History

God called Pastor Carl H. Stevens to preach over four decades ago. At the age of 23, Carl H. Stevens Jr. read a Gospel tract and became a believer in Christ. From that moment on, Pastor Stevens dedicated himself to learning about Jesus and to the study and the ministry of the Bible. A farm boy born in West Sumner, Maine, in 1929, and raised by his widowed mother from the age of 3, Pastor Stevens approached Bible study and Christianity the way he approached everything in life - with intensity and concentration.

Pastor Stevens began ministering in a very small church in Woolwich-Wiscasset, Maine, in the early 1960s.After a particularly intense time of prayer,
Pastor Stevens communicated the vision that the ministry would be dedicated to seeking the lost in all parts of the world. Toward that end, he led in the establishment of Bible colleges, where academic and practical training in the Word and the ministry would be fostered.

Northeast School of the Bible was founded in Maine in 1972. Its first graduating class, in 1975, included Thomas Schaller, now the Presiding Elder and Pastor of Greater Grace World Outreach.

With the growth of the Bible college, there came a need for more space. That space was found in Lenox, Mass., where The Bible Speaks World Outreach relocated in 1976.

There, Stevens School of the Bible was founded and what followed was a period of great activity. The students of the college proved instrumental in establishing New England’s largest bus ministry and Sunday School. Also, waves of teams headed out to various countries.

In 1987, the ministry moved to Maryland and became Greater Grace World Outreach. The diverse urban center located between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia proved a fruitful ground for more growth. Maryland Bible College and Seminary was founded and continued the training of pastors, missionaries, and servants to go into all the world.

In 2005, the elders of GGWO unanimously elected Pastor Schaller as the ministry’s Presiding Elder and Pastor.