Montana history

Montana

In 1973, Doug and Jeanne Crabb moved to Montana, where they lived for 10 years in the Helena area. They began a Bible class that grew to several couples and youth. Eventually, Alvin and Gloria Shawver moved there and helped with the work at the newly formed assembly. They helped build the Helena Bible Chapel while living there. The meeting has ranged from 20 to 60 people. The assembly is now called Community Bible Fellowship. Walt and Marilyn Kertulla and Darreld and Brenda Scott and their families carry on the work at the present. Christians from this assembly travel to Basin, MT to preach the Gospel on Sunday evenings at a campground/trailer park. These Gospel meetings usually have good attendance.

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Prior to the founding in 1975 of the Plains Bible Chapel in Plains, its four founders were attending a new Christian fellowship and had not yet been incorporated. When the time came to formally organize, there was discussion and disagreement among those in the fellowship as to whether they should be a nondenominational, autonomous church or whether they should organize as a church with the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

The four men started looking into the Scriptures to see what the Biblical guidelines for meetings and leadership of Christian believers in the New Testament were. They concluded that the New Testament pattern for church leadership was to have a group of elders leading and serving the church together. Most of the fellowship decided, however, that they should organize as a denominational church. The four men opted not to be a part of it but began meeting together with their families in a separate weekly Bible study. A few other families joined them, making a total group of approximately 35 people.

The four men, Dwayne Bauer, Lynn Ausland, Ken McGann and Dennis Olson were chosen as the elders of the new assembly. They shared the preaching and leadership. The first meeting and a children’s church were held in March 1975. Children’s church was held at the home of Ray Steinbach, while the main service, with 39 people in attendance at the initial service, was held at the home of Larry Steinbach.

In time, the church outgrew home meetings and met in the Fairground Pavilion until the Plains Bible Chapel was built in 1979, constructed entirely from old, dead timber that was considered no good. Church members did all the logging and carpentering needed to erect the chapel.

In 1988, Joel Banham was invited to pastor the church. He is affiliated with the American Missionary Fellowship, a Christian service organization which allows home missionaries to be placed in small communities across the USA. Its goal is to assist in the growth of individual churches, developing them to the point of being self-supporting. Ken McGann and Dennis Olson still hold their positions as elders.

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The Glacier Bible Fellowship, MT was established by Doug and Jeanne Crabb in 1985 with as many as ten at the Breaking of Bread. The assembly first met in the basement of the Eagles Club in Kalispell, near Glacier National Park. When the Crabbs moved to nearby Whitefish, the assembly met in their home with a few local families. By 1987, all but one of those families had moved to other places for employment purposes, but seven were still Breaking Bread every Sunday morning. The assembly survived until about 1992 after the Crabbs left the area.

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The Bible Chapel in Stevensville, near the Idaho state line south of Missoula, began in 1977 at the instigation of Robert Sykes, Nathan Luibrand, and Jonathan Luibrand. In its own building, the assembly has a weekly attendance of about 80. The Bible Chapel is a hive-off from Mountain View Chapel in Missoula.

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Corvallis Bible Chapel in the small town of Corvallis, near Stevensville, hived off from the Bible Chapel in Stevensville in 1997, with six families. Leaders were then Nathan Luibrand, Peter Daley, Russ Koch, and Jim Gardner.

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In 1975, several saw the need for a Bible camp, and so the Crabbs began what has become Frontier Bible Camp, which has been a blessing to many kids. Doug Crabb also began High Trails Expeditions in 1975 with three young teens. These camps have grown to the point where some 100 youth attend these wilderness trail camps annually. Rick Norman of Stevensville directs these camps now. Doug Crabb also used the local Ham Radio Club as a means of witness in the area.

Sources

• Questionnaire Responses
• Uplook, February 1987, p. 63; March 1989, p. 104
• Letters of Interest, April 1962, p. 10