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Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity Talks. My name is Kyla and I'm the

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online engagement director here at Trinity. And my name is Rob and I am the pastor here at

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Trinity Streetsville. So good morning everyone. Yeah and so as we're now nearing the end of 2024,

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I thought it would be fun to sit down with Rob and just look through the year that was and all

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of the many things that have happened at Trinity this year. Yeah it's like you know Spotify tells

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you this time of year. This is all the things you listen to in the year that was Spotify wrapped.

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So this is kind of Trinity Streetsville wrapped. Yes there we go. So we'll go all the way back to

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the very beginning of this year starting in January. And in January we hosted the annual week of prayer

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event. And so if you're watching this on YouTube you can see now a picture on the screen there of

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some folks who are writing on a prayer wall. And the theme this year was Dream Big which was based

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on Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech. I have a dream. Yeah. Yeah so what do you recall from that week?

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Well this is the second or third time that we've had this week of prayer that we have set aside

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now at the very beginning of a year which is a fantastic idea. And I commend the prayer,

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a planning team for all the creative thought they put into it because I think they realize not

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everybody prays the same way either right. So some of us like to you know fold our hands and pray

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silently. Others like to pray out loud but they go a step further and they provide ways for people

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to pray visually and you know aesthetically. And I really really appreciate the thought they're

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putting into it. But yeah the whole idea of Dream Big or I have a dream. Yeah it's actually so you

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remember just before that happened we did a whole teaching series on you know dreaming big because

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we were starting a lot of new things as a church namely we were starting the second service which

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was a big undertaking and you know there was a lot of volunteers and a lot of people that were

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involved in that. And we I think that we decided we better start the year with that same kind of

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theme of big dreams, big plans but also you know big prayers because for all of our efforts and all

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of our planning and our ideas if we're not praying about this and not inviting God into these plans

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it's not going to go anywhere. Yeah. In fact there I was just thinking there's one one scripture in

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Mark 9 where Jesus comes down a hill and his disciples are there they're trying to cast out

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a demon out of this child this kid and they can't do it and they're like we've tried everything it

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won't it won't work and Jesus says to them he says this kind only comes out by prayer. And I'd love

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that statement because what Jesus is kind of saying is there are some things that can only be done

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through the power of prayer right. I suppose there's some things we can do if we have our own you know

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ability and our own ingenuity that God has given us those gifts we can accomplish some things but

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then there are some other big challenges other big opportunities and big problems that can only be

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addressed and solved through prayer. And I don't know about you but I feel like in a church there's

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so many things that we are tackling day by day that if we're not praying we're going to be in

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deep, deep trouble. Yeah, yeah for sure and I feel like sort of similarly I feel like that week of

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prayer grounded us in a way to then go forth and try new things this year and feel like yeah even

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in praying through those things you know we set aside this one particular week in which we focus

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on praying for these big dreams but then obviously that sort of sets a precedent right for how we

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continue throughout the rest of the year. Yeah and I would say that and for example the staff now

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or we've begun a weekly you know half hour of prayer so that pattern of prayer starts with an

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intense week at the beginning of the year but then it's become a weekly pattern for us as a staff

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throughout the year and hopefully for everyone prayer is a daily pattern as well just happening

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in these different kind of cycles throughout our life. Yeah, yeah for sure. So if we move into

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February, in February we had a visit from Bishop Kevin and he did some confirmation

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and receiving folks into the Anglican Communion so again if you're watching us on YouTube you can see

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on the screen there Rob and Bishop Kevin along with some of those who were confirmed and received

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into the Anglican Communion so there were 10 folks confirmed and two folks received into the

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Anglican Communion. Absolutely, yeah. And so for you as an Anglican priest how does that sort of

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yeah how does that moment fit into sort of your own life and faith and leadership here?

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Yeah we don't have the Bishop visit very often here at Trinity. I love Bishop Kevin. Bishop Kevin's

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the best. I was so glad he was able to visit with us but yes, you know confirmation for those who

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you don't know, confirmation is that moment in our lives where people who were baptized as infants

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kind of say you know what I want to claim these promises for my own I want to kind of stand up

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and declare my faith and confirm the promises that my parents made on my behalf when I was younger

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so that's like a powerful moment in and of itself but it can confirmation is something one of the

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few things that's only done by bishops right? I can't do it, you can't do it, we have to have the

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bishop come in to do it and so it's beautiful because it is an opportunity to remind us that

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we're part of something bigger as a church right? Like so many times week in and week out we can

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kind of get sometimes just looking within our four walls and get a sense of like this is the

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church but when something like confirmation comes around and a bishop comes in, a bishop who represents

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not just a church but the wider church and bishops have this other thing that they do to us is that

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remind us that we're part of a church that traces itself back through thousands of years back to

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Jesus Christ himself right through the whole apostolic succession and the laying on of hands

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of bishops and all that stuff so yeah it's a powerful moment when the bishop comes to visit

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it, it's this reminder we're part of something bigger. I don't know if you feel that. Yeah,

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yeah for sure. I mean that Sunday in particular was really meaningful for me on a number of

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different levels but one of the things that I do really appreciate about the Anglican church is that

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it is part of this larger network right? That as a church we're given opportunities to you know set

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some ministries and discern our vision a little bit but we don't do that in a bubble. Yes, we do that

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under your leadership but your leadership under the leadership of the bishop, under the leadership of

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the sort of global Anglican church right? Yes, yes. And we get to learn from each other and we get to

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discern together and we get to you know provide resources and knowledge sharing and all of these

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things together and I think that makes churches stronger when they can cooperate like that.

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Do you think people are actually looking for churches that have that kind of deeper connection

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to history? Like I have a hunch that maybe if people are looking for a church that they don't

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want a church that feels like it was just created yesterday. Sure. They want to feel like I am part

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of something that goes way back. Yeah, I think so and I think people, I mean they want a church

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that is I think both part of history and like speaking something relevant to the current moment.

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Yes. Right, but I think you need both of those things. Yeah. Right, like you don't want a church

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that's stuck in a certain historical time period but you also don't want a church that

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yeah is just sort of going with the flow right and and if we're only speaking what's relevant

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and out there in culture then like what's the difference between a church and anything you're

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watching on TV? Right. Yeah and so those when the bishop comes and we do things like confirmation

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and it's a reminder that we're part of something that stretches deep through history but also part

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of something that stretches wide around a world right where there are something like 80 million

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Anglicans in countries all over the world and and because of the massive growth of the Anglican

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church especially in the southern hemisphere they're predicting that that number is going to like

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double by the year 2050 or something like that. So it's just I don't know it's just something

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about it reminds us oh yeah this is a big family diverse family as well you know. Yeah and I think

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the diversity of it is at least for me something that's also especially important right that

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that so often Christians will sort of get in there their church and do things their way and

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then say well I don't like these other Christians or I can't get along with these other Christians

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because of XYZ thing. Yeah. But in the Anglican communion I mean there are there are central

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things that we all have to believe and hold in common but there is room for that diversity.

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Yes and that is what the Anglican communion or Anglican sometimes called the via media right

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which is this belief that yes we we we prioritize the holy scriptures we believe in the gospel of

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Jesus Christ we you know we there are the creeds for example hold us together and yet there's also

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this sense that we try to occupy this kind of middle space that somehow on the one hand does

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prevent us from slipping off to fundamentalism on this side but on the other hand prevents us from

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slipping off into complete liberalism on the other side but there is like this middle way

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that the Anglican church tries to chart through this diverse family that spans centuries. It's a

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beautiful thing and yeah confirmation it doesn't you know most people don't think of it but it is

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a little reminder that we're part of all that. Yeah yeah that's super cool. Another thing another

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moment that often brings folks together is Easter and obviously Easter is sort of the pinnacle Sunday

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the pinnacle moment in the church year and so it's true for us as well Easter Sunday is our

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biggest service of the year so this year we had over 500 folks who joined us for Easter Sunday

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morning service and we did this community outreach Easter event. Yes. The Easter egg hunt and inviting

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folks in to do some crafts and painting and there was over 800 folks who attended that event and so

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again if you're watching us on YouTube you can see on the screen there are some folks who are

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painting Easter eggs here at the church. Yeah so for you Rob Easter's a very busy time but what

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sort of stands out to you from Easter this year? Well we're doing this interview right now just

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having gone through Christmas right and it's very interesting to me because I think Christmas is a

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holiday that many many people celebrate even if they're not Christians if they're not they're not

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churchgoers right and so maybe in some ways it's you know churches are maybe packed out on Christmas

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and Christmas Eve and it's a little easier because I think yeah everyone kind of likes to get in that

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Christmas spirit. I think Easter is is different. I know it's different in our culture because I don't

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think people celebrate the the the season or the holiday of Easter in the same way that maybe

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all the commercialism and stuff pushes us toward the celebration of Christmas. I don't know I'm just

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kind of comparing the two in my head I guess right now is what I'm doing. That being said though

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yeah Easter was was very busy here and I was actually the I mean the one thing that struck

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me was actually Good Friday. I don't know if you remember but Good Friday was full like I mean full

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full here to the point where afterwards we were like next year do we do we have to have two Good

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Friday services which we've you know I don't think we've ever done that but there was literally we

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were pulling chairs out and standing room for Good Friday. I don't know what to make of that.

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Is there something about the the maybe the the solemnity or the darkness or the mystery of

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Good Friday that draws people. I was just yeah I don't know. Yeah I wonder yeah that that is

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interesting. I wonder that too and I think there's something about Good Friday like Easter Sunday is

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full of all of this hype right and rightfully so and rightfully so right like it's a moment of

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celebration. Yeah but I would say this about Advent too the moments of celebration Easter

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Christmas are great but actually we don't live most of our lives in celebration mode. Most of our

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lives is lived in waiting mode or in struggle mode. Yes. Right and so something like Good Friday sort

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of I don't know it speaks to us in a different way. Yeah I think we yeah we noticed that in

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his last series we did about lament people actually connect with these these themes and again it's

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interesting. It's interesting because Christmas was not celebrated by the church for like the first

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three or four hundred years of the church's life. It just was not a thing. It was not a

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noteworthy celebration. Easter though of course that was the very reason why the church ever came

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into existence in the first place right. Had there been no resurrection there would be no hope. People

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would not have you know yeah it's so yeah so just yeah comparing those two holidays is kind of an

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interesting exercise in your mind. Yeah for sure and I think there's a lot of rich theological

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meaning in in the days leading up to Easter and the weeks leading up to Easter too that sort of

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yeah gives it a more a more rounded sort of time and way to approach this celebration this

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commemoration. Yeah I mean and the Easter egg hunt that we do is I guess it's in some ways

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it's it's a it's an opportunity to get out to the community and to bring them in yes for

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painting Easter eggs and yes for decorating Easter cookies or whatever yeah sure or going on

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Easter egg hunt but really I guess what it does is it also brings people into our building and

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it brings people into this sacred space where they they maybe start to ask what is Easter all about

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and we get to rub shoulders with them and perhaps develop some relationships with them and and so

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that I think is why we do the kind of outreach side to try to pull people into the to the rich

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and life-changing story of Easter. Yeah yeah for sure. So moving along through the spring

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you focused on a sermon series that you called the Bible for Grown-ups. Yes and at the same time

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we did a course on Lectio Divina and there was around 80 people who participated in that course

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and at the same time we were doing the Alpha course which had about 49 participants in it. So

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again if you're watching us on YouTube here you can see on the screen some of those Alpha participants

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and so all of these things for me are sort of summarized in this the theme of of reading

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scripture right that your sermon series on reading the Bible how to do Lectio Divina and

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introducing people to the Bible to Christ for the first time. Yeah yeah and so for you yeah what

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why do you think that sort of became a central theme or or moment for us to gather around in the

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spring? Yeah I think that the I mean I think people pick up a Bible I don't I don't know do they

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know what it is they're they're really reading you know like so I I mean I think to try to take a

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step back from the the weekly readings that we read in church and to say what is this what is this

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book right and we we if you remember we had this definition of the Bible which we took from the

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Bible project that said that the Bible is a library of writings that are both divine and human

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and that together tell this unified story that points to Jesus and I I just remember even myself

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personally thinking this is a this is a really helpful way to think about the Bible first of

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all it's a library it's it's not a book it's 66 different books kind of put together it's a it's

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both divine in its origin but it was also written by you know human beings like like you and me and

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and that's not something to be ashamed of or be afraid of right that their fingerprints are all

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over this that's actually much like Jesus himself was both divine and human right there's something

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wonderful about that and yet somehow this is telling one story it's it's it's amazing but it's

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telling one story throughout and that story is pointing constantly pointing to and culminating

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in the the life and person of Jesus like yeah that was I guess my hope is that people would grasp

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just a bigger understanding of what this book is all about yeah yeah I think that's super helpful

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because I think you're right that when some people pick up the Bible they assume that yeah that it is

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just like any other book and it's funny like sometimes I have conversations with people who

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aren't as familiar with Scripture and in in Christianese we would talk about books of the

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Bible or chapters and verses and but if you've never picked up a Bible like why would you know

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that a chapter is it actually the same thing as like a chapter in a novel right like that's right

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yeah yeah and that and then when the Bible was being written nobody knew that they were writing

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a Bible right because I think some people think is like oh when was the Bible written and what

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well nobody thought like oh I'm gonna write part of the Bible here I'm writing Bible no they were

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people were just writing letters they were they were writing poems they were writing stories

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and these things got collected and put into this one volume yeah which again tells us amazing

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amazing story um and then you mentioned we did the Lectio Divina course which is I think was like

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the perfect pairing for this because on the one hand we're intellectually wrestling with what

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this book is but on the other hand we want to spiritually be able to consume it in a way that's

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going to be life-changing for us and I know like the Bible is often referred to in the Bible as a

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book that we should consume these pages are to be kind of like gobbled up and eaten by us but how

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do we how do we do that in the Lectio you took the like you went through the lecture of course like

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how that that spiritual practice do you think that's a helpful way yeah I think so and it's something um

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that because it's fairly straightforward right like there's these four steps that you go through

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it's something that is easily applied in in everyday life in in in any kind of scripture

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reading right it's not like okay this is how you read this particular kind of text or this is how

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you read you know this this book of the Bible no this is a practice that can be adapted for

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whether you're reading Psalms or a letter or a gospel or history like any of it yeah

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sort of yeah be read in this way yeah and I think Sun has if you want to do Bible study we think oh

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I'm gonna need a resource or I'm gonna need a commentary I'm gonna need some Bible teacher

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or DVD or something like that but this way of reading the scriptures devotionally based it's

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based on the idea simply of reading listening re rereading contemplating you know being silent

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before the text listening for what God is just you don't need any other resources at least with

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Lectio because the belief is God speaks from these words speaks from these pages to us and we just

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have to somehow slow ourselves down and put ourselves in a space where we can actually hear

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what God is saying to us yeah it's right there for us yeah yeah for sure um and how do you think

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that so we did we did this sort of a couple months time focusing on scripture so how do you think

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trinities like other ministries are helping to be helping people to keep doing that sort of throughout

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the year well I I know that we um have I mean I guess I'm thinking of life groups yeah life groups

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are where these little groups of people that meet all over the city here where they gather around the

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Bible they gather around food and they they try to read and understand and discuss and apply the

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scripture to their lives so I don't know if if they're if Lectio becomes like a tool that life

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groups are using oh probably not I think it's probably something people are using in their

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own devotional lives um but yeah I don't I don't know what else to really say about that yeah yeah

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yeah I know I think you're right that that life groups are sort of one area where we do that I

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think um so we did another alpha course this this fall that sort of continued that and I think even

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like so I really appreciated our deep dive into the book of Habakkuk right because even that was

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enough of a focus on one particular text yes one particular book to sort of give us a sense of like

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how do we even read a book of the Bible right and and what does it mean to sort of go through it

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yeah in that way that's right it's you're right like we just finished a series looking at you know

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the the Christmas story through the lens of Charles Dickens that's that's I'm not I think

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there's lots to be learned there but yes it is very important to also be doing focus time just

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looking at a book of the Bible or a chapter of a book of the Bible and really unpacking because

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it's it's a it's a gold mine like you you can never really exhaust uh the pages of scriptures

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always more to learn just yeah yeah yeah so from there we moved into a sermon series on the fruit

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of the spirit yes um and to go along with this fruit of the spirit theme we also did these fun

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Trinity Bakes videos yeah and so you can see if you're watching on YouTube on the screen there you

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can see Travis and Eric and their hard work that they really put into those videos and making it a

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kind of fun way for folks to engage with us yeah um now if you look at those videos they're not

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particularly faith-based no they're fun uh and they related a bit to the sermon and what you

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were talking about yeah um so for you what do you see as sort of the role of that that kind of a

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a video that kind of content yeah I think that two things were going on with those videos and one

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was definitely uh I'll say there's there's a art it's artistic on the one side I think that

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we have to acknowledge that the church has always been a place where the arts whatever those arts

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might be have been celebrated whether it's dramatic arts or whether it's you know musical arts or

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visual arts or things like that so I think that drama is is just one more way where we're able to

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express the gifts the talents there the creativity that God has built in Jesus and if you know like

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Eric and Travis you know they're just bubbling with this dramatic creativity yeah so so I think on

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the one I think that's the one side of it is this is an art form and they're actually very very good

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at that art form and so um it's inspiring to watch them work and write scripts and do stuff like that

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so and we've actually we we've been doing drama in different ways here in in Lent we had these

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dramatic readings that reflected how people might have felt at the foot of the cross listening to

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Jesus's final words uh and even this advent we've been doing something kind of serious but kind of

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fun kind of reflecting on what what a Christmas Carol might look like if it was done in in a

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modern time so so it's not like the only time we've ventured but I will say I agree with you

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it was certainly the silliest the silliest thing we ever have done on um on but you know even that

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I think there's something well I mean before I say you know like how does it strike you as a person

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who maybe just sat down on a Sunday morning you saw these videos and you're like what are what

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like what is it how did it strike you yeah I mean so at first I feel like the first one was a little

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bit like what is happening but I also know that over the weeks people came to like be excited to

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like see the next one right and like see okay what's gonna happen this week and and yeah how how is

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this gonna move forward and so I think if nothing else it provided people with like an excitement

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and an anticipation for like coming to church and like seeing what Trinity is putting out there

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um but also um so like you said I think it's yeah really valuable just as as an art form as a way

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of expressing our talents and our creativity it also provided moments of like levity and laughter

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yes which like it's not all that often in a church that people just sit there and laugh out loud

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yes but there's something really special about that and yeah almost wholly about it I think right

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like God appreciates laughter I'm sure I yeah I totally agree I think it is actually an effect

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of teaching tool in a way um I mean how many pastors start their sermons with some kind of a joke

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or whatever right like I remember uh Joel Osteen Joel Osteen he always starts his serb is with

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you know I always like to start with telling you a little something funny and then he goes on he

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tells a joke the joke has nothing to do with the sermon nothing at all okay he's just telling a joke

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and he's telling you before he tells the joke I'm gonna tell you a joke now right why I think it just

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something about it people laugh they sit up a little straighter you know they they're relaxed

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they're they're ready to listen now and maybe a way that they weren't before I don't know there but

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there's something about about starting on a humorous note that and we did use these sermons

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as kind of like a lead into the talk on the fruit of the spirit so I think so I think on the one

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hand it's just it's a really interesting teaching strategy yeah but to your point as well I think

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yes it's wonderful to hear people laugh and and I mean here at Christmas we just celebrated

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that you know there is good news of great joy for you and all the people right that the gospel

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is joyful good news and so we should be people of joy people of laughter in that way yeah yeah

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and it provides like sometimes Christians get this reputation of being like super serious and

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stoic and like always worried about doing the wrong things or whatever but like obviously that's not

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us yes you know it allows people to sort of see that there is a light side to this we are people

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who can have fun and people who need to have fun and need a laugh like especially you know you and

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and myself we're in leadership here we're on staff here at Trinity streetsville and we're always

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facing challenges and problems and it would be you know really easy just to kind of always be

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getting hung up on the negative or the problems or the the things we're trying to overcome and so

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you I actually think that having a sense of humor is like an indispensable quality of good of good

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leadership being able to laugh about things and being able to laugh at yourself right to say like oh

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my gosh that was like the worst sermon I've ever preached in my life I can't believe that you know

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the guitar fell over or what you know what I mean like we could either go home with our heads hung

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low thinking oh how horrible or we could learn to laugh and say oh well you know what an idiot I am

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so then this summer we moved into Camp Trinity which has sort of become this this I don't even

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know do you know how long camp Trinity's been running 14 years okay yeah so quite a while

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yeah and this year there was nine over 900 camp registrations which was about 455 individual kids

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but then of course all of our camp staff there was around 40 of them and you know 20 or 30 more

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leaders in training and program volunteers and mentors yeah so you're looking at the screen now

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you can see one of our camp Sunday our camp times there's some leaders leading some music and

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400 or so kids hanging out in the sanctuary there I love how they stand on the pews and jump up and

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down on the pews I don't think the people who come in on Sunday realize that you know a couple

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days ago that was like a little trampoline but yeah um so yeah as you just said camp's been going on

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here 14 years it's sort of become this really integral part of of Trinity's life and so you know

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what what do you see as the role of camp in our sort of wider church life yeah I think camp has

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injected a lot of life and energy into Trinity and it has evolved over the years I Julie Wormald

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who's a previous children's director here she was the one who kind of came up with the idea of camp

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it began really small and it kind of grew and grew and grew over the years now Grace Gwynvon was our

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camp director this past year so she took on that mantle so camp is always an evolving thing the way

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it is now might not be the way it is five years from now we'll have to just kind of see how God

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leads it but I you started by saying two things about all these campers that come and all these

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leaders yeah and those I think are the two sides of the coin that makes camp so valuable on the one

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side we are reaching out to families and to kids in our in our neighborhood and there is no doubt

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that we are building really important connections with them that we are really and truly sharing

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the gospel with them in word and deed and there is really and truly follow up and fruit that gets

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born from that work some that we don't see but others that we do see where kids start coming

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to youth group after going to camp or they come to kids church after camp or they come to camp

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Sunday and then they just start coming to church Sunday by Sunday so it really is an effective way

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for us to spread the gospel and expand the reach of of Trinity in our community and to you know

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for lack you know of a better word just it's it's been instrumental in growing the church yeah

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but on the other side a huge piece of camp is the leadership development of the youth and young

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adults we hire I don't know 15 20 25 young people to help run camp every year and those leaders they

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go through camp training oh and on top of that there's another 20 leaders in training LITs who

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so you've got like 40 like young people who are working for several weeks for you and we invest

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in them through a training week we try to support them through out camp grace had a great idea this

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year we started a mentorship program with the staff so they had a mentor they could talk to

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throughout camp so as they were learning and growing as leaders they had someone to talk to

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and and and to kind of help them unpack their leadership lessons so it's a really hard thing

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for me when I look at these two things I say where is the real value what's the most valuable

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thing about camp is it the the outreach and the impact we're making in the lives of young

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of children and their families in our community or is it the investment that we're making in the

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lives of you know youth and young adults in their own leadership and their ability to kind of teach

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the gospel to other people like I honestly don't know which is sometimes I actually think it's this

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one that the real value is in the development of young people as leaders right but I don't know

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what where how you see it yeah I mean I think I think you're right that that's that's it's sort of

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this double double-sided coin sort of thing um and I think as someone who has worked at churches

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and church camps and stuff like that like I can point to moments and leaders and people that

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were integral in my development in faith and my development as just a person and as a leader

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um and so yeah definitely see the value in that um and at the same time I think like one of the

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things that makes church day camps I think particularly valuable compared to maybe some other

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summer day camps is that often I and I don't know if this is the case with Trinity or not but often

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church day camps are more affordable and and I know we offer scholarship options and things like

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that yeah so that I think provides much needed space for kids and families who other options are just

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out of reach for them right and so for me that's also a really valuable yeah it's a bridge to the

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community that that we're a space that anybody can come in and access yeah and the congregation

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gets behind that by funding these bursaries we're able to offer people uh in order to make sure that

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even kids who can't afford it can can come and be part of camp yeah you're right yeah that's great

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so then we move into September and there was a lot of new things happening in Trinity throughout

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the year but particularly in September so September was when I started in this role so we had some

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staff transition we also launched the discipleship year program in September and we launched the

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community meals program yeah for the first time in September and so again if you're

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watching us on YouTube there you can see a picture from one of our first community meals and in

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September we had around 60 people come in for dinner uh in October and November it was around 80

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people that we had come in um yeah so lots of new things lots of growth happening so what was

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your September like yeah so when I knew you're gonna ask me this question and I started to reflect

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on yeah September was in my mind a a challenge and a real moment of learning for me personally

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and I'll explain why because um there was so much change we had staff coming and we had staff that

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were leaving and staff that announcing they were leaving and we knew we were gonna have to hire to

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hire new staff so we had changes happening in our staff we had new programs that were starting we had

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some other programs that were stopping you know we they're um you know and I used to work at a church

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and the senior pastor uh told me many times he would say you know Rob in in you know biggest

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churches the only constant is change the only constant is change and I think it finally kind of

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hit home to me this September that yes change change is change is something we have to get

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our heads around because a the world is constantly changing right culture is constantly changing so

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therefore the church needs to be changing itself in a way that it kind of is able to continue to

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communicate the gospel in effective ways to a a changing changing world right so that's changing

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on top of that your congregation is changing right this this fall we said goodbye to like three or four

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or key families in our church who have been here for years and years and years and they moved out of

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town right so your your your population is changing but others of course then are are coming in so you

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have to be willing to kind of work with that kind of change when the membership changes I already

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mentioned staff leadership changing that can be you know really disruptive I didn't realize kind of

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actually how much time I would be spending you know puzzling through and thinking through and

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planning and advertising and interviewing and kind of trying to make sure that we have great

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staff here at Trinity God is is good God brought you along right when we needed you God has brought

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a new children's ministry director along right when we need but it's it's more and more change

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that's happening and then and then there's programs that change right you mentioned brand new programs

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starting you know meal programs that's a big program other programs are stopping you know we

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we also have let other programs kind of go along the way side because we kind of discerned you know

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what that's not maybe as effective as it used to be maybe this is another way we should try something

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so you're always experimenting and you never guaranteed that it's going to work out but

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that's just more and more change and I guess on the one hand we should expect there to be change

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because the Holy Spirit is the kind of being that is always bringing about transformation always

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bringing about change in the life of a congregation the life of individuals but on the other hand

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change can be very disruptive and can be very taxing on you kind of emotionally and physically

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it can be very draining to kind of deal with change and you know and and people can get uneasy

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about change when they see change they can get worried about it so so anyways this whole anyways

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I know I just talked for a very long time but my point is simply this that I think my big learning

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this fall is the constancy of change and yet at the same time there are some things that just do

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not change right the gospel does not change God's character does not change our our mission as a

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church does not change our methods might sure right but our mission that we are people who love

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Jesus who want to learn from Jesus who want to live like Jesus and lead other people to Jesus

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that remains the same but I think that as leaders you I other leaders managing change is one of the

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the key aspects of leadership these days that's my thought anyway yeah for sure and I think yeah

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like you said some people can get really uneasy about change and then are some people are just

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really change avoidant yeah right but I think yeah all all of these new things that have started

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happening in Trinity over this you know over this fall but even you know as far back as last year

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when we started doing two services like I think we have seen growth through those things even if

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it's not you know some things have led to a numerical growth but other things have just been

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like a deepening of faith or expanding a skill set or just learning okay we don't want to do that

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again or yes whatever it is right yeah that's right it's through these changes you definitely

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learn oh that didn't work or this this did work yeah and it is oh it's a discerning thing too like

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is God is God leading us in this direction I think sometimes you can only try yeah and you see and

388
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yeah yeah so that that to me I feel like there was I felt like at Trinity actually I had had a long

389
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honeymoon period okay you know I actually felt like I've been here for like four almost four years

390
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and but something I felt just changed a little bit for me this fall not that I people I don't

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love people people don't love me but but it's something just like okay it got real it got real

392
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in a way and it's like yeah this is I gotta be able to figure this out yeah some of that hard work

393
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kicks in yeah yeah so one of the things that didn't change this fall was our trunker treat event well

394
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and I guess it changed a little bit but it continues yeah so you can see on the screen there's some

395
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folks who are carving pumpkins in the church here so we had pumpkin carving we had Halloween crafts

396
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we had a trunker treat so the trick or treating out in the parking lot yeah and there was around

397
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400 families that showed up to this event yeah and so just wondering yeah your your thoughts your

398
00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:16,560
perspective on this and sort of community events in at Trinity yeah I won't say too much more about

399
00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:21,360
this because I feel like I talked about the the Easter egg hunt a bit and and I actually put

400
00:41:21,360 --> 00:41:26,720
this in the very much in the same category as the Easter egg hunt it's an opportunity for us

401
00:41:26,720 --> 00:41:32,320
simply to create an event yeah that invites families into the orbit of this church that kind

402
00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:39,360
of pulls them out of the the crowd a step closer into the community maybe a step closer to curiosity

403
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whatever it is and and then we get to rub shoulders with them build relationships with them make contact

404
00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:51,040
with them and then we can you know always invite them to future events invite them to to

405
00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:56,000
camp invite their kids to camp invite them to Christmas it's all just yeah these events on

406
00:41:56,560 --> 00:42:01,440
on first glance you might say this this isn't really accomplishing much you're not you're not

407
00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:05,760
preaching the gospel it's Halloween you know you're dressing up as ghosts and goblins and like

408
00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:11,920
giving out candy from car trunks like that's where is Jesus in this but um there are some things that

409
00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:18,880
we do that are simply to engage our community in relationship and I think that's what this is

410
00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:25,840
yeah I think the other thing that this does from my perspective is like I think about community

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spaces in general and one of the things that I've heard people talk about is that there's not a lot

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of spaces in a community right now where you can just like go and be without an expectation of

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spending money or like being a certain kind of person or engaging in a particular activity

414
00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:47,520
but so like libraries are one of those spaces right where you can just go and and be and hang out

415
00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:52,000
and you don't have to spend money yeah I think churches can be another one of those spaces yes

416
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:57,760
right and so places like trunk or treat in the Easter I can't like invite our community very

417
00:42:57,760 --> 00:43:02,160
intentionally to just come and be a community together yeah there was a group of people in

418
00:43:02,160 --> 00:43:07,440
the church here today for an ESL class and I'd invited just invited them to come upstairs and

419
00:43:07,440 --> 00:43:15,040
just look at the sanctuary and they're they were just like wow I've never been into a church before

420
00:43:15,040 --> 00:43:20,880
I've never seen this you know before and so yeah you're right sometimes it's just bringing them into

421
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:28,080
the building yeah is is it ministers to people in ways that we don't realize yeah yeah um and then

422
00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:35,120
moving into November we did this Gathering Grow campaign um and the amazing thing one of the

423
00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:42,320
amazing things about this campaign um was that we reached our goal um and on the screen now you're

424
00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:48,240
seeing uh the launch of that capital campaign so we gave out some packages and information to folks

425
00:43:48,240 --> 00:43:54,560
there was some balloons and lots of conversation happening um but yeah we reached our goal within

426
00:43:54,560 --> 00:44:00,640
the month which I don't know what was that what you were expecting did you have an expectation

427
00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:06,720
you know I guess I we wouldn't have undertaken it if we didn't think that it was within reach

428
00:44:06,720 --> 00:44:14,560
sure um so just in case people don't know Trinity's a new building but it's 20 uh 25 years old now

429
00:44:14,560 --> 00:44:20,480
itself and it's uh it's just needs some upkeep and some improvements and yeah and especially in

430
00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:24,960
in the areas of like hospitality where we want to make people feel welcome and access accessibility

431
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:29,440
and visibility there was just some work to be done we just finished a whole series on hospitality

432
00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:33,920
and we thought you know what we've been talking about this for a year now's the right time we need

433
00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:38,160
to raise about a quarter of a million dollars let's just take the month of November and see if

434
00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:44,080
we can just raise it in that time through gifts and pledges and yeah it was really exciting to

435
00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:51,280
announce to the congregation a few Sundays ago that we in fact had raised 275 thousand dollars

436
00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:55,840
and there was a moment at our board meeting where we were like hmm there's only two weeks to go and

437
00:44:55,840 --> 00:45:00,400
we're not really near our goal yet and uh and so we were like should we start like putting a

438
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:05,440
thermometer up and showing the congregation where we're at and to kind of like maybe get some panic

439
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:11,840
going and people like oh my gosh we're way we're not nowhere near our goal yet and or and and the

440
00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:17,840
the the advisory board you know I think prayerfully made the right decision to say no let's just leave

441
00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:22,880
this up to god let's leave it up to the spirit let's leave it up to spirit to move people's

442
00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:28,960
hearts to give and whatever comes of it it comes of it let's not make anyone feel pressured or

443
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:36,320
coerced into giving and it was definitely a word from god because we we ended up just inviting

444
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:41,920
people to give uh not not trying to pressure people or using a tactics like that and and in

445
00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:47,600
the end we exceeded our goal and it was a great great blessing I'm just so grateful for the generosity

446
00:45:47,600 --> 00:45:52,880
of these people yeah sure so obviously that means there's going to be a lot of work happening here

447
00:45:52,880 --> 00:46:00,720
in 2025 yeah and 2026 and 2026 yeah so got got some time but yeah lots lots to look forward to yeah

448
00:46:00,720 --> 00:46:06,720
lots in some ways lots but a lot of it is you know just the things like yeah I gotta fix up these

449
00:46:06,720 --> 00:46:11,600
floors gotta fix up these doors gotta fix up these lights and stuff like that so some of it's not like

450
00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:17,760
wow stuff uh it's just like it's time stuff right it's time to do this work take care of this building

451
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:25,280
um yeah yeah um and so as we look ahead into 2025 is there anything you're looking forward to

452
00:46:26,480 --> 00:46:32,800
well we are going to be in january we're starting a new teaching series I am looking forward to that

453
00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:39,040
yeah uh we're going to be looking at uh that a little bit of the book of Hebrews chapter 11

454
00:46:39,040 --> 00:46:47,360
of the book of Hebrews uh which um we're going to call this series uh heroes and the subtitle is

455
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:53,920
stories of faith stories of faith and we're going to look at some of the the book of Hebrews 11 you

456
00:46:53,920 --> 00:47:01,760
should go and read it uh the author highlights these key people uh who who in his or her thinking

457
00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:08,480
where essential or like hallmarks of faith and heroes of faith that we can learn a lot from so

458
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:13,200
we're going to be going through the that little hall of fame uh hall of faith as it's called sometimes

459
00:47:13,200 --> 00:47:16,960
and looking at these people lives and see what we can learn from this so that's going to be starting

460
00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:21,520
on january the i think fifth whatever the first sunday is in j and then i want to let people

461
00:47:21,520 --> 00:47:25,840
know that in lent we're also going to do something different we're going to be uh spending lent looking

462
00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:32,560
at the seven deadly sins we're going to do the series called seven and uh that'll be i think a

463
00:47:32,560 --> 00:47:38,160
great way for us to to look inside ourselves during lent and prepare for Easter so stay tuned for that

464
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:45,200
yeah for sure yeah so it feels like it's been a bit of a whirlwind we just went through this this

465
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:51,120
whole year um any final thoughts or reflections yes i do have one final thought and i was after

466
00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:56,240
this whole year is done we come to the end of the year and we get received this wonderful little text

467
00:47:56,240 --> 00:48:00,400
message from our family that visited a few weeks ago and i thought i would just read it to you

468
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:05,680
because this is what it's all about this is why we go through all the ups and downs and the hard work

469
00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:11,520
of the year and so i just wanted uh i just wrote it down here uh hello rob i wanted to say how much

470
00:48:11,520 --> 00:48:17,200
i want to say thank you so much for reaching out we truly appreciate it apologize wanted to message

471
00:48:17,200 --> 00:48:21,600
back blah blah blah we've been going to another church we never felt really connected we'd actually

472
00:48:21,600 --> 00:48:27,840
lost touch and have been missing that sense of church and community when we came to trinity

473
00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:33,840
we didn't know what to expect and we felt so welcomed it was unbelievable we were given a tour

474
00:48:34,480 --> 00:48:40,560
and and just have to say the community and the sermon really touched us both so thank you we're

475
00:48:40,560 --> 00:48:46,880
so excited and have signed up for the caroling night we were shocked to see our kids feel so welcomed

476
00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:51,440
and went right into the room on sunday and stayed the whole time and that's a true testament to them

477
00:48:51,440 --> 00:48:56,080
feeling safe them enjoying their time and wanting to attend next sunday makes us feel like we've

478
00:48:56,080 --> 00:49:02,880
finally found exactly what we've been missing and when i read that i'm like yes that's what it's all

479
00:49:02,880 --> 00:49:10,240
about that's why we do this yeah yeah yeah for sure yeah so um as we've gone through this year we've

480
00:49:10,240 --> 00:49:15,600
reflected on how god has been faithful god has brought us through i mean all of the ups and downs

481
00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:20,800
all of the changes all of these things god has brought us families like this who we have the

482
00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:27,120
opportunity to bless and they bless us by their presence amen and yeah i trust that god will continue

483
00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:33,360
to lead us through the year ahead yes lord more yeah okay well thank you for tuning in to this week's

484
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:38,720
episode of trinity talks um maybe you can share what have been some of your own favorite memories

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00:49:38,720 --> 00:49:54,640
from 2024 and we look forward to continuing to connect with you in 2025 happy new year