A record number of guests attended the Refresh Conference at Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary January 31–February 2. “This marks the fifth year in a row that the Refresh Conference has broken its attendance record,” Faith says. A total of 341 ministry leaders—representing 27 states and seven countries outside the U.S—attended the conference, now in its ninth year.
“The record number of attendees is confirmation that the Refresh Conference is reaching its goal to offer pastors, missionaries, and ministry leaders encouragement and spiritual nourishment,” Faith says.
Guests “relished the opportunity to sit under others’ preaching for a few days,” Faith says. One of those guests was David Strope, interim national representative of the GARBC. “As someone who is regularly giving out and serving and preaching,” Strope says, “I always like to hear good preaching and to hear God speak through others. That’s really an encouragement to me.”
Another Regular Baptist Ministries staff member in attendance was Matt Olmstead, director of Regular Baptist Press. On the second day of the conference, he held a town hall meeting, where customers of RBP gathered to talk about its products. He invited feedback and ideas from those attending.
“We had a good conversation about how their respective ministries use our products to disciple people for the glory of God,” Matt says. The conference, he says, was an opportune time “to meet face-to-face with customers and learn about their ministries and how we might better serve them in the future.”
Main sessions and workshops addressed the theme “Soldier On: Train. Endure.” Jim Tillotson, president of Faith, addressed pastoral burnout and discouragement in ministry.
“He graciously reminded everyone that we are not strong enough on our own to continue in ministry for a lifetime,” Faith says. “When we seek success and longevity in ministry in our strength, we are merely nodding to Christ rather than kneeling to Christ. [Dr. Tillotson] exhorted us to endure, explaining that it’s easy to quit but hard to endure, yet endurance is what encourages the next generation of leaders to continue preparing for ministry.”
Among the additional speakers were Jason LaFlamme, pastor of Munising Baptist Church, Wetmore, Michigan; Doug Brown, youth and Christian education pastor at Faith Baptist Church, Cambridge, Iowa, and professor and dean at Faith’s seminary; Tim Capon, state representative of the Iowa Association of Regular Baptist Churches; and Dennis Wilkening, former pastor of First Baptist Church, Colville, Washington.
Jason Blunk, pastor of Ankeny (Iowa) Baptist Church, attended Dennis Wilkening’s preconference workshop “Getting Things Done in Ministry” and described it as “super helpful, super practical. Lots to take away. Actually, I’ve already put a couple of things into practice this week.”
Dr. Wilkening is a professor of Biblical counseling at Faith. In addition to leading a preconference workshop, he also closed out the conference with his message “The Incredible Impact of Being Chosen.” Faith says, “He encouraged pastors to recapture the wonder and joy they had at the outset of ministry when they could hardly fathom the profound privilege of being chosen by God to serve Him in the pastorate.”
Faith is now planning its 2025 Refresh Conference, “Leadership: Uniquely Called. Uniformly Focused.” The school is privileged to offer this conference each year, “creating space for sweet fellowship with like-minded servants of Christ and inspirational, thought-provoking preaching and practical teaching.”
