|
History
The Venice Bible Church was founded in 1959, and has had a long rich history
of ministry in the Venice area. Visit the History
Photo Gallery.
1970 to 1980
Pastor Raymond Rose was called as our first full-time
pastor in September 1968. He was also the first paid pastor. He served until
January 1975. In the six and a half years he served our church he faithfully
preached the gospel without compromise. Many accepted Christ as their Savior and
our attendance increased to nearly 300. During Pastor Rose’s ministry our
annual missionary giving increased from $10,000 to $35,000. In 1970 the men of
the church constructed the first fellowship hall which provided a kitchen and
three much needed classrooms. The work was done as the Lord supplied the funds.
During this time lots were acquired across the canal on Wisteria which permitted
us to fill in the drainage ditch to produce parking areas, and Flower Road was
moved to facilitate building the new sanctuary.
In June 1973, the Lord raised up Charlie Winters to be our
first full-time paid Youth Pastor. Charlie served as Youth Director and Youth
Musical Minister until June 1974. Charlie was known for his winning way with the
youth and how he could win over a crowd of young people with his wit and
ministry on the bull fiddle. Saturday night meetings were held at the Venice
Municipal Beach and were a time of spiritual growth and outreach.
In July of 1974 the Lord brought Sammie Brooks to VBC and
he ministered with us until January 1980. During his five and a half years, he
served with Pastor Rose as Assistant to the Pastor, with Pastor Morrison as
Assistant Pastor, and with Pastor Krueger as Associate Pastor. During those
years he also served as Youth Pastor and developed a solid youth ministry at the
church and remained active with the Monday Night Youth Outreach. Pastor Brooks
also directed the choir and ministered to us through the many moving solos he
sang during his ministry.
In the early 1970's we also purchased the lots on which
our third building sits. The property was later expanded by moving Flower Road.
In January of 1975 Paul Morrison assumed the role of
Interim Pastor. He served in this capacity until July of 1976. During the
eighteen months that Paul was our pastor, he focused his attention on developing
an atmosphere of worship and meeting the needs of Christians. He also ministered
to rebuild a sense of unity and loyalty to one another. In looking back on his
ministry it is obvious that God was using Paul’s gentle, compelling manner to
draw people out and be more transparent before God and their fellow Christians.
His ministry was the pivotal point in our church’s history as the church
realized an unbalanced emphasis had been placed on winning the lost and
insufficient emphasis had been placed on worshiping God and meeting the needs of
the flock. The Body Life ministry began during this time.
In July of 1976 David Krueger arrived as a recent graduate
of Dallas Theological Seminary to become our pastor. He ministered to us until
March of 1980. It was providential that Paul Morrison had placed such an
emphasis on ministering to the needs of one another because Pastor Krueger had
just completed his Master’s Thesis on the "One Another" concepts as
outlined in the Scriptures. His messages were replete with encouragements from
the Scriptures to confess our sins to one another, bear one another’s burdens,
forgive one another, be kind to one another, prefer one another before
ourselves, and love one another.
It soon became obvious we could not share one another’s
burdens until we knew what they were. It was also obvious that the structure of
many of our prior Sunday worship services and Wednesday Prayer meetings did not
leave much room for this kind of intimate interaction among the flock. For this
reason Pastor Krueger and the leadership of the church restructured the services
to give the pastor time to present a message with adequate time for the flock to
verbally respond to the message and the needs others might make known during the
worship service. This time was called "Body Life" time and was often
led by one of the elders. Multiple leadership was pursued, and leadership
training classes were conducted to make full use of the gifted people God had
placed in our midst. Men on the board of Elders were always encouraged to teach
from the pulpit and take other opportunities to lead the flock.
The leadership of the church also felt it would be more
profitable if the traditional Wednesday night prayer meetings were replaced with
multiple home prayer and fellowship meetings called Koinonias. Koinonia is the
Greek word for fellowship. Nine of these meetings were established primarily on
a geographic basis
| 
