Hill’s Role with NAMB Ends; His Passion for the Dakotas Continues

Buck Hill has served Christ across the Dakotas in many capacities for more than two decades. Most recently he has been the Send Network Dakotas Director for the North American Mission Board. Last month NAMB shared that they were making changes to their church planting structure. One element of this change is the elimination of his role, as of the end of June. The SBC agency is, however, providing a grant to the DBC that will allow Hill to continue helping church plants and existing churches in the Dakotas over the next year.

Hill, originally from South Carolina, has been a layman on mission to the Dakotas, a pastor in the Dakotas, a Director of Missions for an association of the Dakotas, the Starting Churches Director for the Dakotas, and up until the end of June coordinated the joint effort of NAMB and the churches of the Dakotas to identify church planters and plant new churches all across the Dakotas. Hill also currently serves as the interim pastor for Capitol Heights Baptist Church in Pierre, SD and Calvary Baptist Church in Blunt, SD.

To the churches of North and South Dakota, however, Buck (“Uncle Buck” to many of the church planters in the DBC) is more than just someone with a job title. DBC Executive Director Fred MacDonald said, “Buck is not just a ‘good old boy’ who provides backslaps and attaboys to everyone, and he does more than just facilitate church plants. He is someone that many pastors call when they need encouragement.” 

According to MacDonald, Hill has “helped many of our churches in times of stress or conflict. When a disaster strikes somewhere in the Dakotas, he’s one of the first persons I call to find out how Dakota Baptists can help. He has coordinated the logistics for countless DBC meetings and did much of the logistical work during the years we conducted an evangelistic outreach at the Sturgis Bike Rally. It would be impossible to overstate the value that we place on Buck Hill.”

Former DBC Executive Director Garvon Golden worked directly with Hill for many years. “The fact that Buck Hill will be transitioning out of his state role in the Dakotas comes as a sad time for the Dakota Baptist Convention and is the end of an era for all of us. Buck came as a volunteer to help churches in eastern South Dakota,” Golden recalled. “While he came without pay, he worked literally night and day to provide for the care of his family and strengthen churches as a layman.”

There is one NAMB appointed Church Planter Catalyst (CPC) serving in the Dakotas, Stephen Carson. CPCs are pastors who contract part-time with NAMB to facilitate church planting within the state where they live. As a CPC Carson works closely with Hill. “I have had the incredible privilege of working very closely with Buck over the last seven years in my role as a church planter catalyst. Buck has become a dear friend and brother in Jesus.” 

Carson, who is also the lead pastor at Connection Church in Belle Fourche, SD, assured Dakota Baptists that, “while Buck’s role is changing, I know that he will continue faithfully serving the Dakotas and advocate for church planting. I am so thankful for all that I have personally learned from Buck and from all of the wonderful things God has done and will continue to do through his ministry in the Dakotas.”

Golden shared the impact Hill has had in the Dakotas. “From lay leader to pastor to associational missionary and state staff. He found his passion when he began to lead church planting in our state. 

Golden, who now serves as pastor at Christ Church in Rapid City, emphasized the role Hill had on church planting. “Church planting took on a whole new trajectory under Buck’s leadership as God blessed the Dakotas with resources and church planters from the Black Hills to the towns and countryside all across North and South Dakota. Church planting under Buck’s leadership led the way in the growth of SBC work in the Dakotas. We are fortunate that Buck will remain in the Dakotas to continue leading Calvary Baptist in Blunt and Capitol Heights in Pierre.”

“I am grateful for the gift God gave us in Buck Hill,” the former exec concluded. “We had a saying when I was Executive Director: ‘Here I am, Lord; send Buck!’ Buck worked out of a servant’s heart with a passion to see churches started and souls saved. I am grateful for his service and for the opportunity I had to work alongside of him for over twenty years.”

MacDonald said that he is working with Hill and Carson to develop a strategy for future church planting work in the Dakotas as the state adjusts to the reduction in NAMB’s church planting staff assigned to the Dakotas. “Regardless of this change, Buck will remain a key component of all that we do in the Dakotas. Buck’s heart is in the Dakotas and our heart is with him.”

He continued, “The grant from NAMB gives us opportunity for a smoother transition. I am grateful for our partnership with NAMB, both in the areas of church planting and evangelism. We have a great relationship and I look forward to what God is going to do in, through, and around the churches of North and South Dakota.”