Misfit Minister: New Methodist pastor presides over two local churches

The Rev. Jon Umbdenstock is not your mom’s Methodist minister. Clad in a colorful, embroidered western shirt, bolo tie and blue jeans, he looks more like a guitar-slinging mountain-biking, snowboarding millennial (which he is), than a pastor of two churches.

In fact, he calls himself the Misfit Minister.

Beginning Aug. 1, Umbdenstock began serving congregations at the Mission Valley and Polson United Methodist churches. He’s the first minister to preside at both, although his predecessors were a married couple, Sandi and Mark Johnson. “So that kind of began the collaboration between the two churches,” says the new pastor.

Umbdenstock moved to the Mission Valley from New Meadows, Idaho, next door to McCall, where he was a pastor at the Alpine Abbey. Even though the community had lots of recreational amenities, “something was just kind of tugging me towards the Missoula, Bitterroot, and Mission Valleys,” he says. The confirmation arrived when, “at the last minute, this opportunity fell in my lap.”

So far, he’s feeling at home with his new congregation. “I like to call them a group of ranching hippies,” he says of the Mission Valley parishioners.

That church, perched at the top of Post Creek Hill, was built several years ago to consolidate churches in Ronan, St. Ignatius and Charlo. It offers a spectacular view of the Mission Range, and the farms and ranches spreading across the valley towards the foothills.

On Thursday, Sept. 21, the church hosts an International Peace Day Celebration at 6 p.m. Last year’s event included the installation of a rainbow-hued Peace Pole on the south side of the church, adorned with messages of peace in different languages, including Salish.

Umbdenstock calls the Peace Pole “an aspiration and a marker of the fact that we take this work seriously and that peace isn't just the absence of tension, but it's the presence of justice, of things being right.”

This year’s event includes games, food, a cakewalk, speakers and prayers for peace. Dinner begins at 7 p.m. and visitors are encouraged to bring a favorite cultural dish to share, “or just bring your family and enjoy the meal and festivities.”

The congregants, says the new minister, “want to truly be open and welcoming to anybody, even the people that the (national) church doesn't necessarily welcome with open arms.”

Both churches have found ways to serve their respective communities. The Polson church is currently sharing its space with the North Lake County Public Library while the library’s downtown building undergoes a major renovation. The Mission Valley church recently housed training sessions for the Tribal Head Start program, hosted a teachers’ appreciation luncheon, and handed out donated school supplies.

“I just love the receptivity of people who just want to grow and expand and are not too set in their ways,” Umbdenstock says. “Despite being older, they are young at heart.”

Hunger for something spiritual

Church memberships are dwindling across the U.S. as fewer and fewer young people fill pews once occupied by their parents and grandparents. Umbdenstock sees it in his congregation at both churches, where he estimates the majority are over 60.

That trend “doesn’t scare me or upset me in any way,” says Umbdenstock. “I'd rather the church be a place where people are hungry for something spiritual rather than there because they feel coerced by society.”

And, he notes, some people find their way back to church after they raise families and retire. “I'm not shying away from being a magnet to people that are moving here later in life and need an outlet,” he says. “But in general, involving whole families and involving young people is the way to go for growth.”

Umbdenstock says some of his parishioners are younger people with families, and he hopes to see more as time goes on. He mentioned the Mission Valley Children’s Choir, which attracts kids from across the valley, as a good example of a way to collaborate with other churches and engage youngsters.

He also views Christianity’s shifting demographic as “an opportunity for churches to really be what the church is supposed to be, which is the hands and feet of Jesus active in the world to make it better.”

He cites an example of a church in North Carolina that faced a shrinking congregation.

“Rather than asking why don't people come to church, they asked why should people come to church?” he said. “And that question has resonated with me.”

“Why should they come? What are we doing that is inspiring to people?”

Becoming a beacon for hope

Settling in the Mission Valley, the Rev. Umbdenstock finds himself far from his beginnings. He was born in the foothills of Virginia, grew up in the suburbs of Miami, and has also lived in Texas, Tennessee and North and South Carolina.

Raised a Catholic, he took a winding route to the ministry. He earned an undergraduate degree in music from Florida State University, then a master’s degree in higher education administration and counseling from Clemson University in South Carolina.

“But that was just not the right fit for me,” he says. “So I left that profession rather quickly.”

While living in Austin he interned with a church there, which led him to apply for seminary at Duke University in North Carolina. His own theological beliefs inspired him to join the Methodist Church during his first year at Duke, “and the doors just opened.”

After earning his Master of Divinity, he spent two years in Portland, Ore., then four years in New Meadows, “and now I’m here … for as long as it works and as long as the powers that be are happy.”

Music remains an important part of his life. A guitarist for 25 years, he performed in Idaho with a group called West Mountain Takeover that played a mix of folk, bluegrass and country rock. He’s also drawn to “extreme gravity sports” – like whitewater kayaking, snowboarding and mountain biking.

Looking ahead, Umbdenstock wants to see if there are ways the church can better serve tribal members – “we’re on their land, what does that look like?” He hopes to build more collaboration between the two churches he serves and see them “be a beacon for hope and justice in the valley.”

He currently offers Sunday services at 9:30 a.m. at the Mission Valley church and 11:30 a.m. in Polson. The schedule isn’t ideal, he notes, but he needs time to drive from one to the other.

“I think Sunday morning can be a refresher, a re-energizer, a reminder, but honestly to me Sunday morning is not the most important part,” he says. Instead, what matters most is “to be an actual light to the world around us.”