HELENA, Mont. – The annual MPact Conference of the Montana Southern Baptist Convention was again provided for their pastors and church leadership with the help of several Missouri Baptist volunteers.
The conference was held in early March in a hotel conference facility in Helena. It aimed at training and providing fellowship for the Montana Baptist church leaders.
The conference theme was “Walking in the Lord: Spiritual Health for Ministry Effectiveness.”
The Crossway Baptist Church of Springfield provided the worship team under the leadership of Mark Mathes, minister of music and worship. He said their worship team really enjoyed going up to Montana to lead worship at this conference and they received great feedback from Montana Baptists.
Greg Payton, who is president of the Montana convention and pastor of The Rock Church in Laurel, Montana, said, “The CrossPoint worship team is talented, but the worship really comes their hearts.” The Rock Church provided the sound and media for the event and they worked closely with the Missouri group. The two churches have developed a close bond.
John Yeats, MBC Executive Director, spoke at the training and fellowship conference. Rick Hedger, MBC Multiplying Churches director, also spoke and led breakout sessions.
Hedger said the Missouri-Montana partnership is going well, and they are even seeing Montana Baptists come to Missouri to reciprocate with mission projects in the Show Me State. A group recently traveled to Poplar Bluff for a ministry conference.
Steve Fowler, who is the Montana Baptist partnership coordinator said, “The Missouri Baptist Convention partnership is the best I’ve ever been a part of in my denominational life.”
He added, “About 30 percent of Montana Southern Baptist churches have been impacted in some way by a Missouri Baptist Convention partnership project.” He said Missourians have been enthusiastic about coming up to Montana to help.
Payton said one of the things he likes about the Missouri connection is that while Montana pastors are spread out over a large geographical area and can experience loneliness, he knows they can pick up the phone and have a good encouraging talk with a Missouri pastor who partners with them.
He said, “From day one of this partnership MBC pastors have jumped in, in an amazing way. We are not having to beg anything from them, they are offering to come and help us.”
Hedger said there are plenty of projects available for Missouri Baptist churches and associations to plug in to. He urged MBC mission volunteers to check the partnership web page for connections at https://mobaptist.org/partnership-missions/samaria/.