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Our Motto Text

"For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God." Acts 20:27

It was in 1972 that Trinity Baptist Church, under the leadership of our founding pastor, William E. Payne, took these words of Paul as its "motto" text.

The Mandate Of God

These words of Paul are really a mandate from God to His church. The practice of Paul was consistent with this mandate:

Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! (I Corinthians 9:16) But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the Word of the Lord! (Acts 15:35)

Paul sought, in his life and ministry, to proclaim the whole counsel ofGod. And as he looked ahead to the future of the church, he also sought to pass that same great concern on to the next and following generations: In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge:

PREACH THE WORD; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction. (2 Timothy 4:1,2)

The mandate of God to the church is clear: preach the Word, and preach the whole Word, for "all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16,17) Paul's practice is to be our pattern today!

The Need Of The Hour

For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord. (2 Corinthians 4:5a)

For Paul, and for all faithful churches and ministers, the focus of ministry must be, not ourselves or the ideas of men, but the Word of God, and Jesus Christ, who is the great subject of that Word! The great concern of churches today, however, lies elsewhere. Entertainment is the watchword in many churches. "User-friendly" services that do not challenge or convict of sin are the order of the day. Numerical growth is the goal, no matter what the cost, no matter what the compromise. Contrary to modern trends, however, the need of the hour is consistent with the mandate of God: people need to hear the Word! Canadian society is woefully ignorant of God and Biblical truth. They need to hear the Word! Sadly, many Christians are also ignorant of the great length and breadth of Biblical teaching, having grown up in churches afflicted with a "famine of the hearing of the Word of the Lord"! Is there a greater need today that for fervent, faithful, Spirit-filled preaching of the whole counsel of God? Surely not.

During its first twenty-five years, Trinity Baptist Church has sought, by the grace of God and in our own little corner of the vineyard, to address this great need by making the teaching and preaching of the whole counsel of God the great emphasis in our church life. In seeking to implement this mandate from God we believe we speak to the crying need of our day, and offer to men and women at the dawn of a new millennium the "words of life", truths that are timeless, and what every man, woman, and child in Canada needs to hear.

It is our prayer that God might stir a hunger for the Word of God through the length and breadth of our land, and that He might evoke a longing for Jesus Christ, the Living word. And we pray that He might fit His church to meet the need of the hour, by enabling His people to powerfully proclaim the whole counsel of God!