BILLINGS, Mont. – Mikey Mewborn, vice president of student life at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, recently accepted a call as executive director/treasurer of the Montana Southern Baptist Convention. A friend’s connection, meetings with Montana Baptists and even a few family ski trips helped solidify Mewborn’s heart for the West.
Mewborn, who earned a Ph.D. in practical theology from MABTS in 2014, also is dean of students and chairman of the theology and church history division at the Memphis, Tenn., seminary.
“Mikey brings together the heart of a pastor, the mind of a theologian and the experience of a leader who loves the local church,” said Greg Payton, pastor of The Rock Church in Laurel, Mont., and chairman of the executive director search committee. “Montana Baptists were not simply looking for someone to fill a position. We were asking God to give us a leader who would love our pastors, strengthen our churches and help us reach Montana with the Gospel. We believe God has answered that prayer.”
Mewborn follows Barrett Duke, previously a vice president at the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Duke served nine years as Montana’s executive director and retired to Maryland last year.
Now 47, Mewborn has been in ministry for 26 years, with stints in children, youth and college ministries and served 18 years in Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee pastorates prior to joining the faculty at Mid-America Seminary in 2018. There he taught undergraduate and master’s level courses in systematic theology, biblical preaching, pastoral ministry, leadership development, church ministry, history of the Baptists, and religion in the public square.
He taught soteriology, Christology and eschatology at the doctoral level.
“I want to inspire and encourage pastors who are in the Gospel ministry,” Mewborn said. “That’s really what I want to do. I want to encourage, inspire and get them resources they need to succeed in their places of ministry.”
To that end, he has already heard from the Mid-South Baptist Association in Tennessee, which includes 170 churches. At its recent executive board meeting, the association voted to enter a partnership with Montana.
“Mitch Martin [the association’s executive director] served the Utah-Idaho Convention for several years,” Mewborn said. “That’s why when he heard I was going to Montana he said, ‘Mikey, the West has a huge place in my heart.’ The Mid-South Association doesn’t necessarily want to send church planters. They want to come alongside current churches and strengthen them.”
The Memphis, Tenn., area is a hard place to minister, Mewborn said, and Mid-South Baptist Association’s Southern Baptist churches have learned what it takes to thrive despite a variety of challenges.
The new executive director said he has already observed – from Zoom calls, an on-site meeting last December with the search committee, and subsequent meetings before and since he was elected at a specially called business session at MPact in March – that Montana Southern Baptist pastors and leaders “are extremely hardworking. They’re spread out across a huge state and have limited resources for ministry. We must work together to bring revival to our amazing state.
“I feel like the Lord has prepared me for this opportunity,” Mewborn continued. “When it comes to practical things, we are going to call out the called and train up ministers for the Gospel ministry. I hope to provide ample support for our seasoned churches as well as church plants. I’m deeply focused on coming alongside and encouraging our Montana pastors.”
Montana Southern Baptist Convention President Curtis Crow said the vote reflected both confidence in Mewborn and unity among Montana Baptists.
“Throughout this process, there was a clear desire to seek the Lord, listen carefully and move forward together,” Crow said. “Dr. Mewborn’s love for Scripture, commitment to evangelism and desire to encourage pastors make him a strong fit for this season in Montana Baptist life.”
The West has been in his heart for at least nine years, Mewborn said. He and his wife Emily – together they parent three children under age 8 – have traveled to Park City, Utah, the last 17 winters for what they were told was “the best snow on earth.”
Those ski trips often included preaching and teaching opportunities, and nine years ago a Utah pastor said to Mewborn, “Man, you ever felt a call on your life for the West?”
The couple prayed about it, and God showed them it wasn’t time.
Early in 2025, Montana pastor Jim Taber was talking with his longtime friend in Florida – JJ Johnson – about Duke retiring, and the search for a new executive director in Montana. That friend was Mewborn’s high school youth pastor.
He suggested Taber call Mewborn, who demurred. “I’m telling you, you need to call him!” Johnsonsaid.
“Well, he called me, and we instantly had a kindred heart for ministry,” Mewborn said. “We became great friends on the phone.”
Taber suggested, and then encouraged, Mewborn to come to Montana for a looksee, to preach, and to submit his resume.
“As soon as I arrived in Billings, I knew God had called us to Montana,” Mewborn said. “I was overjoyed to feel God moving us in this direction.”
Five months later, the search team and executive board held an onsite meeting in Helena, Mont. “As the pastors began to speak and ask me questions, it was obvious that this was where I was supposed to serve, and these were the people I wanted to serve alongside,” the new executive director said.
Mewborn plans to move to Montana July 1.
“My greatest desire is to see people come to know the Lord Jesus Christ on a personal level,” Mewborn said. “Whether in the classroom, the pulpit or now serving alongside Montana Baptists, I want to help people read, believe and live the Word of God. I am humbled by the trust Montana Baptists have placed in me, and I am excited to serve pastors and churches as we work together to make Christ known across this state.”
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