A New Leader Has Stepped In At Newtown Bible Church

By Shannon Hicks

Across the hall from Pastor Joey Newton’s office is a framed document that reminds him of the people who founded Newtown Bible Church in 1962. That document contains the signatures of 29 people. Some of the pencil signatures have faded greatly over time, while others, in ink, have also lightened over the years, but the principles of Newtown Bible Church — to study and learn from the writings of the Bible — continue nevertheless in the 21st Century. And now the church and its current members, including some of those original organizers, are looking to Pastor Newton to lead them.

Newtown Bible Church welcomed Pastor Newton and his family to Newtown this past summer. The Newtons arrived in town on July 20, and Pastor Newton gave his first sermon at the Sugar Street church just seven days later.

Mr Newton is the newest leader for a church that has been without a formal pastor for just over three years. Its previous pastor, Steve Plodinec, left Newtown in June 2005 after accepting a teaching position at Christ Baptist Church Seminary in Polokwane, a town in the northeast section of South Africa. Newtown Bible Church had guest speakers for some of its worship services, and church Elder Robert Brainard has done most of the preaching during the last few years.

“We were looking for the right person [to become our pastor],” Mr Brainard said this week, “so we were not in a rush, obviously.”

The person they found came via a circuitous route. Joey Newton grew up around the church, but interestingly it was in a United Methodist upbringing that formed the beginning of his life. He said it was not until 1996 that he was saved.

“That was when I came to understand the gospel, repented my sins, and was saved,” he said recently. That was the year Mr Newton began attending Grace Community Church, located in Sun Valley, Calif., taking one of many important steps toward a life in the church.

“I began attending Grace Community shortly after I realized that ministry was where I wanted to be,” he said. During the next seven years, Mr Newton’s responsibilities and leadership roles at the church increased. From serving as an usher (1996–2001) and participating in weekly intern-leadership meetings for the church’s children’s ministry, Mr Newton also began preaching and teaching fourth through sixth grade students on a regular basis, and provided leadership and oversight to the church’s adult teachers on children’s ministry and counseled with parents. He also directed, taught, or provided leadership during children’s summer camps and winter camps for approximately 150 children and 35 adult leaders.

By 2003 Mr Newton also began studies at The Master’s College, a Christian liberal arts college in Santa Clarita, Calif., as well as The Master’s Seminary, a conservative, evangelical Christian school located in Sun Valley. Mr Newton earned his bachelor of Christian Ministry from the former and his master of Divinity from the latter, both coming in May 2007.

By that point, he was participating in weekly leadership team meetings for Crossroads ministry; providing oversight, planning, teaching, and counseling for “Generations,” an 80- to 100-member multigenerational bible study; and providing pulpit supply on an as-needed basis.

Later last year Mr Newton moved into another new realm: that of forming a church plant with friend and fellow Master’s Seminary graduate Rob Tartaglia. Mr Newton and Mr Tartaglia (who also attended and was a deacon for Grace Community Church) decided in 2007 to form Creekside Bible Church in Matthews, N.C.

Creekside is an expository ministry, meaning members follow the bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, “believing that it is the word of God. He has given us what we need and it is our job to be faithful,” Mr Newton explained.

At Creekside, Mr Newtown helped with church planning, bible studies, and filled in at the pulpit at least once each month.

“We were unique to the area,” he said. And while he was very happy at the growing church, Mr Newton’s desire, he said, was to be preaching on a weekly basis. So he made a difficult decision.

“My desire was to be preaching weekly, and to be more active in leadership roles. It was a hard decision to leave Creekside,” he said. Fortunately another friend, Tom Brooks, was also looking to become more involved with Creekside’s leadership in the capacity that Mr Newton would be leaving open upon his departure.

It was while he was attending a Shepherd’s Conference recently that Mr Newton, through a mutual friend of Robert Brainard’s, learned of the available pastoral position at Newtown Bible Church.

“I was talking with one friend, and we met up with another person, who put me in touch with Bob Brainard,” he said. “It just started that easily, and then progressed to something where all of us realized this was a good fit.”

Pastor Newton and his new church are also committed to an expository ministry.

“Our focus is on the Scriptures, and our love for the Word,” he said. “We are committed to a historical, and grammatical, interpretation of the bible. By understanding each writer in his historical context — what did it mean to God, or Peter, or Paul, when they wrote what they did? — we can understand the writings of God.

“The thing that bonds it all together is our common love of Christ, a love of His words,” he added.

Pastor Newton’s first five sermons at Newtown Bible Church covered Matthew 16:13–20, which he called “The Four Cornerstones of The Church.” His thinking, he said, was to “begin with the basics and then move into the church’s foundation.”

Joey Newton and his wife Trish have three girls: Ellie Grace, age 5; Bethany Hope, who will be 4 in December; and Brook Joy, who will celebrate her second birthday in November. When Joey and Trish were married in 2000, she was working as a registered nurse in maternity, which she had done for six years. Mrs Newton has since stopped working as a nurse and has stepped into a full-time role as wife and homemaker. The Newton children are home schooled.

Joey Newton was born in August 1972 in Tampa, Fla., and reared in Davenport, Fla. He lived in Charlotte, N.C., for a short time before moving to and living in Los Angeles for 14 years. Next was the move to Matthews, N.C., when Creekside Church was founded, and was where the Newtons lived before coming to Newtown.

“It’s just beautiful here,” Mr Newton said. “I don’t know how many times we’ve gone down a new street and said ‘Wow! This is beautiful, wonderful, look at that view!’

“I think we have all the conveniences of a city,” he said, mentioning the Starbucks on Church Hill Road and the availability of banks inside one of the supermarkets here. “But there is definitely the beauty of a small town, too.”

Mr Newton says he is looking forward not only to working with the 35 families that make up Newtown Bible Church, but also to serving the community at large. The church will host a Christmas concert this year, and he fully expects another offering of Vacation Bible School next summer, among other public events.

“We hoping for more events next year, many of which are still being planned,” he said. “We want to serve the community, and let them know that we’re here.”

Newtown Bible Church’s family certainly knows Joey Newton and his family have arrived. The girls play in their expansive new yard, and Mr Newton felt immediately connected to a fellow leadership committed to the Scripture. It has been a very good fit for the Newtons and their new church.

“He is a joy to work with, as he loves the Lord and loves the Newtown people,” Robert Brainard said this week. “We as a church have found him to be very approachable and easy to talk with. We look forward to many years of serving God together.”