Hello and welcome to Trinity Sermons. We are a church located in the heart of Streetsville,
Mississauga, and we want to spread the good news with others as we work together to love
Jesus, live like Jesus, and lead others to Jesus. In our sermon today, Rob Hirkmans
is going to be taking us through Part 2 of our Ready, Set, Grow services as we move towards
preparing for two Sunday morning services. Our scripture reading comes from Mark chapter 10,
verses 42 to 45. Our sermon is titled Set, and we are learning about taking our places and getting
in position on our journey. We hope that you enjoy the sermon and God bless. So today's reading is
from Mark 10, 42 to 45. Jesus called them together and said, you know that the rulers in this world,
lord it over their people and officials want their authority over those under them. But among you,
it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants
to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be
served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many. This is the word of the Lord.
Well, I want you to imagine the scene. There they are. The runners are all loosening up.
They're getting ready. The audience, the crowd, the spectators in the stands, they're all getting
very, very excited. The race is about to begin. And so the starter walks onto the track. Of course,
the starter is holding the starter's pistol, and they walk over to the starting line. And
everybody's getting really, really psyched up. And the first thing that the starter says is
something like this, runners, take your mark, mark, mark, mark, mark. And so they all kind of find
their way up to the line, and they start crouching down and getting into position. And in just a few
moments, boom, the starter pistol is going to go, and they are going to run their fastest. But,
but in between the starter's command to take your mark, mark, mark, and go, go, go, there is this
other thing that the starter will say, and that is this. The runner will, the starter will say,
get set, set, set, set. So it's not just ready, go. It's ready, get set, set, set, set, go. Right?
Getting set, it turns out, is actually really, really important, a really essential part of
having a strong and successful race. You know, when a runner gets set, you've probably seen how
this goes. When they get set, they make these little moves that put them into the perfect position,
the perfect position, so they can get maximum horizontal acceleration when the gun fires. And
usually that looks like kind of, they're obviously, they're crouched down. They, they, when they say
get set, they, they, they bring their, like, their backside up a little bit over their, their
shoulders. They extend their, their legs a bit, and they put their weight toward the front. Sometimes
it's just really their fingertips are really the only thing that is touching the ground and in front
of them. Ready, get set, go. The get set is important. Well, back on May 28th, we kicked off
a campaign here at Trinity called Ready, Set, Grow. And it wasn't a campaign to raise money,
so don't worry about that. It was a campaign to raise energy, because we know that on November 5th,
the Starters Pistol is going to go here at Trinity Streetsville, and we're going to launch a second
Sunday morning service. And so back in May, we talked about how can we get ready? How can we get
ready? And you guys actually asked a whole bunch of really helpful questions, and we tried to answer
some of those questions. And in fact, this, this week coming up, we're going to be publishing a
video where we answer a lot of the real common questions you guys had about this new service,
like when it's going to happen and what it's going to look like. So stay tuned for that. And then in
November, of course, we're going to go. We're going to go. But between the getting ready and the
going, there's this other thing that we need to do, which is to get ourselves set, to get everybody
in the perfect position and the perfect stance to make sure we make the most of this opportunity.
Because one of the things we know that is as a church grows, the number of people serving,
the number of people volunteering and doing ministry must also grow. And so this fall, before
the starters pistol goes, we want to make sure that we all get ourselves into position, the
perfect position to get set in volunteer ministries, serving roles, to make sure that
everybody is perfectly placed before we start. That's why after today, we're having our ministry
fair. You've already heard us talk about that a couple of times this morning, and there's going
to be tables and you're going to be able to walk around and talk to ministry leaders, ask questions,
find out more about the ways you can get involved and maybe even sign up to get involved. And again,
for those watching online, do not tune out at the end of the stream because the live stream is going
to continue and Elizabeth is going to walk you around the ministry fair and find out about all
the opportunities that you can get involved with too, because we need people serving here at Trinity
in all sorts of ways. But here is the thing. Here's the thing. Before we go and look at those
ministry positions, we have to look at our hearts position. Before the church gets set, we have to
get our hearts set. And here's why. It's because we live in a culture that doesn't value serving
others. Most of the world defines greatness in terms of power and position and prestige. If you
can get people to serve you, then you're successful. If you're serving someone else, it's usually a
sign that you haven't arrived or you're not successful. It's a self-serving culture. It's a
me first mentality. There's been thousands of books written about how to be a great and effective
and strong leader, but very few books have been written on the topic of servanthood. Most of us
want to lead. We don't want to serve. You need to only look at our scripture reading today and see
that taking the role of a servant has never, ever been a popular concept. Just prior to the reading
you heard, the story starts. This is 2,000 years ago. James and John, who are the sons of Zebedee,
they were fishermen. They were early followers of Jesus and they came along to Jesus and they
said, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. Well, excuse me. Well, okay. Jesus says,
what do you want me to do for you? He asked them and they replied, let one of us sit at your right
and the other sit at your left in your glory. You see these two disciples, they wanted to be served.
They thought that's what this was about, about being served, not about serving. They wanted the
place of honor. They wanted the place of privilege. They wanted to be sitting on the throne. They
wanted to be in charge telling others what to do. See, this has always been this way, right? They're
even trying to tell Jesus what to do. And I love Jesus's response here. Jesus says, you don't know
what it is you're asking. You don't know what you're asking. In other words, he's saying, you're not
set on the inside. Your heart is out of position. We got to work on getting your heart into position.
They don't realize that for Jesus, the throne is the cross and they don't realize that Jesus's
glory will be his death. Here at Trinity, we say almost every Sunday that we want to live like
Jesus. But in order to live like Jesus, we have to learn to serve because that is what Jesus did.
He was a servant. He laid down his life and that was a lesson that his disciples had to learn 2000
years ago. And it's a lesson we need to be reminded of, especially on a day like today. Therefore,
before our church goes and gets set in ministry positions, we need to get set in our hearts.
Before we look at those positions, we need to look at this position in here. Four things in
particular I just want to look at today. We need to get our perspective set. We need to get our
hearts set. We need to get our minds set. And we also need to get our priorities set in order to
really get set. Let's take a look at the first one here. The first thing we need to do is we need to
get our perspectives set because you might be saying, Rob, you know what, Rob, don't you feel
guilty going up there on stage and asking all these people to volunteer for ministry and to
volunteer to get involved in church? Where do you get the gall to do this, right? To place such a
burden on people, people with busy lives at work, they have busy lives at home, lots of demands on
their time, and here you come along and you have the gall to ask them to give a little bit more,
to do a little bit more, to serve more. Rob, don't you feel guilty? Now, that is one perspective.
That is one perspective. There is another perspective though that I think you're missing
if that's what you think. You see, of course, most of us have things we do all day long. We have jobs.
You might work, for example, in the manufacturing field. And so for 10 hours a day, for five days
a week, you work at your job and you love your job and you're good at your job, right? But at the end
of your day, you come home and you do not feel a deep satisfaction in your soul. When you are
standing at the drill press all day long, you don't feel a deep satisfaction in your soul. You like
your work, but it's not the same thing. Or let's say, for example, you work in finance, you work
in a bank, or you're an accountant or something like that. And again, you're amazing at your job.
We need you to be good at your job. We're glad you're good at your job. And that job has been
good to you. It has put food on your table. It has put your kids through university. And yet,
selling an insurance policy doesn't give you this deep and lasting joy in your spirit.
Some of you might work in healthcare. You might work in schools. You might work in law enforcement
or construction or real estate or whatever. You love your job. You're good at your job. We need
you to be good at your job. And yet, you don't arrive home at night and say, that's what life
is all about. But serving in your church is different. Here at Trinity, we believe that the
church is the hope of the world. That it is through the church that God is restoring and
transforming our world and all creation, the whole cosmos. That the church has something. That the
world desperately, desperately needs. So when you serve at the church, you are going to be used by
God in ways that you never, ever imagined. When you serve at the church, you're going to realize
you had gifts that you never realized you had before. When you serve at the church, you're going
to meet people that are going to become like family to you. And you will not have expected that. When
you serve at the church, you're going to get a chance to make an impact in people's lives that
will last for an eternity, not just for an afternoon. So what we want you to do is that when you go over
to this ministry fair today, we don't want you to go over and say, this is something that I have to
do. This is something that you get to do. Or in other words, we're not talking about a obligation
today. What we're talking about is an invitation. Don't walk out of here today and say, well,
better sign up for something. No. Walk out of here today and say, I get to be part of God's mission
to heal the world. That's the perspective we need. When Jesus invited people to join him in his
mission, he didn't go around and say, well, you know, I hate to bug you guys. You guys look really
busy. I know you're fishing here and I just, I really, I don't even want to say it, but would you
mind just, could you spare a little time and just come along and maybe just spare a little time and
spend a little bit of time volunteering with me and my mission? No. That is not what Jesus said.
Jesus gave them an exciting invitation. He said that time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is
at hand. Come on and follow me. To serve in the church is to participate in the kingdom of God
that Jesus is building here on earth as we sang this morning, as it exists in heaven. Can you imagine
anything more exciting than that? Anything more thrilling? And I tell you, I tell you this,
when you realize that you've helped another person have a life-changing encounter with Jesus,
experience maybe the sense of forgiveness. When you help another person know that they have a group
of people who love them, when you help another person realize that God loves them, then I will
tell you that will give you a sense of deep, deep satisfaction in your soul. And you will come home
at the end of the day and you will say, that's what life is all about. So no, I don't feel guilty
when I ask people to volunteer and to serve in their local church, not even a little bit,
because what I'm asking you to do is to come off the sidelines and get onto the playing field and
get involved in one of the greatest adventures ever. That is the adventure of following Jesus
and changing the world. That needs to be our perspective before we head over there.
That's the first way we need to get set. We need to get our perspective set. But the second way we
need to get set is we need to get our hearts set. True service and ministry always begins in the
heart, begins with love. Imagine, for example, if it was our anniversary and I came home
to Sally and I brought with me a bouquet of flowers and I gave them to her and she was like,
oh, these are lovely. I love them so much. Thank you. You're so thoughtful. You're so sweet.
Wonderful. Great, great, great. Great. And then I said to her in return, I said, well,
it's kind of what you're supposed to do, right? I mean, what's the big deal, right? You buy the
white flowers on the anniversary. And I can guarantee you, if I said that, you know what she'd
probably do? She'd say, on second thought, I don't really want the flowers after all, because what
she sees in me is my heart is not in the right place. My heart's out of position. It's not
set right. She only wants the flowers if they flow from my love, if they flow from my heart.
In other words, she can tell, she can tell if the reason that I'm doing this is out of duty or if
it's out of love. Sometimes we serve people and sometimes we serve at church and we do it out of
a duty. We don't really want to do it, but we do it because we have to. When you love someone,
you don't actually mind serving them, right? The service flows right out of your heart. It's not a
chore. It's actually something you want to do, you love to do. I don't want anyone to walk out of here
today and go to the ministry fair and say, okay, let's see. Well, I guess I'll volunteer to help
take care of the kids. We don't want you to take care of the kids. It's not just about taking care
of the kids. The whole idea is that you'd actually love the kids. The whole idea is that you would
actually, Sunday by Sunday, see this 30 or 40 or 50 kids running around here and your heart would
break for them and you'd have a burden for them and you would say, you know, actually I care about
them. I'm concerned about them and their future. Being a kid these days, it's really hard. There's
so many influences. There's so many kind of pressures on these kids and maybe I could be of
some help to them. Maybe I could be a positive influence to them with all the kind of influences
around them. Maybe I could help them learn a more positive lesson about Jesus because I care about
them and I love about them. That's why I want to serve them. What about youth group? Maybe you go
by the youth group table and you're out there and you say, you know what, I can remember what it was
like to be a youth. It was a confusing and crazy time in my life and I wonder what's going on in
the lives of our own youth and I wonder if they're struggling with anything and my heart breaks for
them and I want to care for them. I want to love them and I want to pray for them and I want to have,
I want to be an example for them and maybe I can help somehow because I care for them and I love
them and that's why I want to serve them. Or maybe you are a youth, a young person and you're here
today and for you, like your online community is the most important thing to you and you know exactly
how important it is for people who are online to have a sense of community and so you have a heart
for people who are trying to connect with Trinity and trying to join the Trinity community online
and you say, you know what, I want to be part of the social media team or I want to be part of the
tech team or I want to help engage our online audience somewhere because I don't want to do it
out of duty but because I care about them and I love them that's why I want to serve them.
That's what Paul said in Galatians 5 13. Paul writes, he says, serve one another
humbly out of duty. No, no, he said serve one another humbly out of obligation. No, he said
serve one another humbly out of love. So whether you volunteer with the kids or the youth or the
cemetery committee or the property committee or the media team, I hope you're not doing it because
well I need to serve somewhere, sure I'll work with the kids. No, actually care about the kids,
actually love the kids, actually love the mission, actually love the ministry, actually love the
opportunity that stands before you. It's all got to come from this place. It's got to come from our
heart. If you leave here today feeling like I better do my duty, please don't sign up.
This has to be done out of love, not out of duty. That's why we got to get our hearts set. So we
have to get our perspective set. We have to get our hearts set this morning. But thirdly, we have
to also get our minds set because to truly serve another person requires a mental shift
and the mental shift that needs to take place is you have to think more about others and less about
yourself. Now that is really easy to say, but that is really, really hard to do because even times
when we think that we are thinking more about others and less about ourselves, we actually might
be thinking more about ourselves and less about others, right? So for example, when you're serving
others, but we're serving other people in order to get some people to like us or we're volunteering
in order to be admired or to achieve our own goals somehow. If you serve in that way, then you know
who you're really thinking of is you're really thinking of yourself. Or sometimes when we serve,
we do it because we think that maybe if we do something for God, then God will do something
for us. And so our serving becomes a bargaining chip, say like, I'm going to serve now and God's
going to owe me. And but what's really happening there is instead of letting God use us for his
purposes, now we're using God for our purposes. And again, that means we're still just, we're just
thinking of ourselves. Jesus told his disciples though, he said, listen, whoever wants to become
great among you must be your servant. He said, whoever wants to be first must be the slave of
all self promotion and servanthood cannot coexist. Servants don't serve for others approval. They
don't serve for the applause of others. They serve for an audience of one. And that one person, of
course, is God. If I'm honest with you, I spend most of my time thinking about me. And maybe you
do too, because I am and you are, we are and human beings are, I think by nature, very selfish.
And the kind of humility that we're talking about is it got to be like a daily struggle for each
and every one of us. You know, C.S. Lewis once said that true humility isn't thinking less of
yourself. It's somehow just thinking of yourself less. Or Paul once said this, Paul once said,
forget yourself long enough to lend a helping hand. Maybe you could advance to that slide, Kevin.
Forget yourself long enough to lend a helping hand. That's the shift that has to happen in our
minds to forget ourselves. Because it's only when we stop focusing on our own needs that we can
actually start to see the needs of another person around us. He goes on to say, he goes on to say,
let the same mind again, let the same mind be in you that was in Jesus Christ who when the time
came, he set aside his own privileges and took on the status of a slave. So if today you go and sign
up because you think it'll make you look good or you think God will be impressed and God will be in
your debt, please don't sign up. First, we have to change our thinking. We have to get our mindset
in a different way. So getting set means, let's just review, it means getting our perspective set.
It means getting our heart set and it means getting our mindset. But here's the last thing,
we have to get set and that is we have to get our priorities set. I wish I could tell you that today
out there, there was a great serving opportunity for you that will not cost you any time, any energy,
any thought, any inconvenience or any sacrifice. If we had a volunteer option like that, I guarantee
you'd be the longest line at the ministry fair. But no, serving and volunteering always cost us
something. They always cost us some of our life or some of our schedule or some of our energy.
There is no way around it. Serving will require you to rearrange your lives, to rearrange your
priorities. And you might say, well, listen, I'm here today, Rob, and I've been living my life to
the max. Like I have no margin for anything else to happen in my life. Not one more thing. And I
suppose what we could say to you at this moment is, well, then, hey, I understand. Don't worry
about it. Obviously, now is not a good time. Obviously, God doesn't want you to serve right
now. God doesn't want you to volunteer. We can't expect you at this time with that schedule to get
involved in a time like this. And I guess maybe we could say that to you. Or we could say maybe
this is a chance for you to do a little rethinking of your priorities, to reevaluate how you spend
your time. You know, I know in some office environments, they have this calendar system
where different staff members can share their calendars with each other. And so staff can
actually see each other's calendars. And some offices, staff can actually see an opening and
book themselves into each other's calendars. Now, we haven't got that far here at Trinity,
and I'm not really in a rush to get there. But I can tell you that God does want us to share our
calendars with him, to give him the permissions, click, click, click, permission granted to
to rebook our schedules. Is there room in your calendar to serve? Can God mess up your plans?
Can you give God your schedule and work around his priorities? Paul used a military analogy.
That was an office analogy. But Paul used this other analogy. He says that no one serving as a
soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please the commanding officer.
The soldier needs to be ready to go at the moment's notice when the commanding officer says,
I need you. They can go and God's people need to be ready. They need to be available to serve him
when he calls us. But maybe the best way to say this is just what Jesus said. Jesus said,
seek first the kingdom of God. Priorities are always about what comes first and what comes
second, what comes third and fourth in your life. And Jesus is saying, you can decide what
comes second and what comes third and what comes fourth in your life. But first seek the kingdom,
first serve the king. Can you set your priorities to put God's kingdom first?
So just a few moments, we're going to head across to that ministry fair and we're going to get
set for all the opportunities that are before us. But first we need to get set in a bunch of
ways inside of us. We need to get our perspective set. This isn't something you have to do.
This is something you get to do. We need to get our hearts set. We do this not out of duty.
We do it out of love. We need to get our minds set. We are not thinking about ourselves here.
We're thinking about others. And then we need to get our priorities set. We're seeking first
the kingdom of God. You might say, Rob, that's a lot. I am not sure I can get my mind, heart,
priorities, perspective set like that so quickly. How would I get there? What would be the motivation,
the determination, the inspiration to get set to serve like this? Well, that's why I need to end
this way and just say that Jesus himself is our inspiration. Jesus who said, even the son of man
did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. We can change
our minds and think about others because we know that Jesus thought about us first. We can give our
hearts to others because we know that Jesus gave his heart to us first. And we can sacrifice our
time for God because Jesus sacrificed his life for us. And we can make God a priority
only when we realize that God made us his priority first.
Thanks be to God. Amen. Let me send you away with a blessing and then we're going to,
we're going to switch the live stream over to Elizabeth to take our online viewers through the
ministry fair. But may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds and
the knowledge and love of God and of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and the blessing of God Almighty,
the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit be amongst you and remain with you always. Amen.
Over to you, Elizabeth. I'm an engagement director here at Trinity Church,
Streetsville, and I am so excited that we are continuing our live stream for the very first
time and we get a chance to do that during the ministry fair that is happening right here,
right now, outside of the sanctuary right after our service. So thanks so much for joining. We
are excited because we have 21 tables and 30 ministries all representing the various groups
that contribute to the life of the church here at Trinity Church, Streetsville.
Some of these ministries are long-standing and they've been here for years and years.
Now some of these ministries are brand new and this is their very first year being represented
at the ministry fair. But regardless, we can consider ministry something that is done when
we give our time, our talents, our resources, and as Rob mentioned, our hearts to be a blessing to
others. But I like to think that in giving of all of these things, we are as well blessed.
Trinity is heading into a time of significant growth. We are going to be heading to a time of
two services very soon. So there is no better time to get involved in the life of the church
here at Trinity. So what I'm going to do is wander around to various ministries,
meet some of the ministry leaders, and get to know a little bit about who they are and how we
can be involved. Well, we have one table over here that we are going to visit and we are going to
first start it with the coping table. Here we are. I'm going to be right here for the coping table.
It's very busy here, so just bear with me. We're going to meet table number one. May I have your
name, please? Hi, I'm Annie Shalvarchin. And what is your table? My table is the coping,
the Streetsville Coping Program, which we've been running at Trinity since 2013. So every fall,
we run a bereavement support group for people in the community who had a death in their family.
And it's a very difficult time for them. They're hurting, and we try to give them emotional support
and also the love that Jesus gives us, we share with these individuals.
Thank you very much. Now, can you let us know just a little bit about how we can be involved? Can we
sign up for the program or can we contribute or support to it even if we haven't experienced grief
or loss? Actually, we have a brand new flyer that talks about the support that individuals in our
church can provide. We're asking if they could provide hospitality support. Every time that
we run our group, we host food for the individuals because often when you're grieving, you forget to
eat and look after yourself. So if a life group, for example, or an individual who wants to do it
in memory of a loved one would like to sponsor the food for that evening, we run it for eight weeks.
And we would welcome that. You can contact us through the church office and we can do that.
Yes. Thank you very much. This definitely sounds like a ministry that would be very important for
so many people as well. It would be a ministry that many different people can get involved with as
well. Maybe your life group would like to help support the coping ministry. That would be great.
Now we're going to head over to the prayer chain.
There's a lot of chatting happening. Hello. May I have your name, please?
Susan. Yeah. So that's Susan and we're going to find out a little bit about the prayer chain.
Can you tell us a little bit about the prayer chain? Yeah. It's a group of people who pray
for other people. When we get a prayer request, we send out an email to all of the people
and everybody prays for whoever. That's wonderful. Right now we're talking to our online audience.
If someone is at home and is a member of Trinity but doesn't come to church,
can they still get involved in the prayer chain? Sure. It's a group that is confidential.
If you want to be involved, yes, I think that's great.
There's opportunities to get involved. Thank you very much. If you're part of the online group,
you can get in part of the prayer chain. You can also still submit your prayer requests to the
prayer chain and they will be happy to pray for you. As Susan mentioned, it's all confidential
and it's done in a loving heart. We are now moving on to the home visitors. The home visitors is one
of our newer ministries here at Trinity. May I have your name? Ruth Flynick. So we've got Ruth
and I'm going to ask Ruth just to tell us a little bit about the home visitor ministry.
Hi. Yes, we started the home visiting ministry back up again, I think post-COVID. It was
not happening as much. But now we have five teams of two people each to go visit and provide
communion as desired to those in the home setting who aren't able to make it out to a service.
Training is provided and as I said, they always go in teams of two. We also are providing visiting
to people in hospital when we hear about that as desired. Thank you very much. That was great.
And I think that the home visitor table is going to be very popular because they have a candy dish.
All right. Thanks, Ruth. All right. We're going to head over this way to the Stephen ministry table.
Come with me this way. As you can tell, it's very busy. We have a lot of action going on.
We have a whole team of people over at the Stephen ministry table. Who would like to talk
at the Stephen ministry table? Who's our spokesperson? Wow. Don't all fight over it,
guys. I think we've got Tracy here going to tell us a little bit about the Stephen ministry or
Stephen, which one would like to talk and tell us about Stephen ministry? Oh,
all right. I'm going to hand the mic over to Tracy.
Hi, online Trinity. This is Stephen ministry and we are a group of trained volunteers who offer
one to one care to people who are going through a difficult time in their life. It could be,
you know, you've you're grieving the loss of a loved one. You're lonely. You've lost a job.
You're new in the community and you don't know anybody. We basically meet with you for one hour
a week as members of the church and we listen and we pray for you and we offer encouragement and
support. Have a good day. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Stephen ministry. We're going to actually now
head into the room that used to be the library. So as you see, we're going to fight the crowds.
We're going to walk through here into this room where we have two different ministries. Oh, hello.
We're going to patient. Oh, it's time. I'm not sure where Gary is. It's just Diane. It's the
Diane show here. We are now in the room that used to be the library and in this room is our table
for the community Bible study as well as the prime time group. I think Diane Diane can wear all the
hats, all the hats. She just wears all the hats today. So Diane, do you mind just telling the
online viewers a little bit about community Bible study, which I think we call CBS as well, a little
bit about prime time. Well, they're two very different things. Community Bible studies,
we've been hosting at Trinity for many, many years. And this year we're doing a special core
group here and it's on Wednesday mornings at nine thirty to eleven fifteen. And we're going to be
studying community Christian living. And it's the study of the Book of Philemon and first and second
and third, John and Jude. And then after that, we're going to do a study of Ruth and first and
second, Samuel. I'm just going to ask a quick question about CBS. Can anyone join?
Our particular core group is for women. And yes, anyone can join. There is a co coed group that
runs on Tuesday evening online that we are also a part of. And so if you have any more questions
about it, you can always contact me. Thanks so much. Now we're going to put her on the spot
because Gary was supposed to be here, but he's not. So Diane, can you just tell us, just maybe
just shove over to the next chair. Now she's Gary and she's going to tell us a little bit about the
Primetime group. Well, Primetime is a group for seniors at Trinity and their friends. They're
invited in to bring friends from the from the community along with them. And it's just the time
that we meet. We used to meet once a month, but we're down to like five times a year this time.
And our first meeting is September 28th on Thursday afternoons. And so we're going to be
meeting from 1 30 to 3 30 and have a great time just kind of getting acquainted with each other.
Have fun activities, sing, usually a speaker of some kind on an interesting topic to us.
And it's just a wonderful time to connect. And particularly people, you don't want to admit
you're a senior, but you know, if you've reached 65, that's what you're going to be able to do.
And that's what we consider a senior. And so you're all welcome. Amazing. And I don't think
we're checking anyone's driver's licenses either. So if you would like to join Primetime and you fit
in the senior category, that would be great. I know they're a very active group and they have
some really exciting events that happen. And if you do have any questions about any of the ministries
that are going on here, feel free to give us a call at Trinity or email us at info at Trinity
streetsville.org. Now let's continue back out into the very busy hall and find a few other groups.
We're going to walk past the welcome table. Maybe we'll just wave at the welcome table.
If you come to Trinity, the welcome group will be happy to answer any questions that you have.
We're going to stop for a second at the chancel guild.
Here we have the chancel guild, which actually this ministry was referenced by Rob during our
service today. They are sometimes considered a behind the scenes ministry, but very important
to the life of Trinity. I'm just going to ask them to tell us a little bit about who they are
and what they do. Would you like to tell us a little bit about what the chancel guild is?
The chancel does is sets up the vessels for Holy communion. So we bring out the chalices
filled with wine, the bread baskets, doing the appropriate candles, making sure that the
proper colour of the church season is on the altar. At the end of the service, we do the cleanup,
which is getting rid of the consecrated stuff, which means you either bury it, eat it, or burn
it. You cannot throw anything away. So there is a process in doing that. Then you wash chalices and
wash linen and you're all done. Thank you. Thank you. Again, a very important ministry here at the
church. So it's very interesting and they are always looking for new people to join their group.
We're just going to wave at the communion assistance. Would you like to tell us a little
bit about being a communion assistant? All right. This is Nellie. All right. So we're going to
have Nellie. All right. Let us know a little bit about what you do here at Trinity. Okay. So it's
my passion. Like every week we celebrate the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So we serve
communion. And so we serve the re blood of Jesus Christ and the real body of Jesus Christ. So the
assistant server in communion and they are giving this to the people. So the first time you're going
to be trained for that. And it's really, very nice. I really enjoy it. And it's my passion to serve.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I love hearing that we're finding pleasure in our giving and
in our ministries. When we find something that we love to do, that is what it's all about.
We're going to skip past the prayer and worship group right now. Change of plans. We're going to
join in. We've got the prayer and worship table here. Um, may I first just have your name? My name
is Rick Bradshaw. All right, Rick, you are at the prayer and worship table. Can you tell us a little
bit about what the prayer and worship ministry does? So we organize, uh, we're trying to encourage
corporate prayer in the church, which means praying together. So, um, we have a monthly
prayer and worship meeting on Sunday nights, first Sunday of the month. And then at the beginning of
each year, we have a week of prayer where we encourage people to come every evening in the
prayer and into the church and pray. Uh, I'm also at Easter. We've running a good Friday prayer
vigil. So it's really about organizing that and then getting involved in, in those services.
Now, Rick, just a quick question. Who can get involved? Can anyone from the church or community
come to these events? Absolutely. Anyone can be involved at the moment. We're not doing online
versions of this, but that would be somewhere we want to grow. So, uh, but all I'm planning
meetings are done on zoom. So if you're interested in, and you are maybe can't make it to the church,
but you live somewhere else, but you're, you have ideas, you want to get involved,
maybe help us expand into the online world, then that's exactly the kind of people we're looking
for. Uh, anybody, if you're interested, just get in touch with me. Thank you so much. Again,
I think that we are now heading into a season where we're back to doing our, our worship nights in
person. So we're really excited to get that started. Now we're going to just head over to
Grace here. Grace has been doing ESL, which is English as a second language for several years.
Hi, Grace. We are actually doing a live stream interview with some of our ministry leaders. Can
you tell us a little bit about what that ESL group is at Trinity? Okay. It's a group of mainly seniors
and they are not, they come from different parts of the world. Okay. They are usually shot in
grandparents looking after young kids. So they're not fluent in the language. Now the ESL we teach
is mainly conversational stuff that would give them confidence in going to the drug store and to the
and to the grocery and to get on a bus and even to talk to people. Yeah. That's great. What an
important ministry. And I believe Grace, anyone from the community comes, they don't have to be
church members to come to the ESL group. This is a community based outreach program. Is it community
based outreach? So the people that come aren't necessarily members of Trinity. They aren't,
they are not members of Trinity, but some have joined the church. Yes. So a wonderful outreach
ministry that happens. Thanks, Grace. All right. We're going to actually backtrack through here.
You might notice we have coffee hour set up. The cookie trays are starting to dwindle. Maybe there's
going to be a few cookies left for me. I'm not sure. We're going to head right over past the coffee
hour and visit the table that is the Trinity board. Wow. We've got some lovely people here
representing the Trinity board. I believe actually all people at this table are members of the board,
but we've got Kyla over there who does our neighborhood assessment group, which is one
of our new groups. But I think I'm going to ask the Trinity board to tell us a little bit about
who you are and what you do. Don't all raise your hands at once guys. No, no, we need the mic first.
Just let me know your name and what you do. So the Trinity board basically provides governance
to the church. We help make some major decisions around operations and any type of programs going
on. And during our general or annual meeting, when we need to, that's when we decide who the
new board members are going to be. Thank you. Amazing. How many people are on the board?
I would say that we have, we're in the process of gaining some new members. So right now we
probably have at least six or seven and we're getting quite a few more. Thank you. And thank
you, Curlin. Bye Kyla. Now we're heading back out into the lobby towards some more ministries. As
you see, it's a very active place here. Here we are. We're going to head towards the cemetery group.
I see the cemetery team here. Hi, we're doing some live stream interviews. Hello. So first
may I just have your names? Oh, I'm Laura, Debi. Hello Laura and Debi. Which one of you would like
to tell us a little bit about what the cemetery committee does? Well, we've been around for a few
years now. Well, there's been different iterations of it over the years, but this current one,
a few years. And our mission has been to try and beautify the cemetery and honor those who have
gone before us. And so we beautified it. As you can see, there's new walkways and the fences were
just painted. There's the new Salmon Hazel McCallion Memorial Prayer Garden. And so now we have,
our newest projects are we want to plant some daffodils in the fall to just make it look nice
and sunny every spring. And we also have in the background, we have this new database. We're trying
to keep really good records on who's there, who can be there in the future. And so we want to do
more historical research and put that in the database as well so that people can just click
and go, oh, that's my Auntie Grace. And she was, you know, a settler of streets fills, that kind of
thing. There certainly is a lot happening in the cemetery. I do notice your Come Plant Daffodil
sign up sheet. Can anyone sign up for that? Sure. Anyone who's interested in any part just
or in the background stuff for more just planting and making it prettier. Absolutely. Okay. So if
you have any questions about the cemetery committee, you can again email us at info at
trinitystreetsville.org. There are definitely lots of ways to get involved with this committee.
It's very active. And if you haven't had a chance to check out the new developments that have been
going on in the cemetery, please make sure to come by and check it out. It's a great place of
peace and rest and as Laura said, beauty. Now we're going to head over to the women's ministry in
just a moment. We have Karen here at the women's ministry. Again, a ministry that can be very active
at some points. If you are a man, I'm going to have to say no boys allowed here, but we are going
to, uh, we're going to talk to Karen. She's going to let us a little bit, let us know a little bit
about what's going on with the women's ministry this year at Trinity. Hi, Karen. Can you tell
us a little bit about what's going on this year at Trinity with women's ministry? Hi, Elizabeth. Hi,
everybody online. Um, women's ministry is a way to connect women with each other. And our goal this
year is we're going to plan some Bible studies and we will have online groups as well as in-person
groups. And then we have, um, women's breakfasts and women's stays apart. And we've, in the past,
we've had hikes. Um, and we're always looking for ideas of different events to plan and we're
looking for, always looking for people to organize, whether, uh, be an online leader for Bible study
or something along those lines. That's perfect. I'm looking forward to it for sure. Now we're
going to continue on down along our window here to the Trinity moms ministry. Again, a ministry
for women, but specifically for moms. And Jen Searson has been heading up this ministry for a
few years now. Jen, can you tell us a little bit about Trinity moms? Okay. So Trinity moms is an
extension of Trinity Tots. Trinity Tots meets on Friday mornings from nine 30 to 10 30. And then
we have an hour that's just for the moms. So we have childcare for the littles and then the moms
will come and just have time with each other. And it's a time of just encouragement and care for the
moms. Um, there's also moms that come that don't have little kids. Um, their kids are in school or
older. My kids are teenagers. So, um, I'd say 50% of the moms are, uh, moms with little kids,
like toddlers and babies. And then 50% are moms with kids that are in school and they, they just
come for the mom time. Uh, what we really could use help with is, um, people to help mind the
babies. The ones that have babies and toddlers need someone to take care of the little ones. So
if, uh, you have a heart for, if you love babies and toddlers and, um, we could definitely use
help with care for them. Thank you very much. And my kids have all gone through the Trinity,
Trinity Tots, and I have definitely been a part of the moms group in the past and it's wonderful.
So thanks Jen. All right. Hope you get a lot of signups. We are going to actually head towards
the youth table here. We have a new youth leader at Trinity Church streets. Phil, and I wonder if
you can just tell us a little bit about what is going to be happening in the youth group this year.
All right. Zion, welcome first of all to Trinity in this new rule. Can you tell us a little bit
about what we can expect for youth group this year at Trinity? Sure. So youth group is going to be
every Friday, um, for up to four hours. We split them into two age groups this year. So we're going
to have the junior youth, which is grade six to eight, the middle school age. They're going to be
here at the church from six to eight PM. And then from eight to 10, we've got the high school aged
youth. Um, and while we're here, we're just going to be playing lots of games. We're going to do,
um, fun activities and we're also going to have time for Bible study each night, of course.
So we'll just need people who are good influences for the youth and, you know,
they're willing to have fun and play games as well. And then on top of that, we're also going to have
about one, one Friday each week, we're going to go out and we're going to, uh, do a fun activity
like mini golf or go karting and trampolining, something like that. So if you're willing to come
out and help supervise and have fun there, that would be awesome as well. And that's about it.
No, that's great. We're looking forward to it. Youth group starts next Friday. So if you are new
to Trinity, if you are new to the area, you are welcome, bring a friend. And I think it's going
to be a lot of fun. Now you may have seen grace before, um, she's our, uh, kids director and she
has three different signs on her table. So maybe grace, four, I don't, oh, okay. Grace is chatting
away, but she doesn't have the microphone. All right. She's going to let us know a little bit
about what's going on at her table. Hello, I'm grace. I'm sure you know me. Uh, you're probably
gonna have to turn down your volume because I am a very loud person. I actually have so many
ministries that I have an extra table here. So let's start out with this table. This table here,
we have knitting for others. So we have a group of congregants who meets at the church from one 30
to three 30 every Wednesday and they get together and they knit different projects. So some of them
go to children's aid. Some of them go to long care term, um, long term care homes. Um, and so they do
lots of knitting. Actually a way that you could get involved is if you love to knit at home,
you could knit at home and you could maybe drop off your knitted stuff or you could mail in your
knitted stuff and we can get those to all our donations. Um, another part of my table, let's
go to the opposite end of our table is we have Trinity Tots. So every single Friday morning from
nine AM until 10 30, we have, um, a little play group together and caregivers and moms and dads
and grandparents are welcome to bring their little, little ones who aren't in school over.
We have toys, we have crafts, we sing some songs and it's just a time for caregivers and parents
to come and have a cup of coffee and just talk with other people who are in the same life season
as them. Um, as well on a Sunday morning, we have Trinity kids. If you watch the live stream,
I'm sure you see me dismiss them every week. We have different programs from anywhere from
um, newborn to grade five. Um, it's a great way to serve. It's a great way to, um, meet new people.
And our last one, my most favorite one is our community events. So why don't we open this up,
Elizabeth, can you open that for me? So here are some of our community events coming up.
We have dog day, which is fun. We have them over. We have little competitions for your dogs.
We have prizes for humans and dogs. We have trunk or treat, which you can have families
come on out. You carve a pumpkin and then do some trick or treating from everyone's
trunks in the parking lot. We will be handing out free hot chocolate at Christmas in the village
on November 18th. And last but certainly not least, we're going to have a gingerbread house
decorating evening. Now I know I just sped through all of those super, super fast, but we're going to
have all that information coming up on our social media over these next couple of weeks. But this is
a great way to maybe invite your family with kids to these events. Um, it's just strictly there to
serve the community and, and, and love them and welcome them. There are also a bunch of different
ways you can volunteer. So for dog day, you can help set up or take down for trunk or treat. We
love to have people handing out pumpkins, welcoming the families. And of course we need people to
bring, uh, treats from their trunk to hand out. Obviously you can't have trunk or treat without
treats from the trunk. Say that five times fast. You can't. I know. And then we have Christmas in
the village. If we're handing out 1000 hot chocolates, we need some help making 1000 hot
chocolates. So that's a way that you could come in. Um, for gingerbread houses, this is actually
one of my most favorite ways you can serve. So if you have a gingerbread man, cookie cutter hanging
around, you can register here and you'll receive a recipe for gingerbread. And then you can bake
your gingerbread and drop it off at the church. So we'll be using this gingerbread to hand out to our
families who come to the Christmas Eve service to the kids who come to the, um, community kids
Christmas party and at our gingerbread cookie decorating event. So I know I just went through
lots of things with you. If you have any questions about knitting community events,
Trinity tots, or Trinity kids, please feel free to reach out to me. My name is Grace and my email
is grace at Trinity streets, fill.org. Thank you so much for coming to my table. I hope you have fun
at our event. That was a lot of fun. And that does seem like a lot of fun. I'm a little disappointed.
There's no cat day. Um, I have two cats at home, but, uh, dogs, you know, dogs are all right too.
So we're going to head over to the sanctuary, but as we do, we're going to pass the online table.
That's my table. And because we're a newer ministry, that means we have some newer volunteer
options. Um, what I'd like to do is just to let you know that I'm looking right now for people that
can do some online reading as well as do some intercessory prayer. And what that means is doing
some pre-recorded scripture readings or doing some pre-recorded prayers, send them in ahead of time,
certainly something that I can help you with. And then we can have that on during our live stream.
So I would love to have you join me as well. If you are interested in hosting, if a microphone is
something that you'd like and you'd like to be in front of the camera, I'd love to have someone join
me as we're looking to do a few more online segments in the coming weeks and months. All right.
Let's head into the sanctuary. Okay. We've got, I believe a few tables set up in here. Hello, Rob.
Rob, how are you finding the ministry fair right now? It's very, very exciting. Yeah. I just hoped
everybody knew that there was also some tables in here, but as you can see, there was a good crowd
of people for all the tech stuff, which is great. Yeah. Excellent. So that means we're going to see
some of the people that are often behind the cameras and behind the scenes. That's right.
All right. Well, I hope more people find out about it in here. Oh, actually, I don't know what he's
talking about. There's a big crowd. We've got a crowd, but we're going to talk to the worship
band as well as to our AV and tech team. So we have Stephanie here, the worship band. And Sean,
are you also here at the worship band table? Sean, would you like to tell us a little bit about the
worship band, what the worship band does, as well as what the commitment looks like? Yeah. So I've
been, I've been working with the worship band for a long time and we have, we have many different
opportunities, including vocal opportunities, instrumental opportunities. If you play an
instrument, it doesn't necessarily have to be like electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums,
those sorts of things. We're also completely open to concert band instruments. Like if you can play
the trumpet or the saxophone or anything like that, it would be super cool to have you work with us.
The commitments basically align with how much time you have for rehearsals. Right now we're
doing rehearsals on Thursdays and they're, they're like way after when work would be and those sorts
of things. It's like seven o'clock ish. I kind of forget, but it's more, it's later. We do those
rehearsals and then we also have early Sunday rehearsals as well. But yeah, if you're interested,
please, please sign up. We would love to have you with us. Thanks, Sean. That's great. Definitely.
I know we have a lot of talent here at Trinity and if that sounds like something you'd be interested
in, we'd love to see you come out. So now we're going to just sort of wiggle our way through here.
We have Stephanie and we've got our speaking role people over here. So our speaking role ministry
involves those who do online hosting, those who do online or who do not online hosting. What am I
talking about? Who do in-person hosting and who do in-person intercessory prayer and who do their
in-person readings. But we're going to skip past them right now and get right to our tech team.
So here is Alex. He's busy. A lot of people interested in the tech roles, but I'd love to
talk to Alex and Liz about what the tech team does here at Trinity. There are a few different roles.
Hi, Liz. Hi, Alex. Could you guys let us know a little bit about what the tech team does at Trinity?
Sure. Yeah, there's a huge blanket of media roles covered under the tech team. So we have camera
operators, there's video switchers, audio, what else? Photography and there's also in-person slides.
Do you want to talk to us a little bit about what happens with that? Yeah. So there's the projecting
the words on the screen, everything that people see on the screen. So the words to songs and the
liturgy that the person in the back booth is a projectionist who makes all that happen. And
those words also appear on the live stream as well. So really, really important part of the service.
And I've been talking to a lot of people who've been really interested to learn about this, which
it really excites me, I have to say. And, you know, I've been talking about how the, you know, having
the words on the screen is a real, a fabulous expression of hospitality as well, because it's
a way to ensure that everybody has access to the words and they can participate in the prayers and
the singing. It's just a great opportunity and it's a lot of fun and it's sort of behind the
scenes as well. So for people who are maybe don't like being up in front of, you know, a group of
people or whatever, they can have a really significant impact in the service and with the
congregation and they don't have to be in front of people, which is, you know, always a good thing.
And piggybacking off that, it's a great way right now we're giving accessibility here to everybody
online who's joining us right now. And there's lots of ways that people can get involved. And
this is the new era right now. Everybody's online. We need to provide this service. So it's really
helpful to have a huge base of volunteers that can come, takes the load off of everybody if we
can all share that responsibility, because it's not going away now. And we have, yeah, we have
multiple camera operators. So you don't even have to sign up for every Sunday kind of thing. It
could be once a month, could be twice a month, could be even less than that. So I would definitely
suggest we have an orientation that's coming up. And if you're interested at all in tech, we have
we have any range of background, could be amateur, anything. We'll train you up as long as you're
interested and you have drive, you want to learn, then you're hired. So come on down and yeah, even
just come for the orientation. We'll show you all the gear and decide then whether or not you're
interested and what that commitment might look like for you. But yeah, lots of roles and excited
to see all of you joining tech team. I sense a competition here at Trinity. Who's going to get
the most signups? Well, I see a few signups there on the tech team, so they may be in the lead.
Actually, I don't know. I don't know. I'm just giving them some some false hope.
But as you notice, I'm wearing gardening gloves. And that's because the theme of this tech,
of this tech, of this ministry fair is ready, set, grow. And at ready, set, grow, that just means
that we are looking to develop and to strengthen and to just to grow our ministries here at Trinity
so that we had some plants, we had some garden hose. And at ready, set, grow, we hope that you
can help Trinity to develop and to grow as we move towards our mission, which is to love Jesus,
to live like Jesus, and to lead other people to Jesus. As we know, Jesus himself, like Rob said,
did not come to be served, but to serve. And that's what we are called to do as well. So if you find
it in your heart to join the life and the mission of the church, we would love to have you. Thank
you very much for joining and have a great week. Thanks so much for listening to our sermon today.
And we are so glad that you decided to join us. Also, if you enjoyed the sermon, could you please
take a minute to rate and review our podcast. Thanks again for joining and make sure to come
back next week. Today's sermon was taken from the September 10th, 2023 service at Trinity Church,
Streetsville and Mississauga, Ontario.