See You in Helena

Barrett DukeAll Enews

As we gather in Helena for MPact on March 2 and 3, we have the opportunity to let God do many things for our churches and in our lives. This year’s MPact is designed to come alongside you and your church to focus on spiritually healthy church organizations and church leadership.

As you attend MPact, I hope you will keep this in mind. A large part of the effectiveness of a congregation’s ministry and outreach depends on the spiritual health of those in the pew and the pulpit. Ministry takes a toll from all of us. It has a way of wearing on us that we sometimes don’t even notice. It builds up over time, often from one crisis to the next, and weighs on us after a while, impeding our effectiveness and sapping our physical, emotional, and spiritual energy. This isn’t only a personal matter, either. It can also affect organizations and leadership teams.

Most of our MPact speakers this year will be addressing the very issues that can weigh us and our churches down. Because they’ll be speaking into our lives, at times, we might feel an impulse to become defensive. If you suddenly feel like a speaker is speaking directly to you, I hope that you will allow God to open you to the truths you hear and let Him begin a process that will empower you and your church to handle conflict, crisis, and regular ministry and personal challenges in more spiritually constructive ways.

God has placed a calling on our lives. It is a spiritual calling that must be fulfilled in a fallen world by we fallen, redeemed people. We can’t do what He has called us to do in the power of the flesh. I’ll be praying that God will give us each what we and our churches need during MPact to make this year and the years to come more effective and fulfilling than we’ve ever experienced before.

See you in Helena.

About the Author

Barrett Duke

Barrett Duke is the Executive Director and Treasurer for the Montana Southern Baptist Convention.