Jackie Allen begins new ministry with North American Mission Board

Jackie Allen

After 40 years, Jackie Allen is transitioning from life as a full-time pastor to leading teams of North America n Mission Board church planting catalysts and Send City missionaries in four states.

Sept. 9 was his last day as lead pastor of Cross Church, Surprise. Andrew Bailey is the new lead campus pastor for the Surprise campus. He was previously campus pastor for Cross Church in Phoenix.

As the new NAMB Send Network director for Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Idaho, Allen’s mission is to mobilize existing churches to plant new churches.

“Churches plant churches,” Allen said. “Send Network wants to assist churches in doing what churches have done dating all the way back to the book of Acts. The great vastness of lostness is both a challenge and a huge opportunity.”

The need for sending churches is great, he said.

“There is great potential to plant new churches across our region that will have a generational impact,” he said. “We can talk about the challenges of money, of finding qualified planters — but the answer to these challenges is in the churches that already exist in our region. We desperately need more sending churches in our convention. As they increase, the impact on lostness will increase.”

Allen was called to plant his first church 20 years ago. God used two things to impress church planting on his heart.

The first was a NAMB program he watched on a Sunday afternoon entitled “The Changing Face of Worship.”

“God literally called me off my couch on that Sunday afternoon to place my ‘yes’ on the table to plant a church,” Allen said.

The second catalyst was when his friend Monty Patton and his wife, Nancy, shared their call to start a church. Patton started Mountain Ridge Church in Glendale and is now associate executive director of the Arizona Mission Network of Southern Baptists.

“He drove me out into the middle of the desert to where Mountain Ridge now sits,” Allen said. “There was nothing there but desert. God used the example of his faithfulness to challenge me to join the church planting movement here in Arizona.”

The Send Network team in Arizona includes Brian Bowman, statewide lead church planting catalyst for Send Network in Arizona and lead pastor of Valley Life Church, Phoenix; Jesse Powell, church planting catalyst, primarily for the Phoenix metro area; Kyle Rosas, church planting catalyst, primarily focusing on areas outside of Phoenix and Tucson; and Brian Hook, church planting catalyst, primarily for the Tucson metro area, and senior pastor of Aspire Church, Tucson. Allen is serving as NAMB Send City missionary for Phoenix until that position can be filled.

“My role at Cross Church will transition to a part-time basis as the lead pastor in charge of campus multiplication, working with campus pastors and elders to assist in the development of current Cross Church campuses and pursue other campus launches in the future,” Allen said. “Cross Church has four campuses in Arizona and two international campuses. Several new locations have already been targeted.”

Allen will be leading the development of a more intensive residency program at Cross Church for anyone who wants to plant a church in the future.

As Send Network director for Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Idaho, Allen will be working alongside Jeff Carlson, Send Network director for the Mountain West region, which encompasses

Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska. Carlson also serves as senior executive pastor of Christ Church, Gilbert, and chief executive officer of Vintage Mission.

Irene A. Harkleroad, a freelance writer living in Carefree, is a member of Black Mountain Baptist Church, Cave Creek.