Dr. Barrett Duke is the Executive Director and Treasurer of the Montana Southern Baptist Convention. He began this position in January 2017. In this role he manages the association of Southern Baptist Churches in Montana and provides leadership to their commitment to work together to reach Montana and the world for Christ.

Barrett came to Montana from Washington, D.C., where he served as Vice President for Public Policy and Research for the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. In that role, he directed the staff of the ERLC’s DC office and communicated Southern Baptist convictions to elected and public officials, including the President of the United States, members of Congress, and their staffs, in order to influence the development of sound public policy. 

Barrett has worked with legislators and various government agencies on many legislative and public policy issues, including sanctity of life, gambling, homosexuality, immigration reform, judicial nominations, pornography, public education, religious liberty, sex trafficking, and substance abuse.  He spoke regularly on Christian worldview and related topics in many religious and civic settings.

Barrett also has an active writing ministry. He has contributed articles for books, journals, and other venues on such topics as religious liberty, the sanctity of human life, Christian engagement in culture and politics, alcohol and drug use, capital punishment, and gambling. He is quoted frequently in Baptist Press and has numerous articles posted on the ERLC’s web site. He also translated portions of the Hebrew and Aramaic texts of the Old Testament for the Holman Christian Standard Bible and is a contributor to the Broadman and Holman Apologetics Study Bible.

 Barrett has participated in church denominational life in numerous capacities. He was President of the Denver Association Pastor’s Conference from 1992 to 1993. He served on the Board of Trustees of the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in San Francisco (now Gateway Seminary in Ontario, CA) from 1991 to 1996. Barrett also served on the Seminary Extension Task Force for Colorado, which established a permanent satellite school of the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado. He was an adjunct professor of Old Testament for the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s extension school in Nashville. He also taught Old Testament and Hebrew at the Denver Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary for four years, and he has been a guest lecturer in ethics and related fields at all six seminaries of the Southern Baptist Convention. Most recently, he was Visiting Professor of Public Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Barrett received the BA degree, with a major in Bible, in 1982 from the Criswell College in Dallas, Texas. During his years at the Criswell College, he served as Student Body Vice President and President. He received the MA degree in Old Testament Studies in 1985 from Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary in Denver, Colorado. While at Denver Seminary, he participated in a 3-week study tour of Israel at the Institute of Holy Land Studies in Jerusalem, Israel. In 1999, he received the Ph.D. in Religious and Theological Studies from the joint doctoral program of the Iliff School of Theology and the University of Denver, where he majored in Biblical Interpretation with an emphasis in Old Testament studies.

Barrett was the founding pastor of Cornerstone Church in a suburb of Denver, Colorado, from 1984 to 1996, leading a small home Bible study group of 13 people to organize as a church of nearly 200. In addition, he led the congregation to purchase 8 acres of land and build a 22,000 square foot first phase church building in a growing suburb of Denver. Barrett is married with three grown children and makes his home in Montana. He and his wife, Denise, are members of a Baptist church in Billings, Montana. He enjoys preaching from God’s Word and does so as often as he can in his home church and around the state.