51�Թ�

Greg Mathis ’12

Posted on: December 2, 2025
By Web Master, umacs@ngu.edu

“…there’s freedom in submitting yourself to God’s providential hand—understanding that he is the ultimate mover.”

“I think what makes us uncomfortable is that God might bury the worker before the work is finished,” reflected Greg Mathis, a 2012 51�Թ� graduate and pastor of Trenton Baptist Church in Trenton, Kentucky.

“We want to be the guy who accomplished the work instead of the obedient servant who moves the ball down the field seven or eight yards. But there’s freedom in submitting yourself to God’s providential hand—understanding that he is the ultimate mover.”

A native of Boonville, North Carolina, Mathis felt a pull toward ministry at an early age, citing the influence of his grandfather.

“While we often use the terminology of ‘calling,’ the New Testament speaks of desire concerning the pastorate (1 Tim 3:1),” Mathis said. “I just had a growing desire, put there by God, and it developed to a place where I couldn’t see myself being happy doing anything else.”

Following that desire, Mathis found himself attending 51�Թ� on an academic scholarship.

“North Greenville invested in me, and I’m a product of that investment,” he said. “If I have any abilities as a thinker or as a student of the Bible, it’s attributable to the influence the professors at North Greenville had on my life.”

During his time in Tigerville, Mathis began serving at Abner Creek Baptist Church in Greer.

“I served there for about half of my time at North Greenville, and I was able to see practiced many of the things I was being taught. Expository preaching, concern for meaningful church membership—I saw those things lived out,” he said.

Married shortly after graduation to Whitney Snow Mathis (‘09), the couple felt they would soon serve the Lord overseas in Peru.

“During a transition season of our life, we thought we needed to give God a blank check and the opportunity to direct us. For those couple of years, it seemed like he was doing that,” Mathis said. “We made a strategic move back to Greenville to be part of The Church at Cherrydale (now Christ Fellowship Cherrydale) and ready ourselves to be sent to Peru. Everything was a green light. We just had to get on the other side of the birth of our second son.”

The family milestone came with significant uncertainty, however, as the couple’s son was born with a condition that required a high level of medical care.

“The surgeon we had was a like-minded believer. He devoted months out of his year to perform services at a Christian hospital in Kenya,” Mathis said. “I remember him looking at us saying, ‘I understand your call and your desire. You just can’t go right now.’ We had a lot of questions about what this meant. Had all the promptings been wrong? Had we discerned them wrongly?”

Wrestling with these questions and what might be next, Mathis said the Lord began to provide answers.

“I think we can over-spiritualize the call of God sometimes. If a plane is heading toward an ultimate destination, air traffic control might vector that plane to a pre-set location on the way but then change its trajectory. We believe what the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 4—that the will of God for us is our sanctification. I don’t think the point is my vocational role, which church I’m serving, or what title I have. Overall, God’s call for us to be sanctified and to submit to whatever means he might use to do that.”

After a season of seeking where the Lord was leading the family’s ministry, Greg and Whitney were called to Trenton, Kentucky.

“I live in a town of 377 people,” he said. “This is a place where you are known. It’s possible to influence people at a certain size church, but only to be known from a distance. In a place like Trenton, you’re going to see folks at one of our two restaurants. Churches like the one the Lord called me to are durable and necessary. These churches enable us, as Southern Baptists, to do the things we talk about in terms of church planting and other ministries.”

Although his ministry has taken him nearly 400 miles away from Tigerville, Mathis said he is still influenced by his time at North Greenville.

“1892 has a big significance in my life. Here I am in a town that built its sanctuary in 1892, working on a dissertation on Charles Spurgeon, who died in 1892, and a graduate of an institution that was founded in 1892. That year ties a lot together for me,” he said.

““I went to North Greenville knowing I wanted to pursue ministry,” Mathis said. “I took every class that Dr. Walter Johnson offered. The professors at North Greenville took my vague notions of the Bible and my Christian worldview, and they turned them into something coherent, durable, and applicable to the local church.”