Condon Community Church Pastor Bruce Rippy offering the words of dedication over the new sanctuary at the Praise Celebration and Building Dedication June 18. "All the praise, honor and glory goes to God because He really is the one who brought us to this point and then brought us through to completion," Rippy said. "Tonight was not about what we have done but what He has done. We are blessed with a tremendous congregation."
The new sanctuary was built on the south end of the old church. It is nearly 2,500 square feet with a full basement below.
The nearly 1,800 square foot Condon Community Church in September 2018 with the Education Building seen behind.
The Condon Community Church Choir singing at the Praise and Dedication Service June 18.
The old log sanctuary has now been opened up to allow for meeting space. Following the Praise Celebration and Dedication Service, the congregation enjoyed goodies, drinks and fellowship.
SWAN VALLEY – In September 2018 members of Condon Community Church stood around a blue cross painted on the ground and prayed for the expansion project for their church.
"We are going to break up this cross but it is always going to be here and always going to be a symbol for our church," said Pastor Bruce Rippy as he sunk the shovel in the sand.
From its humble start meeting at the Swan Valley Community Hall for the first 24 years, Condon Community Church's dream of a larger sanctuary became reality June 18, 2022. More than 80 people gathered in the new sanctuary, sang praises and dedicated the building to the service of God.
"Can you believe we are here?" Elder Roger Andruss said with excitement before offering the prayer of dedication. "This is amazing. What a day!"
History:
In 1979, founding families Bobbie Fisher, Karen (Lee) Anderson, Del and Doris Pockrus and Dean and Joyce Himes started Condon Community Church, a non-denominational church. They held the first service Sept. 2, 1979 in the Swan Valley Community Hall.
"You know you are a country pastor when the first item on the duty list is go and get the wood stove going in the community hall so participants don't freeze to death when they get there," Rippy said.
Don Kirchhofer, member since 1991, remembered having to set up and take down everything every week and put out the old sign on Highway 83 when they held worship. If they forgot to take anything down, they would often hear about it from other members of the community.
"There was some touch and go using the Community Hall," Kirchhofer said. "We needed it, we loved it but..."
Jan and Beverly Kotzians served as the first pastors. After they left in December 1982, Seeley-Swan High School 1975 graduate Pastor Rob Morris and his wife Ruth served for five month in 1983. In September 1983 Village Missions of Dallas, Oregon sent new Pastor Jeff and Verla Crippen.
By 1985, Kirchhofer said more than 100 people were attending Sunday services at the Community Hall, 75% of which were from Seeley Lake. The Crippens moved to Seeley Lake in 1986 and helped form Mission Bible Fellowship. They continued to serve both churches until they moved to Alaska in 1991.
In 1991, Condon Community Church "was at an all-time low," Kirchhofer said. The Seeley Lake folks were meeting in Seeley Lake. Their membership had dropped to less than 20 regular attendees. They also left Village Missions.
"If there was any time to get discouraged it was at that time," Kirchhofer said. "We didn't have a pastor for nine months, we didn't know who we were going to turn to for pastors."
Kirchhofer said they had visiting pastors and ministers fill in the pulpit or the church leadership or members would offer personal testimonies. They also did a lot of praying and worship.
God answered prayers when he called Pastor Denny and Marilyn Nobel in November 1991 through 1993, said Kirchhofer.
"They were an older couple who with God's help began to heal our little church and brought the older valley members back to worship," Kirchhofer said. "It was a time of starting to rebuild what was broke down. What the devil would like to stop right there, God had other plans."
In 1994, Condon Community Church came under the Rocky Mountain Bible Mission in Lolo, Montana. Pastor Jim and Diane Moore were called to serve with their two children.
"God worked through Jim to give us a vision of having a building of our own to worship," Kirchhofer said.
The congregation started to pray for land or for a building specifically along Highway 83 with enough timber to either sell or use to construct the building and keep the church debt free.
The Church board also started to sponsor two missionaries. Until that point, Kirchhofer said the Church considered itself an outreach within the community and in the Swan Valley but they had not reached beyond that.
"Opening your hand to God and giving what He had already given [us] anyway, I saw Him starting to open up to us here in Condon like I had never seen before," Kirchhofer said. "It really changed from that point on."
In 1999, a little more than 11 acres on Highway 83 came up for sale that was affordable. It was heavily timbered. The only infrastructure on it was a well and a small driveway off the highway. Along with logging the property, the Church sold some of the land to help pay for the construction.
"God has always provided the funds," Kirchhofer said. "We never went into debt. We made the promise to God."
Roger Thomas and Gary Freyholtz built the church's log shell on the property in the winter of 2000 with logs from the property. The foundation was installed in 2001 and the projects began.
"We did not know where we were going to get the talent, the manpower and the funds for that church when we started it," Kirchhofer said.
During that time, there was a surge of new people coming to the valley and many attended the church. Membership grew to 50-60 people "and just about every one of them had talent, they all came with resources and knowledge and they all said let's get this done," Kirchhofer said. "Then we started to see how God was working miraculously and how we were going to get this done."
On Nov. 1, 2003, they moved into the new church.
"You don't know how happy we was," Kirchhofer said.
Condon Community Church continued expanding. They built an education building behind the church in 2009. The education building housed the Mission Bible School from 2010-2015.
When the Moores moved to Ulm, Montana in 2010, Kirchhofer said God "compelled" Condon Community Church member Bruce Rippy and his wife Carolyn to step up and pastor the church. Rippy was retired but had been a member since 2001. Rippy agreed and has led the church ever since.
The vision for expansion
By the mid-2010s, summer attendance at Condon Community Church swelled to nearly 100 people. This pushed the little sanctuary's capacity. The leadership began to pray about expansion, again holding strong to the conviction to not go in debt.
They broke ground for the addition Sept. 16, 2018 and construction started in 2019.
"It doesn't seem like it has been that long," Rippy said referencing the progression from starting the wood stove at the community hall, to the little log church to the new sanctuary. "And when I look around here, I think this is a lot for a country pastor."
Rippy thanked everyone who gave financially, volunteered their time and talents, and for those that lifted up the project and leadership in prayer.
"Thank you all of you," Rippy said. "But who we really want to thank is our heavenly Father. None of this would have happened without God's blessing on this church."
"Buildings like this don't just happen. You give a dream to leaders, give wisdom to engineers and architects, you give skilled craftsmanship to those who put it all together. You stir the hearts of donors so that resources are provided to further your Kingdom in places like this, the Swan Valley," said Andruss "We dedicate this space, this place to [God's] glory and purposes."
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