User:Dant51/Cascade Hills Church

Cascade Hills Baptist Church was founded in 1954 at 4510 Oates Avenue in Columbus, Georgia. It began as a tent  with a small band of believers who felt God leading them from their former church to begin their own fellowship. After struggling to acquire the funds needed to build a more substantial building they finally built a small red brick sanctuary to gather and worship in. Over the next 12-15 years they had several Pastors until April 1983 Dr. Bill Purvis became the Senior Pastor on Easter Sunday. 32 people were in attendance that day. He preached his first sermon and felt his primary job was to encourage the discouraged and lead the church out of debt. He told them the primary mission of Cascade Hills was evangelism – to reach people who did not attend church with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Dr. Purvis was saved on April 28, 1974 after a near death experience. A few weeks prior to this event a young man who had been to a church revival had made a promise to tell at least one person about Christ. He knew that Bill was considered rough and had a reputation around town as a bully-type. He knew he needed Christ. So, he went to Bill's house and knocked on the door but when Bill opened the door the young man almost froze and all he could get out of his stuttering mouth was, "everything you need can be found in Jesus." He turned and ran. Bill considered the boy was crazy and thought nothing more about it. However, that phrase kept ringing in his ears. Then two weeks later he and a friend were out cruising Columbus, Georgia in his 1969 Camaro when they noticed a young woman in a short black dress standing on a street corner. Up until that point in his life, he had tried alot of things, but he had never been with a prostitute before.

The woman and her pimp got into the car with Bill and his friend and directed them to the back of an old house. Bill decided to go first. He followed her up a small stairway into a room, locking the door behind them. Bill turned off the lights to have a sexual encounter. He thought it would be another new thrill to help escape the void he had inside. Then he heard something move in the room. He could sense they were not alone. Suddenly, he was blinded by the light coming back on and he caught a glimps of a buthcer knife in the hand of a man standing in front of him. He could smell the alcohol on the man's breath as he yelled, "you gonna die boy!!" He swung the knife toward Bill and it hit in his side like a baseball bat. The blade went all the way through him and was sticking out of his back. It struck one-eighth of an inch below his heart bursting the pericardium (the sack that protects the heart). The man snatched the knife out and came back again heading for his temple. Bill jerked his head back but the knife went into the left side of his throat severing his jugular vein. Though these were fatal wounds he began to fight back and knocked the man down, but he still had to step over him to get back to the door. The man stabbed Bill once more - this time in the stomach, piercing his liver. Fortunatly, his adrenaline enabled him to get past the man and to the door...but Bill could not open it as he had locked it when he came in. Panic struck! With all the strength he could muster, bleeding profusely, he stepped back and rammed his body through the door breaking it loose from the hinges. He leaped out and ran frantically past his car screaming to his friend, "get out of here!" Covered in blood and very weak, Bill staggered and stumpled in the street. He fell down under a street light in the parking lot of the Three Arts Theatre. Lying there knowing he was taking his last breaths, he heard those words that had been ringing in his ears one more time, "everything you need can be found in Jesus." Bill knew beyond a doubt he was going to die. All three of his wounds were fatal, especially the severed carotid artery.

He cried out in desperation, "Jesus, I give you my life, I need you, come into my heart, forgive me of my sins, have mercy on me. If you'll have me, I'll live for you.  Please save me."

God's intervention was unmistakable. The house where Bill was stabbed was only half a block from the Columbus Medical Center, the only major emergency hospital in town. His friend was able to put him in the car and get help almost immediately. Dr. Phillip Brewer performed surgery throughout the night and later explained the jugular vein is the largest artery in the body. People with severed jugular veins usually die within four minutes. As far as anyone knows, Bill Purvis is the only person who has ever survived with a severed jugular vein in the history of the Columbus Medical Center.

Bill went on to heal and become strong and healthy. He later attended Seminary and became a youth Pastor for a local church. During this time he felt God calling him to be a Senior Pastor. Three churches had called him in one weeks time, a large church in Florida, another in Atlanta, Georgia, and a small church in Cusseta, Georgia. While considering these, another church called, heavily in debt and very discouraged. The name was Cascade Hills Church. While praying about the decision, he felt God lead him to read Isaiah 55:12, "For you will go out with joy, and be lead forth with peace, the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and the trees of the field will clap their hands."

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By the second year of Bill’s ministry, 26 people had been baptized and Sunday School attendance rose to over 100 people. With the church growing and getting out of debt, he began to cast the vision for a new sanctuary to handle the growth. In 1986 (just three years) Cascade Hills moved from being at the bottom of the charts, to ranking 3rd in the city in baptisms with 43. By 1987, they broke ground for a new 500 seat sanctuary located at their existing property at 4510 Oates Avenue. During that year, the church went to two morning services at 8:30 and 11:00 while waiting for the new sanctuary to be completed. Within four years, the church had three morning worship services and three Sunday School hours to accommodate the rapid growth. The 500 seat sanctuary was finally dedicated on July 10, 1988. Cascade Hills had room to grow even more once again.

It did not take long before the church was once again bursting at the seams. In 1991 the membership rose to over 1000 members and additional temporary buildings were set up to handle the increase in Sunday School attendance. In 1992 one hundred and seventy four people were baptized.

In 1992, Cascade Hills voted to purchase 28 acres of prime property of the North Bypass on 54th Street for future relocation due to the phenomenal growth. At the end of 1992 Cascade Hills ranked #9 in the state of Georgia in baptisms and in 1993 it was ranked as the forty-third fastest growing church in America. This was quite an accomplishment considering that Columbus was not one of the fastest growing cities in America.

To date, Cascade Hills Church has almost 10,000 members and is regularly seen on tv through local tv, and around the world on TBN.