ORLANDO, Fla. — Ahead of the 2026 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting, Southern Baptists intentionally engaged the host city of Orlando to serve the community and proclaim the gospel. Tuesday morning, June 9, North American Mission Board (NAMB) Vice President of Evangelism Tim Dowdy shared that more than 1,000 people professed faith in Christ.

“There’s something powerful that happens when Southern Baptists from all across North America get together and converge on a single city to share the gospel,” Dowdy said. “That’s what Crossover is all about.”

Churches from 15 different states came to Orlando, Dowdy said. In total, 554 churches participated in Crossover, whether by hosting events, serving as volunteers, or praying for the churches and others involved.

Stephen Rummage, executive director of the Florida Baptist Convention, joined Dowdy on stage to represent the efforts of Florida Baptists, including the regional catalysts who serve the convention and the local associations in and around Orlando who helped lead evangelism efforts and spur their churches on to participate.

Nearly 4,000 volunteers helped to make the various outreach events happen. The fruit of their efforts allowed nearly 20,000 people to hear the gospel, and leaders reported 1,077 people professed faith in Christ. Dowdy said the efforts that flowed out of Crossover were not happening in a vacuum.

“In 2025, Southern Baptist churches baptized 263,075 people, up nearly 5% from 2024,” Dowdy said. “Here’s what’s remarkable, and I praise God for it. This is the fifth consecutive year we’ve seen baptisms increase, the first time it’s happened in 75 years in the SBC. Praise God for that.”

The highest percentage of growth in baptisms has been outside the South, Dowdy said, in states like Alaska, Colorado, Michigan, Iowa and California.

“I just want you to know that the gospel is moving, and we just praise God for what He’s doing through His churches,” Dowdy said.

As part of his report, Dowdy shared a story of a normative sized church, Union Hill Baptist Church in Bonifay, Fla. For years, the church had struggled to baptize anyone since 2018. The pastor, Buck Tidwell, prayed for revival and called the church to surrender to prayer and obedience.

“The people got it. They started lifting up their neighbors and family members in prayer,” Dowdy said. “They started sharing the gospel, and after almost seven years without one baptism, this year Union Hill has baptized five new believers in the first four months of 2026.”

Dowdy said that stories like what is taking place at Union Hill Baptist are taking place throughout the Convention, and he highlighted the evangelism resources NAMB makes available, like the NAMB Evangelism Kit that walks churches through how to create a culture of evangelism in their churches.

He also highlighted the “Who’s Your One?” initiative and pointed out that people throughout North America had submitted more than 87,000 people they were praying for, that they might come to saving faith.

“The harvest is still plentiful; 292 million lost people in North America,” Dowdy said. “Let’s keep going, keep loving, keep telling others about Jesus.”

As part of his report, Dowdy encouraged Southern Baptists to plan to join Crossover in Indianapolis in 2027.

(EDITOR’S NOTE— Brandon Elrod writes for the North American Mission Board.)