The "Grand View" Story

Gary Lambrecht Hired as Preacher

In a few weeks after Jon Bailey left, G.V. hired its second preacher, Gary Lambrecht, a recent graduate of Harding University’s preacher training program. He was inexperienced but had unlimited zeal which generated a lot of activity in the city and state. During his tenure, an effort was attempted to form one city-wide congregation by merging the four congregations in the city by selling their buildings and purchasing one large building to house all the Christians in the city. This would thereby cut overhead and exert a greater impact on the city due to the size and talent that would be contained hi such a merger. Hickman, West Madison and Grand View gave serious attention to the proposal – Southside declined. Orrin, then an elder at Hickman, reports that 76% of Hickman membership voted for the merger. The proposal finally failed primarily for lack of support from key leaders.