10. A Pastor’s Journey From Skepticism To Service

Kalispell native Pastor Chad Warren shares a full-circle journey from early skepticism about faith to leading one of the Flathead Valley’s largest congregations. He walks through the moment his doubts shifted, the mentors who shaped his thinking, and how a philosophy degree unexpectedly became ideal preparation for ministry. His path runs through camp leadership, formative mentoring work at Yale, and a lived conviction that faith, intellect, and service are strongest when they stay connected to real people and real needs.

We also cover the leadership crucibles that defined him—guiding a large Texas church through COVID and extreme weather, moving worship into living rooms, and keeping pastoral care personal when everything turned remote. Now senior pastor at East Haven, Chad talks about a church designed for community impact: two Sunday services, active kids and student programs, home-based small groups, coffee-shop meetups, a food pantry, hospital visits at Logan Health, and school partnerships. His vision of shalom is practical: helping families, neighborhoods, and systems become whole as the Valley grows and changes. If you care about community health, church leadership, or how personal faith becomes public good, this episode brings the Flathead’s heart into focus.

• Easthaven Baptist Church

Heart of the Flathead is brought to you by:

• Glacier Investment Management
• Whitefish Financial Services

Heart of the Flathead, is produced by David Wigginton, in partnership with LeftBrainRightBrain Marketing. Listeners can find the podcast online at HeartoftheFlathead.com and LeftBrainRightBrain Marketing at lbrbm.com. The content for Heart of the Flathead podcasts and any show notes and transcripts are copyrighted by David Wigginton. All rights are reserved. Reproduction and rebroadcasting, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without written permission. Contact David Wigginton by clicking the Send Us a Text link at the top of the episode description. 

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. Appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement of any goods, services, or opinions discussed. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered professional, legal, medical, or financial advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on the content of this show.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Welcome to the Heart of the Flathead, where we sit down with the change makers, the unsung heroes, and everyday folks who give this place its pulse. If you live here, love here, or just want to know what makes Callisfell and the Valley tick, you're in the right place. And now here's your host, Dave Wigginton.

Chad’s Roots And Early Path

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Welcome everybody to Heart of the Flathead. I'm excited to have our guest on today. We have Pastor Chad Warren from the East Haven Baptist Church, which is a large church community here in the Flathead. And Chad, we're excited to have you on. Thanks for joining us today. It's great to be here, David. Chad, obviously, you're you are the first religious leader we've had on the podcast. As you and I discussed previously, churches are a big part of our community here in the Flathead. So I think it's really important that we get at least a few of the larger religious community leaders on so we can at least talk about and understand what they're doing and what their their congregations are doing and how they're they contribute to just the livelihood and the the well-being of our community. But really before we we jump into that today, wanted to maybe give the audience a chance to get to know you a little bit. Could you maybe share a little bit with us a little bit about where you're from, kind of your your journey in life and how you've gotten to where you are today as pastor at East Haven.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Yeah. Well, I'm I'm a native of Kalispell. So born and raised here in the Flathead Valley, was fortunate enough to we moved around town a little bit when I was growing up. So I attended several of the different elementary schools and then went to the middle school here and then also went to at that time there was only one high school. It was Flathead High School, which is where my mom graduated from and my brother graduated from. And then I was attended there, and then in the middle of high school, our family moved and we left the Flathead Valley. So right in the middle of my high school career, we went and I moved to Colorado, finished up high school there, ended up pursuing, was going to go into naval ROTC, spent a semester in naval ROTC at Oregon State University, and then just determined through that first freshman year that while I aspired to go to the military and serve in that way. I I kind of determined and discerned there was maybe a different direction the Lord had for me. So started to really prayerfully consider that. So as I explored that, it became clear that I was being kind of designed and led into a path for ministry. And so what do you do when you're at a secular university or a state university and you want to go into pastoral ministry? There's no, there are no majors for that at Oregon State University. So someone gave me the advice that you need to either study history, literature, or philosophy in order to learn to read and write well, so that if you uh go on to seminary, then you'll you'll do better. So I became a philosophy major. And so study philosophy and then uh graduated college and went into camp ministry. So I was in Christian camp ministry that was based out of Texas, and that it was during that time that I actually met who would eventually become my wife. And so I met Shannon at that time, and we then left. Was she in the ministry with you there on the owner? She was at in a different camp. Yeah, she was in the ministry at a different camp. She had served there for a couple of years before I got there in that town, and we were going to the same church, and so we met, and the rest is history. Within a few months, we well, actually about a year, we started dating, and then it was from the moment of proposal to the moment of our wedding was about eight months. And so it was a pretty fast track. Both of us were out of college and kind of young adults and kind of knew where we were going and who we were, so it was pretty quick after that.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

And then we is it common for a pastor to for his wife to have been in seminary or in religious school with him, or is that kind of more of an anomaly in your case?

SPEAKER_00 4:22

But I I don't think it's an anomaly. I definitely think there's there's a sense in which you're going to probably interact with and maybe even be drawn to people that have uh similar priorities, I guess. And so it it's not uncommon. It and so we didn't meet while we were at in seminary. She was working at camp, I was working at camp, and I actually didn't take a very traditional route. I didn't graduate from college and then go directly into seminary, which you'll find that to be a pretty common path. But I went into ministry directly and was serving in ministry, and then once we got married, we responded to an invitation to come and serve on a pastoral team at a church in Colorado. So we moved to Colorado, and it was then that I started doing seminary remotely. And so it would take me, I think from that point, it would take about seven years for me to finally finish my seminary degree because I was in active ministry full-time. So I served in kind of a youth ministry capacity and then also was ministering to adults as well and was an associate pastor in Colorado. And then the Lord moved us from there from Colorado to Connecticut, and I had this unique opportunity to spend three years at Yale University working as a ministry fellow with an organization called Christian Union that served kind of on campus at Ivy League institutions. And so my primary responsibility there was mentoring undergrads. And so we developed a Christian leadership development ministry. And so we I was mentoring and developing leaders that were on Yale's campus undergraduates, and then I was also teaching Bible courses while I was there. So that was a unique experience. Just this kid from Kalispell, Montana, all of a sudden at Yale University and interacting with people.

Ivy League roots with Christian Ministry training

SPEAKER_02 6:14

So Yale has a religious program there, then obviously. Do other Ivy League or other private institutions have those similar types of programs where they have somebody like you, maybe they're mentoring and shepherding and teaching?

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Yeah, the the organization Christian Union has a presence at all of the eight Ivy Leagues, as well as some additional schools. I think they're at Stanford. And then Yale also has a religious studies department as a chaplain's office, and then it also has a divinity school or a seminary itself, and so does Harvard and so does Princeton. I'm not sure if the others do as well, but there's certainly because of the heritage, uh, seven of the eight Ivy League institutions were founded at specifically for Christian ministry training. And then down the road they would later kind of detour from that and go a different direction. But uh so there's a heritage there anyway. And but it wasn't immediately, there wasn't an immediate receptivity. There was definitely some some challenges that we faced when we were there.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

So did you work with all students or just students within the religious studies program?

SPEAKER_00 7:25

We worked with all students. Yeah, our our Bible courses as well as the mentoring and discipleship and leadership development was open to any students who wanted to participate. And we started with just probably six students in the program. And when I left after three years, we had over 150 Yale undergrads involved in Christian leadership development.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Wow, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

So then from Yale, what would happen from there? So from there, we traveled south to North Carolina. We found ourselves in Kerry, North Carolina, and I actually took a position with a classical Christian school that was there in North Carolina. And so I had a few different roles, worked in the development office, and then I also did some coaching in the high school, and then I also taught eighth grade logic, and then I got to teach 10th grade medieval history and literature, which was really, really fun. So the logic portion that was stuff that I had studied in undergrad. And then the medieval history and literature, it was it was me getting up to speed on some of those things, but it was a rich time. We spent a couple of years there, and then eventually we ended up back in Texas. And what initially brought us to Texas, we were there for another classical Christian school, but within a year, determined to go back into pastoral ministry and joined a larger church in that area. We were in Georgetown and so was on staff there for about six years as a pastor, and then kind of navigated COVID and a variety of different challenges while we were there. That was also a time where uh there was a big ice storm that happened in Texas, and so that was also pretty kind of a shaping incident for me and in terms of seeing and understanding ministry. And then navigating through COVID in a large church that is not able to have people in its enter its doors really kind of gives you gives you a sense of searching out what is church, what is ministry, what what why do we exist here? What is the point of all this? And so it was a really neat time and season to explore some of those questions. And that's when my wife and I determined that the Lord was was maybe equipping me for lead pastoral ministry. So in in our context, in the Baptist denomination as well as many others, there may be a senior or lead pastor, and then there may be our other pastors. And so up until that point, I had served as what's called an associate pastor. I was kind of assisting the senior pastor in pastoral ministry, but had kind of determined that maybe it was it was my time and turn to kind of take on that mantle of leadership and responsibility. And so we just started praying and seeking and through a couple of different doors that opened and some relationships, because I didn't actually, when I lived and was growing up in the Flathead Valley, I was not a Christian. I had not recognized or understood Jesus Christ as the Son of God and and all of those things that are true within the gospel and what we proclaim to be true and what the Bible we think reveals to us. And so uh when I lived here, I didn't know, I wasn't aware of Christians. I'm sure I knew them, but I didn't know them as that. I just I just wasn't in that world. And so it wasn't until I left that first year after we moved to Colorado that I had a series of situations and opportunities to hear what we would call the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that Jesus Christ is, in fact, God made flesh, that he walked this earth, that he lived a perfect life, that he died on the cross for our sins, and that he eventually, those who have placed their faith and trust in his finished work will live with him in glory. And so the forgiveness of sins, all of those beautiful truths. And so that's when I first confessed those things and experienced conversion was after I left Montana. And so, in the process that we were in in Texas trying to figure things out, the Lord opened some doors and opportunities for us to come back first in terms of just a family vacation. And then two years later, we would come back and do a lead a mission trip up here and kind of help and assist some local churches. In fact, one of those churches was East Haven. And then about a year later, we had been invited to come on board and serve as an associate pastor here at East Haven. So we responded to that call and arrived in 2022 and in July of 22. And then right before we got here, the senior pastor of 30 years retired. He stepped down. And so I didn't actually serve with Daniel Lambert, who was the previous senior pastor here at East Haven, and arrived and was kind of fulfilling a role of overseeing small groups in submission and outreach opportunities, and then went through a year where there was a search process and kind of felt the desire and I think the sense of kind of the Lord's leadership to put my name in the hat for the senior pastor position. So we're a church that the congregation ultimately votes on and decides who the pastor is. And so after about a year's process, we were put in and voted in as senior pastor. So been serving as the senior pastor here for about two and a half years, but have been at East Haven for about three and a half years.

What motivated your conversion

SPEAKER_02 12:44

That's awesome. So you're relatively relatively new, at least speaking of the context of Pastor Lambert. Yeah. So, you know, it's really interesting to hear that. So you you said you weren't really a Christian or hadn't really acknowledged God or in your life prior to leaving Montana. Right. How how did you I mean, because it's it's and again, I'm I'm not you know, this this journey of of from where you were to where you are now is pretty amazing as far as like, hey, you didn't know God, you left Montana, you found him somewhere along the way, and here you are back again, full circle, leading the Baptist the East Haven church here. So what what occurred that caused you to you know convert, as you said?

East Haven Today: People And Programs

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Yeah, it was so I had left and and I'd grown up and and our family would attend very, very occasionally, not regularly at all, but we my mom had grown up in the Lutheran tradition, and so we would attend kind of a Christmas Eve service, we would attend uh a Palm Sunday or an Easter service, and just kind of that was a part of the tradition of those holidays, but not because of a response of faith. And so I had been exposed to kind of Christianity and the God of the Bible, but in in no means did I kind of have any kind of loyalty. I I guess I always assumed that there was probably was a God, but I also just kind of assumed he's probably he didn't either even A, he didn't know me, or B, he knew me and was kind of disappointed in me. And so I just kind of didn't know what to do with that. And so when I moved through kind of a series of friendships and relationships and and kind of getting involved with this youth group where some of these kids that I had met at this new school that I just moved to, they hung out on Tuesday nights at this church, but they'd mostly just played games. And then there would be this grown-up that would kind of talk at him for a little bit. But if you could get through that, it was a pretty fun time. So here I am spending about a year with this group of people and start to notice there's something different. There's a secret sauce here. There's a different way that they handle conflict, there's a different way that they just kind of identify and and define success and the way that they interact with each other. And so I started to notice some differences there. And then that next summer, I had really come into kind of wrestling with, do I believe this stuff that the Bible talks about? And I had been given a Bible as a gift by my older brother, and I didn't really read it, but I I would bring it to this youth group thing, and I started to really wrestle with, do I believe that a God exists? And if he does, do I believe that he is as the Bible describes him to be? And so I was it was this very much this intellectual like r struggle and wrestling with things. And then I I I believe I had an encounter with the living God through a gentleman who was a youth pastor, and he had kind of come in and and I was there was a particular night that he had this conversation with me, just letting me know that that God was aware of the struggle and wanted him to come and talk to me about that struggle. And I thought I hadn't shared this with anybody. I didn't even know if if this guy or anyone else in the youth group knew that I was like a Christian or not. They never really asked about it, they never they just kind of accepted me. And so when he revealed that that God had sent him to have this conversation with me and was aware of my struggle, I all of a sudden just had this overwhelming sense that God, the God of the universe who created everything, he actually knows my name. And he he's concerned with me and this struggle that I'm having. And so I just had this this kind of confidence, I guess, in that moment that that he was real and that that made a lot of things make sense of the world. And then as I started to consider Christ, I started to realize his sacrifice. I became keenly aware of my own brokenness and kind of shortcomings. As much as I would try to to minimize them or pretend they weren't there, I became very aware of my own shortcomings, which what we would call, you know, evidence of sin. And the way that I would be selfish and disparage other people and and various things that I would do that would just evidence, man, I'm a broken person. I'm really selfish and I'm not very loving. And so those things started to become very real to me. And at the same time, I became convinced that Jesus physically lived, physically died, and then bodily, physically rose from the dead, and that somehow that event paid for my sins and covers me so that I can be reunited to the God of the universe and have a relationship with him. And I just became convinced of it in one night and woke up the next day very convinced and can and continued to walk by faith. And so I would say that that's that's that evening I have never recovered from and hope never to recover from.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Right, right. So you had that moment though where you needed to kind of for yourself find out is this path that I should be on or or should I be on a different path? And I think that's that's common across a lot of people, and whether it's you know, religion or it's profession or whatever it might be, they've got these experiences where they they kind of have to figure it out. And it's it's pretty it's pretty amazing to hear some of the, you know, for for lack of a better term, spiritual experiences that people have, like with just within themselves. And that's uh it's really really inspiring to hear that. So tell me, you know, tell tell us a little bit about the the East Haven congregation. So, you know, kind of the size, maybe the a general cross-section of the congregation and and how your time has begone so far these last two and a half years as the as the the senior pastor.

Serving The Valley And Shalom

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah, so East Haven uh was first established in the the early 60s, so it's it's over 60 years old and it's been in the valley. It's it's helped and contributed to planting and starting quite a few other churches, I think, in in and around the state of Montana, I think roughly 10 now. And so it's been an interesting kind of way that the Lord has used that influence. Our congregation, it it kind of covers all the demographics from birth all the way to people in their 90s and now some even kind of nearing 100. We have a very large population of young families, a lot of children, middle school and high school students, and so we we have ministries that are specific to those age groups and ministering to those age groups, but we also have a very kind of vibrant and thriving adult congregation, senior adult uh population as well that have a lot of activities. We kind of have our weekly worship services, and so we have two services on Sunday mornings, but then throughout the week we'll have quite a few activities, whether it's Bible studies on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we have kids' functions and activities, high school, middle school, like I referenced, college age ministries. We have small groups that meet in homes throughout the valley. We also have table ministries, men's tables and women's tables that will gather in different coffee shops and diners and locations throughout the valley at various times, which are all on our website. And so our congregation, while we gather in our building at least once a week, we have a lot of interactions throughout the week that are happening. And I think we estimate probably our our weekly attendance, which doesn't represent maybe all the the various people that come because not everybody comes every week. So we're I don't know, we're probably between like 750 to 1,000 kind of in regular attendance any given Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

Well, yeah, I've I've I've attended your your congregation a couple of times, as I mentioned to you, and and I I'm just impressed. I'm impressed by the the the quantity of people, but I'm impressed how friendly they are. But I have to tell you, one of the things that stood out to me the most is just how organized things are. You've got all those groups you mentioned, it's all laid out on your program or whatever it is that you hand out every week, and and that kind of like there's a little something for everybody, which I think is is super great. And so as you as you think about the history of East Haven and as you think about your role there now, how would you describe East Haven's position in the community and what what it what it offers and and provides to to us for the members of your congregation, but also for for everybody else that maybe is not a member of your congregation?

How The Flathead Has Changed

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Yeah. So one of the things that I I hope is true of us, that, you know, for people in our congregation and then those outside of it, if they experience East Haven at all, whether they know it or or don't, I want there to be a sense that everybody involved to some extent is glad that East Haven is here because we want to be a blessing. So we've we've had opportunities to be involved in local elementary school, like helping with reading programs to that extent. We are frequently involved at Logan Health and visiting people in the hospital. We have quite a few people in our congregation that are not able to get out of the home anymore. We have a food pantry, and so there's opportunities we have to help people that are kind of down, you know, in in this season of life, and so we want to be able to offer them aid. And so there's a there's a Hebrew concept that would constantly is something that God would talk about with his people, and it's this idea of shalom. And sometimes that just gets simply translated as peace, but it really kind of represents a broader understanding of wholeness, that things that are in in part but becoming whole again. And I think that w God's people throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament are always meant to be a people that through God works through his people to bring shalom to the land, right? This idea of that we want to exist to help everyone benefit and be better. We want to be a blessing. And I would hope that at some point, if for some reason East Haven wasn't here, that people would go, man, things were better when they are around, right? And so that would be my hope. I'm not suggesting that somehow East Haven is going away, but I want there to be a noticeable, not a pleasantness, but maybe a gladness that people have that we're here and we're involved. And so when they interact with people from East Haven or think about East Haven, that they're glad we're here.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

Yeah, that's powerful. I I like that. And that's uh hopefully, hopefully they feel that way. You guys have got a good group of people there for sure. So you've been here for, you know, born here, raised here, at least for up through high school, and you're back now. What what has changed from your childhood? And how how do you vision or what what's your vision for for the future of the flathead and and what what what will make what will continue to make it a great place to be from your your perspective?

The Flathead 5: Rapid Fire

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Yeah, there's there's definitely some physical changes. Like there wasn't a bypass when I was growing up here. So the idea of entering and exiting like via an on or off ramp, like that was a foreign concept. When I learned to drive, that didn't happen until I left. And so now it's crazy that my kids learning to drive, they're getting some experience on kind of freeway driving, even though it's not a freeway. So there's that. There was one high school in Kalispell, and now there's two. And so we've got this crosstown rivalry game, which is crazy. The amount of fast food options that exist here today is just crazy. I if I one, growing up, I didn't even know what Chick-fil-A was, but then when I left, I thought there's no way that will ever be in Kalispell. And then it's the first one in the state. The idea that Costco is here is crazy. I mean, when I was growing up, from FVCC to Whitefish, there was one gas station and it's it was at Reserve and 93, but there was nothing between it. Now it's just car dealerships and Costco and Lowe's and so this massive growth. And so I think the reality is it's gonna continue to grow. And not all growth is healthy. And so my I guess my hope is that as the the Flathead Valley grows, that there would be a way in which we can keep it to be healthy growth. Now, there's always gonna be some growing pains along with that. But East Aven, we want to be an opportunity in a place where as people come into this valley, if they're looking for a church home, that that we can be the happy home for them and that we can be involved in helping bring Shalom to the Flathead Valley.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Well, Chad, we're gonna we're gonna transition to our our Flathead 5, which are the the questions we we ask all of our guests, and they're meant to be rapid fire, so don't need to spend a lot of time thinking about that. But uh, so what is your uh favorite hidden gem in the community and has that changed since you were here originally?

SPEAKER_00 27:01

I am tempted to not say what is my true hidden gem because I don't want it to be discovered, but I think Moose's saloon is is maybe the best pizza in the land. Only to be rivaled by Frank Pepe's pizza in New Haven, Connecticut, but I think Moose's is one of the greatest gems. It is the great size of pizza. Grizz or Bobcats? I grew up a Grizz fan and my best friend, uh well, actually several friends played for the Grizzlies. But right now my son has just applied for Montana State, so I'm I have to lean Bobcat.

SPEAKER_02 27:35

What's uh what's your favorite outdoor activity here in the valley? D downhill skiing, for sure. Yeah, we're a big ski family. Did you uh do ski trips when you were in Texas and and Connecticut?

SPEAKER_00 27:46

We would venture up into Colorado, yeah, and try to get some skiing in. We did.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

What what do you know today that you wish you knew when you started out?

SPEAKER_00 27:55

I would have bought a lot of land. You mean like when I was a kid? Any way you interpret it, any way you interpret it as a kid or or when you started out Yeah, if my 12-year-old self, if I could go back and say, don't spend a dime and convince your mom to buy land and buy it right there in that that big farm area right by FECC, just buy land.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

And when your story's over, what do you want the one or two sentence review in your book to be?

SPEAKER_00 28:27

I think I want it just to say, well done.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

Yeah, I like that. Simple, short and sweet. Chad, I can't I can't thank you enough for coming on that. It's been a pleasure getting to know you a little bit better, learn about your your history, but also learning about East Haven and and the great part of our community that it represents and and it's and your members and whatnot. So thank you again for for taking the time and for coming. I know you're busy, uh, but we appreciate it and uh uh look forward to uh hearing more about the good things that East Haven's doing in our community.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Awesome, great conversation. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Thanks for listening to this episode of Heart of the Flathead. We'd love to hear your thoughts about today's episode and the podcast in general. You can listen at heart of the flathead.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. And you can reach David via the contact page at heartoftheflathead.com or by clicking on the send us feedback link at the top of the episode description and your favorite podcast app. Heart of the Flathead is produced by David Wigginton in partnership with Left Brain Right Brain Marketing. Listeners can find the podcast online at heart of the flathead.com and LeftBrainRightBrain Marketing at LBRBM.com. The content for Heart of the Flathead Podcast and any show notes and transcripts are copyrighted by David Wigginton. All rights reserved. Reproduction and rebroadcasting in home or in part is strictly prohibited without written permission. Contact David Wigginton at heart of theflathead.com with your request. The views and opinions expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or the production team. Appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement of any goods, services, or opinions discussed. The podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered professional, legal, medical, or financial advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on the content of this show.