Clare Jewell speaking at the 2025 GARBC Conference at Harvest Bible Chapel.
Summer sunlight streamed into the atrium of Harvest Bible Chapel, Elgin, Illinois. Regular Baptist Ministries staff members stood at their stations while exhibitors arranged their displays, laying out literature, stickers, and dishes filled with candy to welcome people from churches across the country to the 2025 GARBC Conference.
Yet as church leaders and members, missionaries, and their families trickled in that steamy Monday afternoon, June 23, many pastors carried unseen burdens. Some felt the drag of dwindling attendance and tightening budgets; others bore the quiet ache of members in crisis or struggles back home. Like the heavy June heat, those tensions clung to them, betrayed in stiff smiles and hesitant handshakes. Beneath the surface, an unspoken hunger for empathy and encouragement filled the hall, waiting for its moment to be heard.
Warm greetings met attendees as they crossed the threshold, as invigorating as the cool rush of air that spilled into the summer heat. Welcome sights of friends lifted spirits. New faces served to remind that God was still at work in our fellowship, across regions, cultures, and ethnic groups. As conference materials were collected and children steered to their programs, weary servants readied their hearts for four days of challenge and encouragement, needing to be reminded that “Jesus Over Everything” places every problem within His reach.
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Greg Linscott is lead pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Rochester, Minn., and a past member of the GARBC Council of 18.
