Bill’s life purpose is helping people learn God’s Word and live it together. Before coming to Grace he pastored churches in Wisconsin and Oregon, taught Pastoral Ministry as a Seminary Professor, and deployed as a Military Chaplain. Bill grew up on a dairy farm (yep – a cheesehead!) and became a follower of Christ as a college student at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. A graduate of both Northwest Baptist Seminary and Dallas Theological Seminary, Bill and his wife Teri live in Manhattan and are the parents of four children; Rachel, Jenni, Anna, and Jon.  

Clint longs to experience the transformative grace of Jesus Christ in his own life and in the church. He serves through teaching, prayer, counseling and providing direction for family and discipleship ministries. A Kansas native, he grew up under the godly influence of his parents on the family farm. Clint enjoys spending time with his family watching football and exploring God’s glorious creation. 

Alan’s goal is to serve the church through music and the Word. After graduating from Iowa Wesleyan College he taught band and choir for five years before deciding to minister in music full-time. Alan loves to play guitar and piano and has a passion to see all generations join in worship. His duties include the planning and coordination of all public worship services, development of teams within the worship ministry and technical support for the staff and website. Alan and his wife, Jodie, live in Manhattan. They have three children, Isaac, Abigail and Chloe. 

“Jesus Christ is the most important thing in my life.” That’s what I heard the night I first came in contact with the Gospel as a sophomore in high school. It was at that time I gave my life to Jesus and He has been the most important thing in my life ever since. Coming to Kansas State in 1975 — where I earned a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture — I quickly found a spiritual home at Grace Baptist Church. The pastor at the time, Horace Brelsford, became a spiritual father to me and he encouraged me to go on from K-State to Grace Theological Seminary in Indiana, where I earned a Th.M. Before traveling east, however, I married Amy, my wonderful partner and beautiful wife. Amy and I have four daughters, now grown, three granddaughters, and two energetic grandsons. From seminary, we served 11 years in France as missionaries in church planting and theological education. Living back in Manhattan since 2000, Grace has once again become our spiritual oasis, where I have been able to pursue my passions of studying and teaching Biblical theology, especially as it is found in the overarching narrative of the Old Testament. It is a humbling thing now to serve as a pastor. May Jesus Christ be the most important thing to each of us. 

Leia Edwards wants to make Christ known and bring Him glory through the faithful application of the Word in counseling and discipleship of women, youth, and children. Knowing and relying upon the power of Christ in her own life, she desires to help others see and believe that the Lord is indeed good in any and all circumstances, and that His grace is sufficient in each and every day. She considers Manhattan, KS home. Her favorite flower is the dandelion for its resilience and its deep-rooted joy. Leia is gratefully humbled to be able to serve the Lord at Grace Baptist Church.

Jenner Carter serves as Staff Assistant. Jenner has a passion for organization, numbers, and planning, which she utilizes daily in her responsibilities at Grace. She and her husband, Eric, were brought to the Manhattan area by the U. S. Army in December 2002. Eric and Jenner hail originally from Arkansas–Woo Pig Sooie! They were married in August of 1996 and have been blessed with three children: Gabriel, Gillian, and Gracelyn. In her “spare time” Jenner enjoys scrapbooking, puzzles and football. 

Jenny Humes serves as staff assistant. She and her husband Nathan have attended Grace since 2000 while attending Kansas State University where they met. They were married in 2002. They have two children, Hannah and Jack. Jenny’s gift of administration was used while serving as the AWANA Commander at Grace for seven years. She now utilizes these gifts to assist the Leadership of the church and execute various daily tasks including: maintaining the buildings schedule, bulletins, design work, membership process and baptism process. Jenny loves to laugh, cook, eat, read, do puzzles and cheer on her Kansas State Wildcats. 

Brian and his wife Angela both grew up in Kentucky. They first attended Grace Baptist in 2001, when Brian came to K-State for the graduate program in Ag Economics. After several years away, they moved back to Manhattan in 2015 with their three daughters; Jadon, Ella, and Cora. Brian is an Agricultural Economics faculty member at K-State and became an elder in 2021. 

Dan Strom and his wife Judy have lived in Manhattan since 1986. They are parents of two grown sons, and have two grandchildren. Dan works for Kansas Farm Bureau. He and his wife have both served in many Grace Baptist ministries over the years. Dan has also served on Boards of other local organizations and on community and state task forces. Dan's favorite part of ministry is seeing people learn about Jesus and choosing to follow Him.

After serving as a Marine Tank Crewman for 30 years Scott, Angela, and their daughter Tareyn decided to retire to Manhattan Kansas in 2014. Having grown up at Grace Baptist Church in the 70’s and early 80’s rejoining Grace felt like coming home. Scott is fully retired and much of his time revolves around caring for his twin granddaughters, serving in the sound booth, and mentoring the upper grade men in the youth collective.

Jim grew up on a farm in North Central Kansas and moved to Manhattan in 1989 to pursue a degree at Kansas State University.  He rededicated his life to Christ in 1992 and started attending GBC in 1996.  Jim and his wife Shelly were married in 1997 and have one daughter Claire.  He has served in various roles assisting ministries at GBC.  He is currently assisting with the Highschool class. He and Shelly served in Christen homeschool leadership for 8 years and have recently stepped away from those roles.   Jim works for Kansas State University at the Konza Prairie Biological Station.  He is also a volunteer on the Riley County Rural Fire District along with several other community roles. 

John and his family began attending Grace Baptist Church in 2013. He originally attended Grace while pursuing a Computer Science degree at K-State from 1995 to 1998. This is also when he began to follow Christ and met his wife, Jennifer. He and Jennifer lived in Olathe, KS for 15 years where the Lord blessed them with their four children: Emily, Kaitlyn, Bryce, and Ben. The Lord called their family back to Manhattan in 2013 and they quickly claimed Grace as their home church. John is a Kansas native and has served in various capacities at Grace including Children’s Bible Hour, the care group ministry, as well as serving on various committees. 

David and Alice moved to Manhattan in October 2019. Both have experienced losing their spouses to cancer and married in September 2015. A very interesting story of how God works and blesses even in the midst of difficult times. They lived in Overland Park for four years and got involved there with the GriefShare program.

David was born in Russell, KS and after moving around the country spent forty-one years in Overland Park. During that time he and his wife had a son and daughter and were active in a local Baptist church. They were also blessed with three granddaughters. In 2011 he retired from a company that specialized in insuring churches. The couple was able to travel extensively before she was diagnosed in 2013.

Alice was also born in Russell, spent a year at Kansas State and married a farmer. They also raised a son and daughter and were very active in the Baptist church. She now has seven grandchildren. Not too long after the death of her husband she moved to Hesston to be close to her son and family. Then David started spending more time with her and everything changed!

We are grateful to be involved in a church with people that have been faithful to the Lord for many years. We hope we can be as much of a blessing to our church family as they have been to us. 

After serving in ministry for 47 years I retired from First Baptist Centerville, IA where we served for 22.5 years.

After retirement on November 4th 2018 we moved to the farm my wife and her sister own.  We found Grace Baptist Church on our 2nd Sunday in Kansas and threw away our list of churches to visit.   We found a home  where the Bible is preached, practiced and taught and discipleship combined with missions outreach is highly valued.

I have been working at Big Lakes for over 4 years now. It started out as a dream and is now a ministry.  It has been challenging but great for growth in my  life.  

I accepted serving as a Elder "with fear and trembling"  for two reasons:
1.  God and the church's call
2.  A desire to serve God as a humble, obedient servant in His way, His purpose and His timing.  Pray for God to be victorious in my imperfect life.

I also commend my wife Cindy who is a several year studier and practicer in prayer.  She has been a strength in my life and the lives of m any women and children over the years.  We covet your prayers and input in whatever time we have ahead.