As a boy, Trent Moody delighted in ringing a cast-iron bell from the back of a pick-up truck, calling folks to Sunday morning worship. This was a highlight of his week, being raised at a campground his grandfather built in North Carolina’s mountains, where Trent’s dad and the rest of the family worked, welcoming guests from far and wide. Yet true faith in God did not come till later. In this podcast, Trent shares his life story, relating how he came under deep conviction, after a night partying with other teenagers, and gave his life to Christ. In time God gave Trent an even greater love for His word than the third-generation campground which had defined so much of his upbringing. As he meditated on Christ’s call to Peter to “feed my lambs” (John 21:15), Trent committed his life to pastoral ministry. This calling, alongside his marriage to his dear wife Angela and the discipling of their ten children, remains his focus to this day.

Welcome to the Church and Family Life podcast. Church and Family Life exists to proclaim the sufficiency of scripture. And today, oh, we have one of those delightful interviews about a man's life story. A man's life story, a man who's going to preach at our conference. We really want to give the life stories of the men that preach at our conferences just to give the hearers a greater understanding of who they are and where they've been and how God worked and how God rescued them.

So hey, okay, Jason, we have Trent Moody with us today. That sounds great. I think it's official now. We'll let anyone into this podcast. Exactly right.

Hey, you're talking about my fellow elder. Knock it off. So yeah, Trent, thanks for joining us on the podcast. Thank you for having me. Yeah, what a joy.

It's been good. What a joy. We've known each other all for a long time, the three of us. And so it's really neat to hear your story. So tell us your life story.

Wow, in 25 minutes, there we go. Yeah, so I was born in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the home place of my mother. And I lived there for the first three years of my life. And at that time, my father, who his father had built a campground in the mountains of North Carolina and in between Asheville and Boone area. And he had a desire to move back to that area.

And so right before my fourth birthday, we moved back to the mountains of North Carolina and lived there until I was about 22 years old. And during that time, I grew up in a campground, which was a very unique experience as a child, being raised with visitors coming in constantly in the summertime. And so made a lot of neat friends and got to meet a lot of different people. And During that time, one of my favorite memories of being in the campground and being raised there was on Saturday nights, we would prepare everybody that there would be a church service the next morning. On Sunday morning, come about eight o'clock, we would get into the back of a pickup truck.

And we had one of the real big cast iron bells, and I would have the privilege of ringing that bell to call everyone to the church service. So It was pretty exciting. There was a church that was about 30 minutes away from us that would send a Sunday school class up and would lead that service for the people who would come. You were a writer. I actually still have that bell.

You're right around the corner from Ridgecrest where Billy Graham had his family and just right down the street. That's right, yeah. Yeah, about 45 minutes from there, so not too far. But yeah, I still have that bell at my house now, so I've taken it with me everywhere I go. Yeah, sure did.

So that was something that was influential in my childhood, thinking back on that. But you know, in that situation, I was, you know, it sounds very exciting to have those church services. And it was. But yet there was no true heart change. Enjoyed.

I just enjoyed being around God's people because, hey, they were nice and they took good care of me. But Ray's really more in a nominal Christian home. I grew up Methodist, as well as my father's family and my mother's family were all Methodists. And so very much a social gospel in the sense of, you know, be kind, be nice to others, help the poor, but really no preaching upon repentance and faith and turning from your sins. But just living a clean moral life was really the the totality of the message that that I remember.

So, you know, growing up in the teenage years, being a part of the youth group there in that church and, you know, we would do different events and And really it was just kind of a social interaction, social club. Growing up, I'd always known about the Lord. I'd heard the Bible read and had read it even in our home upon occasions, not a consistent basis. So I had an understanding of God, but I didn't have an understanding of a true life change. I understood Him to be a savior, but I had no concept of him being my Lord.

I always had the feeling that he was, in a sense, watching me. And so there would be some conviction there. But yet not understanding that that Christ came to save us from our sins, not only the the penalty of our sins, but really to save us from the power of sin in our life. I really had no concept of that. And so it wasn't until high school years that in in the dating culture that I was in, that the Lord, through alternative means, if you will, brought me through dating different people who attended Baptist churches.

Typically they were Southern Baptist churches. And it was there that I heard the gospel, the true gospel, from what I remember being the first time, and hearing about repentance and turning from death to life. And so those were very formational times, even though my lifestyle was one of sinful practices. Yet the Lord, through that time in bringing me to those churches, introduced me to the true gospel. And I was in the age around 17, 18, when one night we had been out and been having parties and doing the worldly teenage thing.

Coming back to my mother's home, that's a story that I'll share in just a few moments, but in that time frame of seventeen, eighteen years old, coming home and laying there in bed and realizing that the Lord was convicting me of sin. The thought that I was overwhelmed with was, not that it was an audible voice, but just an overwhelming thought was, Trent, you know who I am, but you don't know me. And if you were to die tonight, you would go to hell. And so it was really, that first thing was really a overwhelming sense of shame. It was one of fear.

I didn't want to go to hell, but I realized I deserved it. I think that was what really drove me to my repentance. It's not just the fear of it, but knowing that I rightly deserve that. And so at that time, I remember just rolling out of bed right onto the floor. And because I'd heard the gospel in these churches and understood what was being said, I just asked the Lord right then and there, Lord, I do deserve this, and Lord, would you save me?

I believe that He did at that time. To back up just a little bit, I mentioned going to my mother's home. At the age of thirteen, my parents were divorced. It wasn't, from what I recall, it wasn't anything ugly. It wasn't bad.

There was still communication. But it was definitely a big deal in our life. My dad and I were very close. Now we work together. I worked there at the campground with him, even in high school.

And, but I did try to spend a lot of time with my mother who had Parkinson's disease. And she struggled with that and had some experimental surgeries to help with that. And so I like to be with her because it was comforting to her and also helpful to her. My older sister had already gone to college. My brother was older and was out most of the time and so that left me there to to care for mom as much as possible in the midst of being in school and playing sports and working.

But really that was a big deal in my life and really something that I didn't deal with until really after I was married and really felt the hurt from that. I guess because of needing to be strong for my mom, I didn't really deal with those with all the emotions of that. And so when after I was married there was you know things that came out and I was able to speak with my father about some things and also with my mother that really helped me to deal with the stress of that and just deal with that situation. Trent, what were some of the sort of trip points, land mines you've had to deal with in your own soul over the years, Because it was a very profound moment, your parents divorced. Yeah.

How have you, you know, there are a lot of people out there whose parents have been divorced. How would you help them think about it? Yeah, you know, As we look at the world around us and as we deal with something like this, it's just an acknowledgement that we're all sinners and we all need salvation. That comes in different forms. We see different people struggling with different sin areas, but that was something that really rocked me.

Our family was really a tight knit family in one sense, and even extended family, we were close to extended family. But that was something that really was difficult because I really wanted to maintain that relationship with both my mother and my father, and I love both of them very much. I feel like from an early age, it matured me in a lot of ways. But I believe on the other hand, that it also gave me some sense of an allowance of my own sin, because I saw the sin of my parents. And it kind of gave me a way out, in a sense, to dampen my conscience to a certain degree and be able to live in sinful ways, not horribly immoral.

I was friendly with almost everyone. I enjoyed people like being around people. I had a strong sense of at least morality in a social sense, but a center at heart. And I use that for quite some time, I believe, to justify my own sin and not really dealing with it. You know, it's something for a child when they see their parents who have committed sin to be able to think that they have a pass.

But it was, all of that came crashing down that night when I was laying there before the Lord, and He revealed to me what my heart was really like. And just really that we will not be able to bring the sins of others with us when we stand before the Lord. We stand before the Lord individually, and I must give an account for my own sin, and there's no justification for it. So After high school, I began working there with my father at the campground and we still had a good working relationship together and then that's when one night I went to a Basketball game one of the high school basketball games didn't normally do that But come to find out my future wife was there that same night. We had known each other and gone to school together and had a lot of the mutual friends.

But that night, we kind of ran into each other. So you're like 17, 18 years old? I was 18 years old then. Yes, 18. But you know, we met again, what seemed to be like a new meeting.

I was attending a church pretty faithfully and she showed up there one day and we had a mutual friend that was there. Through that interaction, we decided to go out. As we did that, our first date was actually to a revival meeting that a real good friend of mine, his pastor, was leading. And so we went to that together, and that was our first date, going to church together. And I look back and I thank the Lord for that, because even though, as we all look back on our life and think, boy, I just wasn't where I should have been spiritually and morally.

But God used that time and really began to set a trajectory for our life and for our marriage. And God has kept us in church throughout our entire marriage, and he's grown us so tremendously much. And so that was just, I look back on that as a very important start to our dating and then into our marriage. So that was, it's just a fond memory of ours that we look back on. So you got married and what happened after that?

Yeah, so here's the exciting part. So we got married and my wife believed that she was marrying someone who was stable in his work and knew exactly what he wanted to do, and I thought I did. But you know, the interesting thing is, the old saying, if you want to make the Lord laugh, tell Him your plans. So working in the campground, and the Lord really began to move upon my heart. And one of the things that he used, which is interesting, I was going through a Bible study, a pretty in-depth Bible study at the time, and began to have such a desire for the word of God and the things of God.

And God began to reveal things in my own life of just turning from more things and and seeking, seeking holiness, seeking him. And he used that time. And it seemed like everyone, every preacher I was listening to, every message I was hearing, it felt like it was directed straight at me. And then I began to get testimony from a pastor's wife. She said, I believe one day you're going to be a preacher, and not prophetically or anything.

But she was just encouraging me in that and saw things in my life that would lead her to believe that. Then I had another friend who was attending the same church, and she said the same thing to me. I said, Oh no, not me. I get nervous standing in front of people, and I know what I want to do. But yet the Lord truly had different plans.

So it wasn't long after that that I began teaching Sunday school at our church where we were going. And then the next thing you know, I became what this church had in mind. They called a junior deacon. As a young man, they would bring you along and let you kind of shadow one of the deacons just to see if it was something that you believe the Lord was leading you to, and also kind of gave you some experience in what a deacon does in a church. And then only a few months later, I was just really convicted that the Lord was calling me into ministry.

That was somewhat of a struggle because of the campground where I was working. My grandfather had built the campground with his own hands. My dad was working there, and then I was working there, and that was what I just knew I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and I really enjoyed it. But God began to remove my love for that and began to put within my heart a love for His Word and a love for His people. One of the passages that is very familiar that the Lord used in my life is in John 21.

And I remember praying one day, Lord, I love you. And in my heart, these words came to my mind. I'll say this, came into my heart, my mind. And it's in John 21 when Peter is speaking with the Lord Jesus. And it says, So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonah, Do you love me more than these?" And he said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

And he said to him, Feed my lambs. And that verse has so stuck with me and in my mind, feed my lambs and feed my sheep. And that is really the passage that solidified in my mind what the Lord really wanted me to do for the rest of my life. And so that began, that took us on a journey and signed up for a Bible college that was about an hour away and spent two years there and made great, great friendships there, had opportunities to preach and really learned a lot, not just what to think, but they really taught us how to think and taught us how to, not how to think, but taught us how to study the word of God and taught us how to think through doctrinal issues, which was tremendously helpful. And any man who's gone to any kind of seminary or Bible college knows this.

It's almost like you're reading the Bible again for the first time. It just, all of these wonderful truths just flood your mind. Yeah, I felt that in seminary too. It was really wonderful. It was great.

Yeah. It was an exciting time. There was two or three hundred young men there and I remember in chapel that we would all come together and basically have a have a little church service. And just remember sitting there with all of these men and they were all singing praises to the Lord with such passion and such love for the Lord. Just one of those times in my life that I look back on that was such a joy.

It was challenging at that time. We had one child and one on the way, and while we were there, my second child was born. And so, you know, you can imagine all the challenges with working and going to school and raising two small children, but yet the Lord sustained us through that. So it was a blessed time in our life. And from there, I went on to look at some seminaries that I was thinking about going.

In fact, one of them was here in Wake Forest at Southeastern, also Southwestern, and then Mid-America was another one there in Memphis, Tennessee that I was looking to go to. And ended up on Memphis at Mid-America. Did not actually attend, but we had our housing deposit down. And there was a small church I was filling in for, pastoring. Their former pastor had left, and they had asked me to fill in.

I'd preached there for about seven or eight times, and they asked me to consider being their pastor. I was twenty-six years old, I guess, and it was really shocking to me that someone would want a student right out of Bible college who was green as could be and had two small children. I was the youngest pastor actually to ever be at that church. So we went, and they voted me in, and I stayed there for a couple years, which was really a wonderful time in shepherding God's people. And still have those friendships are still strong and still call them.

Actually, I was texting one of them even today, and an older gentleman is much like a grandfather to my children. So that was a really wonderful time. But the Lord began to show me and as he began to hew down on my theology, my theology was in the midst of changing. He introduced me to a man at that Bible college that was Reformed in his thinking. I'd never heard of the doctrines of grace and never studied hardly anything regarding just the sovereignty of God, of salvation.

This man was such a blessing because he wasn't argumentative about it, but he was gentle in his approach. He would just ask me questions and we would begin to share scripture one with another. And I would go home and hoping to come back with some passages that I could really get him with and show him how wrong he was. But the more I did that, the more I studied the Word of God to come back to him on, the more I was convinced that he was right and I was wrong. You took the bait.

And God, I took the bait. Yeah, I did. And he really challenged me. What does the scripture say? And so I really appreciate that man and look at him as really one of my spiritual fathers.

And just as a caveat back to my former days, right after the Lord saved me, was that I felt like I stayed really a baby Christian for quite some time, even years, because There was no one who really came along beside me and walked with me and discipled me and challenged me. One of my passions now is to find those people who come to the Lord and really encourage them and challenge them in the things of God, and reading the Word and praying and just being faithful and being consistent to the local church. And so that was one of the big gaps in my life, but yet it was something that the Lord used in my life. As we know, there are no mistakes in God's economy. There's no wasted time.

God uses all of these times to make us what He wants us to be. And so, back up to the church years of pastoring that small church, left after about two years, The Lord was really solidifying my mind at that time regarding homeschooling and regarding just being a discipler of my children. I'd never heard of this concept of having family devotion. And Here I was pastoring a church and wasn't having family devotion, and never even occurred to me. Through some speakers that I'd heard, God really convicted my heart of that.

We began to have family devotions. We began to really be, instead of a fear-based homeschooling or just a protect my children homeschooling, it was disciple my children homeschooling. It was a real shift in our thinking about why we were doing what we were doing. And so that began to grow. And of course, as the years ago went on, the Lord brought more children into our family, which we are we embraced wholeheartedly and very delighted to do.

And as I said earlier, now have 10 children. And what a blessing that is. So throughout those years though, following, we made a few moves from Virginia, that's where the first church was, to North Carolina, where we worked on a church work there for about four and a half years. And then back to Virginia, another church worked there for another four and a half years. And then from there, we just attended a church for about five years before coming here, and been here for the last three years.

And what a blessing it has been. God has really used this time in my life as well to help me to be a better pastor. Learning from you men, God has really used both of you in my life, not only personally, but also as now an elder of Hope Baptist Church. So very thankful for you men as well. Trent, we're thankful for you.

We really are. Okay, real quick. Who are some of your theological heroes? Well of course, like many, Jonathan Edwards has been a big one. Charles Spurgeon has been really influential in my thinking.

R.C. Sproul has been great. There's this other slightly unknown author, Scott Brown. He's been influential in some ways as well. Been appreciated that.

I was just gonna say, though they are deadly still speaking, then you talked about me. The bow here, yeah, well. No, it has been a blessing to get to labor alone beside of you and learn from your many years of experiences in pastoring churches. It's been a blessing as well. But yeah, I find that the safest ones to follow are those who are already with the Lord.

They won't pop up and surprise you with some great frailty in their life. Exactly. Oh my, well hey, I agree. It's been a joy to serve with you, and I pray that when people hear you preach, like I have the opportunity to, that they'll be blessed and encouraged. You're really an encouraging, bold, at the same time, happy preacher, and I just, I'm so thankful that you're in our church and that you get to preach at our conference.

Amen, looking forward to it. It's gonna be great. Okay, well that's it. That's a wrap. And so thank you for joining us on the Church and Family Life podcast.

Church and Family Life exists to proclaim the sufficiency of scripture. I hope you can hear Trent Moody and his messages that are both on our church website and also our conference website as well. See you next time. Thanks for listening to the Church and Family Life podcast. We have thousands of resources on our website, announcements of conferences coming up.

Hope you can join us. Go to churchandfamilylife.com. See you next Monday for our next broadcast of the Church and Family Life podcast.