Libby Baptist Church celebrates 50 years
On the front page of The Western News on Feb. 11, 1965, there was an announcement of the purchase of 60,000 square feet of land immediately west of Dr. Woodrow Nelson’s office on Cedar Street in Libby. The purpose: a new home for the Libby Baptist Mission, which had been meeting at the home of the Rev. Henry A. Tidwell, Jr. at 510 Nevada Avenue.
The Libby Baptist Mission held its Formal Organizational Service in March 1965 to become the 28th constituted Southern Baptist church in Montana. This Sunday, April 19, the church will hold a ceremony celebrating 50 years of service in the community.
Charter member of the church, Connie Rowley, had always dreamed of being able to walk from her home near the radio station building to church on Sundays. In the summer of 1965, she and a group of five or six other couples saw that become a reality after Southern Baptist Convention members from Mississippi and other locations sent volunteers to help build the first Libby Baptist Church. The sponsoring church was the Easthaven Baptist Church in Kalispell.
“It’s the only thing I’m a charter member of,” Rowley said. “Highlights and sad parts of my life have all been clustered around that church.”
Funerals for Rowley’s daughter and husband were held at the current church, which was built in 1987. Her daughter’s son was also baptized there.
“I’ve got a lot of memories. When we talk about the church-family, the members and faces may change, but it’s still a family and we still look out for one another,” Rowley said.
Rowley is the sole living charter member and plans to return for the 50-year celebration.
“Number one, I can’t believe it’s been that long. I’m very proud of the church, there were some mighty lean times between pastors, sometimes three or four months,” Rowley said.
It wasn’t easy to recruit pastors to a Southern Baptist church in northwest Montana in the 1960s and 1970s when Montana was still an undiscovered gem in the eyes of most people, Rowley said. She moved from Libby in 1996 and lives in Whitefish.
Those lean times came to an end in the late 1980s with an eight-year stint by Rev. Leon Harwood followed by the arrival of Pastor Darwin Scofield in 1993. After 20 months as associate pastor, Harwood retired and Scofield’s tenure began, which continues to this day.
Before becoming a pastor, Scofield lived with his wife and three children while working as an electrician in the panhandle of Florida. Life then directed him to attend the Baptist Bible Institute in Alabama.
“We lived 65 miles from the school and I commuted every day for three years, 750 miles a week,” he said.
The choice to go to school wasn’t an easy one for Scofield. The daily drive gave him time to question if he was doing the right thing.
“I was a construction guy for crying out loud. Now I’m in an academic environment with different kind of challenges with no time clock or tangible evidence you could wrap your fingers around. That was very different,” he said.
Moving to Montana posed another unique opportunity for the Scofield family.
“It took me a little while to adjust, my wife and children did very well,” Scofield said. “It was quite a transition for me. I came from an area where a Baptist church was on every corner, so to speak.”
Being part of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Libby Baptist Church is devoted to mission work, whether it’s in their back yard or abroad.
“I think that’s one of the recurring themes you will hear is a commitment to reach out to not only in our community, but in communities around the valley where there may not be a church.”
Celebrating their 20th year of service this year, the Troy Community Baptist Church was started with support from the Libby church. The church has also offered service in Pipe Creek, near Thompson Falls and Eureka and currently at Pioneer Junction in the Farm to Market area.
“It’s part of the community that really doesn’t get a lot of attention, so we wanted to bring service and opportunity to the community out there,” Scofield said. “We have a commitment in Montana, you could almost say it’s in our DNA to do our best to start other churches.”
That includes a church in Africa.
In 2008, Scofield said the church labored to discover how and where God would have them partner with a foreign country. After a couple years of working with a church in the Ukraine, Libby Baptist Church formed a relationship with Choice Baptist Church in a destitute area of Kampala, Uganda.
Members of the church have subsequently made two trips back to Kampala. The first trip was focused on medical relief. On the eve of the last day, the churches solidified a partnership that has brought them back two more times with leadership and discipleship training for members of the Kampala church.
Registered nurse and church member Eric Kapan was part of all three trips to Uganda. On his second trip he felt comfortable enough to carry his own gear.
“They treat you like kings over there. On the first trip I couldn’t tell them not to carry my bags because it would have been taken as a sign of disrespect. By the second trip I said ‘I’m one of you now. I can carry my own bags,’” Kapan said.
Before becoming a church member, Kapan would never have considered going to Africa to help others. He may have gone to hunt, but that’s about it.
Warfare and AIDS has greatly depopulated the area and left the younger generation without the guidance of elders.
“You wish you could help everyone, but you can’t. So you just try to give them the tools and trust in God,” Kapan said.
On his third trip, Kapan said a testimonial from a man at a gathering gave him pride in the words he had shared. The man said Kapan had inspired him to teach an illiterate man to read and write with the Bible as an aid. After a year, the illiterate man began to teach others and share stories from the Bible with them. “You never know how your actions and words can impact people. I don’t remember what I said to the man, but God used me to help,” he said.
Scofield and Kapan said on the trips to Uganda church members stayed right on edge of the slum area of Kampala, known as Wabigalo.
Kapan said they were one of the first churches to stay in the slums with their partner church. “Living their culture and their lives with them, that spoke more to them than throwing money their way,” Kapan said.
“It was pretty surprising to the people that we were willing to stay with them and eat their food,” Scofield said.
The experience was profound for both men. Church members plan to make a return trip in the future. Until then they continue to offer support and prayer to their partner church.
Scofield said not only does the church have strong ties to the other Baptist churches in the area, but his rapport with other Libby-area pastors is also strong.
“This church has enjoyed a good solid relationship with pastors and churches in the community long before I got here, so that’s been really encouraging,” Scofield said. “I would say they’re my first line of support and kinship.”
For example, the Assembly of God Church is providing 15 people to support and serve the 50-year anniversary of the church. They’re also providing tables and chairs for the event.
The primary event for the church’s 50-year celebration will be at 4 p.m. on Sunday, with a program followed by a meal at the Libby Baptist Church. Guests will come from as far away as Florida and Mississippi to honor the occasion.