BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. – More than 600 pastors, church leaders and lay people traveled from across the country – 2,275 miles by plane from California, 11 hours by train from Louisiana or by car from across the region – to find renewal on “the mountain” at the 2026 Black Church Leadership and Family Conference (BCLFC).
Attendees fellowshipped, worshipped and soaked up the Word of God from July 20-24 at Ridgecrest Conference Center.
The theme, “Renewed,” comes from Colossians 3:5-11. Each night followed a different exploration of what it means to be renewed: refreshed, refocused, reinspired and reengaged.
Mark Croston, conference organizer and national director of Black Church Ministries at Lifeway, said the theme came from listening to what pastors, church leaders and families are facing in their churches and communities. After praying and talking with the conference advisory team, Croston said “Renewed” captured the need for leaders to be refreshed, to lay aside burdens and to return home ready for the work ahead.
“I hope they are renewed, fired up, energized and equipped to go back and do the work,” Croston said. He believes the setting plays a role in the renewal. “I think God can speak to you in a whole new way when you get out of your familiar surroundings.”
The conference serves not only pastors but church leaders, families and anyone seeking to grow in ministry, with dozens of breakout options offering practical ideas to take home, according to Croston.
Returning for its second year, the Black Church Discipleship Talk Show gave leaders a forum to discuss next-generation discipleship, women’s discipleship, AI and digital discipleship and leaving a legacy. Throughout the week, leaders from around the Southern Baptist Convention and partnering ministries like Samaritan’s Purse brought greetings.
While parents and grandparents gathered to be renewed, their students and kids participated in versions of Centrifuge and CentriKid designed specifically for the BCLFC.
Opportunity to reconnect with God worth the travel
Johnnell Williams from Mt. Zion Church of Ontario said the week gave him something he rarely gets after nearly 24 years in youth ministry: the chance to sit, learn and receive for himself.
“For me, it’s the whole revival type of feeling,” Williams said. “I get to reconnect with God again from a different perspective. It’s not like I’m doing it for the kids. I’m getting stuff for myself.”
For Mt. Zion, the trip to Black Mountain was years in the making. Adrienne Clay said she first experienced Lifeway camps and conferences at Glorieta, N.M., where the trip doubled as an affordable family vacation for her children.
After Glorieta closed, she kept telling leaders at the California church there was another place she wanted them to experience. A few leaders came first. This year, the group had grown to seven.
They repeatedly pointed to the encouragement, fellowship, training and relationships of the week. Clay said she keeps praying more leaders will come.
Senior pastor Brian Kennedy described the week as a time of meaningful relationships, leadership development and church connection. “You don’t have pretense. You have family,” Kennedy said. “This is research-based teaching. It is biblically centered, and it is Holy Ghost-filled teaching.”
Spiritual renewal delivered from the pulpit
On Monday night, Jeff Iorg, president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, preached on being refreshed by ministering “in the power and fullness of the Holy Spirit.”
From Ephesians 5:18, Iorg named five aspects of spiritual life that contribute to being filled with the Holy Spirit: being saved, surrendering the heart to God, stopping behavior that quenches the Spirit, practicing spiritual disciplines and implementing it all by faith.
He concluded, “I can’t think of anything better to pray than, Lord, fill me, and then use me for your glory.”
On Tuesday, Vernon Gordon, lead pastor of The Life Church in Richmond, Va., spoke on being refocused. His sermon, “Look Again,” drew from 2 Chronicles 20 and encouraged attendees to do just that.
“It’s in your battles that passion loses patience, that our fight turns to flight, that your love turns to liability. It’s in battles that our faith starts losing focus,” Gordon said.
King Jehoshaphat feared, but then he “set himself to seek the Lord.”
In a powerful sermon that had those gathered on their feet shouting in praise at the end, he encouraged attendees to check their purity, their people, their position and their praise.
“If I handle praise, He’ll handle my problems,” he encouraged. “Don’t stop looking, because when the enemy says no, God still says yes.”
The following evening, Andre Rogers, lead pastor of Concord Fellowship Baptist Church in Columbia, S.C., and professor of preaching at Columbia International University, encouraged attendees to be reinspired, drawing from the conference theme passage, Colossians 3:5-17.
“To be reinspired tonight, we’ve got to take off the old and put on some new stuff.” Rogers suggested the mountain was a great place to leave the old stuff.
Rogers reminded attendees to “remove what drains your spiritual life,” “renew your mind and identity,” “reflect Christ’s character” and “respond to God’s presence.”
“You cannot be renewed when you cling to the old nature,” Rogers said. “It’s not about your clothes or titles or degrees. It’s about what Christ is doing on the inside.”
The final keynote speaker of the conference, Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, La., spoke Thursday evening on the topic of being reengaged. Looking at Ezekiel 37:1-5, his sermon was titled, “How to reengage dry bones.”
“The theme suggests that at some point in our lives, our walk with God has become disengaged. The question tonight is, how do we reengage?” Luter posed.
Luter preached from the passage asking, “Can these bones live again?” He answered his own question: “My answer would be yes, Lord; however, several things must happen first.”
If the dry bones are to live again, they must “realize that they’re dry,” “hear the Word of God,” “respond to the Word of God,” and “be filled with the Spirit of God.”
As Luter quoted verse after verse, attendees stood to testify and shout.
“If you’re here tonight and suffering from the dry-bone syndrome, don’t despair and don’t lose hope,” he closed. “You can be renewed. You’ve come here in the valley but you can leave out on the mountaintop.”
Next year’s BCLFC will be hosted at Ridgecrest Conference Center on July 19-23, 2027. For more information, visit Lifeway.com/BlackChurch.
