A Brief History
Dakota Christian Ministries was established and incorporated as a 501c3 in 1986. This ministry was created as a result of Dakota Bible College closing its doors. The Bible College was located in Huron, South Dakota, and that is where the office is located to this day. Dakota Christian Ministries was created to be a church planting organization for North and South Dakota. Gerry Sappington was the first executive director of the organization. Jo Cain has been the secretary for the organization since its inception.
In 1995, Gerry Sappington resigned as the director of Dakota Christian Ministries to become an instructor at Puget Sound Bible College. The organization was without an executive director until April of 2001, when Mike Sojka became only the second director in this ministry’s history. Mike continues as the director to this day.
In 1999, Dakota Christian Ministries changed its name to Northern Plains Evangelistic Association, (NPEA). Along with the name change also came a change in the vision of the organization. Instead of limiting itself to planting churches only in the Dakotas, the organization will now assist in planting churches wherever God leads the ministry.
In January of 2001, Wyoming Evangelistic Association merged with Northern Plains Evangelistic Association, expanding NPEA’s territory to include Wyoming along with the Dakotas. The board of directors decided in February of 2004 to adopt Manitoba, Canada as part of NPEA’s territory, too. This was decided because it seemed logical to plant churches in North Dakota that would then be the mother churches to new churches planted in Manitoba. Also, geographically, the province connects with ¾ of the state of North Dakota.
Both organizations have planted numerous churches in their individual history. However, the combined organizations' first plant, (North Point Christian Church), was in Spearfish, South Dakota, in September of 2004. This church became self supporting on September of 2006. The next plant (White Water Christian Church) was in Laramie, Wyoming, in September of 2008. They are now working on their third plant which will be in Bismarck/Mandan, ND.
