Origins

In the early 1960s, Carl H. Stevens Jr., a bakery truck driver, was praying at Wortheley Pond near Peru, Maine, and developed a vision for a worldwide Christian ministry. Stevens was later ordained by a council of independent ministers at the Montsweag Baptist Church on March 7, 1963. From there Stevens went on to minister at the Woolwich-Wiscasset Baptist Church, and establish the Northeast School of the Bible in 1972. He also began to experiment with radio evangelism, with a program called "Telephone Time."

In 1973, following an arson attack on their church building and a controversial church split, Stevens and his closest followers moved the center of their operations to a former Catholic school facility in South Berwick, Maine. There "The Bible Speaks" became the name of the church, and "the Northeast School of the Bible" was renamed as "Stevens School of the Bible". Expanded radio and television outreaches continued to draw in new followers and—both through church planting operations by the organization's Bible school students and graduates, and existing churches affiliating themselves with Stevens' organization—a network of "branch ministries" began to develop.

In 1976, the school grew beyond its capacity. As a result, Carl Stevens moved the "home base" of his organization to a former private boarding school facility which they were able to purchase in Lenox, Massachusetts.^[8]

Former organization

The cornerstone of Stevens' career in Christian broadcasting was the call-in radio show he hosted, originally known as "Telephone Time", now called "Grace Hour". In 2006, this program won an Angel award for Excellence in Media.^[9]

In both South Berwick and Lenox, the Bible Speaks developed a considerable local presence, not only through drawing large numbers of young adults into these small communities as Bible school students, but also through operating extensive Sunday School operations, with a private fleet of retired school buses for bringing in children from the surrounding area.

They also established a network of private K-12 schools, beginning with Southern Maine Christian Schools in South Berwick (later moved to Scarborough, Maine), and then Stevens Christian Schools in Lenox. Church planting missionary teams were also sent out first to El Salvador and then to Finland and other European countries ^{[citation needed]}. In the 1980s this expanded to include church planting operations in South America, Africa, Asia and Australia.^{[citation needed]} Thomas Schaller, the current leader of GGWO, began his pastoral career as the head of their original missionary team to Finland.

In the 1983, the Bible Speaks purchased a Norwegian ferry boat which they renovated to use as a missionary relief vessel in the Caribbean. This boat was named La Gracia, with Baltimore, Maryland as its official home port.^[10]

Present organization

In Baltimore, Greater Grace World Outreach quickly grew and established ministries including the Grace Hour, Greater Grace Christian Academy, Maryland Bible College and Seminary, the Christian Athletics Program, as well as international outreach ministries.

In 2003, Carl Stevens became too ill to continue his leadership of GGWO. In 2005, the elders elected Rodger Stenger to become the new chief elder of the church. However, Rodger Stenger chose not to accept the position. In his place the elders elected Thomas Schaller as senior pastor, after a congregational vote.^[11] Still, many of the elders and senior pastors were dissatisfied with the choice, citing Schaller's views on the role of the senior pastor.^[12] In 2004, many church leaders, associated ministry leaders, and affiliate churches elected to disaffiliate. A group of pastors who disaffiliated formed a new organization known as The International Association of Grace Ministries. The church is thriving and have about 500 churches throughout the world.