Active Elder Council
Chairman - Jeff Ort
My name is Jeff Ort and my wife Emmy and I have attended CBC since shortly after we arrived in the Flathead Valley in 2003. We have both been involved in full-time ministry to people with special needs and their families since before we were married in 1998. It was our hearts for those families that brought us to Montana to direct Camp Promise, which is a ministry of Big Sky Bible Camp in Bigfork. We also run the Friday Night Out ministry at CBC, which is a bi-weekly ministry to people with special needs throughout the school year.
I grew up in New Jersey and after a few false starts in life I returned to college at 25 to prepare for what I thought would be a life spent on the foreign mission field. While at Columbia Bible College in South Carolina I was exposed to ministry with people with special needs and began to see God shift my focus. I graduated with degrees in Bible and Bible Teaching and began to serve with a ministry based near Philadelphia, PA. It was there that I met a sweet Mississippi belle named Emmy. We began to date shortly after she finished her degree in Camp and Recreation Management from John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas and joined the ministry full-time. We have been blessed to live, serve and raise our 6 children in this beautiful area. We enjoy living in town and being within walking distance of Main Street, shops, restaurants and parks in our West Kalispell neighborhood.
I’ve tried to pattern my life, ministry and outreach around the seemingly insignificant little word “even” that starts my favorite verse Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (NKJV) If even the Creator God of the universe came to serve others, what right do I have to expect anything more?
Vice Chairman - Ken Young
Ken came to Christ on March 27, 1966 in San Francisco, CA at age 26 from a background of sports, Marine Corps, and engineering. He has an M. Div. degree from Western Conservative Baptist Seminary (Western Seminary) of Portland, OR in 1975, has pastored churches in MT and ID and started 3 churches and 2 Bible camps in SE ID while ministering among Mormon people as a home missionary.
Ken has a deep commitment to the absolute authority and sufficiency of Scripture while seeking to grow and change into increasing Christ-likeness in character and conduct. He and his wife, Grace, have been married for 53 years and have 7 children and 27 grandchildren.
Recorder - Marvin Ortman
I was both born and born again in the Flathead Valley, having accepting the Lord, as a child, after an Easter message. My family moved to the Seattle area for my later grade school years through junior college, then at Whitworth College Spokane earning a BA degree in general science & education.
I met and married Sharon in Spokane in 1970 and our adventure of serving the Lord together began, including a year of training at Multnomah Bible College. Over the years we have worked teaching in public, Christian, and mission schools. I have worked in residential construction and as Bible camp caretaker for 9 years.
We attended Central Bible for a number of years in the late 1970’s , before going to the mission field in Alaska, and helping in church construction in the Seattle area. Then after 9 years of camp work, we returned to the Flathead, and have been serving at CBC for over 20 years, this has included working as a deacon, elder, child protection, and various children’s ministry including being Awana commander for 18 years. It has been a joy to be in a church that values in-depth Bible teaching, a desire for missions outreach and a genuine love for the body of Christ. I am excited to be part of a church that has a heart for loving, serving and helping others, as we, in obedience, follow our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.