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Terry Worley has been a member of Hampton Park for over 10 years. Throughout the last decade he has served as a Sunday School teacher and LifeGroup leader. In recent years, he participated in HP’s pastoral training, and this year was elected to his first term as a non-staff pastor. As Terry begins his time as a non-staff pastor, we wanted to ask him a few questions so you could get to know him a bit better.

Terry, could you first briefly share how and when God brought you to faith in Jesus? This seems like the best place to start.

I was born into a non-Christian home and grew up with a very worldly view. I put myself first even before family. After high school I joined the Navy and met a few Christians that were bold enough to tell me about the gospel. Even though I did not take them seriously the seed was planted and watered. While stationed in Gaum, my wife Cheryl and I decided to look for better people to hang around so we thought a church might be a good place to start. We heard the gospel, and both responded two weeks apart.

Praise God for orchestrating your path like that! So, after you were saved, what led you to Greenville, SC? And how did you end up at Hampton Park specifically?

There were many Christians that taught in the school associated with Harvest Baptist Church where we were saved. A lot of them were educated at BJU and this influenced our decision to come to Greenville. Cheryl wanted to go back to school so we came for her. I planned to work to put her through her education. On arrival in Greenville, God started working in my heart to attend BJU also. We both attended for a while, but once children started to arrive, it seemed that the smart thing to do for our family was to put schooling aside and pour our lives into our family. Although new creations in Christ, we both still had a lot of worldly mindsets that needed reshaping. We praise the Lord for the churches and ministries he had us involved in before we came to Hampton Park. They shaped us but also brought to light in us the ministry we desired to be in. Part of what led us to Hampton Park was a BJU chapel message by JD Crowley. When I walked out of the FMA, I knew we needed to move on from the church we were in, and that is when we found our home at HPBC.

When you first joined HPBC, did you ever imagine that you would be a pastor here? :-)

No, and it humbles me that I am even considered.

1 Timothy 3:1 says, “This saying is trustworthy: if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” When did you first begin to desire to be a pastor?

Well, to be honest, the desire might have been there sometime ago, but before being a member at HPBC, it was never a possibility due to how our prior churches handled me being a divorced individual.

Once taking over the teaching responsibilities of the Christian Living class and co-leading LifeGroup, the way Cheryl and I took on the opportunities to serve became more like shepherding than just one another ministering. I grew in my desire to see others live according to the Scriptures; so, teaching took on another level.

You’ve attended pastoral training here at HPBC for the past couple of years. What is something that you have learned or gained during that time that has been helpful for you?

To begin with I am very grateful for the time the pastors have shared with those of us who attend. The extra reading materials have been very much a blessing.

The openness from you all about how much is involved in being a shepherd for the flock has been helpful. I have been meditating on those nuggets of knowledge during this process of becoming a non-staff pastor. I am really enjoying the sessions lately on how multi-faceted it is to bring out what Scripture is actually saying and to guard myself from adding or taking away from what Scripture is saying.

The comradery with other men who aspire to proclaim the truth and have hearts for the body has also been encouraging.

How many years have you taught a Sunday School class? What is your favorite topic/book of the Bible that you have taught during this time?

Not long after being saved, God orchestrated that Cheryl and I would end up leading the cubbies class in Awanas. The valuable lesson that we gained and still hold onto is that no matter the audience you have when teaching or leading, you are the one learning the most. At our first church in Greenville, we led the 7 to 9-year-old Sunday school class. At the church that we came from before joining HPBC, we taught the 3-year-old Sunday school class (which was a prep class for the children to join their parents in the main service when they turned 4). We also served on a rotating basis in children’s church during the Sunday evening service time, co-led neighborhood Bible clubs, and taught in Front Line. After having been at HPBC for two years, we were asked to take over the Christian Living class which we have served in for the past 11 years.

I really enjoy the General Epistles with 1 Peter leading the way.

You and your wife often use your home for ministering to others. When did that start and why?

It started not long after being saved. The church in Guam has a school associated with it, and when we found out how much Christian school teachers made, we opened our house often to treat them to meals and other things that would be out of their budget (we were making a lot of money and had much to share). Now, we have a house with a pool in the backyard which we open up to a lot of people. In our last church there were a lot of home school families, and we gave them all keys to the gate so they could use the pool for recreation and physical education. Currently, we have a group of young adult women who use it when my wife is available to be there with them. Families come and enjoy it also. We have a fire pit in the backyard that we have had lots of fun and fellowship around. My wife has had wonderful conversations with those same young women who come for the pool and a nice evening fire. We try to host as often as we can, and we particularly like to have groups of people over who do not know each other yet. We love to mix in our neighbors with our brothers and sisters from HPBC. One of my favorite groups that we often try to have over for various occasions (e.g. Christmas) is a group of more mature single ladies in our church. To answer the why, we just have to say that we love our church family.

We also have had lost people live with us in the past. These are very interesting stories we could share sometime.

What do you most appreciate about Hampton Park?

How do I pick the thing I most appreciate when there is very little that I do not appreciate?

I truly do appreciate the focus on “Life by the Book” which we see being taught and lived out before us from our leadership.

What most excites you about being a pastor? What makes you most nervous?

Excites: I look forward to further reaching into our local body apart from Sunday School, LifeGroup, and those whom we sit near during a service time. I also look forward to working alongside the pastoral body with the opportunity to grow in my faith.

Nervous: The increased responsibility to shepherd those who fall under an appointed pastor.

How specifically can we pray for you as you begin?

Without the formal biblical education background, I find myself understanding that this is an area in which I really need to grow. Cheryl and I, although we have ministered and tried to serve whenever we could, are both a little nervous to say the least moving forward in a more formal way (with a title). With the increase of opportunities and responsibilities, we do not want to fail by trying to do it without God being in it. We ultimately want to be ever-faithful to God and His Word.

Terry, thanks for taking the time to answer these so that we could get to know you a little better. HPBC, let’s be faithful to pray for Terry and Cheryl as Terry starts his term as a non-staff pastor. And when you see him, be sure to encourage him and thank him for being willing to serve us in this way!