Many people work most of their adult lives in the hopes that when they reach a certain age, they will be able to retire; putting in long hours and even at times missing important events to be able to enjoy those “golden years.” For Pastor Lee Engbretson, God had other plans when he reached retirement. God called him to plant … Read More
Annual Church Profile
By now, your church should have received your Annual Church Profile (ACP) materials in the mail. Although this seems like a mundane and even unnecessary detail in your mission to advance the kingdom of God, here are some reasons why it is important: • Numbers can help us strategize, plan, and know where God is working. • They can also … Read More
Study: Young Bible readers more likely to be faithful adults
NASHVILLE (BP) — Most churchgoing Protestant parents of young adults say their kids grew up to be Christians. But half of them don’t actually practice the Christian faith, their parents say, according to a LifeWay Research survey released today (Oct. 17). And the biggest factor predicting their spiritual health as young adults is whether they read the Bible regularly as … Read More
Characteristics of Evangelistic Churches
I’m looking forward to our annual meeting in a few weeks. We have powerful speakers, great breakout sessions, and more planned for our time together. I’m glad the meeting is called Refresh. The name reminds us that we should come together expecting God to move in our midst and refresh us by His Spirit and through our fellowship together. We … Read More
Get Real West is Just Around the Corner
Get Real West (GRW) is just around the corner on November 10-11 in Missoula, MT. Are your students going? Inspiring and equipping students to share their faith this year is evangelist Ronnie Hill. Ronnie has a passion to see people respond to Jesus! He was saved at the age of 8 and it was not long until his gift of … Read More
Doug Hutcheson Retiring
Well, my old friend, Doug Hutcheson, is about to take that inevitable leap into retirement. I met Doug in about 1994 at Family Camp on the Boulder. He was part of a crop of new, young pastors that seemed to descend as a herd onto the MTSBC scene. I suppose I was part of that herd. Doug and I seemed … Read More
A Dream Fulfilled
The Payton family has always had a lot going on. Not only is Greg busy pastoring a church and participating in other ministry engagements, his wife, Patty, works full time and leads the children’s ministry at The Rock Church in Laurel. Having three boys active in music and football, things never seemed to slow down. As satisfied as they were … Read More
Caring for Our City
In 1980, I became a pastor full time. Over the years, there have been things I really liked to do and then there was one thing that I really didn’t like. That one thing that I made myself do was to visit people in the hospital. My wife, Sylvia, has been a great help in this area, because often she … Read More
God Uses the Unexpected
Bob Keele and his wife, Dahlia, met and married right after he graduated from Hysham High School in 1988. They immediately started a journey of discovering that you can leave God’s calling in the background, but He will never truly take it away! Bob knew from an early age that God was calling him into some sort of ministry, but … Read More