40 Years of Blessing

Forty Years of Blessing

Forty years ago Sharon and I were living in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, thrilled to be serving God as an interim pastor. I loved exactly what I was doing, but God would not let me stay. Every time I got alone with Him for a period of time, the Lord made it very clear that we were to move to the little town of Chesterton, Indiana, to start a church. When we traveled out to meet with the family who wanted to plant a church, I hated the town. Growing up in the city of Chicago, I loved the big city life with all its people, and still do. As I came to the flashing stoplight at the heart of the business section, I was sick. There was nothing. Added to that, humanly speaking, Chesterton didn't need another church. There were four Bible-preaching ones in existence-one being independent Baptist, running about 250 in attendance.
Believing in a definite call of God, though, and knowing His will in the matter, Sharon and I moved to Indiana, living with the one family for a short time. Our oldest child, Jeff, was born two months later. Gerry Regnier, the one man, wanted to pay us $100 per week; however, he was the only breadwinner in the group and could only give a small fraction of that amount per week-so we learned to live by faith. I'm not saying it was easy, but we learned to live totally trusting God. The church met in a small room in the Sandpiper restaurant, with my wife playing a toy organ and me preaching behind a cardboard soapbox. We had a very simple start, but God answered our prayers with the meeting room rent, our home rent, Sunday School material, etc., always paid for on time with no support and no secular job. It is wonderful to think back on how, time after time, God would miraculously provide after fervent prayer. The foundation of our faith became very strong in those early years.
We knocked on doors 35 or 40 hours a week, praying and preparing an equal amount of time. People were saved just about every week, but none of them grew and they fell away, week after week. After a period of time, though, God gave us a mini-explosion of blessings with eleven family units added to our little congregation and Fairhaven Baptist Church was born.
Soon we purchased eight acres of land, meeting in the basement of an existing house that we lived in while building our first metal building. The new building was designed to house a school that we planned to start at two years old. These were times of real struggle with the people doing all the interior labor; however, in the fall of 1972, after putting the finishing touches on throughout the night, we started with 100 students. Our church exploded to 200 in attendance with next to none coming from other congregations.
Those were exciting times, not only building seven days a week but designing a curriculum, hiring teachers, and then starting our first bus route, which was to become the heart of our ministry. Thousands have been saved throughout the years-future deacons, staff members, and missionaries being brought to the Lord through these efforts. Within the next 2½ years we added other routes, averaging 300 riders. Our Christian academy also exploded to 365 students in its third year (the church's fifth), majoring on strong discipline and excellence in academics. God was blessing so much that I didn't think I could handle it, and I was asking Him to stop the growth. I had discovered that every new person had a new problem to be dealt with.
At 4½ years old we ran into a "buzz saw." A woman in our church with an alcoholic husband wanted to put her 15-year-old son in the academy. He rebelled and ran to the Welfare Department. Up to that time in our country, authorities would have called his mom and sent him home; however, unbeknown to us, our county, out of the entire nation, had been chosen as the pilot program for all that is wrong with "child advocacy" today. People, such as Hillary Clinton, were designing a plan to take the rights of parents from them, grabbing the responsibility themselves. These bureaucrats told the boy's mother that she had no right to make him go to Sunday School, let alone a Christian day school. Added to this, they said she could not have her boy. We stood next to her, and the battle began.
During the fight, I ended up going to jail, we lost the loan for our expansive new auditorium (with the exterior already completed), almost went bankrupt, and found we could trust the Lord again. We lost approximately 200 academy students, and our bus numbers went down to basically nothing. It seemed that we were dead, but miraculously God gave us a wonderful local lawyer who helped us stand against the judicial system, welfare department, news agencies, and even law enforcement, to clearly win our case. The school enrollment regained 100 students, the auditorium was miraculously paid for, and the church grew from 200 to 1,100 the following year and then to 1,600 and 2,000 the next two year. God performed miracle after miracle because we trusted in Him and not man.

Old-fashioned Beliefs

I am 66 years old now and wouldn't trade my life for anything in the world. More than the story of our church, I'm thrilled with the way God blesses a person's faith if he believes His promises on the family. I realize that many today look at me as some kind of weird relic, but my life's decisions have been made by the principles and promises of God's Word.
My father was born in 1902 and came out of the north woods where all formal education ended after five years. After salvation, he always read the Bible and other books, learning all the time; but his greatest asset and gift to me was strength. He was saved at 40 and was backward, but he knew what the Bible said and followed it if no one else did.
We three boys were not only always at church if the doors were open, but we arrived an hour early to set things up and never missed a "work party." He gave to the Lord "because the Bible said to" and was the head of the home because it came natural to him and God said he should be. I learned much from my father; and even though he was a "rough" man, I loved him very much.
Another man who had a great influence on me was John R. Rice. The only preaching on cleanliness in dating I ever heard was when he came to our church in Chicago once a year, and it stuck with me and enabled me to marry my wife without immorality. His preaching on the home, soulwinning, and prayer greatly influenced me. When I finally surrendered to preach and attended Bible college, he was there again greatly affecting me. He gave us "preacher boys" some of his books and my beliefs in the Holy Spirit's power, prayer, and the family were reinforced again. I am a relic from the past because we came on the scene at the end of the ministries of great men, such as Lester Roloff, with whom I'm proud to say I fought many a battle shoulder to shoulder.
Today's younger generation is made up more of "spiritual politicians" or "biblical psychologists" than the prophets whom I saw build old-fashioned fundamentalism. Look at the difference between Bob Jones, Sr., and his great grandson. Old Bob Jones said he would want to come back and "blow up" the university if it ever got to the place it is today. It was my friend, Bill Rice, Sr., who helped me see that pants and shorts on women are wrong. Enough said there. And as we've reordered John R. Rice's book, The Home, we've been told, "People don't buy it anymore, so it may not be reprinted."
Young preacher, if you want to see God's blessings on your ministry, go to the Bible for direction-not some conference full of hype and hoopla. "Turning to the Old Paths" is more than a "theme." Be strong as you see the men of God in the Bible were, not a man-pleasing personality trying to build a kingdom here on this earth.

This is not a conference of personality and hype but one where prayer, power, revival, cleanliness, and strong preaching are emphasized. Our church's theme for 2010 along with our conference is "Revive us again that we may rejoice." Preachers and their people come from across the country for these meetings. You will find wonderful fellowship with true, old-fashioned believers. The music is godly and good quality, but the meetings center around strong preaching. This year our preachers are Don Green from Michigan, R. B. Ouellette also from Michigan, Wilbert Unger from Ontario, Canada, Rodger Bottrell from New York, and Don Strange from Florida. Mark your calendar to be here. God will bless!