Early History of the Missoula Church

In 1863, the Seventh-day Adventist Church became a formal organization with headquarters in Battle Creek, Michigan. The early members spread their faith by sending ministers into surrounding states where they preached in schoolhouses, homes and open-air meetings.

O.A. Johnson, during the summer of 1888, became the first Adventist pastor to the Montana Territory. He held evangelistic meetings in Livingston, where there were already four believers, and started two Sabbath Schools. The following summer, Daniel T. Fero held tent meetings in Bozeman but was unable to get a church going. In November of that year, Montana became the 41st state of the United States. By 1895, companies of Adventist believers were meeting regularly in eight cities across Montana including a group in Missoula which officially became the Missoula Seventh-day Adventist Church on February 8th, 1896. Charles Neil Martin was the first pastor and served until 1889.

The church was located on the Northside part of town at 817 Wolf Street (North 1st Street and Wolf Ave). It was purchased for $225. While the building has since been removed and replaced with a newer home, many of the nearby homes from that era still remain. This was a working-class neighborhood with many of the neighbors employed at the nearby Northern Pacific Railroad and living in 'railroad homes'. The earliest local church documentation of the church school is from the year 1903. The congregation continued to grow and by 1918 plans were underway to build a new church or purchase another church.

By 1919, the church and school moved to 345 South Fifth Street West into a church that had been built in 1892 for the First Congregational Church. It was designed by the architect A.J.Gibson and is listed in the National Register.

Because of growing church membership, the Adventist congregation sold the church on 5th Street and in 1960, moved into the sanctuary it currently occupies on 800 South Ave West across the street from Sentinel High School.