Life of Faith Church meets on the west side of Missoula, just east of the Missoula International Airport along Highway 10 West. Since 1994, this Spirit-filled, Word of Faith congregation has gathered people who are hungry for an uncompromised message from the Bible and a tangible move of the Holy Spirit in their midst.
Founded in 1994 as Missoula Bible Church
Life of Faith Church traces its roots to December 1994, when James and Dauna Overbaugh moved to Missoula to plant a new church. The Overbaughs had both graduated from Rhema Bible Training College in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in 1987, and they brought to western Montana a vision for a Spirit-filled, Word of Faith congregation that would teach the full counsel of Scripture. The church was originally called Missoula Bible Church; it now operates as Life of Faith Church and has been an associate church of Rhema Bible Church since its earliest days.
The Overbaughs' goal has remained steady across three decades. The church identifies three threads in its ministry: teaching believers how to live the life of faith, teaching them how to walk in the fullness of the Spirit, and teaching them how to share their faith with those around them. Many people have been saved, healed, delivered, and brought out of darkness into the light through this ministry, according to the church's own story.
Sunday Mornings and Wednesday Nights
Services are held twice a week. The Sunday morning gathering begins at 10:30 a.m., and a midweek service takes place on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. Both services are open to anyone willing to walk through the doors. The church extends a simple invitation: introduce yourself when you visit, the pastors would like to say hello.
Both services are livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube, so those who cannot attend in person can still follow along. Recent messages from Pastor James Overbaugh and Rev. Lauren Burkhart are available on demand through the church's YouTube channel and Vimeo page.
Praise That Mixes the Contemporary and the Traditional
The music at Life of Faith is described as Spirit-led and anointed, blending contemporary songs with traditional hymns. Worship is treated as a doorway into the presence of God, and the church's services often include extended times of praise before the preaching of the Word. The atmosphere is described on the church's own page as one where people are being healed, delivered, and set free by the power of God's Word and His Holy Spirit.
Life of Faith Kids
Children are a central part of the church's ministry. Life of Faith Kids serves children from birth through age twelve during the Sunday morning service. Each class is led by trained, loving teachers and is staffed with a minimum of two leaders. The children's team participates in ongoing continuing education, and the church maintains safeguarding policies and procedures across all classes. Ushers and a security team remain in close contact with the children's workers throughout the morning.
The stated goal of the children's ministry is to see each child grow in their own relationship with God, learning the Word of God with illustrations that help them understand, and growing into strong believers who know their God and know how to live and walk by faith in their daily life.
What the Church Believes
Life of Faith identifies itself as a Full Gospel, Spirit-filled, Word of Faith church. Its statement of faith walks through ten core doctrines drawn from the New Testament and the broader evangelical Word of Faith tradition shaped by Rhema Bible Training College.
The church teaches that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and the infallible guide for conduct and doctrine. It affirms one God manifested in three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - who are coequal. Salvation is described as a gift received by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not by works of the law. The new birth is necessary for all, and water baptism by immersion is taught as a direct commandment of the Lord for believers only.
The church also teaches the baptism in the Holy Spirit, with the initial physical evidence of speaking in other tongues, as a gift available to all believers in the present age. Sanctification is understood as a definite yet progressive work of grace that begins at regeneration and continues until Christ's return. Divine healing is taught as part of Christ's atonement and as the privilege of every church member today, received through the prayer of faith and the laying on of hands.
The statement of faith also affirms the imminent return of the Lord, the resurrection of the dead in Christ, the millennial reign of Christ with His saints, and the eternal punishment of those who die in their sins without Christ.
The Pastoral Team
Pastors James and Dauna Overbaugh continue to serve as the co-senior pastors of the church they founded. Pastor James brings more than thirty years of ministry experience and an emphasis on victory, God-given destiny, the Holy Spirit, identity in Christ, and walking by faith. Pastor Dauna is described as a gifted and anointed Bible teacher committed to helping people understand their identity in Christ and find their place in the local church. Together they also travel through James Overbaugh Ministries, an itinerant preaching ministry based out of the church.
Rev. Lauren Burkhart serves on the pastoral staff. A 2016 graduate of Rhema Bible Training College, she has grown up in church ministry and preaches messages that bring freedom to those who hear and receive. Her husband, Rev. Dylan Burkhart, also assists on the pastoral staff and teaches the Bible, having graduated from Rhema Correspondence Bible School. Rev. Steven Overbaugh, a 2016 Rhema graduate, leads his own itinerant ministry with an emphasis on the Holy Spirit and assists at Life of Faith when he is not on the road.
Stories of Healing and Freedom
The testimonies shared publicly on the church's own pages give a picture of what regular attenders experience week to week. People have reported being healed of lung, ear, and nasal congestion, receiving restored hearing in one ear, having blurry vision cleared during an altar call, and being freed from chronic depression and back pain after prayer and anointing with oil. Other testimonies tell of freedom from years-long smoking addiction and from meth addiction, with several people describing how a prayer from Pastor Jim was a turning point that led to restored marriages, renewed faith, and a new sense of calling.
One longtime attendee who had been disabled and in chronic pain for twenty-seven years wrote that when Pastor Jim anointed her forehead with oil, the Lord's presence overwhelmed her. She went to the floor, she wrote, fully aware that she was healed immediately. She no longer needs a walker. These stories, alongside the regular preaching of the Word, the worship, and the children's ministry, make up the day-to-day life of Life of Faith Church on Highway 10 West.