Lutherans living in the Broadus area wanted a church, so Rev. Nels Carlson came up from Miles City to conduct services. In the summer of 1953 Olaf Magis, a seminary student serving in the Miles City congregation, held worship services and conducted a survey of the area. As a result of this survey, Rev. Raeder Daehlin came and met with the group and continued the congregation. Organization took place on March 10, 1954, and the congregation was served by interns the first few years.
Plans were made to build a church, and the first services were held in the basement on September 19, 1957. The church was dedicated November 23, 1958. Rev. Carlson, who was now a pastor at Glasgow, came down to participate in the event.
With financial assistance from the ALC, the congregation was able to call its first ordained pastor, Gary Lindbo, who came in 1962. He had been the student intern from 1960-1961. In 1968 an oil pool in the Bell Creek area resulted in population growth which also increased the church membership. In 1975 the original church was torn down, and a new one was completed in 1976. In 1980 the congregation sponsored a family from Vietnam. Historian Loreta Mangen, who has written two different histories on the congregation, comments often upon the struggle that the congregation has had through the years. Going from seminary students to seminary graduates and even lay pastors, “we go from almost solvency to total poverty as far as money goes, but God loves us and He helps us in our distress, so we manage to keep going for 30 years.”
From the guide to the Our Savior's Lutheran Church, Broadus, Montana, Records, 1954-2012, (Pacific Lutheran University)
