November 8, 2025
WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Send Network’s One Day event in Warner Robins brought more than a hundred pastors, planters, and lay leaders to Second Baptist Church on Tuesday, Oct. 28, for encouragement to multiply churches across middle and south Georgia.
“It takes the whole family of God coming together from different corners of the state to accomplish the mission we’ve been given,” said host pastor Jim Perdue. “No matter where you serve or what your role is, every one of us has the same calling. We’ve all been sent.”
Perdue was led to host the event at Second Baptist because church planting is “close to our hearts,” he said. “We want to see the gospel reach everyone, everywhere.” Perdue continued, “I want to invest in leaders, multiply disciples, and see God’s Kingdom grow.”
Returning to Second Baptist nearly 14 years ago, he said he sensed a responsibility “to leverage a legacy church for Kingdom impact.” By God’s grace, he noted, the church has been engaged in revitalization, church planting, and missions “from Warner Robins to the world.” Events like One Day, he said, “help churches take their next step toward becoming supporting, sending, and multiplying churches.”
Geoff Mangus, director of missions and evangelism at Lakeside Baptist in Milledgeville, attended because his church is experiencing rapid growth and he wants to see that growth channeled outward. “We want to be a church that plants other churches—especially in our area,” he said. “I have a desire to win my Jerusalem for Jesus, and my Jerusalem is Milledgeville.”
Ryan McCammack, who directs the Send Network Georgia collaboration between the Georgia Baptist Mission Board and the North American Mission Board, called One Day a rallying point for ongoing multiplication. “I was encouraged by the turnout. It was a joy to connect with and serve so many of our great pastors and ministry leaders in middle and south Georgia,” he said.
The purpose of the One Day events is to “inspire and encourage our whole family of churches to be involved in reaching our neighbors through church planting.” Interested churches and leaders can follow up with Sending Labs and Residency Builders, which McCammack described as “collaborative workshops that provide practical tools for churches.”
McCammack opened with a lesson from history: when the cause is great and the enemy is real, unlikely allies link arms. He pointed to World War II allied leaders Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin, who cooperated despite ideological differences to defeat a common foe. “The greater the cause, the greater the need for cooperation,” he said, noting that the Great Commission likewise “demands great cooperation.”
His own story underscores the point. Raised Independent Baptist, McCammack and his wife planted Gospel Hope Church in metro Atlanta only after deciding, “We won’t do this alone.” Send Network and a family of local churches trained, funded, and cared for them. In turn, Gospel Hope helped launch a church in the Dominican Republic that itself is now planting again. “None of that happens without partnership,” he said. “Multiplication beats addition every time.”
The magnitude of the task and the diversity of the church require a cooperative effort, McCammack said. With millions in Georgia and billions worldwide needing the gospel, “We need all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people.” McCammack urged leaders to overcome territorialism, prioritize collaboration, and pray together. “If we want to move the gospel ball down the field, everyone has to do their assignment, and God is able to do above and beyond all we ask or think.”
Mark Clifton, senior director of replanting at the North American Mission Board, urged pastors to see dying and declining congregations not as lost causes but as “wells” that can be dug again for the glory of God. While Southern Baptists plant and affiliate roughly 1,000 churches each year, he noted, 800 to 900 congregations still close annually. Most of those, he noted, are in communities that are actually growing. “The problem isn’t the absence of people,” he said. “It’s that the people around the church no longer look like the people in the church.” The Great Commission, he argued, calls for a “both-and” strategy of planting new churches and replanting/revitalizing existing ones.
Clifton described his experience at First Baptist Church of Linwood, Kan., where the church was down to three members was just days from selling its building. Clifton agreed to serve without pay, rallied nearby congregations, and led the church to pray for and serve its town. Today, the church has a full-time pastor, averages more than 70 in worship, and has baptized dozens. That’s proof, Clifton declared, that the well still held water.
However, Clifton emphasized, the work of revitalization is hard, often requiring leaders to be revitalized first. The impetus to keep going, he said, is the hope of seeing the remaining saints refreshed in their faith, the lost in the nearby communities reached with the gospel, and above all the honor of Christ upheld. He challenged healthier churches to adopt or foster struggling congregations, lending their people and resources, and to reject a tendency towards territorialism. “There’s water in every single well,” he said. “Let’s do the hard work together so living water springs again in our neighborhoods.”
José Abella, vice president of Send Network Español and pastor of Providence Road Church in Miami, challenged churches to return to a simple, biblical pattern for reaching “all our neighbors. Drawing on his church’s 15 years in a diverse, fast-changing city, he said survival in hard soil isn’t explained by facilities, websites, or programming but by relentless gospel proclamation—to unbelievers, to believers, and to every nation represented in the community. In addition to being gospel-centered, Abella said, congregations should give sacrificially of money, time, and people to advance the mission beyond their walls.
Reaching every nation represented in Miami, Abella explained, means doing life across languages and cultures. Churches should expect “messy” ministry as they equip a multiethnic family, he said, but the goal is a congregation that mirrors heaven.
In addition to the keynote speakers, attendees hear from a panel discussion hosted by McCammack with Jose Abella and George Ross. McCammack asked Ross, director of the South region for Send Network, to explain replanting a church versus planting a church. Ross explained that, in part, “in re-planting, you're pastoring an existing congregation.” For Send Network, replanting generally involves a name change, new leadership, and a brief ministry pause before relaunch. When those elements are in place, Send Network treats the replanter like a church planter, including assessment, care, training, coaching, and funding.
Abella urged pastors to plant and replant across languages because “the nations have arrived.” He explained, “We are to take the gospel to the ends of the earth to every tribe, every tongue, every nation, and we can look around our nation,” and see those people here. Bella noted there are 65 million Hispanics nationwide—about 1.1 million in Georgia. Bella praised English-speaking churches that not only plant Spanish congregations, but also have Hispanic pastors serve as church elders, becoming “one church together for the sake of the gospel.”
Ross stressed that partnerships amplify the work. Currently, he said, eight southern state conventions are in full partnership with Send Network, producing measurable gains in church planting. The Send Network Georgia partnership agreement is already yielding tangible opportunities. Sherwood Baptist in Albany will host a training cohort in January, and there will be a Spanish-language cohort in Clarkston, as well as the first-ever Spanish Sending Lab in Woodstock in May.
McCammack closed the day by pointing leaders toward next steps: training cohorts, Sending Labs, and partnerships that help churches support, send, and multiply. “Our team couldn’t be more excited about helping our family of churches plant churches everywhere in Georgia for everyone in Georgia.”
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