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LUBBOCK—Churches across the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention are mobilizing.
They are focused on prayer and continuing to generously support their shared mission by giving through the Cooperative Program. They are planting more churches than ever and joining forces with church leaders across state and national lines through strategic partnerships.
And they are seeing—and celebrating—God’s blessing in those areas and many more.
In his Oct. 28 report to messengers at the SBTC Annual Meeting, hosted by Southcrest Baptist Church, SBTC Executive Director Nathan Lorick shared some of the victories the Lord has provided in 2025. Thousands came to faith in Christ through events such as Crossover Dallas, which included 59 SBTC churches; disaster relief deployments that included a response to historic flooding in the Texas Hill Country; and evangelistic events such as M3 student camps and Youth Week.
Throughout the past year, Southern Baptists marked the 100th anniversary of the Baptist Faith and Message, as well as the Cooperative Program—the giving mechanism through which SBTC churches have given $580 million over the past quarter century. Thirty-four churches have been mobilized overseas as part of the convention’s Reach Europe ministry partnership with the International Mission Board.
And by the end of the year, leaders expect 70 churches to have been planted in Texas—the most in any single year in SBTC history. In the four years since the SBTC teamed up with the North American Mission Board to plant churches under the Send Network SBTC banner, 200 churches have been started, Lorick said, noting that an “amazing” 98% of those have survived to date.
“Our vision is to mobilize all SBTC churches to mobilize disciple-making movements—movements energized by prayer, that prioritize evangelism, normalize disciple-making, maximize sending, and synergize partnerships,” Lorick said.
Each of those five markers, he told messengers, can be seen through the ministries of SBTC churches across the state. They are exemplified by a movement of God reported at First Baptist Church in Carrizo Springs, about an hour from the Texas-Mexico border, where an emphasis on prayer has led to 52 people being baptized and regular attendance rising over 40% this past year.
In the North Texas community of Colleyville, disciple-making has been normalized in a way that is creating a pipeline of leaders—including, in one instance, a man leaving a successful business career to step into full-time ministry—who are making second- and third-generation disciples. Or in League City, where Bay Area Church sacrificially sent out one of its younger youth workers to plant a church in an area that needed a strong gospel witness.
As he spoke of each marker, Lorick cited other examples of SBTC churches making an eternal impact. When considered together, they reveal a unified, growing convention of more than 2,800 churches laser-focused on advancing the mission.
“That is what we see: a vision of all SBTC churches mobilized and multiplying disciple-making movements,” Lorick said. “Movements where our churches are resourced, leaders are networked, and the mission is advanced. Movements that saturate our state with the gospel and take it to the ends of the earth.
“It is a vision of cooperation—doing more together than any one church could do on its own,” he continued. “The apostles saw this vision. The messengers at the 1925 SBC Annual Meeting [where the Cooperative Program and the Baptist Faith and Message were adopted] saw it. The founding churches of the SBTC in 1998 saw it. Now, it’s our turn to pursue it.”
In closing, Lorick thanked messengers for their commitment to the gospel and their generosity in supporting “our shared mission.”
“Let’s lean in together like never before,” he said. “Let us lead the way as the gospel advances in America and the world, starting right here in Texas through the churches of the SBTC.”
