The Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church congregation will consider Sunday, Jan. 6, extending a call to Rev. Jeffery D. Teeples to become the new senior pastor.

If approved, he would replace Pastor Steve Bergeson, who is retiring.

The church’s website posted the call to Teeples, a contract pastor at Bethel Lutheran Church in Parkersburg, Iowa, since July. He has grown the church’s regular attendance from 50 to 80 in that short period of time.

From 2008 to 2018, Teeples was the senior pastor at Hawley Lutheran Church in Hawley, Minn., a church of 1,100 baptized members, averaging a weekly attendance of 300.

His wife of 29 years, Kristen, is studying to obtain a master’s degree in counseling with the Townsend Institute at Concordia, Irvine.

The couple has three adult sons.

Teeples told the pastoral call committee that he shares the town’s pioneering and Western spirit.

“My ancestors were early pioneers in Montana and I have pioneer spirit in my blood. As a man and as a pastor I am always in the process of reinventing myself, another word for that is transformation,” Teeples said. “From what I can gather, SOTH is also in the continual process of reinventing itself, of looking for innovative ways to continue to grow together and reach out to others.”