For the first time in its 111-year history, the Assemblies of God has elected a woman as superintendent of a ministry network.

Nicole B. Heidt officially began duties June 2 as leader of the Wyoming Ministry Network.

It is fitting that the breakthrough occurred in Wyoming. In 1869, it became the first U.S. state (then territory) to grant women the right to vote — a half century before suffrage happened nationally.

Heidt, 50, has served in various church and ministry network capacities in the Cowboy State for nearly three decades. Yet for most of those years, the Helena, Montana, native seemed an unlikely candidate to forge a groundbreaking role.

As a fourth-grader at an AG kids’ camp, Heidt heard an audible voice telling her to respond to an altar invitation for those sensing a call to ministry.

Heidt asked a friend if she heard someone speaking, but the girl said she had not. Then, like the young Samuel (1 Samuel 3), Heidt heard the instruction twice more. She was the only girl who went forward.

The evangelist said some of those responding would become pastors and missionaries. Then he pointed at Heidt and said, “Some of you may be pastors’ wives.”

“I was the only one there to fit the bill,” Heidt recalls.

A decade later, Heidt enrolled at Trinity Bible College in Ellendale, North Dakota, content to fulfill the role of pastor’s wife. After her first year, at age 19, she married Troy Heidt.

Four years Nicole’s senior, Troy soon received his ministerial credentials and embarked on brief stints as a youth pastor of small churches in North Dakota and Alaska.

Troy then spent 13 years as lead pastor at Lighthouse Assembly in Upton, Wyoming. Nicole helped with children’s church, Sunday School, and women’s ministry.

In 2012, the couple moved to Rock Springs, Wyoming, where Troy became pastor of Rock Springs First Assembly. Nicole took on the same responsibilities as before.

The congregation had only 16 regular attenders, but it began to grow.

Four years into that pastorate, Troy experienced a heart attack. He underwent surgery to repair a cardiac defect, but due to atrial fibrillation, doctors scheduled a second operation.

Before the follow-up procedure, Troy told Nicole that whatever happened, he knew God would take care of her.

Troy didn’t survive the second surgery, dying at age 45.

Even though Heidt had never preached a sermon, leaders at Rock Springs First Assembly asked her to stay on as pastor. Putting aside personal doubts about her capabilities, Heidt agreed, and the congregation voted her in unanimously.

Heidt took classes through the Wyoming School of Ministry and obtained her ministerial credentials.

“It’s been a slow process becoming comfortable with how and who God made me,” she says. “I’ve recognized over time that God anoints.”

Heidt credits mentors such as Alan H. Schaberg, her immediate predecessor as superintendent, in addition to congregants at Rock Springs, for helping her along the ministerial path.

“Ministry is men
 and women in partnership.”
 — Nicole B. Heidt

“People have walked beside me who have encouraged me and cultivated that calling in me,” Heidt says. “They had confidence in me that I did not have in myself at that moment. I had to borrow their confidence for a little bit as I stepped out in faith.”

After serving briefly as women’s ministry director for the Wyoming Ministry Network, Heidt became secretary-treasurer during 2018.

Schaberg first met the Heidts 27 years ago when they served in the same section of the Wyoming Ministry Network. After seeing how the Rock Springs church kept growing under her leadership, Schaberg knew Heidt could handle the statewide secretary-treasurer role.

“It’s never really been about her gender,” Schaberg says. “It’s been more about her character, her competence, and her relational access that is off the charts. She engages people and cares for people so well.”

Heidt wants to be known as a servant more than a trailblazer.

“Ministry is men and women in partnership,” Heidt says. “We’re not in competition. We are co-laborers working together for the same purpose: to advance God’s kingdom.”

Schaberg, who recently relocated to Golden, Colorado, to be near children and grandchildren, believes the leadership transition will be seamless.

“Nicole has a great grasp of Wyoming church ministry culture, what people are like, and what the needs and challenges are,” Schaberg says. “She has a strong relationship with pastors and a good handle on the condition of churches.”

A major challenge Heidt faces in her new role is a geographical one. Despite its expansive size, Wyoming is the least populated state. In rural areas, churches are often far removed from one another, making face-to-face fellowship between pastors difficult.

“Our ministers struggle with isolation,” Heidt says.

Another challenge — one Wyoming shares with other districts — is finding replacements for clergy who are aging out. Heidt believes the solution is not a matter of drawing people to Wyoming as much as training those who are already there.

“I want to see us cultivate people in our pews to be ministry leaders,” Heidt says. “We will expand the Kingdom in Wyoming by championing those sitting in the congregations who have been called.”

One of the pulpits needing filled is Rock Springs First Assembly, which now has an average attendance of 100. As dictated by bylaws, Heidt resigned the pastorate on April 13, less than a week after her election at the ministry network’s annual conference.

During the transition period, Heidt has been encouraged by texts, phone calls, and prayers from fellow superintendents. She recently relocated to Casper and is the only full-time employee in the office.

Of the 96 credentialed AG ministers in Wyoming, 30 are women. That is slightly above the national average; a record 29.2% of AG ministers are female.

Although Wyoming has only 34 AG churches across the sparsely populated state, Heidt sees an upside to the ministry network’s size.

“We are so small, we know each other,” Heidt says. “Our gatherings are like a family reunion.”

This article appears in the Summer 2025 issue of Influence magazine.