Meet our Pastor
Trevor was born in Brisbane, Australia on December 10, 1965. He is the youngest child of Harold and Sally Hooper who also have 13 other children (Sally passed away on March 9, 1988). Trevor and his family lived in a large public housing district and like all his siblings attended the public elementary and high schools in his district. After graduating from his high school in 1982 Trevor began his business career in insurance. He was quite successful in this career and began to move up through the ranks while he was being prepared for a senior management position with his firm.
Growing up, religion never had a place in Trevor's life and he only attended church with his family for a wedding or a funeral. During his mid-teens, Trevor's nephew and closest friend Tony became a Christian. Tony began to share the good news of Jesus with Trevor and eventually Trevor accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. Trevor began to attend the Redcliffe Christian Assembly (RCA), a small but lively Brethren Church. His early Christian years were a struggle with many ups and downs in his walk with Jesus and Trevor is thankful that the Lord persevered and graciously "hung in there" with him.
Trevor met his lovely future wife, Teresa, at the youth group of RCA and they began to date a year later. They were married on April 30, 1988 and moved to the Gold Coast (a beautiful coastal tourist area) for the next 4 years while Trevor was working there with his firm. While Trevor and Teresa were living there they attended the Palm Beach Baptist Church and were actively involved in Junior High youth ministry.
It was during this time that Trevor and Teresa believed that the Lord had called Trevor to pastoral ministry. Even though many people in his congregation and his pastor encouraged him to pursue God's call, Trevor was too intent on pursuing his promising career and 'successfully' managed to avoid the issue for another 2 1/2 years. Finally, in 1993, the Lord brought Trevor to the point where he could ignore God no longer so he left his career and enrolled to complete a ministry degree with the Australian College of Theology.
Trevor and Teresa had moved back to Redcliffe by this time and were again attending the RCA which had grown to about 200 people and had started their own Christian school of about 1000 students (k-12). Trevor served at RCA for his ministry internship as student pastor for about one year and he graduated from the Australian College of Theology in late 1995.
Several months after graduation, Trevor, Teresa and their 2-year-old daughter Kristy Renee traveled to the USA in June 0f 1996 as visiting missionaries to the first Presbyterian Church of Lambertville, NJ - a vibrant evangelical Presbyterian Church. Trevor served there as the temporary pastor after the senior pastor had to leave due to his wife's failing health. Trevor, Teresa (who was by the then 7 months pregnant with Jordan) and Kristy returned to Australia in June 0f 1997 where Trevor took up the position as Associate Pastor at RCA and he was responsible for pastoral care and church life. Shortly after Trevor started, RCA also hired a Senior Teaching Pastor and a Youth Pastor. This was an exciting time of ministry for Trevor and Teresa and RCA experienced some excellent growth with the congregation to around 350 members with many new converts to Christ.
In early 1999, Trevor and Teresa received an amazing offer from the Presbyterian Church in Lambertville to return to the USA under a fully funded scholarship for Trevor to continue his theological education. After recovering from the shock, Trevor and Teresa shared this exciting offer with their board of elders who were very supportive. While they did not want them to leave, the elders encourage the Hoopers to pursue this once in a lifetime opportunity. It was with much sadness that Trevor resigned his position at RCA at the end of August 1999 and they returned to Lambertville the following month. Trevor served part-time with the Presbyterian Church and commenced a Master of Theology degree (Th.M.) at Biblical Theological Seminary in the fall of 2000. Late in the summer of 2001, Trevor received a call from the seminary. Jeff Furst, seeking a possible candidate for Interim Pastor of Grace Community Church, had contacted the Biblical Seminary and the placement officer there thought that Trevor may be interested in the position and the rest they say is history.