June 16, 2025
DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. — Send Georgia, a partnership between the Georgia Baptist Mission Board and the North American Mission Board to plant more churches in the state, hosted pastors interested in the prospect of church-planting at a one-day Sending Lab event in Douglasville. Seventeen participants representing 14 churches attended the event, held Feb. 11 at First Baptist Douglasville.
The lab, according to the website, is a one-day workshop “that will help you develop a vision and plan for leading your church to send.”
Senior Pastor Eric Kincaid from Antioch Baptist Church in Yatesville, said he attended the Sending Lab because he was interested in leading his church to support a church planter. After the event, he said, “I started this conversation, wanting to support a church planter, but after attending this event, I believe we can be a Sending Church. It may take some time, but we want to be the kind of church that raises up and sends out missionaries and church planters from within our church.”
Kincaid said he was “shocked” to learn that only 47 churches, out of the more than 3,500 Georgia Baptist churches in the state, are Sending Churches. “I want to challenge my congregation with the question, ‘Why can’t Antioch be number 48?’”
That sort of challenge is part of what led Tim Akin, pastor of FBC Douglasville, to offer to host the lab. “We believe that church planting is needed in North America more now than it has ever been needed before. Furthermore, we believe that church planting is both a Biblical and missiological strategy that any church, no matter size or scope can be involved in because of an organization like Send Network.”
Akin highlighted the collaborative nature of the meeting, saying, “We have so much to learn from other churches regarding church planting and we knew that we would learn so much from this event.”
There is much that other churches can learn from Akin and his team at FBC Douglasville as well. “Over the last seven years, our church has strategically partnered with six Send Network church plants across North America,” Akin said. “In addition, we have sent out two Spanish-speaking church plants from our congregation directly. We are planning to send out a third church plant in the next twelve months that will be located inside the perimeter of Atlanta.”
Those who are interested and could not attend the lab in Douglasville are encouraged to be at the next Sending Lab in Georgia on Nov. 17-18, 2025, in Alpharetta. They can also reach out to the SEND Network Georgia team by visiting: gabaptist.org/ministries/church-planting.
Kincaid left the lab believing he and his church could do more to reach the lost in our state. “I’m tired of selling God out short, I’m tired of selling my congregation out short. Let’s forget about our small church size, we have a big God. Forget about our small budget, we have a bigger God. Forget about our inexperience, we have an even greater God. There is no excuse for not reaching people for Christ, whether it be through personal evangelism, short term/long term mission trips, or even church planting.
“I will ask my congregation, ‘Why not? Why not Antioch?’”
