As of this past Tuesday October 28th Trinity is
no longer homeless!! You have seen the news articles in the paper, on the
internet and even on TV… and it is finally done. Now, the real work begins. We
will meet for our last Sunday at Grace Bible Church this Sunday, November 9th.
Grace has lived up to their name - they
have been so good to us as a sister church! The frustrating thing to me about being in the
Bible belt has always been the competitive nature of churches in general. It is
not consistent with the gospel message, and it leaves the world somewhat
confused as to what it is we really do. So, a big thank you to the Grace Bible
family! You have been a wonderful
picture of grace in action.
We now have nothing more than a nice tool; a building was
never our goal but it is a tool. Now we
must choose to use that tool to give us security and fellowship within our
walls, or we can use it to reach an area with the Gospel of Christ. I honestly
believe those who are at Trinity don’t just want a building to come hear
preaching, or a building with white columns with our church name on it… God has
done such a work in our fellowship that our focus is no longer inward but
outward, looking at the fields. While this vision will continue to take shape
as we go, there is certainly something big going on in our Trinity family. Some
of these moves will involve doing things we have never done, and frankly things
that go against our grain in general. The
exciting thing is, we are doing something that isn’t about us, it is about HIM!
To see the lost come to Christ is a very exciting thing, and I am honored to be
a part of this journey. I can blog, talk, journal and text about this move all
day, but I want to use the remainder of this time to just give you some
important dates and even an explanation of the “why?”
Our first official Sunday in our building will be Sunday, November 16th. The only thing that will be ready will be the
Worship Center and very nice temporary nursery.
This “temporary nursery” (probably until January) is located in what
will eventually be our office area (probably appropriate knowing our staff!) as
it is already in good shape with clean carpeting and fresh paint. This will be while the children’s area is
being renovated. Once the children’s
wing is in better shape, the nursery will move there and the offices will be
renovated for office use. We believe
the children’s area will be ready for us to use by January although the
decoration will be done by World Of Wow in the April-May time frame. If you
have not seen their work, check out their website. They will be working in our
student and all of our children’s areas. http://www.worldsofwow.com/?gclid=CO_GkNze1MECFaE-MgodQnoAXg
We will continue to worship at 9 am simply to keep things
somewhat sane during the holiday time. November 16th will simply be
a “soft opening” so we can get our feet under us. AWANA will continue to take
place at Hope Sullivan until January. Our current plans are that the first
Sunday in January we will move back to regular service times: 9am-BFG,
10:30—Worship Service and 5:30- AWANA.
On Wednesday, 4:45-6 Mid-Week supper (we may not be able to begin this
in January – it will depend on the construction schedule) and 6:15 we will
begin a full midweek (Sunday evening style) service.
On January 25th we will have our full Grand Opening. We should
have all our Greeter Teams, Parking Teams and everyone else set and running
smoothly, and we will be able to receive and minister to a much larger group.
Obviously, this doesn’t mean we don’t reach out and invite right now! It has
been amazing that during this crazy transition we have had visitors and people
join. I have never been more excited to be a Pastor, and never had anything in
my life that I was filled with more anticipation for. Make these dates a
priority on your schedule and in your prayer life. God is really at work in our
fellowship and I am so thankful to be a part of this!
