History

Growth

About the same time that God was leading the church into the Retreat Ministry, God gave Brother Peter a burden for prayer. He purchased an old school bus for a prayer chapel. The seats were removed and it was set up as a place of prayer. It was parked next to the Recreation Building, so that an air conditioning and heating unit could be installed. Members began to pray around the clock. Also God gave Brother Peter the inspiration for developing the 959 Devotional Plan and the 2959 Prayer Plan. (Nine minutes and 59 seconds a day in devotions and twenty nine minutes and 59 seconds a day in prayer.) These workbooks were used to facilitate prayer.

God continued to provide the cash to build the Retreat Building. Many times He came through at the last minute, but our faith was built up by God’s provision. The Lord also told Brother Peter to trust Him to provide a specific amount of money by a specific date for the purpose of starting a permanent Prayer Chapel. The Lord brought a man from another city at the last minute with the exact money that God had revealed to Brother Peter. We were able to build both the Retreat Building and Prayer Chapel for cash.

The 1970’s was a period of evangelistic effort at Park Avenue. One of the efforts was called “Savior’s Seventy.” On Wednesday nights people gathered at the church, then went out two-by-two into the city sharing the gospel. Before we moved to Park Avenue, a conference by Campus Crusade for Christ was held which revolutionized the witnessing ministry of many of our members. The “Four Spiritual Laws” and the “Holy Spirit” booklets published by Campus Crusade for Christ were used in the “Savior’s Seventy” ministry.

As our Retreat Ministry developed, the church called Rev. Cecil McGee, who had worked with the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, as our first Minister of Retreats. A ministry was birthed that would literally touch the entire world. The primary effort was to minister to the pastors of small churches, mostly located in the Northeast region in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois. We worked closely with the state Baptist Conventions, but also included pastors of other denominations.

At the Camp Ithiel meeting the leadership had also been led to establish a school for preschool through the sixth grade. The school began in 1978 and has continued to grow. It now includes the eighth grade and has about four hundred students.

Brother Peter had been led by the Lord to establish a watchcare ministry to care for the members of the church. The ministry evolved into what was called “The Family Life Group Program,’’ consisting of groups of 8 to 12 people meeting weekly in homes for the purpose of fellowship, growth, and encouragement. Along with this, in 1975 Brother Peter was guided by the Lord to lead the church to establish a multiplicity of ‘’Elders’’ to shepherd the people of the church. Elders became the pastors of Family Life Flocks consisting of several small Family Life Groups. The Elders, with Brother Peter as the Chief Elder, became the spiritual leaders of the church and were established by a new church Constitution to be the representative government leaders of the church.

Brother Jerry White was called to be the Minister of Retreats in 1977 and Brother Cecil McGee became the Minister of Missions. Missions took on a more personal role as we selected specific projects, and representatives were brought from other countries to our church, so that our people could identify with them personally.