Trinity Streetsville
Trinity in 2024! | Trinity Talks Podcast
[MUSIC] Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity Talks. My name is Kyla, and I'm the online engagement director here at Trinity. >> My name is Rob, and I am the pastor here at Trinity Streetsville. Good morning, everyone. >> As we're now nearing the end of 2024, I thought it would be fun to sit down with Rob and just look through the year that was, and all of the many things that have happened at Trinity this year. >> It's like, you know, Spotify tells you this time of year. This is all the things you listen to in the year that was, Spotify wrapped. >> Yes. >> So this is Trinity Streetsville wrapped. >> Yes. >> There we go. >> So we'll go all the way back to the very beginning of this year, starting in January. >> Yep. >> In January, we hosted the annual week of prayer event. And so if you're watching this on YouTube, you can see now a picture on the screen there of some folks who are writing on a prayer wall. And the theme this year was Dream Big, which was based on Martin Luther King Jr's speech, "I have a dream." >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So what do you recall from that week? >> Well, this is the second or third time that we've had this week of prayer that we have set aside now at the very beginning of a year, which is a fantastic idea, and I commend the prayer planning team for all the creative thought they put into it, because I think they realize not everybody prays the same way either, right? So some of us like to, you know, fold our hands and pray. Signally, others like to pray out loud, but they go a step further, and they provide ways for people to pray visually and, you know, aesthetically, and I really, really appreciate the thought they're putting into it. But yeah, the whole idea of Dream Big, or I have a dream. Yeah, it actually, so you remember, just before that happened, we did a whole teaching series on, you know, Dreaming Big, because we were starting a lot of new things as a church. Namely, we were starting the second service, which was a big undertaking. And, you know, there was a lot of volunteers and a lot of people that were involved in that. And we, I think that we decided we better start the year with that same kind of theme of big dreams, big plans, but also, you know, big prayers. Because for all of our efforts and all of our planning and our ideas, if we're not praying about this and not inviting God into these plans, it's not going to go anywhere. Yeah, yeah. In fact, I was just thinking there's one scripture in Mark 9, where Jesus comes down a hill and his disciples are there. They're trying to cast out a demon out of this child, this kid, and they can't do it. And they're like, "We've tried everything, it won't work." And Jesus says to them, he says, "This kind only comes out by prayer." And I love that statement because what Jesus is kind of saying is there are some things that can only be done through the power of prayer, right? I suppose there's some things we can do if we have our own, you know, ability and our own ingenuity that God has given us those gifts, we can accomplish some things. But then there are some other big challenges, other big opportunities and big problems that can only be addressed and solved through prayer. And I don't know about you, but I feel like in a church, there's so many things that we are tackling day by day that if we're not praying, we're going to be in deep, deep trouble. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I feel like, sort of similarly, I feel like that week of prayer grounded us in a way to then go forth and try new things this year and feel like, yeah, even in praying through those things, you know? We set aside this one particular week in which we focus on praying for these big dreams, but then obviously that sort of sets a precedent, right, for how we continue throughout the rest of the year. Yeah, and I would say that, for example, the staff now, or we've begun a weekly, you know, half hour of prayer. So that pattern of prayer starts with an intense week at the beginning of the year, but then it's become a weekly pattern for us as a staff throughout the year. And hopefully for everyone, prayer is a daily pattern as well just happening in these different kind of cycles throughout our life. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So if we move into February, in February, we had a visit from Bishop Kevin and he did some confirmation and receiving folks into the Anglican Communion. So again, if you're watching us on YouTube, you can see on the screen there, Rob and Bishop Kevin, along with some of those who were confirmed and received into the Anglican Communion. So there were 10 folks confirmed and two folks received into the Anglican Communion. Absolutely, yeah. And so for you as an Anglican priest, how does that sort of, yeah, how does that moment fit into sort of your own life and faith and leadership here? Yeah, we don't have the bishop visit very often here at Trinity. I love Bishop Kevin. Bishop Kevin's the best. I was so glad he was able to visit with us, but yes, you know, confirmation for those of you who don't know, confirmation is that moment in our lives where people who were baptized as infants kind of say, you know what, I want to claim these promises for my own, I want to kind of stand up and declare my faith and confirm the promises that my parents made on my behalf when I was younger. So that's like a powerful moment in and of itself, but confirmation is something one of the few things that's only done by bishops, right? I can't do it, you can't do it, we have to have the bishop come in to do it. And so it's beautiful because it is an opportunity to remind us that we're part of something bigger as a church, right, like so many times a week in a week out, we can kind of get sometimes just looking within our four walls and get a sense of like this, this is the church. But when something like confirmation comes around and a bishop comes in, a bishop who represents not just a church, but the wider church and bishops have this other thing that they do to us is that we remind us that we're part of a church that traces itself back through thousands of years back to Jesus Christ himself, right through the whole apostolic succession and the laying on our hands of bishops and all that stuff. So yeah, it's a powerful moment when the bishop comes to visit. It's this reminder, we're part of something bigger. I don't know if you feel that. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, that Sunday in particular was really meaningful for me on a number of different levels, but one of the things that I do really appreciate about the Anglican church is that it is part of this larger network, right? That as a church, we're given opportunities to set some ministries and discern our vision a little bit, but we don't do that in a bubble. We do that under your leadership, but your leadership, under the leadership of the bishop, under the leadership of the sort of global Anglican church, right? Yes, yes. And we get to learn from each other and we get to discern together and we get to provide resources and knowledge sharing and all of these things together. And I think that makes churches stronger when they can cooperate like that. Do you think people are actually looking for churches that have that kind of deeper connection to history? Like, I have a hunch that maybe if people are looking for a church that they don't want a church that feels like it was just created yesterday. Sure, yeah. They want to feel like I am part of something that goes way back. Yeah, I think so. And I think people, I mean, they want a church that is, I think, both part of history and, like, speaking something relevant to the current moment, right? But I think you need both of those things, right? Like, you don't want a church that's stuck in a certain historical time period. But you also don't want a church that, yeah, it's just sort of going with the flow, right? And if we're only speaking what's relevant and out there in culture, then, like, what's the difference between a church and anything you're watching on TV, right? Yeah. And so those, when the bishop comes and we do things like confirmation, it's a reminder that we're part of something that stretches deep through history, but also part of something that stretches wide around the world, right? Where there's something like 80 million Anglicans in countries all over the world, and because of the massive growth of the Anglican church, especially in the Southern Hemisphere, they're predicting that that number is going to, like, double by the year 2050 or something like that. So it's just, I don't know, it's just something about it reminds us, oh, yeah, this is a big family, diverse family as well, you know? Yeah, and I think the diversity of it is, at least for me, something that's also especially important, right? That so often Christians will sort of get in their church and do things their way and then say, well, I don't like these other Christians, or I can't get along with these other Christians because of XYZ thing. Yeah. But in the Anglican communion, I mean, there are, there are central things that we all have to believe and hold in common, but there is room for that diversity. Yes, and that is what the Anglican communion or Anglican sometimes called the Via Media, right, which is this belief that, yes, we prioritize the Holy Scriptures, we believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We, you know, we, there are the creeds, for example, hold us together, and yet there's also this sense that we try to occupy this kind of middle space that somehow on the one hand does prevent us from slipping off to fundamentalism on this side, but on the other hand, prevents us from slipping off into complete liberalism on the other side, but there is like this middle way that the Anglican church tries to chart through this diverse family that spans centuries. It's a beautiful thing, and yeah, confirmation, it doesn't, you know, most people don't think of it, but it is a little reminder that we're part of all that. Yeah. Yeah. That's super cool. Another thing, another moment that often brings folks together is Easter, and obviously Easter is sort of the pinnacle Sunday, the pinnacle moment in the church year. And so it's true for us as well. Easter Sunday is our biggest service of the year. So this year we had over 500 folks who joined us for Easter Sunday morning service, and we did this community outreach Easter event. Yes. The Easter egg hunt and inviting folks in to do some crafts and painting. And there was over 800 folks who attended that event, and so again, if you're watching us on YouTube, you can see on the screen there are some folks who are painting Easter eggs here at the church. Yeah, so for you, Rob, Easter is a very busy time, but what sort of stands out to you from Easter this year? Well, we're doing this interview right now, just having gone through Christmas, right? And it's very interesting to me because I think Christmas is a holiday that many, many people celebrate, even if they're not Christians, if they're not churchgoers, right? And so maybe in some ways, churches are packed out on Christmas and Christmas Eve, and it's a little easier because I think everyone likes to get in that Christmas spirit. I think Easter is different. I know it's different in our culture because I don't think people celebrate the season or the holiday of Easter in the same way that maybe all the commercialism and stuff pushes us toward the celebration of Christmas. I don't know. I'm just kind of comparing the two in my head, I guess, right now is what I'm doing. That being said, though, Easter was very busy here, and I was actually the one thing that struck me was actually Good Friday. I don't know if you remember, but Good Friday was full, like, I mean, full full here to the point where afterwards we were like, next year, do we have to have two Good Friday services, which we've, you know, I don't think we've ever done that. But there was literally, we were pulling chairs out and standing room for Good Friday. I don't know what to make of that. Is there something about the, maybe the solemnity or the darkness or the mystery of Good Friday that draws people? I was just, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I wonder, yeah, that is interesting. I wonder that too. And I think there's something about Good Friday, like Easter Sunday is full of all of this hype, right? And rightfully so, and rightfully so, right? Like it's a moment of celebration. But I would say this about advent to the moment of celebration, Easter Christmas are great, but actually we don't live most of our lives in celebration mode. Most of our lives is lived in waiting mode or in struggle mode, right? And so something like Good Friday sort of, I don't know, it speaks to us in a different way. Yeah, I think we, yeah, we noticed that in this last series we did about lament. People actually connect with these themes. And again, it's interesting. It's interesting because Christmas was not celebrated by the church for like the first three or four hundred years of the church's life. It just was not a thing. It was not a noteworthy celebration. Easter though, of course. That was the very reason why the church ever came into existence in the first place, right? Had there been no resurrection, there would be no hope people would not have, you know, yeah, it's so, yeah. So just, yeah, comparing those two holidays is kind of an interesting exercise in your mind. Yeah, for sure. And I think there's a lot of rich theological meaning in the days leading up to Easter and the weeks leading up to Easter too. That sort of, yeah, gives it a more, a more rounded sort of time and way to approach this celebration, this commemoration. Yeah, I mean, and the Easter egg hunt that we do is, I guess it's in some ways, it's an opportunity to get out to the community and to bring them in, yes, for painting Easter eggs and yes, for decorating Easter cookies or whatever. Yeah, sure, or going on Easter egg hunt. But really, I guess what it does is it also brings people into our building. It brings people into this sacred space where they maybe start to ask, what is Easter all about? And we get to rub shoulders with them and perhaps develop some relationships with them. And so that, I think, is why we do the kind of outreach side to try to pull people into the rich and life-changing story of Easter. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So moving along through the spring, you focused on a sermon series that you called the Bible for grownups. Yes. And at the same time, we did a course on Lectio Divina, and there was around 80 people who participated in that course. And at the same time, we were doing the Alpha course, which had about 49 participants in it. So again, if you're watching us on YouTube here, you can see on the screen some of those Alpha participants. And so all of these things, for me, are sort of summarized in this theme of reading scripture, right? That your sermon series on reading the Bible, how to do Lectio Divina and introducing people to the Bible to Christ for the first time. Yeah. And so for you, why do you think that sort of became a central theme or moment for us to gather around in the spring? Yeah. I think people pick up a Bible. I don't know. Do they know what it is they're really reading? Yeah. So I think to try to take a step back from the weekly readings that we read in church and to say, what is this book? Right. If you remember, we had this definition of the Bible, which we took from the Bible project that said that the Bible is a library of writings that are both divine and human, that together tell this unified story that points to Jesus. And I just remember even myself personally thinking, this is a really helpful way to think about the Bible. First of all, it's a library. It's not a book. It's 66 different books kind of put together. It's both divine in its origin, but it was also written by human beings, like you and me. And that's not something to be ashamed of or be afraid of, right? That their fingerprints are all over this. That's actually much like Jesus himself was both divine and human, right? There's something wonderful about that. And yet somehow this is telling one story. It's amazing, but it's telling one story throughout. And that story is constantly pointing to and culminating in the life and person of Jesus. Yeah, that was, I guess, my hope is that people would grasp just a bigger understanding of what this book is all about. Yeah, I think that's super helpful because I think you're right that when some people pick up the Bible, they assume that it is just like any other book. And it's funny because sometimes I'll have conversations with people who aren't as familiar with Scripture. In Christianese, we would talk about books of the Bible or chapters and verses. But if you've never picked up a Bible, why would you know that a chapter isn't actually the same thing as a chapter in a novel, right? That's right. And then when the Bible was being written, nobody knew that they were writing a Bible, right? Because I think some people think, "When was the Bible written?" Well, nobody thought, "Oh, I'm going to write part of the Bible here. I'm writing Bible." No, people were just writing letters. They were writing poems. They were writing stories. And these things got collected and put into this one volume, which, again, tells this amazing, amazing story. And then you mentioned we did the Lectio Divina course, which is, I think, was the perfect pairing for this, because on the one hand, we're intellectually wrestling with what this book is. But on the other hand, we want to spiritually be able to consume it in a way that's going to be life-changing for us. And I know the Bible is often referred to in the Bible as a book that we should consume. These pages are to be gobbled up and eaten by us. But how do we do that? Lectio, you went through the lecture, of course. That spiritual practice. Did you think that's a helpful way? Yeah, I think so. And it's something that, because it's fairly straightforward, right, like there's these four steps that you go through, it's something that is easily applied in everyday life, in any kind of scripture reading, right? It's not like, okay, this is how you read this particular kind of text, or this is how you read, you know, this book of the Bible. No, this is a practice that can be adapted for whether you're reading Psalms, or a letter, or a gospel, or history, like any of it. You can sort of, yeah, be read in this way. And I think Son has, if you want to do Bible study, we think, oh, I'm going to need a resource. So I'm going to need a commentary. I'm going to need some Bible teacher, or DVD, or something like that. But this way of reading the scriptures devotionally, based on the idea, simply of reading, listening, re-reading, contemplating, you know, being silent before the text. Listening for what God is just, you don't need any other resources, at least with Lectio, because the belief is God speaks from these words, speaks from these pages to us. And we just have to somehow slow ourselves down and put ourselves in a space where we can actually hear what God is saying to us. It's right there for us. Yeah, for sure. And how do you think that, so we did this sort of a couple months time focusing on scripture? So how do you think Trinity's, like other ministries are helping people to keep doing that sort of throughout the year? Well, I know that we have, I mean, I guess I'm thinking of life groups. Life groups are where these little groups of people that meet all over the city here, where they gather around the Bible, they gather around food, and they try to read and understand and discuss and apply the scripture to their lives. So I don't know if Lectio becomes a tool that life groups are using, or probably not. I think it's probably something people are using in their own devotional lives. But yeah, I don't know what else to really say about that. Yeah. Yeah, no, I think you're right that life groups are sort of one area where we do that. I think, so we did another alpha course, this fall that sort of continued that. And I think even like, so I really appreciated our deep dive into the book of Habakkuk, right? Because even that was enough of a focus on one particular text, one particular book, to sort of give us a sense of like, how do we even read a book of the Bible, right? And what does it mean to sort of go through it in that way? Yeah. That's right. It's, you're right. Like we just finished a series looking at, you know, the Christmas story through the lens of Charles Dickens. That's, that's, I'm not, I think there's lots to be learned there. But yes, it is very important to also be doing focus time, just looking at a book of the Bible or a chapter of a book of the Bible and really unpacking. Because it's a, it's a goldmine. Like you can never really exhaust the pages of scriptures. Always more to learn. Just, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So from there, we moved into a sermon series on the fruit of the spirit. Yes. And to go along with this fruit of the spirit theme, we also did these fun Trinity Bakes videos. Yeah. And so you can see, if you're watching on YouTube on the screen there, you can see Travis and Eric and their hard work that they really put into those videos and making it a kind of fun way for folks to engage with us. Yeah. Now, if you look at those videos, they're not particularly faith based. Nope. They're fun. And they related a bit to the sermon and what you were talking about. So for you, what do you see as sort of the role of that, that kind of a video, that kind of content? Yeah. I think that two things were going on with those videos. And one was definitely, I'll say there's, it's artistic on the one side. I think that we have to acknowledge that the church has always been a place where the arts, whatever those arts might be, have been celebrated. Whether it's dramatic arts or whether it's, you know, musical arts or visual arts or things like that. So I think that drama is just one more way where we're able to express the gifts, the talents, the creativity that God has built in Jesus. And if you know, like Eric and Travis, you know, they're just bubbling with this dramatic creativity. Yeah. So I think on the one, I think that's the one side of it is this is an art form. And they're actually very, very good at that art form. And so it's inspiring to watch them work and write scripts and do stuff like that. So, and we've actually, we've been doing drama in different ways here in Lent. We had these dramatic readings that reflected how people might have felt at the foot of the cross listening to Jesus' final words. And even this advent, we've been doing something kind of serious, but kind of fun, kind of reflecting on what a Christmas carol might look like if it was done in a modern time. So it's not like the only time we've ventured. But I will say, I agree with you. It was certainly the silliest thing we ever have done on. But, you know, even that, I think there's something, well, I mean, before I say, how does it strike you as a person who maybe just sat down on a Sunday morning? You saw these videos and you're like, what are, what, like, what is it? How did it strike you? Yeah, I mean, so at first, I feel like the first one was a little bit like what is happening to you. But I also know that over the weeks, people came to, like, be excited to, like, see the next one. I did, like, see, okay, what's going to happen this week? And yeah, how is this going to move forward? And so I think if nothing else, it provided people with, like, an excitement and an anticipation for, like, coming to church and, like, seeing what Trinity is putting out there. But also, so like you said, I think it's really valuable just as an art form, as a way of expressing our talents and our creativity. It also provided moments of, like, levity and laughter, which, like, it's not all that often in a church that people just sit there and laugh out loud. But there's something really special about that and almost wholly about it, I think, right? Like, God appreciates laughter, I'm sure. Yeah, I totally agree. I think it is actually an effective teaching tool in a way. I mean, how many pastors start their sermons with some kind of a joke or whatever, right? Like, I remember Joel Osteen. Joel Osteen, he always starts his service with, you know, "I always like to start with telling you a little something funny." And then he goes on and he tells a joke. The joke has nothing to do with the sermon, nothing at all. He's just telling a joke and he's telling you before he tells a joke, "I'm going to tell you a joke now, right? Why?" I think it's just something about it that people laugh, they sit up a little straighter, you know, they're relaxed, they're ready to listen now. And maybe a way that they weren't before. I don't know. But there's something about starting on a humorous note that, and we did use these sermons as kind of like a lead into the talk on the fruit of the spirit. So I think on the one hand, it's just it's really interesting teaching strategy. Yeah. But to your point as well, I think, yes, it's wonderful to hear people laugh. And, I mean, here at Christmas, we just celebrated that, you know, there is good news of great joy for you and all the people, right? That the gospel is joyful, good news. And so we should be people of joy, people of laughter in that way. Yeah, yeah. And it provides like sometimes Christians get this reputation of being like super serious and stoic and like always worried about doing the wrong things or whatever. But like, obviously that's not us. Yes. You know, it allows people to sort of see that there is a light side to this. We are people who can have fun. And people who need to have fun and need a lot of like, especially, you know, you and myself, we're in leadership here. We're on staff here at Trinity streets. Well, and we're always facing challenges and problems. And it would be, you know, really easy just to kind of always be getting hung up on the negative or the problems or the things we're trying to overcome. And so you, I actually think that having a sense of humor is like an indispensable quality of good, of good leadership, being able to laugh about things and being able to laugh at yourself, right? To say like, oh my gosh, that was like the worst sermon I've ever preached in my life. I can't believe that, you know, the guitar fell over or what, you know what I mean? Like, we could either go home with our heads hung low thinking, Oh, how horrible or we could learn to laugh and say, Oh, well, you know, what an idiot I am. So then this summer, we moved into camp Trinity, which is sort of become this. I don't even know. Do you know how long camp Trinity's been running? 14 years. Okay. Yeah, so quite a while. Yeah. And this year, there was nine over 900 camp registrations, which was about 455 individual kids. But then, of course, all of our camp staff, there was around 40 of them and, you know, 20 or 30 more leaders in training and program volunteers and mentors. Yeah, so if you're looking at the screen now, you can see one of our camp Sunday, our camp times. There's some leaders leading some music and 400 or so, hanging out in the sanctuary there. I love how they stand on the pews and jump up and down on the pews. I don't think the people who come in on Sunday realize that, you know, a couple of days ago, that was like a little trampoline. Yeah, so yeah, as you just said, camps have been going on here 14 years. It's sort of become this really integral part of Trinity's life. And so, you know, what do you see as the role of camp in our sort of wider church life? Yeah, I think camp has injected a lot of life and energy into Trinity. And it has evolved over the years. I, Julie Wormald, who's a previous children's director here, she was the one who kind of came up with the idea of camp. It began really small and it kind of grew and grew and grew over the years. Now, Grace Guinvon was our camp director this past year, so she took on that mantle. So camp is always an evolving thing. The way it is now might not be the way it is five years from now. We'll have to just kind of see how God leads it. But I, you started by saying two things about all these campers that come in all these leaders. Yeah. And those, I think, are the two sides of the coin that makes camp so valuable. On the one side, we are reaching out to families and to kids in our neighborhood. And there is no doubt that we are building really important connections with them, that we are really and truly sharing the gospel with them inward indeed. And there is really and truly follow up and fruit that gets born from that work. Some that we don't see, but others that we do see, where kids start coming to youth group after going to camp. Or they come to kids church after camp. Or they come to camp Sunday and then they just start coming to church Sunday by Sunday. So it really is an effective way for us to spread the gospel and expand the reach of Trinity in our community. And to, you know, for lack of a better word, it's been instrumental in growing the church. Yeah. But on the other side, a huge piece of camp is the leadership development of the youth and young adults. We hire, I don't know, 15, 20, 25 young people to help run camp every year. And those leaders, they go through camp training. Oh, and on top of that, there's another 20 leaders in training, LITs. So you've got like 40 young people who are working for several weeks for you, and we invest in them through a training week. We try to support them throughout camp. Grace had a great idea this year. We started a mentorship program with the staff so they had a mentor they could talk to throughout camp. So as they were learning and growing as leaders, they had someone to talk to and to kind of help them unpack their leadership lessons. So it's a really hard thing for me when I look at these two things. I say, where is the real value? What's the most valuable thing about camp? Is it the outreach and the impact we're making in the lives of young children and their families in our community? Or is it the investment that we're making in the lives of youth and young adults in their own leadership and their ability to kind of teach the gospel to other people? Like, I honestly don't know which is... Sometimes I actually think it's this one that the real value is in the development of young people as leaders. But I don't know how you see it. Yeah, I mean, I think you're right that it's sort of this double-sided coin sort of thing. And I think as someone who has worked at churches and church camps and stuff like that, like I can point to moments and leaders and people that were integral in my development in faith and my development as just a person and as a leader. And so yeah, definitely see the value in that. And at the same time, I think one of the things that makes church day camps, I think particularly valuable compared to maybe some other summer day camps is that often, and I don't know if this is the case with Trinity or not, but often church day camps are more affordable and I know we offer scholarship options and things like that. So that I think provides much needed space for kids and families who other options are just out of reach for them. And so for me, that's also a really valuable bridge to the community that we're a space that anybody can come in and access. Yeah, and the congregation gets behind that by funding these bursaries who are able to offer people in order to make sure that even kids who can't afford it can come and be part of camp. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, that's great. So then we move into September and there was a lot of new things happening in Trinity throughout the year, but particularly in September. So September was when I started in this role, so we had some staff transition. We also launched the discipleship year program in September, and we launched the community meals program for the first time in September. And so again, if you're watching us on YouTube there, you can see a picture from one of our first community meals. And in September, we had around 60 people come in for dinner in October and November. It was around 80 people that we had come in. Yeah, so lots of new things, lots of growth happening. So what was your September like? Yeah, so when I knew you were going to ask me this question and I started to reflect on September was in my mind a challenge and a real moment of learning for me personally. And I'll explain why because there was so much change. We had staff coming and we had staff that were leaving and staff that announcing they were leaving. And we knew we were going to have to hire new staffs. We had changes happening in our staff. We had new programs that were starting. We had some other programs that were stopping. And I used to work at a church and the senior pastor told me many times he would say, "Rob, in biggest churches, the only constant is change. The only constant is change." And I think it finally kind of hit home to me this September that, yes, change. Change is something we have to get our heads around because, A, the world is constantly changing. Right? Culture is constantly changing. So therefore the church needs to be changing itself in a way that it kind of is able to continue to communicate the gospel in effective ways to a changing world. Right? So that's changing. On top of that, your congregation is changing. Right? This fall, we said goodbye to like three or four key families in our church who have been here for years and years and years and they moved out of town. Right? So your population is changing, but others of course then are coming in. So you have to be willing to kind of work with that kind of change when the membership changes. I already mentioned staff leadership changing. That can be, you know, really disruptive. I didn't realize kind of actually how much time I would be spending, you know, puzzling through and thinking through and planning and advertising and interviewing and kind of trying to make sure that we have great staff here at Trinity. God is good. God brought you along. Right when we needed you. God has brought a new children's ministry director along. Right when we needed it. But it's more and more change that's happening. And then there's programs that change. Right? You mentioned brand new programs starting, you know, meal programs. That's a big program. Other programs are stopping. You know, we also have let other programs kind of go along the wayside because we kind of discerned, you know what? That's not maybe as effective as it used to be. Maybe this is another way we should try something. So you're always experimenting and you never guaranteed that it's going to work out. But that's just more and more change. And I guess on the one hand we should expect there to be change because the Holy Spirit is the kind of being that is always bringing about transformation and always bringing about change in the life of a congregation, the life of individuals. But on the other hand, change can be very disruptive and can be very taxing on you kind of emotionally and physically, it can be very draining to kind of deal with change. And, you know, and people can get uneasy about change when they see change. They can get worried about it. So, so anyways, this whole, anyways, I know I just talked for a very long time. But my point is simply this that I think my big learning this fall is the constancy of change. And yet at the same time, there are some things that just do not change, right? The gospel does not change. God's character does not change. Our mission as a church does not change. Our methods might, right? But our mission that we are people who love Jesus, who want to learn from Jesus, who want to live like Jesus and lead other people to Jesus, that remains the same. But I think that as leaders, you, I, other leaders, managing change is one of the key aspects of leadership these days. That's my thought anyway. Yeah, for sure. And I think, yeah, like you said, some people can get really uneasy about change. And then some people are just really change avoidant, right? But I think all of these new things that have started happening in Trinity over this, you know, over this fall. But even, you know, as far back as last year, when we started doing two services, like I think we have seen growth through those things. And if it's not, you know, some things have led to a numerical growth, but other things have just been like a deepening of faith or expanding a skill set or just learning, okay, we don't want to do that again or whatever it is, right? Yeah, that's right. Through these changes, you definitely learn, oh, that didn't work or this, this did work. Yeah. And it's a discerning thing too, like is God, is God leading us in this direction? Yeah, I think sometimes you can only try and you see and, yeah, yeah. So that, that to me, I feel like there was, I felt like at Trinity actually, I had had a long honeymoon period, you know, I actually felt like I've been here for like four, almost four years. And, but something I felt just changed a little bit for me this fall and not that I've, people, I don't love people and people don't love me, but, but it's something just like, okay, it got real. It got real in a way and it's like, yeah, this is, I got to be able to figure this out. Yeah. Yeah. Some of that hard work kicks in. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So one of the things that didn't change this fall was our trunk or treat event. Well, I'm, I guess it changed a little bit, but it continues. Yeah. So you can see on the screen, there's some folks who are carving pumpkins in the church here. So we had pumpkin carving, we had Halloween crafts, we had a trunk or treat. So the trigger treating out in the parking lot. Yeah. And there was around 400 families that showed up to this event. Yeah. And so just wondering, yeah, your, your thoughts, your perspective on this and sort of community events and at Trinity. Yeah. I won't say too much more about this because I feel like I talked about the Easter egg hunt a bit. Yeah. And I actually put this in the very much in the same category as the Easter egg hunt. It's an opportunity for us simply to create an event that invites families into the orbit of this church, that kind of pulls them out of the, the crowd, a step closer into the community, maybe a step closer to curiosity, whatever it is. And then we get to rub shoulders with them, build relationships with them, make contact with them. And then we can, you know, always invite them to future events and invite them to, to camp invite their kids to camp, invite them to Christmas. It's all just, yeah, these events on, on first glance, you might say this, this isn't really accomplishing much. You're not, you're not preaching the gospel. It's Halloween, you know, you're, you're, you're dressing up as ghosts and goblins and like giving out candy from car trunks. Like that's where is Jesus in this? But there are some things that we do that are simply to engage our community in relationship. And I think that's what this is. Yeah. The other thing that this does, from my perspective is like, I think about community spaces in general. And one of the things that I've heard people talk about is that there's not a lot of spaces in a community right now where you can just like go and be without an expectation of spending money or like being a certain kind of person or engaging in a particular activity. But so like libraries are one of those spaces, right, where you can just go and be and hang out and you don't have to spend money. I think churches can be another one of those spaces. Yes. Right. And so places like trunk or treat in the Easter egg hunt, like invite our community very intentionally to just come and be a community together. Yeah. There was a group of people in the church here today for an ESL class and I invited them to come upstairs and just look at the sanctuary. And they were just like, wow, I've never been into a church before. I've never seen this, you know, before. Yeah. So yeah, you're right. Sometimes just bringing them into the building is ministers to people in ways that we don't realize. Yeah. Yeah. And then moving into November, we did this gathering grow campaign. And the amazing thing, one of the amazing things about this campaign was that we reached our goal and on the screen now you're seeing the launch of that capital campaign. We gave out some packages and information to folks, there was some balloons and lots of conversation happening. But yeah, we reached our goal within the month, which I don't know what was that what you were expecting? Did you have an expectation? You know, I guess we wouldn't have undertaken it if we didn't think that it was within reach. Sure. So just in case people don't know Trinity is a new building, but it's 20, 25 years old now itself, and it's just needs some upkeep and some improvements. Yeah. And especially in the areas of like hospitality, where we want to make people feel welcome and excessive accessibility and visibility, there was just some work to be done. We just finished a whole series on hospitality and we thought, you know what, we've been talking about this for a year. Now is the right time. We need to raise about a quarter of a million dollars. Let's just take the month of November and see if we can just raise it in that time through gifts and pledges. And yeah, it was really exciting to announce to the congregation a few Sundays ago that we in fact had raised $275,000. And there was a moment at our board meeting where we were like, hmm, it's only two weeks to go and we're not really near our goal yet. And so we were like, should we start like putting a thermometer up and showing the congregation where we're at and kind of like maybe get some panic going and people like, oh my gosh, we're wait, we're not nowhere near our goal yet. And the advisory board, you know, I think prayerfully made the right decision to say, no, let's just leave this up to God. Let's leave it up to the spirit. Let's leave it up to spirit to move people's hearts to give and whatever comes of it comes of it. Let's not make anyone feel pressured or coerced into giving. And it was definitely a word from God because we ended up just inviting people to give, not trying to pressure people or using any tactics like that. And in the end, we exceeded our goal and it was a great, great blessing. I'm just so grateful for the generosity of these people. Yeah. Sure. So obviously that means there's going to be a lot of work happening here in 2025. Yeah. And 2026. And 2026. Yeah. So got some time, but yeah, lots, lots to look forward to. Yeah, lots in some ways, lots, but a lot of it is, you know, just the things like, yeah, I got to fix up these floors, got to fix up these doors, got to fix up these lights and stuff like that. So some of it's not like, wow, stuff. It's just like, it's time stuff, right? It's time to do this work. Take care of this building. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so as we look ahead into 2025, is there anything you're looking forward to? Well, we are going to be in January, we're starting a new teaching series. I am looking forward to that. Yeah. We're looking at a little bit of the book of Hebrews, chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews, which we're going to call the series heroes. And the subtitle is stories of faith. Stories of faith. And we're going to look at some of the book of Hebrews 11. You should go and read it. The author highlights these key people who in his or her thinking were essential or like hallmarks of faith and heroes of faith that we can learn a lot from. So we're going to be going through the that little Hall of Fame Hall of Faith as it's called sometimes and looking at these people lives and see what we can learn from us. So that's going to be starting on January the, I think, fifth, whatever the first Sunday is and then I want to let people know that in Lent, we're also going to do something different. We're going to be spending Lent looking at the seven deadly sins into the series called seven and that'll be, I think, a great way for us to look inside ourselves during Lent and prepare for Easter. So stay tuned for that. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. So it feels like it's been a bit of a whirlwind. We just went through this this whole year. Any final thoughts or reflections? Yes. I do have one final thought. And after this whole year is done, we come to the end of the year and we get received this wonderful little text message from a family that visited a few weeks ago. And I thought I would just read it to you because this is what it's all about. This is why we go through all the ups and downs and the hard work of the year. And so I just wanted, I just wrote it down here. Hello, Rob. I wanted to say how much, I want to say thank you so much for reaching out. We truly appreciate it. Apologize. Wanted to message back. Blah, blah, blah, blah. We've been going to another church. We never felt really connected. We'd actually lost touch and have been missing that sense of church and community. When we came to Trinity, we didn't know what to expect. And we felt so welcomed. It was unbelievable. We were given a tour and just have to say the community and the sermon really touched us both. So thank you. We're so excited and have signed up for the caroling night. We were shocked to see our kids feel so welcomed and went right into the room on Sunday and stayed the whole time. And that's a true testament to them feeling safe. Him enjoying their time and wanting to attend next Sunday makes us feel like we've finally found exactly what we've been missing. And when I read that, I'm like, yes, that's what it's all about. That's why we do this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. So as we've gone through this year, we've reflected on how God has been faithful. God has brought us through, amidst all of the ups and downs, all of the changes, all of these things. God has brought us families like this who, we have the opportunity to bless and they bless us by their presence. Amen. And yeah, I trust that God will continue to lead us through the year ahead. Yes, Lord, more. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of Trinity Talks. Maybe you can share what have been some of your own favorite memories from 2024. And we look forward to continuing to connect with you in 2025. Happy new year. [inaudible] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. [MUSIC PLAYING]