Butterfield Community Bible Church (BCBC) in Butterfield, Minn., celebrated its centennial Sept. 18. Speakers during the celebration service included USMB national director Don Morris, CDC minister Daniel Rodriguez and former pastor David Loewen. The service concluded with the baptism of two individuals who also joined the church as members.
While the date of the church’s founding is uncertain, the current building, with a distinctive bell tower, was dedicated in August 1922. Church records list 52 charter members of the congregation. In time, church services transitioned from German to English.
Projects taking place from the 1940’s to 1960’s included building a parsonage, installing an electronic organ to replace a foot-powered reed organ, replacing the coal-fired furnace with an automatic oil-heating plant, re-locating the church kitchen, adding additional Sunday school space and installing a sound system, among other improvements.
According to pastor Tim Hall, who began serving in that role in August 2014, highlights of the life and ministry of the church include continued growth, summer worship services in a park on the edge of Butterfield, live-streamed services, a new YouTube channel and the church’s partnership since 2018 with a Hispanic congregation meeting in the BCBC building.
“It might sound cliché, but I have learned in my eight years at BCBC that God is good and always faithful, and when we, his people, put him first, Jesus can do amazing things through us,” Hall says. “God has brought love, healing, peace and life to our small congregation. If there is a need in the church or in the community, the people of our church are the first to help out and volunteer. While we have grown in numbers, the more exciting growth is in the lives of those in the church as their faith has deepened and become a larger part of their lives.”
Three years ago, the congregation began worshiping in Voss Park in the summers during the pandemic, and the shift stuck.
“We have made it a tradition as most of the church loves it, and it gives us an opportunity to reach people we normally wouldn’t,” Hall says. “Interestingly enough, it has only rained twice on a Sunday in those three summers, and even then, it only rained lightly toward the beginning of the worship.”
Previously part of the Fellowship of Evangelical Bible Churches, BCBC joined the Central District Conference in 2019.
“One highlight has been being able to see what God is doing in other churches in our network across the U.S.,” Hall says. “The importance USMB puts on relationships is amazing.”
Looking to the future, Hall says: “My hope for the next hundred years is that we continue to faithfully follow Christ, preach his gospel, and are a light of his love and righteousness to Butterfield, Watonwan County and the surrounding area.”
Janae Rempel Shafer is the Christian Leader associate editor. She joined the CL staff in September 2017 with six years of experience as a professional journalist. Shafer is an award-winning writer, having received three 2016 Kansas Press Association Awards of Excellence and an Evangelical Press Association Higher Goals award in 2022. Shafer graduated from Tabor College in 2010 with a bachelor of arts in Communications/Journalism and Biblical/Religious Studies. She and her husband, Austin, attend Ridgepoint Church in Wichita, Kansas.
