NAB Triennial 2024 – Becoming a People of Peace
Is “triennial” even a word? I had not heard that word until coming to Steamboat Baptist. This unique word also represents a unique conference experience that our denomination offers every three (tri) years (annual).
The Triennial Conference for our denomination of North American Baptists will be held this summer in St. Paul, MN and will probably be as close to Steamboat Rock as this conference gets for a long time. Pastor Stu Streeter, one of the NAB’s executive pastors, described this event as:
1. Part pastor’s conference – grow and reflect on ministry leadership.
2. Part family reunion – connect and reconnect with missionaries and congregations from across the US and Canada.
3. Part meeting of Movement-Makers – hear from and mobilize towards how God is moving in our churches and communities.
This year the theme of the conference is “Becoming a People of Peace”. As Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:14, “For He himself (Jesus Christ) is our Peace”. and there are three major implications that will be explored during the Triennial:
1. Christ’s power to restore peace between an individual and God
2. Christ’s desire to restore peace within the community of believers
3. Christ’s commission for the Church to reflect his peace to the world
I think that this conference would be a valuable use of your time and resources on its own, but this year our church has special opportunities to participate in this international conference:
1. Myself (Pastor John) and the SRBC Worship Team get to lead the musical worship for all of the main morning sessions for this conference!
2. I (Pastor John) get to serve on a small team that is responsible for the planning of all the main sessions for this conference.
This may not seem like much, but for me this seems like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve and participate in something that has such a wide reach for our denomination. We can act as “ambassadors” of our Upper Mississippi Region of the denomination as we represent the work we see the LORD doing here in rural Iowa.
So, ttere are three action-items I would ask for you to consider:
1. Sign-up and make plans to attend the Triennial with us! It will be held July 11-14 in St. Paul, MN. And you can sign-up here: https://nabconference.org/triennial/
2. Pray for our team as we plan and prepare to lead. That there would be a sense of excitement, unity, and humility in the planning, practice, and execution.
3. Consider making a small donation to help fund our team’s travel expenses. The NAB is covering cost of registration and hotel, but the volunteers of the Worship Team will be taking time off work and will require carpooling and meals for some extra rehearsal time in St. Paul before the conference starts.
I hope to see you there!
