Evans to join AZMN staff as director of missional engagement

Ashley Evans, senior pastor of 22nd Street Baptist Church in Tucson, has been named director of missional engagement for the Arizona Mission Network of Southern Baptists.

AZMN Executive Director Monty Patton introduced Evans and the new position at the Convention Council meeting Feb. 24 in Phoenix and led a time of discussion. The job description and the hiring of Evans had previously been approved by the Executive Team.

His last Sunday at 22nd Street will be April 12, and he will begin with the AZMN April 13.

Evans, a former Arizona Southern Baptist Convention president, will work to “help move the ball forward with the four questions” that guide the AZMN vision, Patton said.

His responsibilities will include connecting churches in answering “How can you help?” by setting up an online platform. For example, Patton said, “Your church has giftedness in [a specific] area. How can you use that giftedness for other churches in your area, and how can other churches help bless you?”

Evans will help churches discover “Where’s your next?” in Arizona and internationally in partnership with Southern Baptist Convention entities. He will also work with Patton in promotion and training events for “Who’s your next?”

He will work beside the associational mission strategists and the AZMN ambassadors, a new group Patton introduced at the Council meeting, to promote the Cooperative Program and encourage churches to engage with the four questions.

He will also promote Cooperative Program giving with network churches that have not been involved, assist churches with constitution and bylaws questions, work with the executive director to coordinate new pastor orientation and serve alongside the North American Mission Board in promoting church planting in Arizona.

Evans has been pastor of 22nd Street Baptist Church since late 2011. During that time, he led the church to engage in mission partnerships locally, regionally and globally. This included church planting partnerships in southern Arizona and southern California, multiple mission trips to Morelos, Mexico, and multiple mission trips to South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where Arizona Southern Baptists partner with the International Mission Board.

He was part of a team of seven Arizona pastors and leaders who traveled to Sub-Saharan Africa on a vision trip in 2024 and part of a team of four from 22nd Street who served there in 2025.

Evans is currently a pastor ambassador with the North American Mission Board and routinely connects with and prays for more than 120 pastors in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. From 2018 to 2024, he was a NAMB church planter trainer and/or trainer champion.

Evans’ volunteer leadership with Arizona Southern Baptists includes serving as state convention president November 2018-November 2020, on the Convention Council, on the Denominee Team whose work resulted in a new state convention vision and as chairman of the Sexual Abuse Task Force in 2022. He served on the Executive Team until accepting the new AZMN position as director of missional engagement.

Prior to becoming pastor of 22nd Street, he was a NAMB church planter and pastor of The Foundry Church in Corona de Tucson.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Mobile, Mobile, Alabama, and a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.