God’s plan is vindicated.
By 1977 the sect was growing again. Many of the members who left in the disagreement over women’s dress found things less than perfect elsewhere. They started returning and at the same time new families were coming in. A building project increased the sanctuary size to accommodate over 4200 people, enough to handle the congregation. With this influx came a young man, Charles Russell and his wife, Carol. In a few months he was being called Brother Charles. He was a college graduate with a degree in History — but his real loves were the history of religion and power. He taught History at a nearby high school — and studied religion at night — taking courses from Moody, Thomas Rhode, Billy Graham and a host of others. In addition he studied histories of small sects, their formation, growth and demise. He learned how many of them had grown and declined and was able to define the dynamics. Later members would remember how he expounded on how small sects met their demise only because the leaders didn’t know how to exploit their position. Brother Charles became a lay elder at the age of thirty five in 1986 and was called by the sect to a paid position in early 1988.
Over the years the church had set aside money for future building projects. Brother Sipe had invested much of the money set aside for major projects in the stock market. In July of 1988 he became uneasy about this and discussed it with Brother Hanshue. The direction he got was to pray. A week later they met and discussed the situation. They agreed to sell all of the stock by the end of September and place the money in savings accounts and short term certificates. The last stock was sold on October 4 and the money was in short term certificates by October 11. During the week the stock index went up over twenty points and both men watched in wonder. On an investment of about three point seven million dollars they would have gained one percent, nearly thirty seven thousand dollars. Both wondered if they had misunderstood God’s message to them. They agreed to pray about it but got no direction during the next two weeks as the stock market advanced slightly.
In late October their actions were vindicated, the stock market fell over one hundred points on one day and in subsequent days it fell even further. The stocks they had held were hard hit. They would have lost over one third of the investment. Neither of them gloated, they met for prayer and thanked God for his goodness. Within a month they began to buy back the stocks they had sold, sometimes for as little as half of the price they had received when they sold then a few weeks before. Over the next year the investment would grow to over six point two million dollars.
By now the congregation numbered over four thousand and the weekly offerings were well over $60,000 or three million dollars a year. At one time Brother Sipe estimated that over eight percent of the congregation’s income was given to the church. This was certainly much greater than most churches enjoyed and he was careful to handle that money as carefully as if it were his own. A Spartan staff of eight full time leaders provided oversight but most of the work was done by part time and lay workers. Brother Sipe fell ill and died suddenly in August 1989 of a mysterious illness and Brother Charles took his place on the corporate board. The sect that had been so benevolent during its first thirty five years quickly turned sullen and then hostile. Brother Charles began renting the houses on the property for profit and built several more of them. In spite of the church’s sound financial status it became more and more difficult for members falling upon hard times to obtain help from the church. Those who worked for the church while unemployed got minimum wage. Counseling usually included stern admonitions to get out and get to work. Other changes were made, a large garage was constructed, large enough to house a half dozen eighteen wheelers. Brother Charles would only say that God told him to do it. He also bought several trucks and began operating a package freight line. It provided work for some members but they were poorly paid.
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