“How do you manage church when God shows up?” Asks Bishop Bart Pierce, “Nobody had that in any books that I read in, in Bible school. What do you do if God shows up? You give him the church.”

Bishop Bart Pierce has pastored Rock City Church in Baltimore with his wife Coralee by his side since 1983. He was sent to the then failing church to close its doors, but instead, it became part of a great move of God.  Bart’s personal story of faith began, as a troubled youth, caught up in the world of drugs. Bart says, “My mother died when I was nine. went in and kissed her goodnight. And next morning she was dead. She died of blood poison… And that shook my boat. And, uh, from that point on, when I went back to school, I was in fights… And I started doing drugs. And I was smoking pot. And then it went on to cocaine, and then it went on to all kinds of drugs from LSD and all the psychedelics and so… then I got involved in a dealer, and I was dealing drugs all over the United States…heavy, heavy, heavy stuff. People getting shot, people getting killed.”

While running from the law and hiding from cartel hitmen, one Sunday morning Bart joined Coralee visiting the rock church in Virginia Beach.  “And went into the church.” Says Bart, “I had drugs in both pockets. I had hash and marijuana packed up in my pockets. And I walked in the church. And that day, uh, John Jimenez was up there and he was a former drug dealer, drug addict, he really could relate to me. And hippies were getting saved by the hundreds.  I cried and said, Lord, if you're real, you gotta do something. You gotta show me that you're real. And I heard a voice. And I don't know if I heard it in my head my heart where I heard it. I got up and this little woman came up and she said to me, ‘young man, you heard the voice of God, didn't you?’ And I said, ‘ma'am, I don't have a clue what you're talking about. I heard something.’ She said, ‘tell me what you heard.’ I said, ‘well, I heard this. I'll never leave you. Um, I'll never forsake you.’ That day changed my life. Drugs stopped. I threw the drugs out the window, driving home.

Bart gave his life to Christ and began being mentored John Gimenez the pastor of Rock Church. Bart says, “I traveled with him all over the world, um, from London to, India, to in between. And, um, that was my role. So that attached me to him. He talked to me while we were flying and while we were at hotels, while I had my own personal mentor… but that kind of experience of one-on-one mentoring, transform my life.”

In august 1983 he was sent to a struggling congregation of under 30 people in Baltimore. “And my whole point of coming up here was to shut it down.” Bart recalls, “I wanted to be careful with the people and explain. So I agreed to preach Sunday morning, Sunday night, Sunday night. I intended to, to bring that to the real core group and say, we're gonna shut the church down. Y'all need to all go back to other churches and find a new place to go. And I'm speaking in the word and the word just leaped up. And I start prophesying this church. This is going to be a church that people come from all over the world. There'll be one hill, then another hill, then another hill. And I'll build multiple times, sayeth the Lord. And you're going to see the nations. This will be called a nation all church. And this thing is rolling. And I'm saying in my head, while it's coming out, I'm saying, what am I doing? This is nuts. I'm here killing this thing. And, and God, you're saying it's going to go alive.”

Bart was then asked to stay and pastor the struggling church. With his wife and young family, he moved to Baltimore, unsure of the future but trusting in God’s leading.  He says, “And here I am with a church that would hold 500, put up a hundred chairs with about 25, 30 people. And I thought, this is so dumb that Sunday morning, every chair was filled. And I thought, okay, maybe this is what you do. I'm a new preacher, I don't know what I'm, maybe this is what you do. So you build it and they'll come buy chairs and they'll come. So I bought another a hundred chairs, put 'em in there. By February the next year. So that's five months. We had nowhere to sit. We actually put the children up around the steps to give more room for the adults. And in just short time, we grew so much that it was ridiculous. And I built a gym, a school for 250 kids. And we went in the gym. And the same thing happened again.”

The church began to thrive and make an impact on the surrounding community. Then in 1997 Heaven broke out with an outpouring of God’s spirit that left a mark on Baltimore and the world. Bart says, “1997, we had an outpouring of God where a guy named Tommy Tinney came for three and a half years. And people came from all over the world, and it went on from Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. there were so many people on the floor under the pews. You'd see hard hats, you'd see boots, trucks were lined up on the beltway. And it was a prayer, a meeting that went on day and night of repentance. The power of God was so strong. Wheel chairs empty. People came in, no one prayed for 'em. They'd walk in 25, 30 years crippled. And the power of God would follow them. And they were absolutely undone. They'd get up, walk around the building and the building was that way from that morning till about one or two in the morning and they came not only to get that touch, but take it back. It was transferrable so they could get something and go back with it and repentance is the key that opens the door to come back to God. When you, when you get saved, you repent. That's the first thing you do. If you will repent and, ask God to forgive your sins, favor comes. His presence comes, joy comes, restoration comes. Repentance is the keyway to get you into the presence of God's favor and his purpose. And it's prayer that moves things that changes things. And been a part of that. That's what this church is. This is a praying church. And we have to learn how to entertain the presence of God again. And it is really important for us to know that we learned how to entertain the presence of God and minister to an audience of one. where God's been. He'll come again because he's attracted to his own presence.  If we turn our churches back towards welcoming God, he'll come. He wants to come. He wants to come and have church with us.

Under Bart’s leadership rock city church continues to make an impact. Their home for girls has provided housing and life skills for thousands of girls who needed care during their pregnancies. Over 14,000 men have turned their lives around through their men’s home. And for the past 22 years they have given away a home each year to a family in need. They also help feed ten percent of Baltimore through their food distribution program. Bart says, “We have 163 churches around the world that we planted and that we're a part of that connect to us, we have a bible school. We have students coming from all over. We have school students from Madagascar, Ghana, Africa. And we do a program for kids in the summer. Kids come in from everywhere. All of these things happen so that the kingdom of God is advanced in our area, but it's all through the local church. This is important for me. What we do through a local church is transformational.

After over four decades in ministry, Bishop Bart is ready to experience a transformation of his own. In November, he is preparing to hand over the pastoral leadership at rock city to Jim Kilmartin who has been mentored by Bart for several years.  Bart says, “I've been able to pour into him and his wife. We've traveled together, they've come to my home in The Bahamas. I go to his church, preach. I've helped him set up his guy who's taking his church. And November this year he, and on Sunday night the third, at seven o'clock, he will actually be set in and I will pass the mantle for him to take Rock City Church as the pastor of that church.”

Bart will continue to mentor pastor Jim and run the social ministries of Rock City Church. Coralee and Bart reflect on the goodness of God and a life well lived. Coralee says, “Got no questions and no regrets, he's been so good to us. We are been blessed beyond measure. we both got saved the same day, in Virginia Beach, however, 40 years ago or whatever it was, is it 50? And, I mean, we never looked back. You know, we, we said yes to God we were just so happy to be out of where we were and the drugs and all the stuff we were doing. And we just did an about face, and we just started running after God. And we never have ever stopped.”

Bart says, “In it all. We stayed saved in it all. We stayed hungrier for God than we've ever been. And you can do all this and not get burnout. I don't believe in burnout. Burnout is 'cause you, you put the candle out. my hope is that I do my part, finish my race, and then be able to have Him say, ‘Come, Well done.’ Coralee says, “It'd be good to have a well done.”

Bart continues, “The church legacy is just the grace of God, I should not be allowed, but God, what he did for me is hard to put it into all the right words. Sorry, I don't wanna leave anything here. I want to die empty. So my goal, my heart, is to have people say he loved God, feared God, loved his family, and, loved humanity.

Army sergeant, Michael, and his wife, Hailey, cope with a challenge most couples never have to face. Hailey has an incurable neurological disease that progressively deteriorates motor functions and speech. She was diagnosed before they married. At the time, her symptoms were mild but progressed quickly.

Michael said, “I think that she's got perseverance that is staggering. She wakes up and she tackles the day, day after day. And, you know, it's hard, it's hard to find her in a weak state.”

Hailey uses a walker at home and a scooter when they go out. When her scooter broke, they didn’t have the thousands of dollars to buy a new one.   

Michael explaind, “The scooter is paramount for her as somebody with a disability to have the independence, to go wherever she wants, whenever she wants.”
        
To add to their financial problems, the pipes in their home needed replacing. They didn’t have the thousands of dollars for that either. Then Michael was in a minor car accident. They shelled out a $1,000 auto insurance deductible, nearly depleting their savings.
        
Michael recalled, “One financial struggle on top of another causing me a lot of anxiety and be feeling overwhelmed.”
   
Michael and Hailey remain confident that God will provide a solution. Michael shared, “The way that God’s love and His support is steadfast gives me a lot of comfort. He's always the rock.”
        
God’s provision came when Manna Church Pastor, Joshua Clark, in Colorado contacted Helping the Home Front.
        
Pastor Josh said, “When we heard about Michael and Hailey, our first thought was we are going to call Helping the Home Front. Because we have worked with them before and they have met the need and helped us a great deal."

Pastor Josh came over to tell the couple Helping the Home Front was buying Hailey a new scooter.

Michael exclaimed, "That’s amazing!”

Hailey added, "Thank you!”

Michael continued, “That’s huge!”

Josh added, “They are not just going to stop there. They are going to cover all the cost to reimburse you for what you paid to have the pipes replaced."

Michael said, “Wow. Okay. That’s, that’s huge! I don’t know what to say!”

Pastor Josh had one more surprise.

“We also told them the car accident you were in and the $1,000 deductible you had to pay out of pocket. And CBN will be reimbursing you for that as well.”

Michael responded, “That’s amazing. Yea, I don’t know what to say. That kind of wipes the slate clean. And that puts us back to where we need to be to keep fighting.”

CBN paid for new pipes, the insurance deductible, and bought Hailey a brand-new scooter.

Michael concluded, “The relief we’ve gotten from CBN is a game changer for us. The change of mindset for me is instant. I feel provided for and feel taken care of."
        
        
        
        
        

Alex Rabiee hopes to serve as chief of the Seminole nation of Oklahoma someday.   

He explains, “I have a dream in my heart that God put there, you know, several years ago to try to help my people, my Native people.”

Just over a decade ago, Alex needed help himself.  He was living with his mother and battling a methamphetamine addiction.

He confesses, “I just felt like the only way that I was going to get off the drugs was either by going to prison or by being killed.  You know, there was one evening that, you know, I said, ‘Mom, I don't have a fire anymore. You know, I've just lost my fire.’"

The very next morning while flipping through the channels, he came across Joel Osteen’s Lakewood church service.  

“The man on the TV said, ‘I'd like to talk to you today about getting your fire back’, he shares.  “And that’s how I knew that that was God speaking to me.  One of the things that he said was, ‘It’s not going to happen right away’, but it’s going to happen if I trust Him.”

At the time, Alex was struggling to find work and only had a dollar to his name. He’d heard about tithing at church in his younger years and knew that giving would be a way to show God that he trusted Him.  

“I took an act of faith,” Alex says, “and put it in an envelope and sent it to the church in Houston, Texas.  And I gave my – the last dollar that I had to God, expecting, you know, for a miracle.”

Within a week, he got a one day job that paid $100.

He recounts, “That was just the reassurance that God is listening.  That was 100-fold. And that's what got me to believe, you know.  Now I got this $100. Let me give 10% of that to God.  I just went in with the mindset if I continue to tithe, God will provide.  Even though I wasn't working steadily, my bills were always paid, my refrigerator never went empty.”

In time, God also set him free from his drug addiction.

He declares, “The desire for drugs was gone. I was completely healed. God just took it out of me.”

Alex got his fire back and his faith took off, as he prayed for a vehicle and a steady job, while continuing to tithe 10% off every odd job he did.  And when his tribe’s council voted to give every eligible tribal member $600 as a part of a mineral settlement, Alex went way beyond 10% and gave it all to the church.  

He explains, “I said, ‘I'm going to be a blessing to others, trust in God,’ just you know, because I'd seen it before when I gave Him that dollar.  I stepped out of the safe zone and into the faith zone.”

That very day, his mother helped him get a truck.  A month later, a job he’d applied for came through, and he started working as an associate at a national retail store.  Then, within six months, he was promoted to the bakery department manager, receiving a 50% increase in pay.  

He says, “Just by continuing to give and sometimes giving more than my 10%, you know, God was rewarding me with promotion.  And I see the law of reciprocity, you know, give and it will be given back to you.”  

In addition to tithing, he also started giving to CBN.

He remembers, “I was just trying to find a prayer line, you know, and that's where I found CBN.  Probably 11:00pm, 11:30pm at night, and there was somebody available.  And so, I began giving to CBN to be able to, you know, keep these people available, you know, keep that prayer line open 24 hours because, you know, you never know when you need prayer.”

Today, Alex lives on his own.  He’s now the overnight maintenance lead at work, making more than ever. Meanwhile, he’s getting his business administration degree through his company’s free tuition program and continuing to give to God.  

“I always tell God, you know, that if you could speak to me out loud in a voice, you know, that you would be telling me, ‘Alex, you haven't seen anything yet,’” Alex shares.  He concludes, “I'm just very humbled and thankful.  And I owe it all to God.  He’s never failed me.  And to think it all started with that single dollar bill.  If He can do it for me, He can do it for you. If you stay obedient and you give your 10%, it will be given back to you.”

Doctor Joseph Chelule is a single father who spent many hours at work in a rural clinic. His wife abandoned the family, so when he came home, his daughter, Alice, was eager to spend time with him, and hopeful that someday he would find salvation.

Alice said, “I started going to church with my cousin. Every Sunday, for one year, I invited my father to attend church with me. He promised that he would come later, but he never did. It made me feel very bad.”

Joseph explained, “I was hesitant to go to church. I wasn’t ready to let go of my lifestyle. During the day, I was a doctor, but in my free time, I went out drinking and partying with friends.”

At church, Alice joined a SuperBook club, where she and other children in her community spend their Sunday watching SuperBook and learning more about the Bible.

“SuperBook taught me to embrace the fruits of the Holy Spirit,” said Alice. “Every time I came here, I prayed for my father. My favorite episode is David and Goliath, where he picks up the stone and hits Goliath. It reminds me that I can be like David and conquer whatever I’m facing.”

Joseph said, “There was one Sunday Alice tried to stop me from going out. She started crying, saying, ‘We never spend time together.’ She tried to lock me in the house. I left, but couldn’t enjoy myself because I kept thinking about Alice being so broken about me leaving her.”
 
The next Sunday, Alice invited him to church again, and this time, he joined her.

“When I walked into the church, I was welcomed with open arms,” said Joseph. “I prayed the prayer of salvation and gave my life to Christ. I finally had peace in my heart.”

Alice said, “Seeing him kneel down and pray was the happiest moment of my life. All I could tell God was, ‘Thank You.’ My father has become a different man. He’s more loving, talks about God, and spends more time with me.”

Joseph said, “I appreciate her persistence and patience with my salvation. If it wasn’t for her, I would not be where I am today. Our relationship has become very strong. Every Sunday, we go to church and spend the entire day together. I’m grateful for the transformation I can see in her and in myself.”

With a big smile, Alice said, “To the people who created SuperBook, ‘Thank you. SuperBook changed my life.’”
 

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