06/27/26 Church Plants June 2026
If you follow Global Baptist Training Foundation, you already know that theological training delivered to national pastors and church leaders yields amazing spiritual fruit. Not only is GBTF helping to ground nationals in solid, Biblical theology, we are also practically equipping these church leaders in: pastoral ethics and administration, expository preaching and teaching of God’s Word, evangelism, and church planting (among other important training topics)!
The resulting church planting has been one of the most amazing and astounding results of this training. In June, 2026, GBTF surpassed 2,100 new churches started by GBTF-trained pastors. With 367 new churches beginning this summer, we are thrilled to see God’s work among the nationals, most of whom have been trained by other theologically-trained and grounded nationals who have become GBTF trainers (223 total trainers to date)!
This update will focus on some of the new churches in Liberia, West Africa.
GBTF began training nationals in Liberia about a decade ago. Holding training in multiple locations several times a year has yielded over 600 new churches with trained pastors in Liberia.
In the beginning, the leaders in Liberia set a goal of starting 500 churches all over the country. This was a God-sized goal which seemed almost impossible. But God… The first time Bruce landed in Liberia and drove across thee country, he noticed a mosque in almost every village. James Togba, our host in Liberia, explained how millions of dollars had been spent to build these mosques in preparation for a large Islamization effort. Today, the vast majority of these mosques sit empty while Bible-preaching churches are starting all around them!
The pictures accompanying this update are of brand new churches all over Liberia. We are thankful for our partner, Advance, that supports 150 church planters each year! This support helps the most needy of the church planter have a one year financial foundation.
Please pray over these pictures. Many have no building or meeting place. All have very primitive facilities. But that does not hinder them from reaching their areas with the gospel This is precisely why training the nationals is so much more effective.
The following chart reveals where the 367 new churches are located throughout Africa.
| GBTF Church Plants June, 2026 | |
| Ethiopia | 10 |
| Kenya | 14 |
| Burundi | 30 |
| Tanzania | 26 |
| DRC (Congo) | 21 |
| Central African Republic | 13 |
| Rwanda | 48 |
| Uganda | 5 |
| South Sudan | 7 |
| Zimbabwe | 4 |
| Zambia | 10 |
| Mozambique | 5 |
| Kyela (Southern Tanzania) | 20 |
| Malawi | 20 |
| Liberia | 114 |
| Sierra Leone | 20 |
| TOTAL | 367 |
Join us in this amazing effort of training nationals to train nationals. www.globaltrain.org! We will highlight church plants in other nations in upcoming updates. We have included a new video about the GBTF Legacy Fund below as well. We want to fund this training legacy well into the future.
Bruce and Grace Snavely
Global Baptist Training Foundation
Videos:
Children’s Class in Liberia
Legacy Fund