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What We Believe
THE BIBLE
The Holy Scriptures are verbally, plenary, and inerrantly inspired by God. They are the authoritative guide for all Christian understanding, life and ministry.
GOD
There is but one God eternally existent in three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each member of the Godhead shares the same eternal attributes.
JESUS CHRIST
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is fully God and fully man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and He lived a sinless life. He died, shedding His blood in His substitutionary death for sinners. He was buried, arose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. He is the only way to God the Father.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Son as the third Person of the Godhead. The Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment and unites man to Jesus Christ by faith. We believe the Holy Spirit seals and indwells all believers. The filling of the Holy Spirit is not an unconditional promise to all believers; the indwelling is.
MAN
Man was created in the image and likeness of God. It was by man’s free volition that he disobeyed God, incurring physical and spiritual death. Each human being is born with a sinful nature. Because of this, every person is in need of salvation from God’s judgment and from eternal damnation in Hell.
SALVATION
Salvation is a gift from God. Salvation was accomplished by Christ’s substitutionary death. All who believe in Him are justified by grace through faith. The believer’s salvation is eternally secure.
SPIRITUAL BAPTISM
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is granted to all who believe in Jesus Christ. This occurs in each believer at the moment of salvation. Every believer is baptized into the body of Christ (the church) when he or she believes in Christ.
THE GREAT COMMISION
The fulfillment of the Great Commission is the responsibility of all believers. Believers are to pray to the Lord of the Harvest that He would send forth laborers into the world to preach the Gospel and to plant churches.
THE CHURCH
The church is the body and the bride of Christ. It is dedicated to the worship and service of God and to the observance of the sacraments or ordinances of water Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The primary task of the church in all ages is to teach all nations and to make disciples through the preaching and teaching of the Word of God.
FINAL EVENTS
Jesus Christ will return to rapture His church. Immediately following this event will be the seven-year tribulation period. At the conclusion of this event Christ will return to the earth and establish His 1,000 year reign. At the end of Christ’s 1,000 year reign, Satan will be cast into the Lake of Fire. The next event will be the Great White Throne judgment of the unsaved. Christ will then establish New Heavens and a New Earth. This will be the consummation of all things.
More About Our Pastors...
Head Pastor
PASTOR JAY ESTABROOK
Pastor Jay Estabrook is the head pastor of Grace Words Bible Church and the director of Maryland Bible College of York. Pastor Jay has been involved in Christian ministry for over forty years. In the early 80’s, he was the senior youth leader for a Lutheran church in Manhattan, KS while serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army at Fort Riley, KS. He also taught math via a satellite program with Texas Christian University at Fort Riley, KS and accounting at Kansas State University. From the mid-eighties to 1991, he served as the senior and junior youth leader for Greater Grace Church of Woburn, MA and as the assistant Chaplain of Framingham State Prison while teaching accounting at Salem State College. During this time, he and his family also served on hospital and nursing home visitation.
He then moved to Maryland to go to Bible College and graduated from Maryland Bible College & Seminary in 1994. Immediately after, he began pioneering a church in Detroit, MI. He was ordained as a pastor in 1995 and returned to Baltimore, MD in 1996. For many years, he was the head pastor of a Bible Club that ministered alongside the Church of the Nazarene to love, feed, and teach children in the city of Baltimore. He also taught math and accounting at Greater Grace Christian Academy and math with the Salem Christian Homeschooling Network. In 1998, he began teaching as an instructor in Maryland Bible College & Seminary and continues to teach there today. Furthermore, he and his wife served as Junior High leaders with the Wildfire program of Grace Fellowship Church in Timonium, MD while also serving in their home church of Greater Grace World Outreach in Baltimore, MD. He has been a guest speaker in various countries including Austria, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Sweden, Ghana, and India.
He is married to Ann-Marie Estabrook and they have four children and eleven grandchildren. He has a Master’s degree in Accounting and an additional Master’s degree in Taxation. He is a Certified Public Accountant, a Licensed Financial Planner, and a Registered Investment Advisor. He is the owner of Estabrook & Co, P.C., an accounting and financial services firm based in Baltimore, MD with extension offices in other parts of MD and PA. It is his pleasure to be pioneering a new church plant and Bible College in York, PA. He looks forward to meeting you and sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with the community of York and beyond.
He then moved to Maryland to go to Bible College and graduated from Maryland Bible College & Seminary in 1994. Immediately after, he began pioneering a church in Detroit, MI. He was ordained as a pastor in 1995 and returned to Baltimore, MD in 1996. For many years, he was the head pastor of a Bible Club that ministered alongside the Church of the Nazarene to love, feed, and teach children in the city of Baltimore. He also taught math and accounting at Greater Grace Christian Academy and math with the Salem Christian Homeschooling Network. In 1998, he began teaching as an instructor in Maryland Bible College & Seminary and continues to teach there today. Furthermore, he and his wife served as Junior High leaders with the Wildfire program of Grace Fellowship Church in Timonium, MD while also serving in their home church of Greater Grace World Outreach in Baltimore, MD. He has been a guest speaker in various countries including Austria, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Sweden, Ghana, and India.
He is married to Ann-Marie Estabrook and they have four children and eleven grandchildren. He has a Master’s degree in Accounting and an additional Master’s degree in Taxation. He is a Certified Public Accountant, a Licensed Financial Planner, and a Registered Investment Advisor. He is the owner of Estabrook & Co, P.C., an accounting and financial services firm based in Baltimore, MD with extension offices in other parts of MD and PA. It is his pleasure to be pioneering a new church plant and Bible College in York, PA. He looks forward to meeting you and sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with the community of York and beyond.
Assistant Pastor
PASTOR ELMER SPEER
Pastor Elmer is an assistant pastor at Grace Words Bible Church. Prior to pastoring, P Elmer served as a registered nurse for 42 years. He graduated from Ohio Valley General Hospital School of Nursing in 1969 and then served in the US Navy Nurse Corps until 1974. From 1974 to 2004, he served as an Operating Room Nurse. From 2004 to 2010, he served as an Endoscopy Nurse and in 2010 he was called into full-time Pastoral Ministry. He has been the Associate Pastor of Manor Baptist Church since 2009 which has since merged and come under the leadership of Grace Words Bible Church. P. Elmer has been married for 36 years to his best friend, Irene. He has five children and eight grandchildren. He enjoys fishing, hunting and archery.
Assistant Pastor
PASTOR CRAIG SMITH
Pastor Craig Smith is an assistant pastor here at Grace Words Bible Church. He has spent the last seven years actively pursuing his journey on becoming one of our pastors here at Grace Words. His active pursuit consisted of five years of successfully completing bible college and seminary to serving as a deacon at a local church to also actively serving as an elder at Grace Words Bible Church (York) . Craig is originally from Baltimore Maryland where his professional background originates as a truck driver for over twenty five years before answering the call that God has placed on his life for ministry. He has been married to his lovely wife for over sixteen year where the two share five children and five grandchildren together. He is currently the assistant director of the Bible College in York PA as well as one of the leaders of the men’s bible study. Pastor Craig is a man with a true and full heart on fire for God and eagerly anticipates where God is taking him for his Glory and for the enlightenment of Gods people.
