Pastor Trent’s Blog
Reflections from the study
Recap of Greenville’s Second Annual Simeon Trust Preaching Workshop
Every preacher thanks God for these encouraging words: Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. —1 Timothy 4:13–16
Meet Our Fall Intern: Jared Jenkins
This is such a cool photo of Jared, one of our college students whose pastoral internship is wrapping up. Jared’s internship began this past fall and is finishing up this week.
Jared has been reading and writing, he has joined our elders meetings, and he has met with me weekly over twelve weeks. Our purpose in this internship is to see churches led by pastors who faithfully connect the Bible’s theology of the church to the church’s worship, life, and mission. In other words, to see churches flourish in the gospel and gospel work.
How Does The Gospel Shape Our Gathering?, Part 3: Our Design Workflow
We’ve moved in this series from the fixed and permanent things to the more flexible things. Every church should sing and preach the Word. But churches can go about that differently. I’ve known of churches where the congregation requests songs on the spot. That’s not what we do but that’s one way to do it. In this post I’ll outline how we design our worship services.
Elder Q&A 2021 Recap
On November 14, we hosted our third annual Elders Q&A. Why do we host an event like this? There are lots of answers to that question. One reason is that you are precious to God and to us as your elders. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in...
How Does The Gospel Shape Our Gathering?, Part 2: Our Liturgical Form
We’re using the metaphor of church architecture as a way of thinking about the design of our Lord’s Day services. We rightly put care into how we design a church facility. In fact, at Heritage we’re entering a master planning process for our own building. We’re talking about the parts and the flow of our building.
How Does the Gospel Shape Our Gathering?, Part 1: A Theological Framework
This is the first in a three-part series, How Does The Gospel Shape Our Gathering? Read, “Part 2: Our Liturgical Form,” and, "Part 3: Our Design Workflow." **** You might have seen a church whose architecture was the shape of a cross. It's called cruciform...
You Can’t Join Us On Livestream. Say What?
Settle in and allow me to explain. Greg Gilbert wrote a helpful piece for pastors a little over a year ago. Some of his concluding words have stuck with me: This is a hard year to be a pastor. There’s the pandemic. There’s the frustration, for many of us, of not being able to gather with the church as normal. There’s the vaguely ridiculous prospect of preaching to a congregation whose faces you can’t see because they’re all wearing masks. There’s the livestream you launched literally two weeks after you publicly called down God’s own curses on yourself if you ever consented to a “video venue.”
Meet Our Summer Intern: Jarod Hill
Paul’s words to Timothy are the Holy Spirit’s words to our elders: “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2Tim. 2:2). That’s our biblical strategy for finding and appointing elders here at Heritage, and for propagating the gospel beyond our walls.
Now Taking Questions for Our Annual Elders Q&A
One way our elders at Heritage seek to lead our church to maturity in Christ is by the simple work of answering questions. We do this in informal and private ways, and we do this in especially public ways such as our annual Elders Q&A. On November 14 at 4:30 p.m. we will host our third annual Elders Q&A. You should come.
The Miracle of Giving and Why We Stopped Passing the Plate
We haven’t passed the plate in over a year, yet our lights are on, our pastors are paid, and giving has increased. Let’s talk about that. COVID gave our elders an opportunity to test-drive something we had been pondering informally for some time: giving without plates. How has it gone? Just fine. Actually, measured in terms of the church’s generosity, it’s gone great.