Accelerate 2025 marked by ‘a call to return to the altar’ and bold moves
By Macala Mays
HARRISBURG (BRN) – Guests at the fifth annual Baptist Resource Network (BRN) of Pennsylvania/South Jersey Accelerate Conference were challenged with sidelining the timid and accepting a call to bold prayer, bold impact and boldly loving their neighbors on Oct. 7 at the Sheraton Harrisburg-Hershey Hotel in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
At the conference, which serves as the state convention’s annual meeting, the BRN welcomed 245 guests, who collectively represented 84 churches across Pennsylvania and South Jersey and 31 partner organizations.
Business Session
As a precursor to the conference, the BRN held its 55th annual business session, where BRN Executive Board President Pastor Jason Hunter, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Clarion, greeted 109 messengers and presented his presidential report.
Following Hunter’s address, BRN Executive Director Barry Whitworth delivered quick highlights from the 2024-2025 year via video. Whitworth delved deeper into these highlights later in the day during his keynote address.
Recording Secretary Jennifer Musser presented the Nominating Committee’s candidate for president, recommending Pastor Jason Hunter for a second presidential term. BRN messengers unanimously voted in favor of Hunter serving a second year as the BRN Executive Board president. Hunter’s new presidential term will expire in 2027.
The final item messengers voted on was the BRN’s proposed budget for 2026 of $2,483,250, which is roughly 5 percent higher than last year’s budget. With cooperative missions giving through the Cooperative Program tracking higher than ever before throughout the year, the 2026 proposed budget also asked messengers for a 1-point increase in CP giving beyond Pennsylvania/South Jersey.
This would raise the percentage of CP funds funneled to national and global efforts overseen by the Southern Baptist Convention to 35 percent, with 65 percent of CP funds given by BRN churches remaining in Pennsylvania/South Jersey for local missions and church resourcing. The previous split was 66/34.
Apart from CP giving and other ministry expenses, the budget also accounted for BRN operational costs and expenses for 2026. The purposed budget projects 62 percent of all BRN expenses will be related to missions and ministry, while 38 percent of the budget will be dedicated to operations and personnel expenses related to the BRN.
Messengers voted to pass the proposed budget, approving an increase in CP giving for the eighth year in a row – a 1-point increase every year since Whitworth took over as executive director.
The business session concluded with Hunter exhorting messengers with Matthew 22:15-22.
In this passage, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees about paying taxes to Caesar. He quickly retorts their attempt to entangle his words by pointing to the inscription on the coin and challenging them to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21 ESV).
Pulling from Jesus’ response, Hunter encouraged messengers with the truth that “we bear the image of God” and that the “the Imago Dei is pressed into every one of us.” He expressed that he sees this truth reflected through the work of the BRN and its churches and pastors, which makes him “excited about the work we are doing at the BRN.”
A call to return to the altar
In his keynote address, Whitworth touched on this exciting work, noting several initiatives the BRN has accomplished thus far into 2025 and a few that are yet to come. Of the 2025 highlights, Whitworth mentioned the BRN’s annual Serve PA/SJ Tour.
This year, more than 500 volunteers from the BRN’s two-state region and beyond converged in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton region to partner with six local churches and complete 54 projects over the span of two-days. This missional effort resulted in 10,000 hours of service, 8,500 people served, 1,500 gospel conversations and 35 decisions for Christ.
Looking forward, Whitworth encouraged churches to continue in their generous giving to the Cooperative Program by announcing a centennial CP challenge.
“As we celebrate 100 years of Cooperative Program impact, we invite churches to pray and consider an extra $100 gift – monthly, quarterly or annually. These gifts will advance global missions and help reach 14 million lost people in Pennsylvania/South Jersey,” said Whitworth.
Montana Baptists celebrate positive trends in church growth, baptisms
By Karen L. Willoughby
BELGRADE, Mont. – The Montana Southern Baptist Convention personalizes its annual meeting.
Rather than reports from state ministry leaders and Southern Baptist national entities, messengers listen to panel discussions that highlight the points speakers would otherwise make in five-minute reports too easy to tune out.
“I started this a few years ago,” MTSBC Executive Director Barrett Duke told Baptist Press. “The entities send a representative who brings a canned speech and our folks weren’t connecting. This way – a panel discussion with me asking each one questions – our folks get to see the breadth of ministry that is SBC life and a more personal approach to what it means to be part of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“It felt like we needed to do the same thing with our leaders from Montana,” Duke continued. “Darren Hales, MTSBC Church Strengthening Director, leads that panel discussion with a half-dozen or so of our MTSBC leaders. It’s probably one of the more effective ways we’ve found for our pastors and church family to see how significant it is to be part of the SBC.”
This year’s annual meeting – Montana calls it “Refresh” – took place Oct. 2-3 at the Bridge Church in Belgrade, near Bozeman. The 140 in attendance included 67 messengers from 33 of Montana’s 130 churches and church-type missions.
Worship was led by the Bridge worship team. Paul Chitwood, president of the International Mission Board, was guest speaker.
“He spoke from Nehemiah on the importance of staying focused on our task and of course our task is missions,” Duke reported.
Breakout sessions Friday morning included “Empowering Discipleship” led by Jesse Connors of TrueLife.org, “Every Church Renewed” by MTSBC’s Hales, and “Pastors’ Wives Together,” led by an IMB missionary serving in the Americas.
Business moved quickly with no motions, no resolutions and limited discussion. One messenger spoke for many. “How are we doing financially?”
The anticipated $700,000 in Cooperative Program giving for 2026 is “not a record but significant progress from 2025’s deficit budget of $625,000,” Barrett said. That deficit was made up by the end of August, he added.
“COVID and inflation took a toll on giving last year. Last year was one of the smallest CP budgets in the nine years I’ve been here,” the executive director continued. “I believe our churches are coming back around. It’s been a lean few years but I think churches are settling down again. We’re planting more churches than ever before. Baptisms are also up.”
Montana’s Southern Baptist churches “baptized 609 souls in 2024,” Duke said. “While that’s slightly less than 2023, it still marks a significant trend. We held above the 600 mark for the second year.”
Montana has baptized a total of 2,557 people during the first five years of this decade.
Messengers approved a $985,000 budget for 2026, including up to $160,000 from the North American Mission Board for church planting and evangelism. This includes 25 percent of undesignated offerings for national and international SBC missions and ministries.
“It’s been 25 percent since before I got here” in 2016, Duke said. “I feel that’s pretty good. For us to give 25 percent is more significant than it might look. Our people do with fewer services from their state convention in order to send 25 percent to national. Many of our state conventions give a higher percentage to our national work, but they receive considerably more in CP giving, so they still have more money left to provide ministry to their churches than we have.”
Curtis Crow, pastor of The Bridge Church in Belgrade, was elected to his first one-year term as president. Zane Officer, pastor of Libby Baptist Church in the far northwest corner of Montana, was elected to his first term as vice-president.
Partnerships with the Missouri Baptist Convention, now in its fifth year of a seven-year agreement, and Alberta, Canada, restarted this year after a COVID-related hiatus, are bearing fruit.
“We’re planting more churches now than we have in decades,” Duke said. “It has helped to have a couple of good church planting directors – Lee Merck and now Dave Howeth – and to be a NAMB Send state which gains us more visibility with Southern Baptists and more resources.”
This was Duke’s final annual meeting. He has retired from his role in Montana and moved to Maryland near grandchildren. He received a standing ovation and gifts during recognition of the difference he has made in the Montana Southern Baptist Convention.
The executive director search committee announced they have “some quality candidates” they are continuing to interview.
Montana’s next annual meeting – Refresh – is set for Oct. 1-2, 2026.
