Pastor To Hold Final Service At Church

After serving at First Lutheran Church in Wolf Point for the last six and a half years, Pastor Bonnie Novak is holding her final regular service at the church this Sunday, May 24, starting at 10:30 a.m.

“It’s been a wonderful community to be a part of,” Novak said. She added that she likely will still perform some funerals or weddings at the church. “Six and a half years, you get to know the people.”

She started in the ministry as a lay pastor in 1999 for Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Nashua. She still provide services there Sundays at 8:30 a.m. before heading to Wolf Point. Living 25 miles from Nashua, she said part of the reason she got into the ministry was “to help our little country church keep going.”

The ministry has been the second career for Novak after she worked in the mental health field in Glasgow.

“I’ve always wanted to be more than a person in the pew,” she explained.

With Pastor Greg Holler-Dinsmore serving as a mentor, Novak’s education included completing the Theological Education For Emerging Ministries program. The extensive three-year program included going to the Pacific Lutheran Seminary in California and the Lutheran Seminary in Minnesota.

She said she has never regretted going into the religious field and certainly not serving the people of Wolf Point.

“They are so generous,” Novak said of First Lutheran’s congregation. “They care for the community. They care for the young people.”

Sunday’s activities will include cake and a get-together to celebrate Novak’s time at the church. She will have family members from Nashua and Great Falls at the event.

She admits that she is a “crier,” so she will have plenty of tissues handy on Sunday. “It will be a memorable day,” Novak said.