ABOUT US
Church History
Pine Grove was organized in March 1837, when a petition was presented by the people who lived in a settlement near Neva, Tennessee to create Pine Grove Church. After the petition was granted, a new church family immediately set up at Pine Grove school house in a pine thicket just across the road from the home of Walter H. Farthing. Old church minutes indicate two churches have been organized from Pine Grove - Pleasant Grove and Mountain View, now Baker's Gap Church.
​
Unfortunately, the majority of records of the organization and of the first twenty-four years of the church were lost sometime during the confusion of the Civil War. Sometime about the year 1867 the church had only two resident members, Naomi Baker and Polly Triplett. Reportedly, Elder L. L. Maples met with the church to consider disbanding. He asked the ladies which church which they wished to join.
They remained steadfast and wanted to keep Pine Grove alive. A traveling preacher, Brother Hiram offered to continue
riding the fourteen miles from his home to preach for them Friday night before the fourth Sunday, his regular meeting
time at Pleasant Grove.
What We Believe
We believe that the gospel is the central truth of the Bible, the foundation of our faith, and the fuel for the Christian life. The gospel is the good news that while we were dead in our sin, God sent his son Jesus to live a perfect life on our behalf, die a substitutionary death to pay the penalty for our sin, and rise again from the grave to offer us new life in his Spirit.
We believe that God is the Creator of everything and that he exists eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We believe the Bible to be God’s Word, a true and fully accurate account of God’s love for us. Its purpose is to teach us how to have a relationship with him, worship him, and bring him glory.
We believe salvation is God’s gift to humanity. Men, left to themselves, can never produce salvation through their good works or self-improvement. Salvation is produced only by trusting Jesus Christ as God’s perfect offer of forgiveness. Eternal life begins the instant a person receives Jesus as his personal Savior. Salvation is a product of God’s sovereign grace. Man is only responsible for believing, by faith,
what the Word of God says concerning salvation in Jesus Christ. Because salvation is God’s gift to mankind, the believer is eternally secure in His salvation. Salvation is maintained by the grace and power of Almighty God, not by the self-effort of the believer. It is the grace and keeping power of God that gives this security.
We believe Man was created to live forever. He will live forever in one of two places. Man will either dwell with God in Heaven, through the forgiveness of his sins which is made available by grace, through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, or he will exist forever in Hell, eternally separated from God. To reject Jesus Christ will guarantee that the unbeliever will spend eternity in Hell, forever separated from the
presence of God. Heaven and Hell are the only places of eternal existence.
We believe that God cares about the needs of all people and that the church, as Christ’s body, is to show his love and care for others. Every member of the church is sent out by Jesus as a minister of the gospel, declaring the love of Christ with our lips and demonstrating the love of Christ with our lives—not only in our communities but also to the farthest and most unreached places of the world.
Pastor Mike Penley
Church Covenant
Having been led, as we believe by the Spirit of God, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and, on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we do now, in the presence of God, and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another as one body in Christ.
We engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit to walk together in Christian love; to strive for the advancement of this Church, in knowledge, holiness, and comfort; to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines; to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of The Church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations.
We also engage to maintain family and secret devotions; to religiously educate our children; to seek the salvation of our kindred and acquaintances; to walk circumspectly in the world; to be just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements, and exemplary in our deportment; to avoid tattling, backbiting, and excessive anger; to abstain from the sale of and use of destructive drugs or intoxicating drinks as a beverage; to shun pornography; to be zealous in our efforts to advance the kingdom of our Savior.
We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember one another in prayer; to aid one another in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and Christian courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense; but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay.
We moreover engage that when we remove from this place we will, as soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God’s word.
Former Pastors
Leonard Bowers - 1837
A.C. Farthing - 1893
Jimmy Jones - 1935 - 1939
Leon Hill - 1940 - 1941
Coy Riddle - 1941 - 1943
Mack Hodge - 1943 - 1944
Earl Campbell - 1945 - 1949
Hubert Greene - 1949 - 1950
Ted Robinson - 1951
Ralph Hyder - 1951 - 1953
Ted Robinson - 1954 - 1955
Clarence Lewis - 1959 - 1963
Eugene Sherwood - 1964 - 1965
Tom Worley - 1965 - 1967
Clarence Lewis - 1967 - 1969
Ben Wood - 1970 - 1973
Roy Roach - 1974 - 1978
Freddie Arnold - 1978 - 1980
Haskel Ingram - 1980 - 1989
J.D. Rash - 1989 - 1991
Carl Swift - 1992 - 2007
Michael Penley - 2007 - Present
​