Tag Archives: missions

Why We Are Moving To Montana

In a few days, my wife and I will pack up our three small children and move to Ennis, Montana, where I will serve as the Pastor of Madison Valley Baptist Church. For the first time in my life, other than when I moved to college a few miles south of the Alabama border in Florida, I will be moving outside of Alabama. As we shared this news, many people asked, “Why?” On the surface, their question makes a great deal of sense. Why would we pack up our family to move to the other side of the continent, away from family and friends to an area that is as cold as it is remote? The simple answer is that we know God has called us to this ministry. However, I wanted to take some time to provide a long-form answer on why we are moving to Montana and how you can get involved.

So Why Montana?

The Calling:

    Dietrich Bonhoeffer is famously quoted as saying, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” The calling to follow Christ is a call to serve Him and surrender our lives to His perfect, providential plan, even if that plan is hard for us to understand. In January of 2024, I was happily pastoring in Gadsden, Alabama. I served alongside a great staff, had a very comfortable home, loved our community, and had zero intention of ever leaving. After returning from an anniversary trip with my wife in late January 2024, it became almost immediately apparent that we would have to leave due to serious ministry challenges and disagreements beyond my control. Suffice it to say that my resignation as Senior Pastor was one of my life’s most difficult days and came with much pain and confusion. On that day in March 2024, everything changed. The staff I loved working with was gone, the home we loved was on the market, I had no idea where the Lord would call me to serve next, and on top of it all, on the same day I resigned, Roselyn informed me that she was pregnant with our third child. Our lives had been turned upside down almost instantly.

    Today, exactly a year after my resignation, we are preparing to move across the country to begin a new ministry. But the year in between was challenging, sanctifying, and clarifying in many ways. To begin, the question of where we would serve next was wide open. Of course, the church would need to share critical convictions (more on that later), but the size, shape, and location of the church were things that we were open to exploring. We talked with churches all over the country, big churches, small churches, urban churches, rural churches, and everything in-between. However, the Lord kept closing doors. All the while, we moved in with family in Huntsville, Alabama, to plug into Providence Baptist Church, a healthy, Gospel-preaching church. I cannot express enough how thankful we are to our Providence Baptist family. God used the church as a balm for our soul in a critical time. Their prayerful support and kindness have been a tremendous grace to us.

    Throughout this time, Roselyn and I prayed more than ever. We cried more than ever. Yet, God’s grace to us shone brighter than ever. He faithfully provided for our every need, including providing a buyer for our home and the safe delivery of our third child, Josiah. Through every heartbreaking moment we waited, we knew that the Lord had a perfect plan for us. The Lord used that year to refine our desires regarding the type of church, ministry, and community we wanted to serve. Throughout the year, Roselyn and I repeatedly returned to the topic of Montana and the idea of serving the Lord there in some capacity, whether through church planting or established church ministry. The one thing we knew for sure was that God had called me into pastoral ministry. This calling drives me. The call to preach the Gospel sometimes means moving your family across the country. But with that calling, comes the reminder that God’s perfect plan is just that, perfect. So we are excitedly trusting and walking in faith in God’s gracious plan for us to Montana.

    The Convictions:

    As I mentioned earlier, for fruitful ministry, churches must be convictionally aligned. Between leaving my previous church, plugging into a healthy church, and moving to a new ministry, I became convicted of the importance of convictional alignment. The concept of theological triage is beneficial in understanding the degrees and needs of doctrinal alignment for churches. Naturally, our new place of ministry would need to agree on the nature of the Gospel as being by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. We must agree on the nature of God, the inerrancy, authority, and sufficiency of the Bible, and the importance of missions and evangelism.

    However, one of the critical areas for me as we sought a new church to serve was ecclesiology and specifically, elder-led congregationalism. God desires churches to do things “decently and in order.” (1 Cor. 14:40). I am also convicted that God desires for churches to be led by a plurality of elders. This article is not a defense of elder-led congregationalism, although I am happy to do so and many others have done an exceptional job showing the veracity of this argument from Scripture. This is simply to say, that I was seeking out elder-led churches who shared critical convictions and desired to grow in the Word. Furthermore, I am a convictional proponent of expository preaching, God-honoring congregational worship, and doctrinal discipleship. I was seeking a church that embraced these convictions and was excited about a pastor who would lead in this direction.  

    The Church:

    I have a calling to preach the Gospel. I was seeking a place to do that in which I could honestly live out my convictions. When I saw the listing for Madison Valley Baptist Church, I was immediately intrigued. MVBC is an elder-led SBC church nestled in the Madison Valley of Southwest Montana. The church is a unique combination of people who have relocated from elsewhere around the United States and people whose families have been in Montana for generations. The church has a profound love for the Word, an attitude of quickness to prayer, and a deep desire to see the people of the Madison Valley come to know Christ.

    Upon our first conversation with the search committee, Roselyn and I knew that the Lord was moving in this direction. The Lord had knit our hearts together with the people on the committee in a very quick and real way. He had given us a profound love for the church and its community that can only be described as a supernatural leading. What we found was that the church shared convictions with us on things even beyond those in my earlier list. We had similar convictions on philosophy of children’s ministry, parenting, and education. We shared lifestyle views and political views. On top of that, the people were among some of the most genuinely friendly and welcoming people I’ve ever been around. All of this is to say that the Lord gave us the desires of our heart in allowing us to serve Him at Madison Valley Baptist Church. We believe the church and its context in Montana (more in a moment) uniquely position us to be effective and fruitful in ministry there for a long time.

    The Context:

    The context of Ennis, Montana is an interesting thing in and of itself. For personal context, Roselyn and I had both been on mission trips to Montana to support church planting there alongside my friend, Darryl Brunson, the founding pastor of Expedition Church in Livingston, Montana. Through our work with Darryl, the Lord gave me a tremendous burden for the people of Montana. One of the tasks Darryl gave us was to do site assessments, prayer, and evangelism for prospective church plant locations. The more we drove around the state and met people, the more we saw the pervasive lostness and the need for healthy churches. According to the Montana Southern Baptist Convention:

    “Montana is considered a new work state, meaning that it is a largely unreached mission field. Southern Baptists in Montana represent less than 1% of the population and Evangelicals number less than 10%. The geography itself is one of our greatest challenges as many communities, churches and pastors and their wives are isolated and are often measured by the hours it takes to travel to the closest Walmart. The climate is also challenging with temperatures as low as 35 below in the winter and exceeding 100 degrees in the summer.”

    In short, there is a critical need for healthy churches that preach the Gospel. While Montana is politically conservative, their conservatism is largely separated from Christ. Furthermore, the rugged individualism of the Rocky Mountain West allows for a “pull myself up by my bootstraps mentality,” that when applied to spiritual matters is dangerously close to a works-based gospel. Finally, with the abundance of natural beauty in Montana, many people are tempted to follow in the footsteps of those in Romans 1 who exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped the creation rather than the Creator.

    There is tremendous need for healthy church work throughout the state. This need makes serving a church like Madison Valley even more appealing because we are helping to meet that need and prayerfully becoming a launching point for further Gospel ministry in Southwest Montana. Rural ministry in this setting is particularly attractive to me because of the importance of relationships and shepherding. It is my desire to know my congregation on an intimate level and truly come alongside them to shepherd them in the Word. To summarize, Montana is a largely unreached and lost state. We need more Gospel ministry in the state. When presented with this opportunity, we had no choice but to say, “Here we are Lord, send us.”

    How You Can Get Involved:

    If you are reading this, I covet your prayers. This will be a big transition for my family and a big undertaking for MVBC as we seek to faithfully live for Christ and see the Gospel advance in the Madison Valley and to the ends of the Earth. Many people have reached out asking how they can come alongside us to see the Gospel go forward in Montana and how they can be involved. If you are interested in getting involved, here are some ways you can help:

    Pray

    As my grandmother used to say, “Prayer is something we can do for each other that doesn’t cost us a thing.” We covet your prayers in many ways. First, you can pray for a smooth moving process as we will drive cross-country with our stuff and three children, ages three and under. Second, you can pray for an easy transition as we settle into Montana culture, new ministry and life rhythms, and in building new relationships with our congregation and the community. Third, you can pray for the Gospel ministry of MVBC. My prayer for the church comes from Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church in Ephesians 1:18-19. I pray that the church would know “the hope to which He has called” us, “the riches of His glorious inheritance,” and “the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe.” If we know these promises and the nature of God, we will be bold and zealous in evangelism, grow in deeper discipleship, and grow in conformity with God’s Word and will for our church. Furthermore, you can pray that God would raise up faithful, qualified men to serve as elders at MVBC. Above all else, pray that the Lord’s will be done at MVBC and that everything we do would glorify Him.

    Come Help

    The Lord used mission trips to Montana to prepare us for His calling to serve in full-time ministry there. While He may not be calling you to move to Montana, you and your church can definitely impact the Treasure State for the Gospel by partnering with faithful churches in Montana to do short-term mission trips or financial partnership. We would love to connect you with opportunities to come to Montana and come alongside faithful churches in cooperative Gospel ministry. However, like us, some of you may be future Montanans. You may be wondering how you can serve the Lord. Maybe you are retired, you can work remotely, or you are interested in moving to see the beauty of the Gospel proclaimed in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Montana needs faithful Christians willing to boldly live their lives for Christ. This is not just for pastors or church planters, but also for faithful lay elders, deacons, church members and volunteers. Whether through short-term trips, relocating, or even praying or giving, there are so many opportunities for you and your church to impact Montana for the Gospel. I would challenge you to prayerfully consider how the Lord might be leading you in this regard.

    In closing, we are moving to Montana to faithfully proclaim the Gospel by God’s grace at a church that shares our convictions and desires to see the glory of God displayed in Montana. . you are interested in following along with our journey and ministry in Montana keep your eyes open and check back here for an upcoming newsletter sign-up.

    Isaiah 6:8 (LSB): “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

    Shout On, Pray On, We’re Gaining Ground.

    Within the world of church music lies a specific style known as Sacred Harp music. Sacred Harp music is a form of hymn-singing that is a capella and relies on shape notes. A few years ago, I fell in love with a Sacred Harp hymn known as Antioch 277. The chorus rings out: “Shout on, pray on, we’re gaining ground. Glory, Hallelujah! The dead’s alive and the lost is found. Glory, Hallelujah!”

    “Shout on, pray on, we’re gaining ground. Glory, Hallelujah! The dead’s alive and the lost is found. Glory, Hallelujah!”

    Antioch 277

    On the surface, the idea of gaining ground seems foreign, if not wrong, to many Christians in the 21st century. After all, isn’t the culture and the world around us snowballing downhill, face-first into greater and greater depravity? Is not the moral compass of our current culture more confused than ever on things like the sanctity of life, sexual ethics, recreational drug use, and social justice? The clear manifestation of the sins of the world leaves many Christians wondering in what sense we are “gaining ground.”

    Yet, Scripture is clear in telling us that we are gaining ground in undeniable ways. In Colossians 1, the apostle Paul writes to the Colossian church, rejoicing with thanksgiving that the Gospel had come to them “as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing.” (Col. 1:6) Furthermore, Paul says that even amongst the Colossian church, he prays that the Gospel would bear the fruit of sanctification and increase the believers’ knowledge of God. At the very moment when Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the Gospel was gaining ground, he was imprisoned in Rome, the city of Colosse was in economic decline, and dangerous heresy was running amok. This setting hardly sounds like gaining ground. And yet, Paul tells us that even then, and even now, the Gospel is gaining ground.

    This passage reveals two distinct ways that the Gospel is gaining ground. The first is the literal spread of the Gospel and more and more people coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ by the grace of God. Right now, throughout the world, the Gospel is going forward through the faithful and sacrificial work of Bible preaching missionaries and pastors. As R.A. Torrey notes, the verse is not talking about more Bibles being printed. Rather, Paul is saying that throughout the world, the truth of the Gospel is being believed by God’s grace and people are being “delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred” into the Kingdom of God. (Col. 1:13)

    It is so easy for us to get trapped in only thinking about our area, our political landscape, our country, and our view of the world, which can easily color our thinking about the advance of the Gospel in a negative way. Growing up in South Alabama, in the politically conservative Bible Belt, I was truly and sincerely shocked to find out that there were actually Christians in California when I got older. Much less in places like China, Syria, and Chile, and the Congo. Yet, throughout the world, whether I believed it or not, faithful brothers and sisters were preaching the Gospel and the Gospel was bearing fruit and increasing by the grace of God. We need to shift from a self-centric viewpoint that only sees what is right in front of us to a church-centric viewpoint that views the world through the lens of the church universal. In other words, we should not only think about the advance of the Gospel and the fruit of that advance in terms of our life, or even our local church, but we should see that what God is doing is bigger than just us. God is moving all over the world, calling His people to salvation, and sanctifying His people to greater holiness. So, when we are tempted to be discouraged that we may be in a drier season in terms of fruit in our personal life or in our local church’s ministry, we should remember that God is working all over the world. We should speak with our mission partners and hear their stories. We should remember that God is accomplishing His perfect plan, and that not even the gates of hell can prevail against His church.

    How do we respond to this glorious truth? We shout on and we pray on. We rejoice in the work that God is doing. We rejoice in the work of faithful churches, missionaries, and missions sending agencies. We rejoice that God is not still, sleeping, or slumbering. We pray for the work to be done, that God would raise up faithful missionaries, break the hearts of the lost, and draw people unto Himself. Additionally, we pray that our own personal efforts in sharing the Gospel would be effective.

    However, the passage has more to tell us. The second way that we are gaining ground is in terms of the sanctification of believers in Christ. If we are truly saved by the grace of God, we are being sanctified by the grace of God. In other words, all true believers are gaining ground in their pursuit of holiness by God’s grace. Paul clearly states that the Gospel has continued to bear fruit in the Colossian church from the moment they “heard and understood the grace of God in truth.” (Col. 1:6) Paul continues by praying for the Colossian church that they would be sanctified. In Colossians 1:9-12, Paul outlines key areas where he is praying for their sanctification. He prays that the church would bear fruit, increase in the knowledge of God, be strengthened for endurance and patience, and be thankful for the grace of God to them.

    In the same way, we can rejoice that God is sanctifying us, as true believers, as well. Just as the Colossian believers were growing in grace from the moment they heard and believed the Gospel, so too are we who believe today. Therefore, each day, as we press on in the Christian life, we are gaining ground. As John Newton, the former slave ship captain and author of Amazing Grace, once wrote: “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”

    “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”

    John Newton

    Newton rejoiced that he was no longer the callous slave ship captain and rested in the amazing grace that saved such a wretch as him. Newton realized that though he still failed, he had gained ground by God’s grace. While our story is likely different from Newton’s, we too have gained ground from when we first believed. We are not where we want to be or where we will be when we enter eternity, but we are not where we were and that deserves rejoicing and prayer. Shout on. Rejoice in the work that God has done in your life. Pray on. Pray that God would draw you ever nearer to Him and that He would shape you into greater holiness.

    These are two undeniable ways that Christians are gaining ground. God is adding to our number daily through the advance of the Gospel by His Grace. God is sanctifying us day by day by His Grace. In both cases, we can and must say, “Glory, Hallelujah!” I am not arguing for some pie in the sky optimism. But I am arguing for Gospel rejoicing over the fact that God’s Word is accomplishing its purpose, that dead hearts are raised to life by the grace of God, and that we are growing in grace. We must always keep perspective by seeing the big picture of God’s work throughout the world. So, shout on, pray on. We are gaining ground. Glory, Hallelujah!