GLCC 75th Anniversary

Welcome Home Excerpts from Board Chair Dr. Brad Bauer’s opening welcome at the75th anniversary conference (August 6, 2019)

Welcome home to the property that holds within it the realization of Dr. Luther Wesley Smith’s dream to establish a national assembly grounds. Welcome home to this thin place where God seems to break through and come to rest on the hearts of so many. Meekly, humbly, quietly and intentionally, Green Lake has served as a soft place, a place of forgiveness, of reconciliation, and of redemption over the years. In a world of chaos and pain, of ruthlessness and torment, it has sought to always provide sanctuary and shelter, comfort and healing, a place that the world so desperately needs. In the summer of 1985 I was on my way to work as a summer staff member at the boathouse in total oblivion as to what God might have in store for me. Little did I know that His plans for me were great. I was pushed into the boathouse harbor on numerous occasions for baptism into the Green Lake community. Faith was nurtured as I joined with other summer staff in hymn sings in Roger Williams Inn, worship at our outdoor chapel by the lake and in Bible study led by none other than the amazing Jan DeWitt. Tina, the woman I was dating, turned into the love of my life as we walked along Shore Drive. That summer Green Lake wove the fabric of itself into the tapestry of my life in ways both immediate and in ways that are still coming into light even today. It is one of the mysteries of this place in its capacity to bind itself to you over time. It continues to whisper. It continues to teach. It continues to bring context and wisdom into the parameters of how we know ourselves whatever our stage of life. Welcome to your home at Green Lake Conference Center

Brad, Carol and George Bauer pose next to the portrait of Rev. Dr. William Staughton outside Staughton Hall in Pillsbury. Carol is a descendant of Staughton, Baptist clergyman and educator.

Tina and Brad Bauer at the afternoon cream tea during the 75th anniversary conference glcc.org | 3