South Carolina Baptists might think of Boston as the home of the Red Sox or the Revolutionary War — or baked beans and chowder. But there’s something else to know about Boston: It has a population of 650,000 people living in 24 distinct neighborhoods, and only six of those neighborhoods have a gospel-centered church.

That’s why Boston is designated a “Send City” — one of 32 — by the North American Mission Board. A Send City is one with the “greatest spiritual need and potential influence throughout North America.”

David Butler is NAMB’s Send City missionary to Boston. He says there are more Christians, percentage-wise, in Saudi Arabia (4.4 percent) than there are in the Greater Boston area (2.8 percent). While most of the city’s people aren’t resistant to the gospel, he said, they are indifferent.

“On Easter 2016, there were 7,000 people who attended one of our 60 church plants in Boston,” Butler said, “and most of those plants did not exist six years ago.”

“The kingdom of God is growing in Boston, but the need is staggering. Also, Boston is an influential city on the culture of the world. There are 80 universities serving more than 250,000 students, including 47,000 internationals. No city compares to that level of educational outreach.”

It’s those statistics that press hard on the heart of South Carolina Baptist Convention president Keith Shorter, who is pastor of Mt. Airy Baptist Church in Easley. In 2016, Shorter led a vision trip to Boston, where he and others from the SCBC met with Butler and others regarding partnership possibilities. Shorter’s church is preparing to establish a church in Boston with a planter who recently left South Carolina to go there. Shorter has also made missions the heartbeat of his year as convention president, even hoping to shape November’s annual meeting by sending messengers into Columbia for an afternoon of missions service.

Shorter would like to see 20 South Carolina churches agree to partner with planters in Boston this year, participating in their work and offering prayer support and financial assistance. “I especially want to focus on our convention churches that aren’t currently engaged in missions or church planting or are praying about that ‘what’s next’ project,” he said.

In addition to Boston, Shorter also hopes to see partnerships occur with church planters in Cleveland. Interstate 77 connects Columbia and Cleveland, making it a natural corridor for volunteers to go and serve. NAMB’s Send City missionary in Cleveland, Jeff Calloway, says 1.6 million people live in Cleveland, but only 8.5 percent are affiliated with an evangelical church.

To help introduce South Carolina Baptists to planters in Boston and Cleveland, along with missional work occurring in Southeast Asia, Shorter has led one pastor vision trip in 2017 and has three more planned in the coming months.

In February, Shorter traveled with some South Carolina pastors to Boston to visit with Butler and to lay the groundwork for a return visit in April.

Other scheduled trips include:

— Boston, April 3-5: The North American Mission Board is providing financial aid (excluding airfare costs). The group can include up to 10 pastors, and there is still space available. SCBC executive director-treasurer Gary
Hollingsworth will be a part of the trip, which will introduce pastors to church planters for the purpose of forming partnerships.

— Cleveland, Aug. 21-23: This is another NAMB-sponsored trip with financial assistance for up to 10 pastors. Mt. Airy has planted a church in Cleveland.

— Southeast Asia, Sept. 14-25: There is room for volunteers on this vision trip to support missionaries in a spiritually dark place of the world.

Pastors can inquire about any of the trips by contacting Shorter at 864-295-3008 or Tim Rice, director of the SCBC Missions Mobilization team, at 803-765-0030.

Shorter wants to get the word out about the trips and hopes Baptist associations will invite him to speak about missions.

“Church planters deserve our help,” said Shorter. “I’ve met and witnessed the service firsthand of some fantastic church planters in these places.”

“Isn’t it interesting that William Screven left Boston to travel to Charleston, South Carolina, to start the church that eventually led to our work here in the state? Now we have the opportunity to take the gospel back there.”

— Scott Vaughan writes for the South Carolina Baptist Convention.