Pastor Carl Herbster and his wife Debbie have served together at Tri-City for nearly twenty-five years. They have three sons who, along with their wives, serve in full-time Christian ministry. They also have eleven grandchildren (seven girls and four boys). They know the importance of family in our society and seek to develop strong families through the church and school ministries at Tri-City as well as through their outside speaking at couples’ retreats and family camps. Their goal is to build strong families through the principles of God’s Word so we will have a strong church, a strong community, and a strong country.
     A native of Indiana, Pastor Herbster attended college on a basketball scholarship during his college years. While reading through the book of Romans during his college years, he became convicted of his sins and was saved. It was at this time in 1969 that he determined in his heart to seek to live according to God’s Word. He met his wife Debbie the same year, and they were married in 1970. After he graduated with honors, Proctor and Gamble hired Pastor Herbster for sales and marketing work. He later supervised a midwestern sales force for an industrial construction subsidiary of Martin-Marietta Corporation.
     It was during his professional years that Pastor Herbster became convinced of his need to invest his life in something eternal and yielded to God’s call to the ministry. After attending seminary, Pastor Herbster became an assistant pastor and later assumed the additional responsibilities of a Christian school teacher and principal. God used this opportunity to burden Pastor Herbster’s heart for the field of Christian education. Therefore, he entered the graduate program in education at Bob Jones University and received the doctor of education degree in 1982. He then served as the Christian School Specialist for Bob Jones University and traveled the country preaching in churches and helping Christian schools develop a Biblical philosophy of Christian education.
     In addition to authoring two junior high mathematics textbooks, Dr. Herbster has written numerous articles for several nationally distributed publications. He has authored the book “Productive Teaching in the Christian School” and has co-authored the book “Effective Christian School Management.” He recently co-authored a book on pastor and deacon responsibilities and relationships in the local church.
     Pastor Herbster has a burden for world-wide evangelism and for training believers here and around the world. He is the founder and President of Heart of America Theological Seminary, a ministry of Tri-City Baptist Church. He serves as President of the Christian University of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, and the Independent Baptist College of Romania. For over ten years he served as President of the American Association of Christian schools and presently serves as President of the Mid-America Association of Christian Schools. In 2003 Pastor Herbster founded AdvanceUSA; a values action organization that seeks to locate, educate, and activate social conservatives in our country.
     Dr. Herbster has a passion for preaching God’s Word and is a popular speaker at Christian school conventions, family camps, and couples’ retreats. He is an author, educator, former businessman and pastor. He is uniquely qualified to preach on a variety of topics in the local church he pastors and around the world. Pastor Herbster is a man with a pastor’s heart, a businessman’s sense, a teacher’s spirit, and a parent’s concern. He desires to be used by God to help people come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and then to assist them in becoming more like Him in their daily lives.