Our Fall meeting is aptly named Refresh. I’m ready for some of that. My guess is that you are, too. The summers in Montana are loaded with activity. Our families are busy, and our churches are busier all summer long. Soon, we’ll be gearing up for the holidays. In between the summer crush and the holiday busyness, we have opportunity to get together and encourage one another in the Lord.
I hope you’re making plans to join us at Easthaven Baptist Church in Kalispell on October 3 and 4 for Refresh 2019. The program is posted online at www.mtsbc.org so you can see everything we have in mind for this time together. I’m really looking forward to it. The Easthaven praise team knows how to lead worship. I’m confident that every time we gather for worship, it will be Spirit-anointed and meaningful. While we don’t have a lot of preaching at Refresh, we make up for it with quality. I’ve been looking forward all year to hearing what the Lord has put on President Chad Scarborough’s heart. The annual president’s message is always one of the highlights of our meetings to me. In addition, we also have Gerry Taillon coming to speak. Gerry is pastor of Pathway Church in Calgary, Alberta, and also the president of the Canadian National Baptist Convention. He is a gifted leader and speaker. I know you’ll be filled, encouraged, and challenged by his message.
It’s appropriate that we’ll have brother Gerry with us. I’ll be asking the convention to approve entering into a seven-year partnership with our sister churches in Alberta during our brief business session on Thursday. If you’ve been to Alberta, you know the province is very similar to Montana, plenty of wide-open spaces and lots of rural and city ministry. I’m praying that our churches will find ministry partners in Alberta that will last for years to come, and that we’ll even see a lot of sharing back and forth as we strengthen our relationships across the border.
You don’t want to miss the breakout sessions, either. We have three planned for Refresh. There will be an evangelism breakout led by Dr. John Meador. Dr. Meador is pastor of Cross City Church, formerly First Baptist, Euless, Texas. Under John’s leadership, the church has embraced Euless, Texas with the gospel. Pastor Meador is the man behind One Conversation, the outreach ministry that will be leading our Crossover event on Saturday, October 5. He knows evangelism. I’m confident that an hour with John Meador will make us better witnesses for the Lord and will help our folks gain more confidence to share the gospel.
We also have a special breakout session to equip our churches to avoid sexual abuse and to minister lovingly and redemptively to those who experience sexual abuse. Cari Roush, the Women’s Ministry Director at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Billings, will be leading this session. Cari can help you equip your church to adequately screen potential workers and to know what to do if something happens. You don’t want to have to figure out what to do after something happens. Cari can help you know how to prevent sexual abuse from happening and how to respond if it does.
We also have a special breakout session for our pastors’ wives. This session will be led by Connie Cavanaugh Taillon, Gerry Taillon’s wife. Connie is a nationally known speaker. She is well loved by all who hear her. She will speak into your life and encourage you in ways you can’t imagine. Denise will also have a special gift for each of the pastors’ wives who attend. I know that the role of pastor’s wife is one of the loneliest roles in ministry. You feel pulled from every direction and often struggle to have anyone to talk to about it. You’ll be in loving, encouraging comfort in this breakout session.
In addition to all of this, we will hear reports from some of our MTSBC ministry leaders and some of our national ministries, as well. These two days provide a great opportunity to hear about what God is doing in your community, in your state, in your country, and around the world. These are two days of your time that will be well spent.
And then, on Saturday, October 5, you’ll have opportunity to go out into the surrounding communities and invite people to church in their area and to tell them about Jesus. Crossover Kalispell will start at 8:30am at Easthaven Baptist Church. We’ll have some more opportunity to worship, then we’ll get some last-minute instruction, get our street assignments, eat lunch together, and then go out to share the love of Jesus for a couple hours. This year, we’ll canvass areas around Easthaven in Kalispell, Gateway Church in Columbia Falls, and Summit Church in Whitefish. I appreciate these churches for letting us share the gospel in their communities. I hope you’ll join us for this powerful time. Lives will be touched and changed as we share during that day. To find out more, go to the Crossover web page at the One Conversation web site, www.oneconversation.org. You’ll find the October Crossover Kalispell event listed when you click on Regional Workshops.
What’s not to like about all of this! I look forward to seeing you in Kalispell.
Blessings,
Barrett
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