pushed Southern Baptists beyond the mark of 12,000 churches planted since 2010.
“We are incredibly grateful for every Southern Baptist church that stepped out in 2025 to plant a church,” NAMB president Kevin Ezell said. “Every region of North America needs more churches, and it is encouraging to see Southern Baptists taking up the challenge. I also want to thank those Baptist associations and state conventions who have made church planting and church planters a priority.”
For missionaries like Ambrose, launching a new church is just one milestone in a longer church planting journey that involves the joint efforts of Southern Baptist work, from the sending church through the work of entities like NAMB.
“It all started for me when I was in college, and I did NAMB summer missions in 2010,” Ambrose said. “I served a summer in the Bay Area of California, and it was my first opportunity to spend a significant amount of time outside the Bible Belt. I was so energized with a sense of purpose as I was talking to so many people who were not followers of Jesus.”
When he graduated from college, Ambrose taught high school, but a sense that God had called him to full-time ministry and his experience on the mission field stuck with him until God made it clear that it was time to transition to vocational ministry. His wife Amanda, though, was the one who first mentioned church planting.
He attended Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary virtually and spent time serving at his home church, Summer Grove Baptist in Shreveport, La., before joining the staff at Temple Baptist Church in Ruston, La., as minister to young adults. It was there that the seed of God’s calling to plant a church blossomed.
“My pastor, Dr. Reggie [Bridges] and the executive pastor Jason Walsworth said, ‘If God calls you to plant a church, we would love to be your sending church,’” Ambrose said. “That’s the church I was a part of in college, the church that sent me to do NAMB summer missions.”
Ambrose praised the myriad ways Temple Baptist has supported him since he and his family moved to Boston in 2023 to begin a residency with Redemption Hill Church in Medford, Mass. Redemption Hill equipped him with wisdom and resources to plant in the city.
“The local church isn’t just part of church planting, it’s the engine that drives it,” said Noah Oldham, Send Network’s vice president of operations. “We’re committed to helping more churches step into that role by discovering, developing, and deploying people from within their own congregations to be sent to engage communities with the Gospel, make disciples and plant churches.”
Churches planted from the East Coast to the West
Church planting missionary Inosent Sindhu started a Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi language congregation through his sending church, Doxa Bible Church in Indianapolis. Already, he’s seen more than a dozen people come to faith as part of his outreach into the community.
In the Phoenix area, Hudson Garcia took the lead in planting Vintage Church and saw more than 10 people baptized since launching. More than 500 people attended the church’s recent Easter service.
“The really unique thing about our area is we are in the backyard of a part of the city that’s on the precipice of significant growth,” Hudson said. “If you go just north of one of the high schools in our area, it’s a ton of open desert that’s about to be developed. A ton of people from places like Taiwan as well as from all over the United States are moving here.”
Demographic changes and the continued growth of some of North America’s major cities call for Southern Baptist churches to keep sending, Oldham said.
“The mission field in North America is vast and plentiful,” said Oldham.
Learn more about how Send Network plants churches: SendNetwork.com.
