Ministry of HBC is led by elders and facilitated by deacons, but the ministry is done by the members of our church.
In the New Testament, there are two leadership roles in the church: elders and deacons. While elders focus on the spiritual care of the church, deacons focus on physical care. This arrangement ensures that the congregation receives holistic ministry to both soul and body.
Our Pastors
Jesus calls qualified men to lead his church as elders. The New Testament refers to this as the office of pastor/overseer. The qualifications for eldership are found in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, and include leading their families well, a record of serving Jesus well in both the church and everyday life, a thorough knowledge of the Bible, a mature Christian walk, and a good reputation with both those inside and outside the church.
The primary duties of elders include praying and studying Scripture, setting direction for the church, caring for the people in the church, preaching, teaching, living lives that are exemplary, protecting the people of the church from false doctrine or teachers, and developing other leaders.
Pastor Mark Redfern - Pastor for Preaching
Mark has served as a pastor of Heritage since 2010. His main responsibilities include preaching, administration, and ministry oversight. Originally from Louisville, Mark became a Christian in 1996 and moved to Owensboro after graduating college in 2003. He holds degrees from Murray State University (B.A.), Covenant College (M.Ed) and Reformed Baptist Seminary (M.Div).
Mark is married to Katie and they have three children: one son, Judson and two daughters, Piper and Caroline. Mark enjoys reading, playing guitar, listening to music and attending concerts, spending time with friends and family, food consumption, and extended periods of unconsciousness.
Pastor Keith Maddy - Pastor for Missions
Keith was born into a Roman Catholic family. He graduated from Ohio University with a B.A. in Psychology. During those university days, he was radically converted from a life dominated by overt sinfulness and transformed into a passionate follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Upon moving to Owensboro, he became a manager at Texas Gas Corporation. For several years he served HBC as a gifted teacher in our Sunday morning classes.
In 1986, he was ordained as the second pastor of Heritage. In 1998, he left his secular employment to become a full-time pastor. Because of his intense passion to get the gospel to all the nations, he is naturally viewed as the pastor for missions. He is fluent in Spanish and travels regularly to the Dominican Republic, Columbia, Cuba, Haiti and Mexico encouraging, instructing and representing nationalist pastors. He is also involved channeling resources to North India for equipping indigenous pastors in evangelistic and church-planting efforts among this enormously unreached people group. He and his wife Joy have two daughters, a son whom they adopted from Korea and two grandchildren. Keith enjoys reading, sermon podcasts, cooking, bike riding and lively fellowship with members of the church.
Pastor Keith Withrow - Pastor for Marriage and Family
Keith grew up in Owensboro where he was raised in a loving family. At the age of 21, Keith met Christ for the first time and his life was completely transformed. At this time he was dating his high school sweetheart, Kim Brown. They were married in 1985 and soon became a family of 4 with the birth of two daughters. In 1990 the Withrow family left their home in Owensboro to pursue theological training in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. Keith received a B.A. in Bible and also pastored Hosman Baptist Church. He continued pastoring after graduation and in 1998, Keith moved his family back to Owensboro to attend Heritage Baptist Church. He continued his theological training under the faithful ministry of Pastor Ted Christman. Prior to being an Elder, Keith was a faithful member of HBC for 20 years, serving as a deacon and other positions. Keith serves as a bi-vocational Elder along with owning Henry's Plumbing. Keith enjoys his marriage, his 5 beautiful grandchildren, working, serving and lake life.
Pastor Thad Gunderson - Pastor for Discipleship
Thad grew up and pastored in Colorado before moving to Owensboro with his family in 2016. He worked as the executive director of a local homeless shelter while serving Heritage as a lay elder until being hired as a full time pastor in the spring of 2019. His primary responsibilities are equipping the church for discipleship, overseeing Gospel Community Groups, working with youth, and providing member care. Thad came to Christ as a child, graduated from college in Wisconsin (B.A.) and seminary in Pennsylvania (M.A.). He is married to Natalie and is blessed with seven children: Elise, Audrey, Anna, Ellie, Jed, Will and Jacob. They have a farm and raise cattle and sheep, and enjoy the outdoors, sports, reading, and spending time with their church family.
Our Deacons
Jesus calls qualified men to lead his church as deacons. The word deacon in the New Testament is a word that is translated as “servant.” Qualifications for deacons are found in 1 Timothy 3 and include integrity, generosity, sobriety, a clear understanding of the Bible, a well-ordered home, and a good reputation with people inside and outside the church.
The office of deacon is first mentioned in Acts 6. As the burden of ministry grew for the early church, elders, in addition to prayer, study, leading, and teaching, were also taking on large workloads to handle the physical needs of the church. As a solution, the elders appointed deacons to assist the elders in these responsibilities. At Heritage, deacons assist the elders in the day-to-day physical needs of the church.
Tim Hoak - Chairman
Patrick Rowe - Operations
Dave Owens - Security and Set-Up
Jim Gauley - Benevolence
Hugo Lytle - Moving
Dave Reed - Audio/Video
Jeff Catiller - Grounds
Joe Saalwaechter - Building Maintenance
Larry Reed - Sunday School
Cliff Boswell - Legal
Lester Cantrell - Music Team
Tom Pope - Missions
Justin Hout - Finance