Choosing the Important Over the Urgent

Lee MerckAll Enews, Planting Team

Charles Hummel wrote a booklet entitled Tyranny of the Urgent. In it he shares about the tension that exists between things that are truly important and things that are seemingly urgent. His conclusion was that seemingly urgent things in our lives frequently overcome the most important things in our lives. This led him to coin the phrase, tyranny of the urgent, which … Read More

Maximizing Momentum and Mobilizing Church Planters in Montana

Lee MerckAll Enews, Planting Team

Partnerships are vital to the work of church planting in Montana. A group of pastors from Missouri has invested in our Montana church planters.  They are helping to create momentum and further mobilize God-called men and women for the advancement of the gospel in Big Sky country. A true cooperative effort has begun, and we are experiencing partnership at a … Read More

The Church Has Left the Building

Lee MerckAll Enews, Planting Team

How often have we heard the expression, “The church is not the building?” While this statement is 100% theologically correct, it does not always translate into how we practice being the church. For many congregations, their identity is tied more closely to a location and a building rather than who God has created them to be in their community. When … Read More

Where are the Workers? Calling Out the Called!

Lee MerckAll Enews, Planting Team

When is the last time you heard a pastor make a passionate plea for people to respond to God’s call to be a pastor, a missionary, or to be in full-time vocational ministry?  Better yet, if you are a pastor, when is the last time you emphasized following God’s call and invited people in your congregation to follow God into … Read More

Prayer Is the Work

Lee MerckAll Enews, Planting Team

In October of 2020, I began serving as the Lead Church Planting Catalyst for the state of Montana. When I received the call, there was no doubt in my mind that God had opened doors, and that He had prepared me and my family to lead the way in helping start new churches across the state of Montana. I was … Read More

Churches Planting Churches in Montana

Lee MerckAll Enews, Planting Team

As the Church Planting Team Leader, I have the privilege of working with pastors, churches, and church planters to spread the gospel and to plant new churches throughout Montana. It is a big task to which we’ve all been called. The reality is that churches plant churches, and we cannot accomplish the mission effectively without your leadership and participation, as … Read More

Day of Prayer and Fasting

Lee MerckAll Enews, Planting Team

FOUR ZERO SIX – The day of prayer and fasting for evangelism and church planting in Montana has been set for April 6, 2021. FOUR ZERO SIX is, of course, Montana’s area code! This date ties us directly to the idea of it being a state-wide effort. Will you set aside this day to pray and fast across Montana, for … Read More

MTSBC Uniting in Prayer for Montana

Lee MerckAll Enews, Planting Team

The MTSBC: Uniting in Praying for Montana As the New Year hastens forward, Montana Southern Baptists are agreeing with one another and praying together in unprecedented ways. We’ve organized around a very simple strategy that allows everyone to share in the same prayers for Montana, and to do so from the ministry context where God has called each of us. … Read More

Uniting in Prayer, Creating Spiritual Synergy in the MTSBC

Lee MerckAll Enews, Planting Team

You may have read the following illustration before: “One of the largest, strongest horses in the world is the Belgian draft horse. Competitions are held to see which horse can pull the most, and one Belgian can pull 8,000 pounds. The strength involved in this is hard to imagine. So then, we can speculate what would happen if we hooked … Read More

Introduction to the Montana-Alberta Partnership – Part 1

Lee MerckAll Enews

My name is Lee Merck. I have the privilege of serving as pastor of Church of the Rockies in Red Lodge. I am very excited about the opportunity to serve the MTSBC as coordinator of our new mission partnership with Alberta, Canada. In October of 2019, under the leadership of Dr. Barrett Duke, we as a state convention voted unanimously … Read More