On Monday May 9th, 2022 eleven people from Lighthouse Baptist Church in Superior, Montana drove an hour and ten minutes to the town of Hot Springs in hopes of finding one or two people interested in either forming a Bible study or even in getting a ride to the church in Superior. Instead, within a couple of hours of door knocking they found eight people who expressed an interest in seeing a Baptist church form in their town.

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By the time the group from Lighthouse Baptist Church returned to Superior, a lady they didn't meet during their called the church's pastor. She had been praying for an independent fundamental baptist church to form in her area for quite some time. Somebody told her Lighthouse's folks had been in the area, and she said, "I'll do whatever I can to help! I'll be your first member! What can I do?"

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A couple of days later, a man called the pastor, "I don't know why but over a year ago I bought an old church building in Hot Springs and it's been sitting vacant. I don't really have any plans for it. I heard you were looking to start up a church. When I was a kid my dad was a Baptist minister. Would you be interested in looking at/possibly renting the building?"

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The pastor from Lighthouse didn't know how a church plant could afford to rent a building. So he told his church he would forfeit $600 per month of his pastor's salary so that money could go toward renting a building in Hot Springs, still not knowing how much rent the potential landlord would charge. The pastor also talked to a church plant in Idaho that Lighthouse had been supporting for $100 per month and asked them if they still needed that money or if they were now able to sustain themselves financially. They said they no longer needed it. The landlord said he would accept $700 per month for the first few months until the church plant could afford to pay the full amount. Then... a man from Lighthouse Baptist Church called the pastor and said, "I want to start giving $700 per month toward the church plant in Hot Springs." That covered the utilities, insurance, and some of the transportation expenses.

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A church in Selah, Washington heard about the church plant and said they had been saving up their old chairs just waiting for a church plant they could be a blessing to, and told Lighthouse's pastor to come up and get them - they donated 30 chairs for the sanctuary and 15 or so for a fellowship hall.

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The pastor of Lighthouse began wondering how he could keep from stretching himself so thin trying to pastor two churches until there was a large enough congregation in Hot Springs for the church to get its own pastor. Little did he know God was going to send a second preacher and his wife to help out both at Lighthouse Baptist Church as well as the new church plant, now known as Hot Springs Baptist Church.

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On Saturday May 27th, the pastor from Lighthouse Baptist Church signed a lease on the Hot Springs church building and placed a sign on the fence with the name Hot Springs Baptist Church on it. The next day the landlord was outside and all kinds of people stopped by and asked when the services were going to start. The church hadn't planned to open until the end of June, but the landlord mistakenly told everybody they were having their first services on Sunday June 5th, 2022. To avoid an awkward situation, the folks from Lighthouse decided there was no choice but to make that happen.

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They went to set up a bank account for the church and the bank said if they didn't keep a minimum of $2000 in the account, they would have to pay a monthly service charge. Before they even set up the account, a lady from Lighthouse Baptist Church, not knowing anything about that, approached the pastor and said, "I won't be able to make the drive out to Hot Springs, but I can still help seed it financially, right? She wrote a check for exactly $2000!

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This lady who said she would be our first member found a used pulpit and sanded it down and refinished it for our first service. At the first service, a lady came to the altar and made a profession of faith!

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All of that happened in 3-1/2 weeks.

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There is no doubt God wants a good, solid, independent, King James Bible preaching fundamental Baptist in Hot Springs, Montana! To God be the glory!

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The photo below is how the church was set up for that first service on June 5, 2022, and next to it is a video of that first service.

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