Couple reflects on three decades of serving church

If there’s anything Daniel Lambert is passionate about, it’s the gospel and people, two subjects he believes are inextricably linked.

“I get asked all the time how I stayed at the church for so long and for me it’s two things: the grace of God and the grace of God’s people,” said Lambert, who retired in May after serving more than 30 years as the senior pastor at Easthaven Baptist Church.

His wife, Vicki is also retiring after serving as Easthaven’s classic worship service director and working part-time teaching Latin at the Stillwater Christian School. Daniel credits his relationship with his wife as one of the core reasons for his longevity.

“It's been a unique dynamic of our life’s journey that we both got to serve side by side in our ministry,” he said.

The Lamberts arrived in the Flathead Valley in 1991 when Daniel was 26 years old. The pair had only been married for two years when they had answered the call to fill a vacant position for pastor. At the time of their arrival, the Kalispell church had a meager congregation of 90 and had already gone through five pastors within five years.

“We didn’t fit anything they were looking for,” Vicki says. “They wanted someone who had been married for a long time and was stable and had kids. We were young, had no kids and no experience.”

DESPITE HIS age and lack of formal experience as a pastor, Daniel had an enviable resume that included a master’s degree in theology as well as a bachelor’s degree from the University of Baylor in his home state of Texas. He had also spent two summers leading a traveling youth ministry on the West Coast with Vicki before deciding to apply for pastor positions throughout the country.

After being passed over several times by Easthaven, the church finally agreed to an interview with Daniel after he was recommended by members of his youth ministry who were visiting Easthaven while on vacation. Finally, the church hired Daniel.

Although initially skeptical, Daniel says that once the members of the congregation saw his commitment to the church, defenses started to lower.

“The church really wrapped their arms around us pretty quickly,” he said. “We felt very loved very fast.”

Daniel credits his interpersonal style of ministry and intense empathy for others as the reason the congregation warmed so quickly.

“For a year and a half I visited every single person in the church,” he said. “I sat in every living room, drank all their coffee, talked about all their kids.”

The church even embraced them.

“All of our family lives down south, and, because we left all our family to move here,” Vickie said. “So if we couldn’t go down south for the holidays they would invite us into their homes. They helped raise our kids. There were so many people who, when Daniel was gone, would say ‘just call’ and whenever I did they would run over and help me with whatever I needed. It became a sort of new family.”

SERVING THE church hasn’t been without its challenges. In late 2021, Amy Glanville, a member of Easthaven’s congregation and a close friend of the Lamberts, was charged with felony theft in Flathead County District Court after she allegedly used a fake cancer diagnosis to embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of donations from community members over several years. The Lamberts cooperated with the police during the investigation and say they knew nothing about the scheme, but the wounds the ordeal inflicted on both the Lamberts and the Easthaven Baptist community cut deep.

“It was a difficult season,” says Daniel, noting over the years he and his wife had been caregivers of Glanville’s children when she was supposedly undergoing treatment.

At first, Daniel says he was frustrated with God for not unveiling the scheme earlier, but he eventually understood he was not in control, and that it ultimately made him and the church stronger.

“God weaves together chapters and stories of our lives in ways that bring light to lessons we couldn’t have learned any other way,” he said.

He says that he as well as many members struggled to accept the realities of the situation but that he gained comfort from knowing they did nothing wrong.

“We loved, we showed grace, we sacrificed and we were the church,” he said. “We loved sacrificially through a hard season for us all.”

When asked if he had any advice for young people entering the ministry, Daniel’s answer involved, unsurprisingly, his two favorite things, “Love God, love God’s people….Then love all people.”

A celebration is being held for the Lamberts this Sunday at Easthaven but afterward the Lamberts plan to sell their house and move to Arkansas to finally be closer to their family, particularly, a new grandson.

“I just feel like he looked at me at one-month-old and said, ‘grandpa, who’s gonna teach me to fish?’” Daniel says, “and I was like, ‘bro, I’m your guy!”

Easthaven Baptist Church is hosting a retirement celebration for the Lamberts on Sunday, June 12 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.