Our Story

Le Mars Bible Church is an independent Bible-based fellowship of believers.  It grew out of two Bible studies that were meeting in the late 1960′s.  In the early 1970′s the two Bible studies started meeting together.  After several months, it was decided to begin a new church, and in February of 1973, Le Mars Bible Fellowship was formed.  We started with six families and rotated our services in homes for several months.  After some growth, we rented the basement of the Farm Bureau building.  In the spring of 1976, our first pastor Harlan Betz was called.

 

By 1977, we had outgrown the Farm Bureau building and decided to purchase the Free Methodist Church building and then changed the name to Le Mars Bible Church.  

 

David Babbit served as our pastor from the fall of 1982 to the summer of 1987.  Pastor Babbit moved on and Fred Gums was called to be our pastor in August of 1988.  As the church continued to grow, we added a youth pastor to our staff for the first time in 1991, and an associate pastor in 1994.


As a number of new members continued to increase, it was prayerfully decided to build a new church to meet the needs of the congregation.  In 1994, seven acres of land were purchased.  A groundbreaking ceremony was held July 21, 1996.  Construction progressed rapidly, and the first service in the new building was held on October 19, 1997.  In the summer of 2004, the adjoining Botker property was purchased.  The house would be used as a place for visiting missionaries to stay, and the land would provide space for any future expansion of our building.  A shelter house and playground area were put in place in 2009. In August 2011, a building addition was completed which included a fellowship hall and youth room.


On July 1, 2017, Fred Gums stepped down to a part-time role and Mike Hulinsky became LBC's fourth lead pastor.  Also in 2017, the church brought Youth Pastor Derek Plegge and Associate Pastor Jake Wulbecker onto our pastoral staff.


We look forward to the future with the prayer that God might continue to let the light of His Good News shine from this place until the return of His Son Jesus Christ!