THREE INCREDIBLE DAYS IN SEPTEMBER #14

(From my column “Looking Forward and Glancing Back” in the SGT monthly newsletter, October, 1987.)

As the opening week of our Season of Praise approached, there was a great sense of expectancy for all of us at Stained Glass Theatre. Not only were final preparations for the premier performance of HI TOPS in full swing, but a most unusual and important event affecting our future home was scheduled to take place. That event was the annual meeting of the Board of the Musgrave Foundation at which SGT would be considered for a gift. I don’t believe that it was just a coincidence that this very important meeting was held the same week we were to begin our Season of Praise—a season in which we would be facing the challenge of raising $60,000 in order to pay cash for our “Promised Land” and move into that beautiful land DEBT FREE! No indeed, for I believe it was another example of God’s perfect timing in blessing SGT’s ministry.

I may have gotten ahead of myself for many of you may be asking, “Who or what is the Musgrave Foundation?” and “Why would they be giving funds to SGT?” To answer those questions, let me tell you a beautiful story of God’s miracle-working power.

Late last spring SGT gave a special preview performance of GOD’S MIGHTY OAK to the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International. We didn’t have any idea that night that God was setting into motion a series of events that would bring to SGT’s building fund a very special gift. As we found out later, there was a man who attended the performance who was blessed and led to invite a Mrs. Musgrave to see the show. A few weeks later Mrs. Musgrave did attend and surprised us by informing Terry and Jim after the performance that she would like to help us. She said that she had a charitable foundation that would be meeting in September and when the Board met, they would remember us. Needless to say, we were overjoyed. We were also joyful when we learned that Charles Fuller, a friend and supporter of SGT, was the president of the Musgrave Foundation. There was no doubt in our minds that this was all arranged by God and that He had something special for us. So I’m sure you can understand our expectancy when we found out that the Board would be meeting the week that we were to begin our new season and fund-raising efforts. It was all coming together as only God could do it.

The Board was to meet on Wednesday, September 16, and we were scheduled to open HI TOPS on Friday the 18^th. Ten days later, on the 28^th, we would have our big Prayer and Praise Celebration at the new building. We wanted to have something exciting to announce as a “kick-off” to our fund-raising campaign.

Wednesday the 16^th of September came, and the morning began with prayer—prayer from many places and many people for we had asked numerous individuals and groups to pray for us on that morning since the Musgrave Board would be meeting at 10 a.m. When I checked my mail at noon, there was a letter with a $250 gift in it. Praise God! Things were beginning to happen—I could feel it. I knew God was going to move in a wonderful way. That night at rehearsal, we got “the call.” It was great! The Musgrave Foundation had given us an outright $1,500 plus an additional $5,000 matching grant. We were thrilled. We knew God would help us to match the grant. What we didn’t know was how quickly. On Thursday a check came for $200—we were excited. It was the beginning of our match. Then Friday came! Wow! God opened the windows of heaven. Checks and pledges began to come in—a pledge for $3,000! It was incredible! By evening of the second day, the match had been met. Praise God!

So we opened our Season of Praise on that special Friday, a day to truly praise and remember how our wonderful Lord had so beautifully met our need. To cap off that marvelous day, as if we needed more, we opened to a sold-out house and a standing ovation! It had been an unbelievable three days! How good and mighty and wonderful is the Lord we serve! In just three days, God had given us over $12,000!

Yes, we had prayed for something exciting to announce at the September 28^th Prayer and Praise Celebration, and the Lord answered that prayer with such an outpouring of His grace and love that we struggle for words to adequately Praise Him. How marvelous is His power and His lovingkindness! Praise You, Lord! Praise Your Holy Name—Jehovah! Hallelujah! Amen and Amen!

COMING NEXT: THE BATTLE . . . PAIN, COURAGE, VICTORY!        

EPHESIANS 6:12

A GLIMPSE OF THE “PROMISED LAND” #13

(From my column “Looking Forward and Glancing Back” in the SGT monthly newsletter, August/September, 1987.)

In the past we have shared the struggles, challenges, blessings, and miracles at Stained GlassTheatre. We’ve told you of our past and the way God has met our needs as we were obedient to His will. Now, we want to begin to share the challenges and blessings of the present and of the future as they are happening. We want you, our SGT supporters, to walk along with us through the good and the difficult to truly be one with us and the future.

As we are preparing now to begin our fifth season, A Season of Praise, we view this next year as the most exciting and challenging we’ve yet faced. As you must have read in our special announcement, we have stepped out in faith and made the decision, we believe under God’s leadership, to purchase a building. This decision was not made lightly, but after much prayer, counsel, and a continuing sense of the leadership of the Holy Spirit. As we looked at the events which brought us to a point of decision making, we were overwhelmed by the obvious signs of God’s hand guiding us. I would like to share with you, as I’ve done in the past, some of these very personal moments which led to such a major decision.

It began on a Saturday morning several months ago. Terry Beasley and I were at a business men’s prayer breakfast (FGBMFI). As guests stood to introduce themselves, my spirit was quickened as a young pastor, Merrill Pember, spoke. I felt a sense of the Holy Spirit urging me to speak to this man whom I have never met. This was the first of a series of events which turned out to be God’s wonderful way of bringing two unknown parties together in order to accomplish His work. Though there was nothing particularly unusual about the first event, there was about the second. A few moments later while we were eating, Charles Fuller, the president of the fellowship, came over to my table and said the Holy Spirit was directing him to ask me to give a brief testimony. I was surprised, but agreed. Now the really unusual thing about this was that, as I found out later, it was while I was giving my testimony that the Holy Spirit also spoke to Merrill Pember with a sense that he should speak to me. When we met and talked a few weeks later, we both felt that God had put us together for some reason, but we didn’t exactly know what. Merrill was the pastor of Christian Life Center. He and his wife, Vicki, were working on beginning a Christian TV station in Springfield. We thought maybe God planned to use us in that area some way, but we weren’t sure. We only knew that God was leading, and we wanted to be sensitive to His will.

Merrill Pember 1987

Over the next couple of months, our friendship grew. Merrill, Vicki, Terry, and I met and prayed together. We continued to seek God’s will, but had no clear indication as to why God had brought us together. In June we invited Merrill and his family to speak and sing at SGT’s annual appreciation banquet.

It was on the night of the banquet, June 9, that God began to reveal to us His purpose—a special blessing, a great gift! After the banquet was over and people were just standing around chatting, Dennis Stachura, Merrill’s Associate Pastor, mentioned to me that we should see their church and all the stained glass. As he described the building to me, it seemed like a perfect building for SGT. So I asked, “Is it for sale?” Dennis said maybe, that there had been some talk of relocating the church. I spoke to Merrill. He said to come on by and look. That night on the way home, I drove by the church. As the church came into view, I pulled to a stop to get a better look. My heart almost stopped. I knew—the Holy Spirit told me—this was it, this was the reason, this was God’s special gift to SGT—your “Promised land.” Needless to say, I could hardly sleep that night. A few days later, Terry, Jim, and I toured the inside, and then we prayed with Merrill. Merrill wisely said later, “We’re not trying to make anything happen. We don’t even know if we are to move, but if God is in this, He will affirm it.” And affirm He did.

Christian Life Center 1987--Our "Promised Land"

As we explored detail after detail, the building seemed perfect in every way, even to the beautiful stained glass windows which appear to be an affirmation of our name. The size of the auditorium with seating for 200 is exactly the size that we have felt for a long time would best serve our needs and dreams: parking lot, offices, sound and light booth, basement, reception area, kitchen, restrooms, space upstairs for dressing rooms and costume construction, etc. The church building has recently been completely rewired and brought up to code, even to emergency exit lights. The sanctuary has new carpet, and all of the beautiful, curved pews are the original pews and have been refinished. It sounded too good to be true. But what about the cost? We wouldn’t have been surprised at a hundred thousand plus, so you can imagine our near disbelief to learn that we could have it for sixty thousand! That’s right! Not only did the building seem perfect, but so did the price. All that was left to do was pray. I prayed, we all prayed and prayed, seeking an answer. It seemed right, but was it God’s will?

The answer came in several ways: 1) an assurance beyond doubt in our spirits, 2) a peace and joy that we felt, and 3) an understanding of the conditions of purchase. This final understanding of what we should do came after much prayer about whether we should go into debt or not. A nagging question kept haunting me: Would the purchase of this property, which seemed so right, be the exception to our commitment to God that we would trust Him and not go into debt? Until I had the answer to this question, I would not know for sure what we should do. God gave me His answer. He gave me clear understanding in my spirit that He would not honor our going into debt. He had made this very clear to us in the past and showed me that there was no exception by giving me a vision of the church and land surrounded by a wall with corner towers topped with dollar signs ($). Like Joshua and the walls of Jericho, we must tear down the wall before we can “go in and claim the land.” We had God’s answer. The land was ours, but there was a price to pay. We are truly excited beyond words. It is a dream come true—a permanent home for Stained Glass Theatre. A home where we can truly become a “SHOWCASE OF PRAISE.” The dream is before us and so is the challenge. We know that we must tear down the wall of dollars that stands between us and our dream. We know that we must raise the full purchase price in one year, pay cash, and move into our “Promised Land” debt free. The “dream” is magnificent—the “challenge” is awesome. But God has spoken to us through His Holy Word, just as He did to Joshua when He said in chapter one, verse nine, “Yes, be bold and strong! Banish fear and doubt! For remember, the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

COMING NEXT: THREE INCREDIBLE DAYS IN SEPTEMBER    

A beautiful story of God’s miracle-working power!

HARVEST TIME #12

(From my column “Looking Forward and Glancing Back” in the SGT monthly newsletter, July, 1987. Bracketed information has been added.)

God gave us a plan for “Harvest Time”—to fill the seats at Stained Glass Theatre. The plan was simple. We were to reduce our various ticket prices to one low price of $2.00. We felt God telling us that if Stained Glass Theatre is to be a true ministry, then it must be affordable for everyone. Our goal would be to insure that no one paid more than $2.00, and many would come free as others purchased tickets to be given away. Although the plan was simple, it was frightening since it required a step of faith. If we were having difficulty meeting the bills with a $5.00 ticket, how could we possible make it with a $2.00 ticket? I did not know, but God knew. His economy is always better than ours.

We put the plan into effect in January, 1987, as we opened BIRDS DON’T FLY AT NIGHT. And just as god had shown us in the past that obedience brings blessing, He again taught us that lesson. We obeyed, and we had the “Harvest Time” we once longed for. All seats were sold for every performance. One full house would purchase tickets for others, and it just mushroomed. By the end of the run, we were letting people in free whether they had tickets or not because all tickets for every seat for every show had been bought and paid for by others. It was exciting! It was wonderful! We went into the theatre for each performance hardly able to believe our eyes as the crowds came. Every night was a full house—all seats taken, filled. It was wonderful! Indeed, it was “Harvest Time.” And that was only part of the excitement, for it was during this time that the money to purchase new lights began to come in almost overnight, even before we knew we had to return the borrowed lights we were using. It was simply another example of the miracle-working power of our Lord!

Over the past twelve issues of the SGT newsletter, we have been looking back to share the struggles and blessings, the hard times and the good times, from our beginning to the present. As we've looked back, we've seen God’s grace, His lovingkindness, and His miracles. Yes, we have struggled, but through the struggles, we have grown as God met our needs and kept us going. We have learned over and over again to trust our Heavenly Father to care for us and to nurture us. So for SGT it has been a birthing time, a growing time, and a maturing time. Truly it has been a great time!

 

Terry Beasley (Abner Ingman) and
Jim Dunn (James Maupin)

[The final show of this Harvest Time season was GOD’S MIGHTY OAK, the true story of the two men who founded Southwest Baptist University, Abner Ingman and James Maupin. We have some pictures from that production.]

Linda Meyers (Mrs. Staples), Jim Dunn (Maupin),
Ron Laws (Mr. Staples), and Denise Schriver (Alice Staples)

They were doing the RB pose even then!

Well, everyone except RB, I guess.

 We praise God and give Him the glory for everything has been accomplished through His grace and power. Hallelujah! But, as the song says, “We've only just begun.” We have not reached a point of self-satisfaction. We will continue to strive for “Excellence in Residence”—to attain an even higher standard of professionalism—until we are truly a “Jewel” among theaters of the Midwest, a “SHOWCASE OF PRAISE WHERE GOD THE FATHER IS GLORIFIED AND JESUS CHRIST IS PROCLAIMED AS LORD AND SAVIOR.”

Ron Boutwell as Old Ingman

God has stretched our faith these past four years and He is about to stretch it even further as we look to the exciting days ahead. Pray that SGT will move forward with boldness and strength as we march toward a bright new “promised land.”

[The quote at the top of the page was from this scene in GOD'S MIGHTY OAK.]

COMING NEXT: A GLIMPSE OF THE “PROMISED LAND”

The stories change from past tense to present tense as Ron Boutwell writes about the beginning of the 1987-88 Season of Praise.