Superior Community Church welcomes new minister

He started driving a Superior School bus 39 years ago, which was a few years after he and his Katy landed here when he became the pastor of the Superior Community Church.

This was Grayling ‘Gray’ Repke’s first church right out of Bible College, and it turned out to be his only calling and this community is certainly glad that it was. But Repke is passing the baton after serving the congregation for 42 years.

“The church had a really nice celebration of retirement party for us back in September,” beams Katy. “It was very encouraging for both Gray and I as our family was able to make it, too. Our oldest son is Michael. He lives in Superior and our youngest is David along with his wife Ashli and sons, Kaleb and Elijah. They reside in Burley, Idaho where they teach school”.

Levi and Tami Durfey first arrived in Superior to preach on Sunday, May 23.

It was an opportunity for them to see what they thought of the community and church, and what the church thought of them.

“A couple of days later, they called us to come,” Levi said.

All parties involved liked what was said and seen so Pastor Durfey is now at the pulpit.

“I grew up on a farm 30 miles north of Circle, Montana,” he shares. “I was first exposed to the Gospel through weekly Bible classes and Vacation Bible School by a missionary couple who came to the little country school where I attended.”

His family moved to Big Timber when he was in Junior High and it was his boss at the restaurant where Levi washed dishes who witnessed to him on July 3, 1990, and this is where he accepted Christ as his Savior. He grew in his faith over the next 3 years at the Lutheran Bible Institute near Seattle and became convinced of the Baptist theological position, especially regarding baptism and eternal security.

“Tami and I married in 1995 after meeting at a Bible Camp in North Dakota. We moved to Bemidji, Minnesota where I attended and graduated from Oak Hills Bible College. Then I attended Grand Rapids Theological Seminary in Michigan for two years.”

He was then called to pastor at a small non-denominational Bible Church in Longville, Minnesota and he credits those wonderful people with patiently breaking him in as a new pastor and helping him grow as a preacher and leader. Three of their children were born there: Noah, Noël, and Nobl.

“Beginning in 2004, Tami and I started to sense God calling us to Montana. We prayed and dreamed about it until finally, in the summer of 2005, a church in Baker, Montana opened up. It was amazing how fast God moved us! Just three short months later we were in Baker, where we would be for over 15 years. Three more children came along while we lived there: Nodi, Nory, and Noln.”

In the summer of 2020, the Durfeys began to sense that God might want them to move on so they informed the church that they would be moving soon, but they weren’t sure where it would be.

Eventually, at the end of April of this year, they began talking with Superior Community Church and the move west was in June.

One hitch was that Superior Community Church did not have a home for them to live in, and even finding a place to rent was difficult. They stayed with a couple from the church and now in a spare house from another church family as the new parsonage is being built across the street from the church. That is where you’ll find Levi, Gray, Tami and several members of the church community pounding nails and hanging sheetrock these days.

But Gray continues to drive the Superior School bus and is on the pulpit supply list for churches in the Rocky Mountain Bible Mission.

“We plan on staying in Superior and continuing with our church family at SCC and supporting the new pastor and his family wherever we can! We are also grandparents, so, you know what that means, I am sure”! Katy said with a grin.