Our History

Our Founding Pastor

In August of 1971 Fred L. England came to Kalispell from Bible Baptist College in Springfield, Missouri to start an independent Baptist Church. The church was organized on May 18, 1973. Pastor England left the church on April 1, 1974; he went to Selah, Washington to study under another pastor.

Our Founding Pastor In August of 1971 Fred L. England came to Kalispell from Bible Baptist College in Springfield, Missouri to start an independent Baptist Church. The church was organized on May 18, 1973. Pastor England left the church on April 1, 1974; he went to Selah, Washington to study under another pastor.

Our Name

Our church was begun as Bible Baptist Church and continued therewith until Pastor Josh Miller led the church in 2024 to change its name to the current name - Flathead Valley Baptist Church. We honor what God has done in the past and look forward to what God has for us in store in the future!

The Early Years

Nathan Bemis arrived in Kalispell on May 17, 1974 with his wife Louise and sons John, 16 months old and Joel, 6 months old. When Pastor Bemis arrived the church was meeting at the former Assembly of God building on 2nd St E. in Kalispell. The building had been sold to the Senior Citizens so a new meeting place had to be found within the first months of his arrival. There were only 10 or 15 people attending the church at that time.

The Bible Baptist Fellowship of Colorado supported the Bemis family with $500 a month for a six month period. The church paid Pastor Bemis $50 a week. The church had purchased 3 and ½ acres of land in Evergreen from Les and John Inabnit. While trying to build up the congregation spiritually and numerically, Pastor Bemis was able to rent the hallway of East Evergreen School for Sunday services. Wednesday night prayer meeting was held in the Pastor’s home.

The first part of November 1974, Pastor Bemis began working as a welder and doing odd jobs to support his family. He sold his truck that winter to pay for a concrete slab to be poured at the property just off of LaSalle Rd in Evergreen. The local owners of a Quonset hut construction company agreed to put up a Quonset hut shell with 1 inch of insulation to cover the slab. In March of 1975, the first Quonset hut was erected. By this time the congregation had grown to about 50. The monthly payment for this building was $140. As money came in the sheet rock, piece by piece was put into place; furnaces installed, chairs purchased. A retired pastor, H.L. Inabnit helped with the building and was a great blessing to the church and to the Bemis family.

During the 1980’s Shawn Scribner was the youth pastor at Bible Baptist Church. After training under Pastor Bemis, he went on to pastor Heritage Baptist Church in Yuma, AZ. Many of the young people who grew up in Bible Baptist are still serving the Lord at the church.

Later Years

During the 40 years that Pastor Bemis was Pastor at Bible Baptist Church, a second Quonset hut was built as a Sunday School building and fellowship hall. A new auditorium was built in 2007 and the original Quonset is used as junior church meeting place and Sunday School class building. We praise the Lord for the many children, teens and young adults who fill the various classrooms each Sunday and Wednesday as they learn the Word of God and the love of fellowship with God’s people.

Pastor & Louise Bemis