Years ago, a South Dakota church broke into two. A reunion seemed highly unlikely. But then leaders started talking — and praying.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Two brothers-in-law.

Two ministers of the Gospel.

Two split congregations.

The story behind the Sioux Falls Church of Christ — a thriving body of believers in southeastern South Dakota, near the Iowa and Minnesota state lines — begins with these details.

Clint Giltner, the church’s preaching evangelist, and Zack Opheim, its discipleship evangelist, shared their recollections over Sunday lunch at Blarney Stone Pub in Sioux Falls, the state’s largest city with a population of about 225,000.

Both still sported their Sunday best: a button-down shirt and necktie for Giltner, who delivered the sermon that morning, and a short-sleeved polo and John Deere cap for Opheim.

As their varied attire reflected, these two men of God could not be — in some ways — any more different.

Count Giltner, 39, as the straight-laced one, the rule-following Oklahoma City cop’s son whose father, Greg, now serves as chief of police at Oklahoma Christian University. 

View Opheim, 44, as the one with the rocky past, the drug addict who turned his life around. He found Jesus in a halfway house a quarter-century ago.

“I was just a Minnesota methhead,” Opheim quipped.

Read the full story.

This story appears in the online edition of The Christian Chronicle.

Photo by Mackenzie Driscoll