Welcome!

I am glad that you chose to check out our Gashland Baptist Church website. My name is George McDowell and I began my ministry at GBC on September 25, 2009. I trusted Jesus Christ as Lord & Master of my life at the age of 8 and followed Him in baptism at First Baptist Church of Caney, KS. I married my beautiful bride, Sherri, on June 12, 1975. God blessed our marriage with 2 wonderful daughters. They have both married and given Sherri and me 5 adorable grandchildren. I surrendered to full-time ministry on June 24, 1984 and I feel so blessed to have served in some wonderful churches. Sherri and I have always viewed ministry as a partnership and God has blessed in many wonderful ways. It is a joy and privilege to serve as Pastor of GBC. The purpose of GBC is to “Touch people with the love of Jesus.” Currently we are running around 140 in Bible study each Sunday morning and around 210 in morning worship. We would love to have you come and join us as we try to reach our community for Christ.

My ministry verse is Matthew 5:16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” I try to live my life according to this verse. I believe that God has called me to preach His Word to help people see the relevance of the Scriptures in everyday life. Each of us has personal experiences that begin to shape us. Sometimes God needs to reach into our lives and make changes in us so that we might bring glory to His name. I try to preach sermon’s that are relevant for everyday living, but in a way that challenges each of us to walk more closely to His teachings.

Let me personally invite you to come and join us for worship this next Sunday. We have Bible study for all ages at 9:30 a.m. and then our morning worship is at 10:45 a.m. We also offer evening worship at 6:00 p.m. Many churches have discontinued their evening worship time; therefore we are trying to offer an evening worship for anyone who would like to attend. I hope to meet you soon and if you have questions, please do not hesitate to call me or e-mail. May the Lord continue to bless you and keep you in His tender care!

Love in Christ,

Pastor George

Hello! My name is Brady Hanssen. I began my ministry at GBC as the Associate Pastor of Youth and Children on September 17th, 2018. Raised in a Christian home, I learned about Jesus Christ from an early age. God saved me when I was seven years old and two years later, I followed Him in believer’s baptism at Kearney First Baptist Church in Kearney, MO. After graduating from high school, I went to Park University, where my faith grew immensely as I read through the entire Bible in a year for the first time and enjoyed great Christian community. Towards the end of my undergrad experience I became disillusioned with my major as God put a burning desire within me to go to seminary and pursue full-time ministry. After graduating college with a BA in English Writing in 2013, I did a year-long internship at Heartland Center doing camp and youth ministry, where I discovered my love of ministering to young people and teaching the Bible. I then pursued seminary education at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where I met my wife Lauren. We were married on June 16th, 2017. That December I graduated with my Master of Divinity from MBTS. Before coming to Gashland I worked with youth as a pastoral intern at Calvary Baptist Church in Lenexa, KS for three years.

I was raised in a Christian home where my parents were very involved in the church. We attended faithfully every Sunday morning and every Sunday evening. It was through my parents and a great number of teachers at Park Baptist Church in Brookfield, MO that I learned about God, sin, and salvation through Jesus Christ. During VBS at the age of 10, the Lord spoke to my heart and revealed to me that I was a sinner and in need of a Savior. Pastor Bob Payne shared Scripture with me, and I understood through his leadership and counsel that God had provided salvation through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, and I prayed for forgiveness and asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life.

My heart for worship comes from Deuteronomy 6:5, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength,” and from the many verses in Scripture that command us to sing praises to God. The act of worshiping God through music provides an opportunity to engage with the heart of God, to pour our hearts out to Him, and to learn Scriptural truths all at the same time. We are encouraged by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly and to speak with one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in our hearts. It is my prayer that together, we would worship in spirit and truth, that we would “make a joyful noise” to the Lord, and that we would express our gratitude and our worship to God as we sing to Him.