Gift of God organized as a preaching station the fall of 1991. It was organized as an extension of the ministry of St. Paul, Ponsford, MN and Mt .Olive, Detroit Lakes, MN under the guidance of Pastor David Naumann. The original group consisted of three families and various college students living in the Fargo/Moorhead area. They met twice a month on Sunday evenings in the three families’ homes. Pastor Paul Krause of Hecla, South Dakota started rotating services with Pastor Naumann in 1993. As they grew in number they started meeting in a hotel conference room (Sleep Inn Motel) in Fargo in 1995. About the same time Pastor Theodore Barthels replaced Pastor Naumann in providing guidance and conducting services. With growing attendance and the blessing of many young children they organized to conduct Sunday school instruction in 1997. In 1998, Pastor Paul Larsen of Jamestown and Pastor John M. Johannes of Hecla were assisting Pastor Barthels in rotating weekly Sunday evening services. In the fall of 2001 they organized as a congregation and the following year was accepted as a CLC member congregation at the 2002 convention.
In September 2001, about the same time they organized as a church congregation, they moved from the hotel conference room and started renting a vacant church building in Mapleton, ND. Mapleton is a town of approximately 700 people ten miles west of Fargo. September 9th, 2001 was the first worship service in the church building which was very memorable as it was two days prior to the September 11th attacks. The following year, they purchased the building with the aid of the CLC church extension fund at a price of $50,000. The sanctuary in Mapleton was dedicated to the service of the Lord God on October 13th, 2002. The building can hold 100+ worshippers with just as much room downstairs including an adequate kitchen from which to serve potlucks.
In 2002 they started providing VBS for the Mapleton community with the aid of the Traveling Vacation Bible School team. The summer of 2007 they felt they were ready to go out on their own, with the help of God, as they did their own flyer distribution and teaching with approximately 20 students in attendance.
Through the years since 1991 they were truly supported by their sister congregations of Mt. Olive in Detroit Lakes, MN, St. Paul’s in Ponsford, MN, Prince of Peace in Hecla, SD, and Our Savior’s in Jamestown, ND. These congregations encouraged Gift of God and supported them with providing their Pastors. Through the years those pastors included David Naumann, Paul Krause, Paul Larsen, Steven Sippert, Ted Barthels, Roland Gurgel, Matthew Hanel, and John M. Johannes.
The CLC Board of Missions offered mission status to Gift of God in the spring of 2005. With this support , Matthew Gurath was installed as the first resident pastor of the Gift of God congregation on July 31, 2005.
Gift of God is blessed in the way that as a congregation they are the sole religious organization in the Mapleton community. As the Mapleton community was growing the congregation thought it wise to build a parsonage in Mapleton. So in 2006 with again the aid of the CLC CEF they built a parsonage less than 1 mile from the church building in the newly constructed MaplePoint addition.
Average weekly worship attendance is approximately 30 with five in Sunday School.
