Editor’s Note: Brett Bartlett, pastor of Wyldewood Baptist Church in Lambertville, Mich., will be speaking during the HBF Bible Conference, Sept. 17-20. Pastor Bartlett was gracious enough to answer a few questions about his upcoming visit to Harrisonville.

Bartlett and his wife, Kimberly, have four children. Baylea is in college, with Molly and Connor in high school, and Cole in 7th grade.

How did you first get connected with HBF/Brian Hedges?

That is a great story, and it’s one of those things where I don’t know how it happened. All I can say is that I was up here in southeast Michigan, and nearly all the faith-based and King James churches in the area are very legalistic. The churches that look and feel like our church are not all Bible-based churches. I feel like I’ve been on an island to some extent.

Through Mark Trotter, I was invited to a conference in new Philadelphia, Ohio. I met Jeff and he asked me to speak at a Certainty Conference on the topic of Calvinism. It wsa there that I met all of these weird (in a good way) KC people. I couldn’t believe there were all these awesome people from the Kansas City area.

What are you excited to share at HBF?

I have heard about Brian Hedges for quite some time. Everyone always talks about how smart he is. Most smart people I’ve met tend to be somewhat immature, but Brian isn’t like that at all. He’s an intelligent, soft-spoken guy, in other words the exact opposite of me in every aspect. When he asked me to speak at your conference, I was very excited but I’ve also had a pit in my stomach ever since then. I will be preaching several messages on the Word of God, given the title of your conference. That is really hard to mess up.

What is something you want the people of HBF to know about you?

I really appreciate the fact that HBF is a mature church. We’ve been struggling to get our Living Faith Bible Institute up and going. I think it’s really cool that you guys have been doing it for so long I want to figure out the secret to the hot sauce. I just want the people of HBF know that even though I have never been to your church, friend of mine – Brian Clark and Jeff Bartel – have marveled how this church is so well-trained and able to do so much. That is a great testimony whether you all know it or not.