Holding Fast for God & Country…by Pastor Jared Deckerfor God & Country

I just thought that I would start the updates off with a little bit of background leading us to the present blessings at Grandview Pines Baptist Church. When God brought me and my family here in January of 2007, thing were…well, they were very different than they are now. Our first service at GPBC consisted of 12 people, which included my 5. In the early days, it was nothing unusual for us to have 8 or 9 on Wednesday night and be excited for 25 on Sunday morning. I still remember the burst of energy I felt when we hit 30 for the first time.

[ Let me pause for a moment and clarify one thing. MINISTRY IS NOT ABOUT NUMBERS! It is about the people in those numbers...however large or small those numbers are. I am consistently disturbed by the prevailing attitude that a ministry is successful if it is running over 300 "in Sunday School" and struggling if it is running only 40 "in Church". Most of our Bible Colleges are failing our Pastoral students by not preparingthem to work with small number and see God's blessing in that. Come on guys...don't you remember what it was like to be a young pastor who got excited when you had 1 visitor in the last three weeks? Pass on the knowledge, not the numbers! ]

During those first couple of years, God brought us through struggles as well as triumphs. We lost a couple of good families over differences of organization and ministry goals. (It never pays to compromise on your vision of what God can do.) We lost a couple of good families due to doctrinal issues. (It never pays to compromise on the Bible…even with those we count as friends.) But God has brought along mutliplied numbers of good, doctrinally sound families to replace them. We have seen God change lives in the most miraculous ways. We have seen answers to prayer that you think you’ll only read about in the Scriptures. We have seen some of our “original” church folks get the victory over sin in their lives that they have been struggling with for 10 or 15 years. God is working in people.

Since 2007, God has given us the resources time and again to repair and remodel our facilities. (Click here for pictures and information about our remodelling projects.) The building that I came to in January of 2007 doesn’t exist anymore. When we have had people revisit the church, they don’t recognize the place. It has been a great testimony in the community of the growth that God is bringing. I have constantly had people out in public places say, “Boy, sure looks like things are growing over there. It seems like ya’ll are always doing something new.” What a great thing for people to see and take notice of. Our buildings have taken on new shape, but so has the rest of our ministry.

When I came as Pastor in 2007, there was 1 adult Sunday School class and 1 children’s Sunday School class. Now, we have 2 adult classes and are about to split into a 3rd children’s class. We are soon going to start running our first bus route, but the problem we are running into now is that we don’t really have the classroom capacity for the classes we need. It’s a good problem to have, but a problem none the less. We are actively praying that God will either give us a facility down the road from us to lighten the space burden, or that He will give us the resources to build a facility on our property to lighten that load. Either one will be the work and blessing of God.

Time would fail me to tell you how excited I am to be the Pastor of this great work. I truly cannot wait to see what God will do next. However, when He does it, I’ll let you know here.

In the service of the KING,

Pastor Jared Decker