In 1997, on East North Street, in the small town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a building, owned by George and Joanne Shank sat empty after being the home to numerous businesses and seeing changes over the many years! It had once been a tannery for the tanning of cow hides, where the hides would be hung in the basement and salted. It later became home to Mocks Lumber Company where people purchased lumber for their building needs. The building later became the establishments of the Alpine Steak House, the Lobster Seafood House and The Old Spaghetti House where delectable meals were served at these establishments! What other uses would this building, now vacant, see in the coming years?
On July 24, 1996, a small Pentecostal group of people that were hungry to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and expand the Kingdom of God in the Carlisle, Pennsylvania area, began to hold house meetings. As the group quickly grew in number, they realized the need to look for a vacant building that would be conducive to the size, work and location of the group. Through much prayer and seeking the plan of God, it happened that one of the persons attending the meetings knew the owner of the vacant building at 472 E North Street. Following inquiry as to the possibility of renting the building to the group for conducting church meetings, the Shanks granted permission, and the group moved into the former restaurant. This group of believers incorporated and formed a church that was approved by the commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 23,1997! Five days later, March 28, which was Good Friday of that year, the incorporators held their first meeting, and the charter members recognized the group of believers as Victory Tabernacle Church. On Easter Sunday, March 30 of the same year, the first official service as “Victory Tabernacle” took place in this building at 472 E North Street!
Now that Victory Tabernacle had been established officially and the group had a building to meet in, they asked Rev. Franklin Myers to be speaker of a very special ‘Service of Dedication’! This dedication of the building unto the Lord occurred August 10,1997. On December 10th of the same year, the congregation voted to purchase the building from the Shanks, agreeing to hold the mortgage under a five-year contract. In 1998, Victory Tabernacle purchased their first set of 13 used oak pews and 26 oak chairs as they continued to grow in number. Ten new members were added to the rolls on Sunday, January 18th, bringing the number of members to forty. In March of the same year, Sunday School classes were started for the children of attending families.
The year 1999 brought many changes for Victory Tabernacle. Now that the building had been purchased, the church group had a vision and a desire to see the building transformed from a restaurant into a beautiful place of worship. Thus, on Saturday, February 27 of that year, renovations began in the part of the building that would be the sanctuary! As the congregation labored together week after week renovating and rebuilding, they finally saw their vision became a reality and on Sunday, August 22, 1999, they held their first service in the new sanctuary! The following month, on September 19th, the church held its first water baptism with seven people being baptized.
Finally, in 2002 renovations were completed! Excitement was in the air as the Victory Tabernacle congregation made plans for dedication of this beautiful facility! Not knowing what was about to take place, they prepared to hold four services during the dedication celebration on June 23-24 of that year! On Wednesday, June 12, just eleven days before the dedication service, a fire broke out in the building! But GOD had wrought several marvelous miracles that day! He had stretched forth His hand and held the fire to one small location. A newly refinished pulpit, which was over 100 years old, sitting within six feet of where the fire started, never burned nor blistered from the scorching heat of the fire! One week later on Wednesday night, June 19, 2002, the powerful Word of God was preached from that pulpit! And the following weekend, on Saturday, June 23rd, the dedication celebration started! Pastor John Causey from North Carolina brought forth a message from the Word of God that evening and again on Sunday morning, the 24th. In the afternoon, at 2:00, the message and dedication ceremony were rendered by Rev. Arvind D’silva. An evening service followed with worshipers praising and glorifying their Lord! Music was provided by the group ‘March Forth’ in all the Sunday services.
Although there were many tough and ‘fiery’ ordeals to go through, this body of believers has endured to bring the message of Jesus to locations around the world. Through resilience, remodeling, and reimagining what God can do through a group of growing believers and followers of Jesus Christ, Victory Tabernacle continues to be deeply committed to pursuing the mission of “Embracing the world for Christ.” Through it all, the building renovations, the marriage ceremonies, and the going home of dear saints of God, the needs around the world were not forgotten by the congregation of Victory Tabernacle. Mission work took place during it all and still continues today! (See more about our Mission Work).
Victory Tabernacle has remained steadfast in the faith, knowing God's hand is in the work, and in June of 2021, the building mortgage was paid off. The following month, July 24, a burning of the mortgage commemorated this milestone. Truly, little is much if God is in it!
