By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
Pastor Joel Pigg of Salem Baptist Church, Trenton, welcomes guests to a community-wide dedication service on Jan. 11. In the background are, from left, speakers Danny Sinquefield, Randy C. Davis, David Leavell, Steve Gaines, and Roger Stacy.
TRENTON — A host of Tennessee Baptists joined members of Salem Baptist Church, Trenton, in a community-wide dedication service on Jan. 11.
“We are so excited about what God has done here,” said Salem pastor Joel Pigg.
Pigg was called by the church as pastor in 2006 by 37 people. It was his first church. As he reflected on that call, he noted the church had experienced a split one week before he preached his first sermon.
“God immediately brought healing, restoration, and revival,” Pigg said.
He noted the church has baptized 172 people since then, with three more awaiting baptism in the church’s new baptistry.
Three crosses outside Salem Baptist Church’s new sanctuary in Trenton are a reminder that Jesus is the primary focus.
The church has been recognized by the Tennessee Baptist Convention for its growth at least twice during Pigg’s tenure.
The growth caused the church to enter a building campaign to build a larger sanctuary in 2012. The church also moved to two worship services to alleviate the space problems, Pigg related.
In 2016, the church broke ground and began construction on a new sanctuary which would include additional Sunday School rooms at a cost of about $1.5 million. The church met in its new sanctuary for the first time on Dec. 24, 2017.
“God decided to show up here and do a great thing,” Pigg said during the dedication service.
Speakers included Pigg, Danny Sinquefield, pastor, Faith Baptist Church, Bartlett; Randy C. Davis, president and executive director, Tennessee Baptist Mission Board; David Leavell, pastor, First Baptist Church, Millington, and president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention; Steve Gaines, senior pastor, Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova, and president of the Southern Baptist Convention; Roger Stacy, director of missions, Gibson Baptist Association; and Keith Donaldson, associate pastor, Salem Baptist.
Gaines delivered the primary message from Acts 2:37-47. He reminded members of Salem that the church should be a church where people are saved and baptized; it should be a praying church; it needs to be a miraculous church because God “can still do miraculous things if we let Him,” and it needs to be a giving church.
In addition, the church should be united and needs to be a place where worship takes place that honors God. “It’s about Him,” Gaines stressed.
And, he concluded, the church needs to be a growing church and that does not happen unless somebody is saved.
Gaines challenged the church not to copy other churches. “Copy the original church in the book of Acts,” he said.
