The 1999 Montana Shepherd's Conference was held March 25-27 in Kalispell,
Montana. The guest speaker was Ted Haggard, Sr. Pastor of New Life Church, Colorado
Springs, Colorado and co-founder of the World Prayer Center.
One of the first themes to be developed was that of "divine appointment" and it
was clear from this beginning that this was the case. Ted has a way of taking some complex
topics and making them very simple and clear. He essentially taught from his books,
modifying it for the Montana crowd - you know, all of us Montana militia members, Y2K fear
mongers, closet Unabombers, anti-Trilateralists and fly fishermen. <grin>.
I was stunned at the amount of material Ted covered in three days. The most important
things I remember was the emphasis on unity in the local area, timing, false
victimization, the tree of life vs. the tree of knowledge of good & evil, and the
highlighting of relationships over strict organizational structures. Whew!
A group of First Nations brothers presented the host church (New Covenant Fellowship -
Columbia Falls) with war sticks and the pastor with a warbonnet. They also presented these
things to Ted. A long ministry session of prayer from the First Nations folks and from the
congregation followed.
We were also privileged to have DeWitt & Kim Young from Yakima, Washington minister
with black gospel. I was wondering how that would go over in Montana, but it was a hit,
with folks out in the aisles.
The testimonies went on and on, starting with the gang from Clark's Fork Christian Center
telling about their financial blessings as well as the outbreak of gold fillings and gold
dust. A number of gold fillings were reported in these meetings as well.
From my perspective, I never would have thought that so much could be accomplished so
quickly. I believe something really changed in Montana last week.