NEW ORLEANS, La. (BP) -- Last year at the 2011 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Phoenix, Matt Mowrey took the stage as a testimony to God's work in Norwich, Conn., through North American Mission Board (NAMB) missionary Shaun Pillay.

This year Southern Baptists saw video of Matt's dad who, shortly after watching last year's presentation, became one of Norwich's newest believers. Recently, Matt's grandmother also accepted Christ.

During the NAMB report and presentation at the 2012 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans, NAMB President Kevin Ezell highlighted the importance of ongoing and sustainable efforts, like those in Norwich, in penetrating lostness in North America.

"We're not planting churches that will make a difference for a week or a month or a year," Ezell told messengers. "We're planting churches that will continue to reach people year after year after year."

To highlight the need for more churches in North America, Ezell offered a historical glimpse into the SBC's nearly two centuries.

"When we started back in 1845, we started churches at a great pace. By 1900 there was one church for every 3,800 people," Ezell said.

He added: "Today there are two different North Americas. One very well churched and one that's not."

Ezell shared that some Southern states have one SBC congregation for every 1,400 people. But in Canada there is one church for every 117,000 people. In the northeast United States, the numbers aren't much better. Read More