Church planting can feel incredibly isolating sometimes.

Most days, you’re carrying weight that few people see. You’re preaching, leading, fundraising, discipling, solving problems, loving your family, and trying to faithfully reach your city with the gospel, often while feeling under-resourced and exhausted.

That’s one reason gatherings like the SBC Annual Meeting matter so much.

Every year, thousands of pastors, missionaries, church planters, and ministry leaders gather together around one mission—getting the gospel to every person, in every city, and every nation. It reminds us that we are not planting churches alone. We are part of a family of churches cooperating together for the Great Commission.

I know what some of you are thinking.

It’s a convention. It’s politics. It’s not really for guys like me who are just trying to keep the lights on and make disciples.

I get it. I’ve thought the same thing.

But here’s what I’ve found: when you actually show up as a messenger, the size of what God is doing hits you differently.

Because here’s the reality: Even if your church plant is just ten people gathering in a living room right now, you are already part of something much bigger than what you can see on a Sunday morning.

Because you give through the Cooperative Program, you are helping send more than 3,000 full-time international missionaries through the IMB. You are helping train thousands of seminary students who will become the next generation of pastors and church planters. And through Send Network, you have participated in planting more than 12,000 churches across North America since 2010.

Which means church plants like ours now make up a significant percentage of the nearly 47,000 churches in the SBC. We are not on the sidelines—we get to help shape the future of one of the largest missionary forces in the history of the world.

Weeks like the SBC Annual Meeting reconnect you to the bigger story God is writing. You hear reports of churches being planted, missionaries being sent, people being baptized, and leaders being developed across North America and around the world. In a culture that often feels increasingly hostile to Christianity, it is deeply encouraging to be reminded that the gospel is still advancing.

If you’ve never attended the SBC Annual Meeting, I’d encourage you to consider going in the future. Not because it’s perfect. Honestly, it’s a little like a family reunion.

There’s unique joy in seeing brothers and sisters you don’t get to see very often—even with the occasional reminder that every family has a few crazy aunts and uncles. That’s part of the beauty and mess of congregationalism.

We gather.

We disagree at times.

We vote.

We pray.

We cooperate.

And by God’s grace, we go further together than any of us could ever go alone.

The next generation of planters and pastors needs to be in that room.

Stay committed. Press in. Lead with gospel urgency.

The work you are doing in your community is not disconnected from what God is doing around the world. It’s part of it.

Thank you for faithfully laboring where God has called you.

Your work matters more than you know.

You can explore more resources from Send Network to help you plant, lead, and multiply healthy churches at sendnetwork.com/resources.