About us

BACKGROUND

Sheldon and Elaine Dwyer were called to mission work in 1971. They attended International Bible College in San Antonio, Texas. Sheldon graduated with a BTheol, and the Dwyers returned to Wisconsin to work in the Pentecostal church in Rice Lake, WI.

Then in 1971 a missionary from the Philippines came to the church and presented the need for Bible teachers in the Philippines. He gave an invitation to the Dwyers to come to the Philippines and work in the Church there.

To make a long story short, the Dwyers began to feel the need among Filipino pastors. After about one year and the final approval of their home church pastor and elders, and the chairman and mission secretary of the International Ministerial Association, their ministry fellowship, they sold their home in Rice Lake, WI, and after visiting churches from Wisconsin to Texas to California, they left for the Philippines arriving May 1, 1972. 

They began their ministry in a fellowship with several hundred ministers. The problem with these ministers was that they were all evangelists, and were able to start churches, but they were crying for help in teaching so they could keep their churches going. So the Dwyers began to travel out and teach in Short Term Bible Schools on several islands in Mindanao, Bohol, Masbate, and Luzon.

Later the pastors wanted a regular type of Bible school so in 1977 the Dwyers started Gospel Ventures Institute. Since then, many of the students from the Bible school have started churches in Luzon, Visayas (middle islands), and Mindanao. The Dwyers wrote most of the curricula of the Bible school which later became the basis of the discipleship books that they began to publish.

In 1978, the Dwyers established Gospel Ventures, Inc., a 501(c)(3) in the U.S.A. It's main purposes have been to preach the Gospel, to plant churches, to train church leaders and to publish Bible studies and books for discipling believers in the faith. 

The Dwyers have printed 20 books up to this time (2022). “Building on the Rock” has also been translated into Vietnamese, Hindi, Tagalog, and Cebuano. Doors of ministry have opened up in other foreign countries such as Vietnam, India, Qatar, Romania, Moldova, Transnistria, Bulgaria, and also in Haiti and Argentina.

The Dwyers are presently working on getting more of these books translated into Filipino dialects. Short Term Bible schools continue to be needed in the Philippines as there are so many youth being added to the churches who have great potential for leadership. Short term Bible schools are much less expensive to operate, are mobile, and fulfill a great need of discipling new workers for the Great Commission. The Dwyers continue to support Filipino pastors, and will focusing on training future church leaders, as the Lord leads.

HISTORY

• Gospel Ventures, Inc. was formed in 1978 to be a mission base and channel for the mission work of Sheldon and Elaine Dwyer

• The Dwyers were originally based in Rice Lake, Wisconsin and later moved to Barron, Wisconsin

• Gospel Ventures, Inc. has five board members located in the Northwest Wisconsin area

• Gospel Ventures, Inc. was established as a 501(c)(3) organization in the U.S.A. and is approved to issue tax exempt receipts recognized by the U.S.A. Federal Government

PURPOSE

• To preach the Gospel

• To raise up Short Term Bible schools

• To establish a Bible Institute

• To plant churches

• To ordain ministers

• To publish Bible studies and books for discipling believers in the faith

• To process mission donations for the Dwyers

VISION

Our Vision for the church in general is Acts 1:8, a threefold vision. 

1. The witness in Jerusalem (local church and city mission vision)

2. The witness in Judea and Samaria (home country and national mission vision)

3. The witness unto the uttermost part of the earth (global mission vision) 

This is the vision that has never changed for the church in this dispensation.

Our vision for the local church specifically is the threefold ministry that casts a look in three directions: 

1. the upward look (our ministry to God through prayer, music ministry, worship, and giving)

2. the inward look (our ministry to love and minister to one another with our talents and gifts)

3. the outward look (our ministry to the world by bringing the Gospel both within and without the Church.)

BELIEFS

We believe in the whole body of Christ in which churches preach the Gospel of Christ (I Corinthians 15:1-4) and bring people into a “born again” (John 3:1-16) experience in Christ. Our fellowship is based on our faith in the Person (the God-man) and Work of Christ on the Cross, and not on how we believe on the end-time, or how we baptize, or how we take communion. It is essential for all of us to have convictions on our beliefs, but not to let our differences keep us from recognizing our brothers and sisters in Christ.