A Glimpse Into Drummond, MT

Sep 28

2 min read

Drummond, MT is a little town in western Montana that has a population of about 300 people. It has a little Catholic church, a Methodist church about 150 feet from it, a community church on the other side of the Interstate highway, and a Mormon church not far out of town. Instead of being in the forest as some may imagine, Drummond is in higher elevation grassy hills. The town of Drummond is situated right on I-90, and there is one exit off the freeway for it. It has a motel, a restaurant where we stopped and got a huckleberry shake to share, 2 gas stations (one has the grocery store mini-mart), 2 bars and a post office. Think of it as a grid of about 3 streets by 7 streets and that is the town. It has a beautiful river flowing right next to it called the Clark Fork. As you can imagine, there is not a lot of industry there, so many people are self-employed with jobs in ranching, or construction type jobs like building fences or barns.

The outreach activities in Drummond have been held generally once per month, alternating between full services throughout the weekend and Bible studies on a weekday. For the full services, many of the Hayden congregation attend. They bring their keyboards and instruments, have special singing and orchestra and even a couple choir songs and then a message, much like our normal service structure. The alternating month will be a Bible study with just the locals. Most often a meal is served before or after the service, in order to give time to interact with the people. This approach has worked very well and allows us to get to know the people on a personal level. Along with weekend services, a Saturday at the park event is held where there is food, crafts for the children and volleyball for the young people.