This year MPact is about helping leaders lead. We are bringing in many nationally recognized leaders to spend time with us for two days. Dr. Ed Litton, pastor of Redemption Church in Mobile, Alabama, is a well-respected leader in Southern Baptist life. He is sought after regularly for his counsel on growing and leading churches. He’s also a successful church planter in the west. He planted a church in Tucson, Arizona. I’ve known him for years and he has always been an impressive and humble man. You’ll learn a lot from him. And we have structured his time for you to do just that. Ed isn’t preaching during his first two sessions. He is going to be talking to us about what he has learned about successful church leadership. Plus, you’ll get to spend time with him in a breakout session where I’ve asked him to do nothing but answer your questions about ministry in your church. This is too good of an opportunity to pass up. And, then on Friday afternoon, brother Ed will bring a message from the Word of God that I know will send us out recharged to fulfill God’s unique calling on each of us.
We also have Timothy Goeglein coming. I’ve known Tim for more than 15 years. The first time we met, he was working for President George W. Bush, serving as a contact for churches to the White House. I spent many hours with Tim learning about how Washington worked and how to get things done in that one-of-a-kind town. Tim has worked in the Senate and with many politicians over the years. He is currently, Vice President for External Relations for Focus on the Family. Tim still works daily in Washington, DC. Very few men have the wealth of knowledge about politics, a deep understanding of the issues we care about, and how to really get things done in DC than Tim has. If you want to know what it’s like for a faithful, evangelical Christian to work in DC, Tim can tell you. He has also graciously agreed to stay over and do a breakout session with us on Friday morning to talk to us about current policy issues in DC that can affect the church and what we can do about them. If you want to know and not just wonder about what’s going on. This is your chance.
And these two men are just the tip of the iceberg that is MPact 2019. We have many fantastic breakout sessions. We’ve even been able to get Kenneth Priest and Rick Curtis to offer mini-conferences for us. You have an opportunity to spend nearly 3 hours with each of these men in back-to-back breakout sessions. Kenneth is a nationally recognized expert on church revitalization. Are you trying to figure out how to break through attendance barriers or institute change in your church that your church leaders will support? Kenneth can give you some really good advice that is proven to work. And then there’s Rick Curtis. He is a leader of leaders. Rick came out of a successful business that he started so he could help pastors learn how to become the leaders their churches need them to be. This is your chance to spend nearly three straight hours learning about the art of leadership from a man who has done it.
There are also two evangelism training opportunities with Shane Pruitt, the evangelism director of our partnership convention, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. We’ve asked Shane to share with us some tried and true evangelism presentations, including how to start a gospel conversation and how to make the final appeal to someone to trust Jesus. Bring your church members to this. Let them learn from a man who is quickly becoming one of SBC’s most sought-after evangelists.
I’d wear you out talking about everything you can get out of these two days. And on top of all of that learning, there is worship. I’m so glad that the worship team from Emmanuel Baptist will be leading us in worship for the entire meeting. And if you get a chance to look at the schedule, you’ll see that they aren’t just filling in some time. We’ve set aside some good size blocks of time so these gifted, dedicated men and women can help us truly experience the joy and life-changing power of worship.
All of this, to help us reach Montana for Christ and then go beyond to all the world. We’re even going to have a breakout session on Go Montana. The Go Montana web site is up and running. You can see it at www.gomtsbc.com. We’ll walk through the web site with you and talk about things you can do and point you to people in our churches who are already doing some of the things you’d like to do. Is God telling you to start something new, tell someone about Jesus, or go somewhere new? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Let us help connect you to people who are already doing some of the things God wants you to do. If the wheel God is leading you to create doesn’t exist yet, cool! We’ll be happy to help you figure out how to make it.
It’s not too late to come to MPact 2019. Join us for these two days. Your fantastic MTSBC staff is here to serve you any way we can. This event is provided to help you figure out how to do what God is calling you to do. Join us, and then let’s Go, Montana! I look forward to seeing you at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center on Thursday and Friday. May the Lord continue to bless you and your ministry.
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