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→1970: Meadow Ridge Bible Chapel, Fargo, ND: cleanup
==1970: Meadow Ridge Bible Chapel, Fargo, ND==
===Founding===Meadow Ridge Bible Chapel is the largest assembly in North Dakota. Paul Hipps had been in the Zion Christian Assembly in Sheboygan, WI and moved to the Fargo area in about 1970. He and his family, with Myron and Jean Losey who were Methodists, and Ron and Glenna Weidmann who were Baptists, began a Bible study as a follow up to a Billy Graham crusade in the Fargo area. The Hipps began to share New Testament assembly principles with them, which were quickly embraced. The group began Remembering remembering the Lord at the old YWCA building in Fargo and called their meeting simply An Assembly of Christian Brethren at the beginning.
At about this time, John Dabill, who had been in an ‘exclusive’ assembly in Minnesota, met one of the sisters in a Bible book store. He joined with those in the new Fargo assembly and had a passion for equipping the Christians there with books of the brethren writers.
The assembly operated a coffee house ministry in the early days. These were the days of the ‘Jesus People,’ to whom the ministry was principally directed. Several were saved in this outreach.
===1980's===
In the early 1980s, the Christians built their present chapel at 2198 Second Avenue E., calling it Meadow Ridge Bible Chapel. The elders have included Frank Brown, Kevin Brown, Gary Clark, Mark Wagar, and Myron Martinson. A feature of the assembly is that they retain the ‘open platform’ idea in the main Bible teaching time on Sunday mornings. This was taught by A.N. O’Brien from Duluth, and Ben Tuininga was a strong proponent of the open platform. Boyd Nicholson and John Phillips are among those who have preached at the assembly.
Teaming up with assemblies in Baudette, MN; Virginia, MN; and some in the Minneapolis area, the Christians at Meadow Ridge virtually rebuilt Story Book Lodge in Minnesota, making it a premier Bible Camp. They help staff the Box T Ranch, near Bismarck, each summer. The Meadow Ridge assembly holds a Bible Conference each year and sponsors Youth Conferences. In the last few years, spearheaded by Gary Clark and Myron Martinson, they have organized week-long Gospel campaigns to nearby cities, such as the 1998 campaign in Grand Forks where fifty young people gave a week to blanket the city with Gospel witnessing in conjunction with nightly evangelistic meetings in the Grand Forks civic center. The assembly has consistently had about 100 in fellowship throughout the years and has commended missionaries to the Lord’s work in Bolivia.
==Sources==