The History of CalvaryStand
The Burden
Hello, my name is Bro. Bill Goins. I am the Director of the Calvary Stand Baptist Print Ministry. I would like to tell you the story about how our ministry got its start.
Several years ago I was burdened about doing more for God. I started thinking maybe God was calling me to preach or to become a missionary. I prayed earnestly, but could never get peace about it. One morning, I had been praying before work and was more burdened than ever. I just knew I could do something more for God. Not that I could ever repay Him for saving my unworthy soul, but just because I love Him so much. On my way to work my prayers continued. I said to God, “Lord, wouldn’t you rather me be a preacher or a missionary. Am I just wasting my time at my job? All I am is an artist at a printing company. I would much rather be spreading your word. I spend 40 to 50 hours a week at work doing art layouts. Lord, am I not just wasting my time? Can’t I quit my job and work for you full time? I’m just an artist.” About that time, I topped a hill and rounded a curve and there, spread out before me was one of the most breathtaking sunrises I have ever seen. Without thinking I said, “Oh Lord, what a wonderful artist you are!” Let me just say, I don’t believe in seeing visions, or hearing God’s audible voice. But I heard him speaking to me in my heart. If I had to put into words what he said it would be this; “Don’t you see? There is nothing wrong with being an artist. I am an artist! Just be an artist for me!”. Ever since that day I have looked for opportunities to help men of God with graphics. Maybe I am not a preacher, but I figure if I can’t be one, then I can help as many good Men of God as I can with the opportunities I have.
After a while I started feeling the need to find a way to help get the printing done as well as the graphics. Printing is not cheap. The Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches don’t have the kinds of funds available to them that the huge mega organizations have. I believe in staying Independent, but I do believe we can help each other. I shared my burden with my Pastor (Bro. Tony Hyatt). I think after a while he started getting the same burden to spread printed gospel materials as I had.
God’s Provision
You have heard it said that God’s Plan will never lack God’s Provision. Bro. Tony and I shared the burden about a possible print ministry for a couple of years. One day the company I work for (SGP) bought a new kind of printing press. It is called an HP Indigo. After seeing the way the press worked I thought how nice it would be to have one like it for a print ministry.
Several weeks later an HP Technician was at SGP doing some maintenance. I felt the need to talk to him. At first I thought it was the Lord wanted to talk to him about salvation, but when I began talking with him I found he was already a Christian. We got to talking about church and I made a comment about how nice it would be to own a press like this one for a print ministry. “There is just no way we could ever come up with $250,000”, I said. Then he said, “If your serious, I know where you could get a really nice used one.” At the time, I figured a used one would be way out of our financial grasp too, but I was intrigued. So I took some information from him and called a printing company in Nashville about the press they were looking to sell. The owner wanted $30,000. At first I tried put it out of my mind. But I just couldn’t do it. I kept thinking how great a fit that kind of press would be for what Bro. Tony and I had been burdened about doing for so long. So, I called Bro. Tony. I told him about the press and how much it was. He immediately said, “Maybe we should just go and look at it. You never know, the man might get burdened about donating it to the church.”
That week I took a day off work and Bro. Tony and I traveled to Nashville to see the press. After seeing it run we fell in love with it. All the way home we talked about how we might come up with $30,000. We are not a big church. We run somewhere between 60 and 75 on Sunday mornings. $30,000 is a lot of money. But, we just couldn’t get it off our hearts. So, that Sunday we had a men’s meeting. Bro. Tony mentioned the print ministry idea to the men and that we had looked at a press. “Is a Print Ministry something the Church would want to get involved in?”, was Bro. Tony’s question. The reply seemed to be very positive. The only question was how we might come up with $30,000. Then Bro. Tony said, “Lets pray about it for the next week. If everyone is still favorable then, we will look into ways we might come up with the money. Maybe, we can seek donations from other churches to go toward the purchase of the press. After all we plan to print gospel material for them too.”
As I mentioned, that meeting was on a Sunday. On the following Friday, I got a phone call. It seemed that one of the ladies in the church had experienced a death in her family. She had received an inheritance. She wanted us to know that she intended to tithe on that inheritance to the sum of $32,000. I called Bro. Tony and told him. We were in total disbelief. Thinking back, I guess we shouldn’t have been, because though we are a small church we have a BIG God.
That Sunday, we had another men’s meeting. Bro. Tony asked if everyone had been praying about the print ministry. Many nodded and a few spoke up and said yes. Then Bro. Tony asked again if a Print Ministry was something the Church would be interested in getting involved in. Bro. Mike Welch spoke up and said he felt it would be a great fit for our church. Everyone seemed to agree. Then someone asked how we might come up with the money. Bro. Tony smiled and said “Well, let me tell you. We have the Money!”. Then he told the story about the $32,000. Bro. Tony then asked, “So, how do we take that?” Bro. Andy Coker spoke up and said, “I don’t see any other way we can take it. I think we need to buy a printing press.” So that night the men of the church voted to bring the purchase to the entire church at the next business meeting. At that meeting we discussed it with the whole of Calvary Baptist Church and the church decided to buy the press.
It took some work (Getting a room prepared, getting the press disassembled and shipped to the church and then reassembled, having 3 phase electricity run to the church, etc…), but now we are up and running!
I think back to stories I have heard of William Tindale. How God provided him with funds to print his Bible. Even though the Pope was out to kill him and he had to run for his life, God’s plan in his life never lacked God’s Provision to see that plan accomplished. Certainly we don’t think ourselves in the same league with men like Tindale. But, we do have the same God.
Who knows what God will do with the Calvary Stand Baptist Print Ministry. Maybe we will grow to a Ministry providing Millions of pieces of literature each year all over the world. If so we will Praise God for HE ALONE is worthy. Then again maybe we will just be allowed to print a few prayer cards for the occasional passing missionary in need. If so we will Praise God for HE ALONE is worthy.
The Mission
To provide Like Minded Men of God with printed Gospel Material to help further their ministries. In short… “Our Ministry is about Helping Your Ministry”
- Missionaries / Evangelists: Our ultimate goal is that we might use donations from other churches to print Prayer Cards, Letterheads, and other Specialized print needs for missionaries and evangelists at little or no cost to them. In this way, a gift to Calvary Stand is a gift to a missionary.
- Pastors / Churches: We plan to print Brochures, Letterheads, Visitation Cards, Flyers, and other Specialized print needs for other “Like Faith” churches. Calvary is an “Independent” Baptist Church, but that does not mean we can’t work together to help further the cause of Christ. Our plan is to print these materials at cost and depend upon God and His people to provide our other needs through donations.
- Other Ministries: We do not want to limit our help to only the above stated ministries. There may be some other ministries that could use our help. If your ministry is about getting the gospel to sinners and your statement of faith agrees with ours, then we can work together.