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Building of Faith: Deaf ministry grows into permanent church

Messenger-Inquirer - 8/8/2020

Aug. 8--The Rev. Danny Hinton speaks not only with his heart, but also with his hands.

He's the pastor of the newly opened Gospel Community Church at 1205 W. Ninth St. that seeks to draw in all people, but especially those with disabilities.

"A lot of that stems from the idea, when we read in Luke (14:12-13), that when you throw a banquet you don't invite the prominent and the rich, but instead the deaf, the blind and the lame," Hinton said.

Although Hinton, 44, is neither deaf nor hard-of-hearing, he learned sign language as a youth. At age 13, Hinton even interpreted a baby delivery.

He has used that skill for more than 20 years to work with the deaf population and act as an interpreter for the deaf before being called to preach.

"There was no ministry that was reaching the deaf community effectively in this area," Hinton said.

Hinton's ministry began more than five years ago as a church plant with a dozen deaf people as his congregation. Those services were held inside a youth room at Pleasant Valley Community Church.

"I literally never expected us to be more than 12 or 15 deaf folks," Hinton said. "And then about a month in, some blind folks showed up and other folks with special needs and then just regular folks showed up. God had larger plans, I guess, for us."

As the congregation grew, the church began searching for a permanent building.

The church found it at 1205 W. Ninth St., an 8,000-square-foot warehouse that was formerly used as storage by the St. Vincent de Paul store.

Hinton said the building was purchased outright for $104,000 and then the churched financed the renovations.

Hinton had the goal of six months to be worshiping inside a new church building.

But the roof unexpectedly caved in, creating a major setback in both time and finances.

"We were expecting an $80,000 renovation -- and that's what we borrowed -- but the roof took around $55,000 of that. It took a big chunk of the wind out of our sails. We basically decided, instead of incurring more debt, we would just work on it ourselves, pray and take volunteer work as we could."

In the meantime, Gospel Community Church moved to a temporary location -- the H.L. Neblett Community Center. And while there, increased to more than 70 people.

"We began to marry the mission of reaching folks who were otherwise oppressed and separated from the gospel and figuring things out as we went along," Hinton said. "But we made the decision early on that, whatever pace we had to move at, we would incorporate every population that we have."

And with the renovation, there was much thought that went into the design to ensure no one felt left out of the service.

"That meant adding extra screens; we had to move things in such a way that a deaf person could sit, and have a pastor, an interpreter and a screen in their line of sight at all times."

And after nearly three and a half years, Gospel Community Church held its first service inside the newly renovated building on July 26.

Hinton said COVID-19 put a slight damper on the occasion but the church is planning a proper grand opening in the future.

"With the launch date, we were going to pull everybody in together that played a part in all of this," Hinton said. "And it was going to be a huge celebration. Instead, it was keep as many people away as possible. So we suspended our big celebratory launch service and it was just our core folks and members."

Hinton said he feels blessed and gives credit to God for how far Gospel Community Church has come.

"I still pull up and I expect a dumpy, old building with a gravel parking lot, and then walk into a warehouse with mice and old clothes," Hinton said. "Instead, it's a pretty new building that God has really gifted us."

}Don Wilkins, dwilkins@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7299

Don Wilkins, dwilkins@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7299

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