The Good Hand of Our God: The Story of GBC (15th Anniversary Sunday 2019)
Chuck Sligh
September 22, 2019
TEXT: Nehemiah 2:8 – “And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.”
Nehemiah 2:18 – “Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.”
INTRODUCTION
Nehemiah testified about “the good hand of…God” upon him in verse 8. The Lord has been good to us at Grace Baptist Church, having given us many victories and landmarks along the way. We can truly be thankful for “the good hand of our God upon us.”
Now there’s something about openly expressing God’s goodness that motivates others. Nehemiah had received permission from the Persian emperor to return from captivity in Persia to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls around Jerusalem that had fallen into ruins due to past wars and subsequent neglect. When Nehemiah arrived and told the Jerusalem rulers of his mission, they were skeptical at first. But verse 18 tells us that he told them of “the hand of my God which was good upon me.”
Their response was immediate and overwhelming from these rulers: They said, “Let us rise up and build,” and the verse continues: “So they strengthened their hands for this good work.”
Today, on the 15th Anniversary of the organizing of Grace Baptist Church, I want to share “the story of Grace.” But I tell it not just to tell a good story as a backdrop to a great grill-out after the service. I hope that it will challenge each of you—the recipients of the sacrifice and sweat and expense of others before you—to respond and say, “Let us rise up and build!”
Here’s the story of Grace:
I. FIRST THERE WAS GOD’S PREPARATION
One of the things we will encounter over and again today is what appears to be happenstance, but really can only be attributed to God’s good hand. After pastoring churches for ten years in Wiesbaden and seven years in England, the directors of military missions of the mission board we are with, BIMI, asked us to survey Grafenwoehr to start a church, since word had gotten out that the Army was going to build up Grafenwoehr and bring an infantry brigade to this sleepy little German town. While still in England, I met a lieutenant colonel, who just “happened” (there’s that word) to be at a conference, who was from Hohenfels, who just “happened” to know the details of the upcoming build-up, suggesting a survey trip would be worthwhile.
When I went to Grafenwoehr for the survey trip, I asked if he could show me around and he gave me the tour of Graf post and Graf town and told me what was planned. While stopping for gas, we just “happened” to see a missionary to the Germans named Elsen Portugal, whom I already knew but had forgotten was in Grafenwoehr. This led to a second tour, and to several “chance” meetings with people who just “happened” to have key info that would play a big role in our coming to Graf. Too many “coincidences” were happening: God was clearly guiding us to Grafenwoehr.
II. BEGINNINGS
In March 2003 we moved to the Grafenwoehr area to start Grace Baptist Church. After a series of setbacks, in September 2003, we began meeting as a mid-week Bible study in the German church pastored by Elsen Portugal, whom I mentioned before. In time we felt God calling us to start Sunday services. We began Sunday AM and PM services in May 2, 2004 in the Grafenwoehr Stahdhalle.
Illus. – I’ll never forget that first Sunday morning service. Having advertised heavily, we had a good group of 45 that first Sunday. But because all our mid-week group were teaching or in the nursery or elsewhere, there was no one besides me to welcome all the first-time visitors.
It was weird because no one knew anybody. They all just swooshed in just before church, and then swooshed out before I could even shake most of their hands. And I committed the greatest faux pas of my entire ministry—I forgot to hand out welcome cards for all the people who came—so they all got away!
Almost all, that is. What happened is that the Lord brought back the next Sunday those He wanted to be the building blocks of our church. Only 20 showed up that second Sunday, but God just “happened” to bring back the best core a pastor could begin a church with. The good hand of our God was upon us, watching over us; guiding us.
One of the couples in attendance that first Sunday was a captain and his wife named Larry and Stacy Johnson. Six weeks after our first service, on July 18, 2004, we formally organized as a Baptist Church and the church called me as the pastor.
As I look back, I’m amazed at how much God’s good hand was upon us in that first couple of years. Our very first convert was Buddy Crump who, with his wife, were founding members and became our pillars in starting our K.I.D.S. church.
Larry and Stacy started a kids’ ministry on Sunday nights and they became our first deacon family.
The Hazelets were also a family that was obviously brought to GBC by the good hand of our God. Jesse came to Christ at our church. Later he got out of the military and was with us until 2010 and at one time or another, served in just about every ministry we ever had at Grace.
Dan Feazelle’s family came and eventually became our head usher and were the last founding members to leave us a year or so ago.
These and others came and set up the church every Sunday morning in the Stadthalle; ministered during the services where needed; and then had to tear down everything at the end of the day because the building was used by a music school during the week. We had one closet to put all our belongings. We used to joke that God performed a miracle every Sunday in somehow enabling Larry and Jesse to jam everything the church used on Sundays into one small 4X6 foot storage room!
We saw many people come to faith in Christ or rededicate their lives to Him. It was an exciting time full of God’s blessings.
III. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
From day one, we began to look for a building to buy. One attraction of Grafenwoehr on my survey trip was the number of empty buildings due to a downturn in the German economy and the resultant low interest rates. I knew that if we started up quickly and the church grew early enough, we might be able to buy a property or a building at a good price when real estate prices and interest rates were still low before the Army’s build-up and an improved economy.
We had chosen to meet in the Stadthalle only because there was no other suitable location at the time to meet in. Little did we know that even that was “the good hand of our God upon us.” We only had to pay 100€ per month in rent, and because we could not use it during the week, we had no utility bills, phone bills or upkeep expenses. So, every penny not needed for curricula and a few minor expenses went into the bank to save up for a building or some property.
After getting our German legal status (e.V.), with only a tiny amount in the bank and a lot of faith, we started looking for a building to buy. We looked at several buildings: the building the Portugal’s German church rented, a building owned by the Grafenwoehr dry cleaners, the apartment building across the street from where we are now, the dance hall by Panda Restaurant, and we even put a bid on a run-down tennis club, now Megaplay. All either weren’t suitable for our needs or were too expensive.
Then I received a call from Rosy Wideman who at that time was in the German church. She told me that the building next to the Telekom TV tower that was owned by Telekom and currently used as a trade school was up for sale and I should check it out. Of course, that’s the building we’re in now. I came by, and God spoke to my heart before I ever saw inside that this was the building God was going to give us. Just outside Gate 1, its location is perfect to reach soldiers and their families; it was kept up well; it was attractive; and it had plenty of parking (at least for us in those early days), something missing from the other properties we’d looked at. I walked over the property and prayed, “Lord, please give us this building!”
I set up an appointment to see it on the inside and despite some minor drawbacks, I knew it would be a great blessing! The asking price was 230,000€. We only had about $20,000 saved up, which was ridiculously low for a down-payment and closing expenses by German standards. I called our director, Dr. Jim Kennad at BIMI whom I’d kept in the loop and asked if he knew where we could get a $50,000 loan for a down-payment.
He said, “Chuck, it’s strange you should ask. Just this week I received a call from a pastor with a member in his church who just ‘happens’ to have $50,000 he’d like to loan to missionary works on a short-term basis at a reasonable interest rate. Do you think you could pay this off in six months?” Instantly, by faith, I said, “Yes. Not sure how, but I know God will make a way. Can you see if he would be willing to loan us this money?”
I haven’t a clue how I thought we could do this, but we all had an unshakable faith that God would make a way. Within a couple of weeks, we had the $50,000 in our bank, and with $80,000 in hand, we began negotiating a better price for the building. We countered the 230,000€ asking price with a ridiculously low offer of 150,000€. We negotiated over several nerve-wracking weeks until they gave a final offer of 180,000€. We began to pray that if this was God’s will that they would settle for 170,000€.
By this point our real estate agent was sick of me constantly low-balling them. He told me that 180,000€ was Telekom’s final offer and that if we gave a lower offer, they would walk away. I begged him to try again, and then felt prompted to send a letter to the Telekom board detailing how many Germans only see bad things American do, but that our goal was to be a lighthouse right on the main bar street to help be a force for good. He scoffed at the letter, saying it would be rejected and you could just tell he was mentally kissing his commission good-bye.
I said, “This is our sign that this is God’s will. Send it and make the offer.” He did, and he told me later that there just “happened” to be a “religious” man on the board who was moved by the letter, who persuaded the rest of the board to accept our offer. We got a 230,000€ property and building that was realistically worth about 200,000€ for 170,000€! At 50,000€ savings, we knew that the good hand of our God was upon us.
During this time, we were looking for a German bank who would loan a little church of about 50 transient military members 170,000€. Sparkasse Bank, with whom we had our accounts, looked at us incredulously and flat-out turned us away. We asked around at different banks, all with the same response.
But God was working behind the scenes in several other ways. Awhile prior to our even looking for a building, we had gone to see the pastor of what was then New Covenant Fellowship, the blue metal building down in Vilseck. Since no building had suited our needs up to that point, we had considered just buying a plot of land and having a builder put up a similar metal building. The pastor wasn’t sure if he wanted to help us by giving us his builder’s information, us being Baptist and all, and being perhaps potential competition to their work!
But it “just so happened” that he had been in Wiesbaden back when I was pastoring there in the 1980s and his daughter had been in our Christian school. Instantly, suspicion turned to trust and he gave us his builder’s information. When we met with the builder, we discussed a metal building, because remember, we didn’t even know about this building yet, so we were thinking new construction.
But in that meeting, he asked how we were going to finance it. I told him that we hadn’t figured that out yet, and asked if he have any ideas? He said, “Well, I just ‘happen’ to be good friends with the man who arranged the loan for New Covenant. They’ve been very regular in their payments and I think he might be interested in arranging a loan.” He was, and we gave our pitch to this guy, and he thought we were a safe bet. He called around and was able to arrange a loan for us with Raiffeisenbank.
So finally, in July 2006 we purchased this building. The next step was to take possession and then remodel the building. At that point we had no funds and only about 60 members and regular attenders. I had sought donations from a couple of foundations that raised money to help new churches get off the ground, and they gave us about $30,000 in total. BIMI had also agreed to raise money from our donors and other BIMI donors as well. I was anxious to take possession and start remodeling.
But to our surprise, we found out that we had to honor the contract the trade school had, which would go through August of 2007—14 months. I was disappointed, but God had it planned all along. For the 14 months the school paid almost double our mortgage, enabling us to pour all our offerings above operating expenses directly into our remodeling fund. We couldn’t fill the building anyway, so we set up church in what is now the fellowship room, and we saw that it was really the good hand of God upon us.
In the meantime, that 6-month deadline was looming on our $50,000 loan. We prayed and prayed and then I called Dr. Kennard, and asked him if he thought he could arrange a separate loan to pay back this investor and us pay the loan off over time. He said, “Chuck, listen to this. I just ‘happened’ to get a call from Jim Whitted.”
Well, I knew that name right off. He had been a missionary in one of the hardest fields in Europe—Scotland. He and his wife had left Scotland broken and discouraged. Years before, when we needed a furlough, he and his wife filled in for us at our church in Wiesbaden and upon our return, he told me, “Chuck. I was totally burned out in Scotland. I didn’t think God would use me again. But we’ve had more fruit at your church than all my years in ministry put together. Thank you for letting me fill in for you. I’ll never forget it.”
Dr. Kennard said, “Chuck, Jim’s Scotland church was in the name of three missionaries there, including Jim. The church had closed down after he left, so they finally were able to sell it 20 years later and they need to donate the funds to another Christian cause. Jim called me saying he had his share—$35,000—to donate, and asked if there was there a church needing some financial help? I told him I just ‘happen’ to know one that needs it.”
When Jim Whitted heard he was talking about me, he cried out, “Amen! I always wanted to do something for Chuck. Let’s do it.”
But we still needed another $15,000, so back the Lord we went in prayer. Unexpectedly, I received a call from one of the former members of the church I had pastored in Wiesbaden named Chuck Foster who had been a successful investor. He said, “Chuck, we got Dr. Kennard’s letter requesting donations. Money has been tight lately, but I just ‘happen’ to have some I can give here shortly.”
I said, “Praise God, Chuck! How much is it?”
He said “$15,000”—which, when I heard it, I almost fell out of my seat. When our 6-month loan was due, we were able to pay the investor off on time without borrowing a single penny more! The good hand of our God was upon us.
The sanctuary remodeling was a major expense. The greatest expense was this sanctuary, which, when we bought it, was a large mechanical shop with two attached rooms. It had meter-wide columns, which were load-bearing, and the floors were grimy, filthy, greasy black tiling. The builder who we had talked with earlier put this I-beam up [POINT TO THE I-BEAM] with the metal poles in place of the columns [POINT]. Work teams from the U.S. came and tore out the rooms in the back and laid down the white tile we have now.
There were many other miracles of special gifts provided PRECISELY when we had the need and often in the EXACT amounts needed, like when one of our members’ dad visited in only one service and got so excited, he sent us a gift of $10,000 for remodeling—JUST at the time when we needed exactly $10,000 for new tiles project!
The good hand of our God had truly been upon us, often in miraculous ways. $100,000 later in November of 2008, we dedicated our sanctuary to God.
IV. MOVING ON
All along, God was working on the ministry and spiritual sides: People continued to be saved and baptized; folks rededicated their lives to God; families joined the church; ministries were added one by one; and God continued to bring us exactly the people needed for the time and then moved them out.
God brought key people into our church at decisive times to start new ministries. BIMI missionaries Steve and Debbie Kissling came to work with us in 2008 and did immeasurable good as wonderful servants for five years, especially with our kids ministries.
Many more made their mark on GBC—from one year to the next! We only have two people left from those early days—Nelly Lamp and Rosy Wideman, who came along sometime in 2007. They have been such faithful workers in our church in too many ministries to recount. Nelly and Rosy, would you please stand? [GIVE THEM APPLAUSE.]
And there are many, many, many others who have served and filled a key void, or met an important need, or been a contributor to the church in some way.
CONCLUSION
There are some things that all these people share— the ones who STARTED the church the ones SUSTAINED the church the ones who STARTED KEY MINISTRIES OR PROGRAMS; the leaders and deacons and the army of hundreds of volunteers over these past 15 years who changed diapers and cleaned toilets and watered the plants and cleaned the building and hosted homegroups and cut the grass and filled the baptistery whenever it needed filling and cleaned up on work days and painted walls and ran Bible clubs from their homes and worked in Vacation Bible Schools and came in Sunday after Sunday at 8:30 in the morning to practice on the worship team and taught our precious kids about God and His love for them and loved and cared for our babies and toddlers in our nursery childcare and taught out teens and adults, and on and on I could go.
They all GAVE of themselves in faithful service; they SACRIFICED their valuable time; they were faithful to GIVE tithes and offerings to keep the work of the church going; they ATTENDED the services and homegroups and small group Bible studies.
Folks, what we have today is here because of the sacrifices of many, many before you. You stand on the shoulders of giants. You are the recipients of blessings paid for by the sweat and labor and sacrifice of others.
They have all left; and now the baton falls to you. We went through a military rotation again this summer. Rapidly the ranks of those teaching your children upstairs; keeping your babies and toddlers in the nursery; serving on the worship team; cleaning the building; paying the bills; and many other things…have PCSed. Many of you are new to our church. Will you join us to rise up and build again on the foundation laid by these good people over the years.
I say to you, “The good hand of our God has been upon this church and its people.” May each of us say, “LET US RISE UP AND BUILD!” May it be said of this group, “So they strengthened their hands for this good work.”
Grace Baptist Church is a good work. We need people who will join the church and get behind this ministry. We need volunteers to teach in K.I.D.S. Church and Sunday School to replace the ranks of those who have PCSed; we need nursery workers; we need volunteers to help clean the church. – If you would be willing to rise up and get involved in these volunteer opportunities, see my wife, who is always in the entranceway as you exit. We want to have more homegroup homes and homegroup leaders. – If you’re interested in hosting or leading a homegroup, see me. We need people who will faithfully tithe to undergird this work financially, and people who will support the services of the church through faithful attendance.
May we “strengthen our hands for this good work.” If we do, I believe God will do again what He has done in the past. His good hand will continue to be upon us. He’ll work a new work in our hearts and in our church and in our community.
