Pastor Matt Rhea is a lifelong resident of Haywood County N.C. At the age of 8, Matt accepted Christ and has been serving in the Lord’s ministry throughout his adult life.

After graduating from Pisgah High School in 1988, he went to Mars hill College where he played football and baseball, while earning a B.S. degree in zoology. During his college years, Matt helped conduct devotions for the school’s baseball team. He began serving as the leader of the Royal Ambassadors at Spring Hill, his home church.

In 1991, during his junior year in college, he married his wife Tracie Gregg Rhea, whom he met at Spring Hill. He became a young adult Sunday School teacher and was ordained as a deacon.

After graduating from Mars Hill in 1992, Matt began teaching biology labs as a graduate assistant at Western Carolina University and began his research for his masters degree in biology. His research on trout populations in his beloved Western North Carolina mountains opened opportunities for him to work in various fishery jobs in the region.

In 1994, he began his career as farm manager of Sorrells Creek Trout Farm and was blessed to buy the farm in 1998. He and Tracie have remained on the trout farm until this day and have reared four children; Emily Worley (25), Rebecca McCurry (23), Jesse (21), and Maddie (16), while expanding the farm into a “farm to table” wholesale business.

In 2008, Matt answered the call to ministry and served for seven years as youth pastor at Bethel Baptist Church. In 2015, Matt and Tracie answered God’s call to return to their home church, Spring Hill, where they serve today.