Our Pastor
Brother David Stegmeier grew up in Western Montana where he gave his heart to the Lord at an early age. In his youth, he was active in his local congregation. Brother David graduated from the University of Montana and began teaching music and English in the Thompson Falls, Montana Public Schools.
However, before embarking upon his teaching career, he attended the 1963 August camp meeting of The Church of God at God's Acres in Newark, Ohio. It was there that he became enamored with Sister Millie Prior, the local congregations very talented piano player.
Sister Millie grew up in Newark, Ohio and had also given her heart to the Lord early in life. She became one of the church pianists where her grandfather, Brother W.A. Wilson pastored, followed by her uncle, Brother E.A. Wilson. After studying piano at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio for two years, she felt impressed by God to give her time more fully to the work of the Lord. She was privileged to have had many opportunities to travel in evangelistic work with Brother and Sister Emerson Wilson.
Both Brother and Sister Stegmeier prayed continually for God's direction in their lives. After a courtship of five years, the Stegmeiers were married on August the 15th, 1968 in Newark, Ohio, the day before the fall camp meeting began. They spent their honeymoon at God's Acres, actively participating in the music ministry during the camp meeting.
Soon after, they located in Western Montana where they answered several calls to the evangelistic fields in Arizona, California, Oregon, and Canada. It was during one such call that God spoke directly to the heart of Brother Stegmeier.
Brother Stegmeier recalls very clearly and distinctly the time and place where God revealed His will to him. On that trip down the West Coast, he was privileged to minister to a small group of saints in the Portland, Oregon area, who were worshipping in their home at that time. Here he felt that God had given him a vision of a true Church of God congregation; by faith, he received and accepted a divine call to labor with his people. However, because he realized the magnitude of being led by the Holy Spirit to such serious work, he wanted to be sure that he was hearing God's call plainly.
The Stegmeiers returned to Newark, Ohio for a year where Brother David taught music in a local grade school and worked in the God's Acre's congregation, directing choirs and teaching a young married people's Sunday school class. He counseled often with his pastor, Brother Emerson Wilson, and spent time in prayer, seeking God's approval and His divine direction. In June of 1970, Brother and Sister Stegmeier and Randy, their first child, traveled to Oregon where they began ministering to a little band of sixteen saints who had acknowledged that God had confirmed to them that Brother Stegmeier should be their pastor. The move was somewhat of an adjustment for Sister Stegmeier; however, God assured her that they were in the will of the Lord.
Throughout most of his ministry, Brother Stegmeier continued to teach school, serving as substitute teacher in the local school district for thirty-six years receiving the "2005 Substitute Teacher of the Year Award for the State of Oregon". He availed himself of every opportunity to witness for God, and he has been blessed to see several of his students give their hearts and lives to the Lord.
Besides teaching in the public schools and preaching to the saints of God, Brother Stegmeier has been the choir and orchestra director of the local congregation throughout his ministry. The congregation is privileged to have a strong music ministry. Sister Stegmeier has labored faithfully by the side of her husband, and she has faithfully accepted and fulfilled a variety of responsibilities within the congregation, such as serving as the church pianist and a Sunday school teacher for fifty three years. Sister Millie has also taught piano privately for many years in their home. The history of her piano teaching goes back approximately sixty years.
Brother and Sister Stegmeier have traveled to many foreign countries to hearld the gospel: Haiti, Africa, Honduras, Grand Cayman, and Canada. Recently, Brother Stegmeier and Kyler, one of his grandsons, spent some time ministering to the saints in Kenya. To several of these countries, Brother David has made many trips.
God has blessed Brother and Sister Stegmeier with seven children and twenty-five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren most of them actively participating in the Canby Church of God congregation as Sunday school teachers, music directors, and instrumentalists.
When Brother Stegmeier is called away, Brother Reggie, his third son, accepts the responsibility of preaching and handling the affairs of the local congregation.
At the present time, there are approximately one hundred and twenty-five precious saints in attendance. Brother Stegmeier has said that building a true Church of God congregation in this era of time is very difficult. The church battles against many enemies: lethargy, worldliness, materialism, and humanism. Over the years, he has kept the following scripture foremost in his mind: "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." (Psalms 127:1)