Trowbridge Community Church
We are a new non-denominational Bible church. We officially became independent on January 1, 2019. Prior to that we were Trowbridge United Methodist Church (TUMC). We were a church in decline. Our membership was at about eighteen, weekly attendance was around twenty-five. It was very apparent that the church would soon close unless God did something about it. The church, for years, had struggled to grow due to splits and divisions that were primarily related to the pastors that the UMC had sent.
In September of 2017 our UMC Pastor John Moore decided to retire at the age of 93 years of age. Since the UMC didn’t have pastor to send us they gave us permission to hire an interim pastor with the reluctant approval of the UMC Superintendent. So, we hired our current interim pastor. He is a Baptist educated man. His name is Greg Carlson and he also works full time for Wings of Hope Hospice. After a couple months of his preaching the truth of God’s Word, the hearts and minds of our congregation began to change and we sensed God call for us to leave the UMC. In January 2018 we unanimously voted to leave the UMC after being a Methodist Church for 167 years.
God has been so faithful to TCC since we became independent; He has answered our prayers many times throughout this transition, from sending to our congregation new believers with the gifts needed for our ministries, to the funding we needed to buy our building back from the UMC.
Pastor Carlson has been a blessing to us. Since he’s been with us, our church attendance is regularly over fifty in number, but most important, we’ve grown spiritually. Instead of Church being a social gathering, it now is a gathering of believers that love and care for one another. More people bring their Bibles now than did before. There is more interest in learning God’s word. Our adult Sunday school class has doubled in size, too. Pastor Greg is a real servant of the Lord and we would like it if he would stay, but he has reminded us that he is an interim. He has already been more than an interim: as he with us for about 2 years. He has told us that he hopes to stay until God has sent his replacement.
The Pastor we hire will be part time at first, about 20 - 25 hours per week between office and making pastoral visits. We do not have any ministry expectations of the pastor’s wife to fulfill but any involvement would be welcomed and appreciated. It should be noted that we don’t have a parsonage nor do we have a housing allowance. For 2020 we have budgeted $31,000 for the pastor’s salary, including mileage. As our membership increases and pastor responsibilities increase, so will the pastor’s compensation increase. Currently the pastor is the only paid person. We have a couple women volunteers that currently assist Pastor Greg. We currently have 1 elder other that the pastor and he teaches the adult Sunday school class.
We have 36 members. Sunday attendance is often over 50. TCC membership is made up of persons from the age of 70 plus years old to the mid 30’s, including at least 10 widows, and married couples from the ages of 40’s to 70’s. We have between 2-4 grade school kids in our Sunday school class weekly. There are 2 boys of high school age.
We are predominantly blue collar, non-college, and Caucasian. We do not talk politics, so no data on that one. The women out-number the men. Some us are college graduates, but probably most are not. Blue jeans are the norm on Sunday morning for guys, and slacks for the women. There is no one in the twenty something category and only one male in the thirty’s.
Our Sunday worship lasts 60 - 75 minutes starting at 10: 30. Our adult Bible study is from 9:15-10:15. Our worship is traditional but leadership recognizes that we need a balance of traditional and contemporary styles to attract younger believers. Our new pastor should seek to implement this traditional and contemporary worship mix. Following worship, we have fellowship time that often lasts over an hour.
TCC has a commercial kitchen and we use it to host a free will offering breakfast on the first Saturday of the month. These offerings have been used to fund local missionaries, to help those with medical expenses, and we are currently using it to pay down the mortgage that was recently incurred to buy back our property from the UMC.
Trowbridge Church is situated on seven acres and in the not too distant future we will likely need to add on to our building, God willing. We see TCC as being a church that ministers to the needs of families, where the word of God is taught. We celebrate a church full of believers that love the Lord, love one another, love the lost, encourage each other, watch out for each other, pray for each other, and feel safe. We value a unity and commonality in Christ.