Church News and Events

Church News & Events

Photo Gallery
Ministry Service Schedules
Resources

www.pcusa.org

First Presbyterian Church

540 South Main

Kalispell, MT 59901

Phone: 406-752-7488

Fax: 406-755-8130

info@pcusa-kalispell.org

Calendar of Events

Ministry Service Schedule

Church News and Publications

Check out the following links to various publications of First Presbyterian Church with the latest news and events:

Weekly Mountain Messenger

Bulletin, February 14

Mountain Messenger, February 14

PresbyTidings Monthly Newsletter (large document)

Other Publications

PW Directory 2009-2010

2009 Presbyterian Women's Bazaar: First Presbyterian Church of Kalispell will host their Fall Bazaar and Luncheon on Saturday, October 24^th, from 9:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., located at 540 South Main Street in Kalispell.

Fall and Christmas crafts, fresh produce, homemade preserves, baked goods, and next-to-new items will be available for purchase along with "Silent Auction" items. Come enjoy a hearty lunch of soup, bread and homemade pies, served from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. All proceeds from the bazaar will benefit local charities. For more information, call the church office at 752-7488.

First Presbyterian In the News ...

Date News Story

July, 2008 Leading the Way for Community Banks, The Daily Inter Lake

November, 2005 The Simple Life, The Daily Inter Lake,

December, 2005 Members in the News: The Daily Inter Lake

Leading the Way for Community Banks
Posted: Saturday, Jul 26, 2008 - 11:42:52 pm MDT
By NANCY KIMBALL/Daily Inter Lake

Jack King, a founder of Valley Bank, and his sons John King and A.J. King (president and executive vice-president, respectively, of Three River Bank), all have served as president of Montana Independent Bankers, which marked its 40th year at its conference last weekend in Kalispell. Jennifer DeMonte/Daily Inter Lake

Kings have taken turns at helm of Montana Independent Bankers Association
It’s the King family way — tending to the ledger’s bottom line and the community’s fiscal well-being.

When Valley Bank co-founder Jack King’s grandparents settled in the Flathead Valley back in the 19th century, Kalispell wasn’t even a town.

His grandfather Eugene Steele was the first superintendent and principal of Flathead County High School. His parents were in its first graduating class. His great-grandchildren now are in the same school system.

Connections with their neighbors run deep.

They care about what happens to them.

As community bankers by profession, perhaps that’s the way they are best qualified to offer a helping hand to those neighbors — by doing what they can to bring stability to local families’ financial pictures.

Jack King had that vision quite a while back.

Forty years ago, he and a half-dozen colleagues shored up their chances of succeeding at it by forming a state association to help similar independent-banking families across Montana carry out similar dreams.

Last weekend, Montana Independent Bankers Association launched into its fifth decade at its annual convention in Kalispell.

The convention marked the end of A.J. King’s presidency, the third King family member to take the helm of the statewide group.

Jack and his sons John and A.J., both at Three Rivers Bank as president and executive vice president, respectively, led Montana Independent Bankers on its march to what is now 30 members — and growing. Jack served in 1973-74, John in 1999-2000 and A.J. in 2007-08.

It was not the first bankers’ group in the state — the Montana Bankers Association had been in place since 1904.

But Montana Independent Bankers was the first one specifically dedicated to independent community bankers, those who keep the money in the communities where they live and do business.

Other local banks, King explained, often are set up as branches of larger corporations and may channel revenues away from the local community and into major money centers.

That’s not what Jack wanted to support.

“With home ownership,” he said, “your neighbors run the banks. You live next to the guy who runs the bank. And he’d better take care of you, because he doesn’t have anyone else to take care of.”

Montana Independent Bankers is part of the Independent Community Bankers of America, which claims 5,000 members out of 7,500 total banking entities across the nation, King said. It provides members with products and services they could not carry alone, things such as credit cards, mortgage packages, securities, legislative research and lobbying.

Jack took the first step into banking when he and Jack Hensley, in February 1962, bought the old State Bank of Somers charter. In 1964 they moved it to Kalispell and changed the name to Valley Bank.

Jack King wanted to broaden for the future, so in 1974 he opened a second bank, First Security Bank of Kalispell.

Until then, John had been working with other banks but returned in 1986 to start as a loan officer for First Security. He gradually moved up to president in 1996 and holds that position today from his office at the Idaho Street branch.

His brother A.J. started as a teller for Valley Bank in 1986 and stayed there for 12 years until First Security hired him as a senior vice president in June 1997.

Two years later they changed the name to Three Rivers Bank and opened the Meridian Road branch, where he’s now executive vice president.

Now Jack has stepped down from Valley Bank president to become executive vice president, and has handed over the president’s desk to his grandson, Ron Rosenberg. Jack still chairs the Three Rivers board of directors.

There’s some duplicated ownership between Valley and Three Rivers and they operate under the same principles, but they remain independent of each other. Both banks list $100 million in assets and are capitalized at more than 10 percent, well above the 8 percent required minimum.

They talk freely of the bonuses and challenges in independent community banking.

Decisions are made quickly by a board of directors who live in and understand the area, A.J. said. Rather than draining off money, “we’re helping the community,” he said.

That local focus, and locally financed mortgages, helped them weather the housing crisis.

“We didn’t need that business” of selling mortgages to out-of-state investors, John said. “We do our business across the desk. We don’t sell our loans out on the market.”

“If we had to manage debt” that rises from selling loans, Jack said, “we’d turn our focus to that and away from our customers.”

For now, he wants to keep the focus here where they understand local families and avoid branching to new areas.

“What better community to do business and live in?” Jack asked.

On the flip side, they keep their eyes on threats to bankers like themselves.

Independent community banks face some tough challenges from such commercial giants as Wal-Mart and The Home Depot, Jack said.

Those corporations are threading their way through legal loopholes that would allow them to be designated Industrial Loan Companies so they could open branch banks in their retail locations across the country.

They’re looking for the cash flow from deposits rather than the outflow to loans and other services, Jack said, and probably wouldn’t hesitate to slam the doors shut on any branch that suddenly becomes unprofitable.

Independent bankers must lobby to close those loopholes in finance law by Jan. 31, 2009, he said, or risk the downfall of local banks.

Regulatory burdens are a heavy threat, too, John said.

“They [banking regulators] don’t care whether we take care of our customers,” he said. “They care if we’re compliant” with banking law.

Corporate banking officials are university-trained to follow finance theory, not tempered by rising through the ranks and working with individual customers and families, he said.

Predatory pricing of “non-bank banks” such as mortgage companies also is a threat, he said. Since they are not full-fledged banks, they operate under more lenient regulatory standards and can turn an easier profit.

On another front, independent banks lack access to huge pools of operating cash available to large corporations in the banking industry.

“In 2007 only one out of the country’s 15 big banks didn’t make money,” John said, shedding a different light on the nation’s perceived banking crisis. “That was CitiCorp, and they borrowed money to protect their stock value.

“But we can’t do that. We can’t go out and borrow if we’re in trouble.” Only the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation backs up small banks, and it is apt to close them if trouble comes along. “They won’t do that on too-big-to-fail banks.”

Credit unions, too, can out-compete independent community banks because they pay no taxes on their revenues.

“By them not paying taxes,” John said, “it’s not a level playing field” when banks go into direct competition with credit unions.

Dollar-for-dollar competition is tough, Jack added, “but we can compete on service — and that’s the only place we have left to go.”

As the outgoing president of Montana Independent Bankers, A.J. remains on the state board where he will continue fighting battles against these challenges. He’s encouraged that more small bankers are recognizing the advantage in that collective power.

“We’re growing,” A.J. said. “We picked up seven members in the last two years.”

They are persuaded by the association’s education programs — both online and over the phone — to train bank directors and employees, the lobbying efforts for government policy, the networking opportunities, and the services and products offered through the sister organization called Community Bankers of Montana.

He lamented that First Interstate recently pulled its CashCard network away from Montana Independent Bankers, taking with it a healthy revenue stream.

“But we still operated in the black,” he said.

And the association is exploring its options for replacing that revenue.

It’s an important search, one that may determine whether small banks retain quality representation in the financing arena.

“There is a difference between smaller community banks and the big banks,” A.J. said.

He and the rest of the King family have no intention of giving up the fight to keep the proud identity of small, homegrown institutions in independent community banking.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com

Helping hands: Kalispell volunteers work on ‘Home Makeover’ project
By LYNNETTE HINTZE
The Daily Inter Lake

Sarah Lynch, a loan processor at First Horizon Home Loans in Kalispell, and her parents, John and Kathleen McClure, were part of the massive volunteer effort last month that helped build and furnish a new three-bedroom home for the Eric Hebert family as part of the ABC reality TV show, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

Three other First Horizon employees from Kalispell — mortgage consultant Kelly Siblerud, branch manager Dee Peck and financial services manager Amy Skibinski — also traveled to Sandpoint to help out. All of the volunteer duties already spoken for, but they stayed to watch the family return home and were part of the cheering crowd.

First Horizon Home Loans was one of the co-sponsors for the Sandpoint home and helped finance the project. The show will air sometime in January.

“It’s a neat atmosphere to be in,” Lynch said. “Everyone’s so excited to be there.”

In less than a week, the crew tore town Hebert’s old home, a daylight basement with a roof, and built a spacious new one. Hebert’s sister died in April 2004 and he gained custody of her twins.

Lynch marveled at the orchestration of the entire effort. A computer on the grounds, sheltered with a makeshift wooden roof, spelled out the details in spreadsheet after spreadsheet.

“They filmed the volunteers; it showed us scurrying around,” Lynch said. “It’s organized chaos.”

Once the Kalispell trio donned their trademark blue “Home Makeover” shirts and hard hats, Lynch and her mother worked on the home, scrubbing plastic film off the siding and tidying up inside. John McClure was put to work landscaping. He planted shrubs and laid sod, then helped build a playhouse fashioned like a castle for Hebert’s 8-year-old niece and nephew.

“It does your heart good to be part of helping someone else, especially this time of year,” John McClure said.

He, too, was struck by the intensity at which the project proceeded, tearing down the old house and bringing a new one to completion in under a week.

Lynch said she and others were putting the finishing touches on the interior just an hour before the family returned home for the classic ending of the show, the unveiling of the house.

Led by show team leader Ty Pennington, a crowd of thousands from the Inland Northwest chanted “move that bus.” Once the bus was rolled away, Hebert and the twins were able to inspect their new abode.

“The uncle was so humbled,” Lynch said. “Their whole lives are going to be different.”

Siblerud said it was heart-warming to witness the homecoming.

“I believe it’s true what they say, that it’s the community the makes the project,” she said.

Seeing is believing, Lynch said.

“We’ve seen it. They can build a house in seven days,” she said, “and they don’t cut any corners.”
[Back to Top]

The Simple Life
By HEIDI GAISER
Posted with permission from The Daily Interlake

Shelley Jo Isaak has one simple rule for Christmas decorations — if it doesn’t fit in one box, it has to go.

It was one of many concessions that Isaak made when she decided a few years ago that possessions were not going to control her life.

“Anything I don’t use or anything I don’t cherish, is gone,” she said.

Cutting back on current possessions is one way to challenge the pressure to purchase felt by everyone during the holidays — especially today, as Americans stream through malls and box stores on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Isaak’s decorating scheme for her Kalispell home — centered on perishable Christmas staples such as fruits, cookies and candy — opposes another Christmas trend as displays grow increasingly elaborate and, in some communities, competitive.

Isaak, who teaches education classes at Flathead Valley Community College, is not alone in fighting the pressure to super-size the holidays.

In September, Jo Borowski shared her wish for a simpler Christmas with her worship ministry team at First Presbyterian Church in Kalispell. The idea resonated with the committee and they planned an Advent series — “The Simply Abundant Life” — addressing concepts of simplicity, frugality, sustainability, generosity and justice.

“We do a lot of things to ourselves over the holidays to make ourselves crazy,” Borowski said. “I hope this will help all of us not do that, to have the time to enjoy the season and do the things that are important.”

During the series, which begins in this Sunday’s morning worship and runs through Christmas day, the Rev. Glenn Burfeind also wants to help people look outside the culture of materialism and embrace the spirituality of the holidays.

“In the story of Jesus’ birth and in his ministry and throughout his life, Jesus’ message was countercultural,” Burfeind said. “As life gets hectic, we should pause and reflect upon the abundant gifts that bring us more meaning and purpose in life.”

The church also is taking a practical approach to alleviating holiday stress. The sanctuary Christmas decorations are being toned down this year, Burfeind said, to match the spirit of the series and to give those in charge of decorating one less thing to worry about this holiday season.

Burfeind will also address the work the church does for those he said Jesus came to help — the poor and the outcast.

“I want to affirm what the congregation is already doing — serving meals at the Samaritan House, giving money to mission support — to focus on things we are doing and inspire them to keep following the path they’re taking,” he said. One of the church’s holiday-specific projects involves making up food boxes for about 30 families in the community.

Some families have decided that charitable giving is a worthwhile alternative to buying presents. Borowski said she and her husband are not exchanging Christmas gifts, but giving a set amount of money to a charity. On Christmas morning they will reveal their plans for their portion of the money.

“That will be our Christmas for each other,” she said. “We don’t really need to spend money on each other, we’ve done an over-abundance of that. We don’t need anything.”

Isaak said her family gives money — usually to Heifer International, in friends’ or family members’ names — and sends a card with a family photo telling them of the gift.

“The charitable donations have been well received,” she said. “Our 90-year-old grandmas don’t usually need more things.”

She has also cut down on the Christmas gift accumulation by asking that family members only give her children one “high-quality toy vs. a whole box of plastic,” Isaak said.

“I was kind of worried that would upset people at first, but I’ve found that the people who like to shop had more fun finding that perfect toy than running out and buying a bunch of things.”

And her children, Juniper Jo, 3, and Ren Willow, 6 months, are not deprived, Isaak said.

“As our children get gifts, we want them to donate something they have to kids who don’t have any,” she said. “Stuff comes in, stuff goes out. My 3-year-old once said, ‘Mommy, I don’t love this anymore. We can give this to someone who will.”

A 2005 poll commissioned by the Center for a New American Dream, an organization dedicated to helping Americans consume responsibly, found that nearly three in five Americans acquired credit card debt last year during the holiday season. Nearly one-third say it took them more than three months to pay off the debt, while 14 percent said they were still paying that same debt off as the new holiday season was approaching.

The same poll found that Americans are worried about the values lost to holiday shopping binges. More than three in four Americans wish that the December holidays were less materialistic and 87 percent said the holidays should be more about family and caring for others rather than giving and receiving gifts.

In his 1998 book “Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a More Joyful Christmas,” Bill McKibben addresses these statistics by making the case that spending less money during the holiday season frees people to spend more time with family, to find quiet moments during the season and to discover spiritual meaning.

“It started out, long before the book, as a project within the Methodist church in our area,” McKibben wrote in an e-mail from Vermont. “A few friends and I were very holier-than-thou about what an environmental waste Christmas was. But we quickly figured out that the reason $100 holidays worked for us, and for many others, was because it made Christmas a lot more fun.”

He sees a growing number of people changing their attitudes toward the holiday season and says that, in his experience, people usually are happy to surrender the traditions that lead to mountains of presents under the tree.

“I’ve never heard of anyone who minded once they tried it,” he wrote. “But it’s hard to start, because of the fear of overturning convention, giving offense.”

Isaak’s tips for holiday simplification include money-saving ideas such as making gifts and packing them in homemade containers, “instead of a giant box with wrapping paper.”

“I make gifts from my kitchen and from my herb garden,” she said. “People appreciate it so much more than another set of candleholders.”

And homemade gifts aren’t the time-consuming chore she first expected them to be, Isaak said.

“I was worried it might not be a simplifying thing, but it’s not a burden at all,” she said. “I keep it in mind over the year; as I make something, I keep gift-giving in mind. It’s more of a reward giving and receiving.”

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com
[Back to Top]