Before a strategy was discussed, before a breakout room filled, and before church leaders opened notebooks to capture something they might carry home, the posture of the 2026 Church Leaders Conference had already been named:
Thy Kingdom Come.
Drawn from the prayer Jesus gave His disciples in Matthew 6:10, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” the words became more than a conference theme. Over two days at Riva Trace Baptist Church, they framed a gathering of pastors, ministry staff, and leaders who came to worship, learn, reflect, and consider again what faithfulness requires of those entrusted to lead.
In a ministry culture easily consumed by urgency, productivity, programs, and the persistent demands of what must be done next, the conference created room to remember why the work matters, and, more importantly, Whose work it ultimately is.
Worship placed that truth before us.
Across the room, hands were lifted. Leaders prayed together. Conversations unfolded around tables and in hallways. There was laughter, fellowship, attentive listening, and notebooks filling with ideas. Yet beneath all of it was something deeper: men and women who spend so much of themselves serving others taking time to be strengthened themselves.
Keynote speaker Travis Ogle reinforced that posture throughout the gathering. Now serving in executive leadership with Send Network after more than two decades of pastoral ministry, Ogle brought the perspective of someone who has both shepherded local congregations and led within broader ministry structures. But his emphasis was notably less about strategy and more about stewardship, about the kind of leaders those in the room are becoming.
One particularly memorable moment came as he encouraged leaders from Psalm 24:4-5, calling attention to clean hands, a pure heart, and lives rightly ordered before God. It was a fitting reminder that kingdom leadership begins long before a platform, plan, or ministry initiative. The condition of the leader matters.
That conviction echoed throughout the conference.
That is why the images of worship throughout the conference felt so fitting.
The same hands that would return home to write sermons, lead meetings, manage budgets, disciple believers, care for hurting people, organize ministries, and serve communities were first lifted in surrender.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done.
Leadership development, at its best, is not about building our kingdoms more effectively.
It is about becoming faithful stewards of His.
As leaders returned to their congregations and communities, they carried home practical tools, strengthened relationships, fresh encouragement, and ideas for the work ahead. But the greater invitation of the gathering remains one the Church must continually receive: to lead in such a way that our lives, our stewardship, and our ministries bear witness to the reign of Christ.
May His kingdom come. And through leaders increasingly formed in His likeness, may His will be done, here among us in Maryland & Delaware, as it is in heaven.
