United States

Watch our North America video “World missions is no longer a world away.”

Possibilities

• Our continent is a magnet for first- and second-generation immigrants, who now make up 13.5 percent of the US population.
• Major urban centers are global mission fields, with pockets of most nationalities represented. Many come from countries that are difficult or impossible for missionaries to enter, but we can reach them freely here!
• Even small towns are home to people groups such as Hispanics or political refugees who find jobs in local industries.
• The US is the second-largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world.
• Universities present once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to reach students while their hearts are still open to spiritual considerations. International students who are reached can take the Gospel back to their home countries, creating the potential to reach thousands more disciples for Christ.
• Native Americans are often marginalized and overlooked, but they are quickly becoming our most spiritually destitute and despairing people group.

Trends

• North America is the largest unchurched English-speaking mission field in the world. Only China and India have larger populations of non-Christians than we do.
• North America is the only continent where Christianity is not growing.
• Every year 3,700 North American churches close their doors.
• The good news, with a challenge: North American church planting has increased our number of churches by 50 percent—but at the same time our population has increased 300 percent. To replace closed churches and to keep pace with population growth, we should be planting 7,000 new churches yearly.
• According to the Barna Group, 43 percent of Americans are unchurched. Romans 10:14-15 applies to our continent as never before.

Baptist Mid-Missions strives to address these needs:

• Our Church Planting & Development Team works in traditional church planting, church rescues, and ethnic ministries among groups such as French Canadians in Quebec, Haitians and Brazilians in Florida, Iranians in California, Acadians in Louisiana, West Africans in New York, And Asians and Middle Easterners throughout our land. (http://www.churchplantingna.org)
• Our Campus Bible Fellowship International Team reaches North American and international students. This ministry is integrated with local churches, placing a strong emphasis on creating strong disciples who are equipped to raise up their own disciples. (http://campusbiblefellowship.org)
• Our Jewish Outreach Team seeks to reach the 6.2 million Jewish people who make their home in North America—more than 40 percent of the world’s Jewish population.
• Our Mormon Focus Ministry Team reaches into “Mormon Country,” the area within a 500-mile radius of Salt Lake City, Utah, where Gospel-reaching churches are rare and are usually small. (http://mormonfocusministry.org)
• Our Native American Ministries Team plants churches among our continent’s first people. Current ministries center on the US Southwest and western Canada.