GLENDIVE, Mont. – When a pastor is called to a new place of ministry, he takes his family with him. That might not affect the toddlers in the family, but what about teenagers? What about the pastor’s wife?
David Stahlman has been a bivocational pastor for 17 years, always in small churches. His wife, Cheryl, was executive director of Missouri WMU for four years. Then God called him to plant what he anticipates will be Hopebridge Church in Glendive, which he sees as a church for the community and a training hub for the hundred or more people he envisions will be called to spread out across the rural plains of eastern Montana as well as globally. (See related story.)
Stahlman and his wife Cheryl have been “working the soil” of their four children for 20 years, including homeschooling with support of SALT Christian Homeschool cooperative in St. Clair, Mo. The result? A flourishing crop and a close family, but still. Moving a teenager her last year of high school?
That’s Hannah, 18. Nonetheless, she came (after a summer as a camp counselor in Missouri) with her promise to give her family in Glendive two years.
“There’s always part of me that wants to go back,” Hannah said. “I’m giving myself time to figure out if God wants me in Montana or if just my mom and dad want me here.
“Glendive’s not a terrible place,” she continued. “It’s pretty here and I’ve been making friends in college through our cheer and dance team.”
Mia, the oldest at 20, was a student at East Central College in Union, Mo., and working full time, but she’s moving to Glendive in the spring, where she plans to attend Dawson Community College in Glendive with Hannah.
“My family leaving definitely left a hole that you don’t realize at first,” Mia said. “You take your family and the things they usually do for you for granted and when that’s gone you realize how much you need it and miss it and [not being with them] gives you an insecure feeling.”
Noah is 14. “He’s been everywhere with dad,” Stahlman said. “He is a Barnabas. He jumped in right away and likes to help.” Noah enjoys being outside, working on Pastor Jeff Cahill’s ranch, his mom added.
The thought of moving away from everything he had ever known was hard, Noah said, but now, “I like the feel of the town. It’s a nice and quiet town. The people are really nice, really friendly people. We haven’t met anyone who isn’t nice to us.”
But still, the young teen added, “When I remember something specific like I pick something up someone gave me, I miss it.”
Matthew, 16, is “my evangelist,” David Stahlman said. “He’s always looking for some way to share the gospel.” Matthew already is discipling a Glendive resident he met walking down the street and invited to the church plant’s Sunday evening Bible study.
When Matthew learned of the move to Montana, “It felt like I was leaving everything – leaving Missouri, all my friends, the home I grew up in – but I decided if God wanted us to do it, I should be all in,” the teen said. “I saw God was closing that door and opening this one.
“Now I see how much potential there is here for God to move,” Matthew continued. “I’m excited with what’s happening here, so many people to witness to and share the gospel with.”
Cheryl Stahlman was involved for eight years with WMU – Woman’s Missionary Union – in Missouri, and for 15 years with women’s ministry. Self-described as “the family’s extrovert,” she had coordinated an annual “I Am God-Designed” county-wide women’s conference since Noah was a baby. She bloomed when she got involved with WMU, she said.
“WMU breeds a missionary heart into our churches,” the church planter’s wife told Baptist Press. “That’s such a passion of mine.”
Stahlman’s WMU career started as a volunteer in 2017. Two years later she became Missouri’s myMission consultant, for women 18-34, an age group she was passionate about. Not quite three years later, Stahlman was named to lead Missouri WMU.
“In my opinion she’s lonely,” David Stahlman said of his wife. “Pastors’ wives in general are lonely, so I think it’s been hard on her.”
But Cheryl Stahlman said she was as convinced as her husband that God was leading them to Montana.
“I know this is what God was telling us to do,” Cheryl Sahlman said. “I could have stayed in Missouri forever, but you could just tell God was pulling us in this direction. I got to see my successor lead the team and I’m excited to see where Missouri WMU is going.
Montana’s WMU director Opal Sanderson lives in nearby Terry, Mont. The two women get together frequently since Sanderson is a member of Hopebridge Church’s sending church, Valley Community in Miles City, Mont., where Jeff Cahill is pastor.
A key to the Stahlman family’s ease of moving to a new ministry field might be Scripture-based parenting.
“We taught them the reason we follow mom’s and dad’s rules is because here is what the scriptures say,” Cheryl said. “We always gave them scripture to back up our decisions, a solid biblical answer. Also, we did mistakes as kids and we wanted to be honest with our kids, telling them ‘God steered us away from that because our body is a temple.’”
Cheryl also counts being a stay-at-home mom, and “being willing to own up to our faults, saying, ‘Even though you broke a rule, I could have handled it better,’” as well as being part of “great support” from their Christian homeschool group in Missouri.
“Something we’ve done a lot as we watch movies as a family – we definitely have a short list of things we watch – is that we pause movies a lot – and talk about what we would do in that situation.,” Cheryl said. “We have a close family.”
Moving to Montana did not make for the Stahlman family’s strong bonds, both parents said. Strong bonds helped make the move easier.
What about the pastor? It’s a shorter drive from Glendive to Denver, Colo., than it is to cross the nation’s fourth-largest state. Montana has just 120 Southern Baptist churches and church-type missions, most of which in eastern Montana are an hour’s drive or more from the next nearest church.
“One of the biggest helps to me is meeting every week with Jeff [Cahill],” pastor of the sending church 76 miles southwest of Glendive, Stahlman said. “He has been amazing. He is 100 percent behind us. He’s an absolute crucial friend for me to have.”
Cahill gave high praise to the Stahlman family.
“They’re doing this church planting as a family. It’s not just dad’s job,” Cahill said. “They’re just all together. There’s no teenage drama, none of this rebellion stuff. It’s like a team of horses pulling together. Some planters bring other families with them so there’s a team to start the church with. This family is the team.”
Related posts:
Buddhist finds Christ at Silicon Valley church plant 
One year after death, Clint Clifton’s legacy continues through son’s new church plant 
N.Y. mayor renews pledge to churches 
Polynesian church sprouts in unlikely place Lack of Senate vote ‘disgrace,’ says Moore 
FIRST-PERSON: Why we plant churches 
Ezell to host BGCT information sessions in early 2025 
Measuring church planting success
