Trinity Streetsville
Ministry Spotlight: Prime Time | Trinity Talks Podcast
(upbeat music) - Hello everyone, and welcome to Trinity Talks. Or as we were just saying right now, it's Showtime with Primetime. - All right. - I'm excited to have Diane and Gary and Judy joining me today for the conversation. And you are all members of the ministry here that we call Primetime. So I was wondering, Gary, first of all, could you tell me who Primetime is for? - Well, yes. Now, I often hesitate to put a, you know, an age factor in the answer to your question. You know, sometimes I'll get cute about it. And I may say to some people, if you're collecting OAS and CPP, you can come out to Primetime. Now, if they ask me what those initials stand for, I say you cannot come out to Primetime, okay? - I love it. - Anyway, some people might associate Primetime with people who retire. And we know that some people retire early. - Right. - And we also know that some will continue working beyond their retirement years. - Right. - So I would say that if anyone's listening to this broadcast, I would just say, if there's anything I'm saying right now that resonates with you, then come on out and see if that two hours on a Thursday afternoon is right for you. - I love that, okay? Which is great segue into this conversation because we're gonna be talking all about what Primetime is, what your experience has been in it so far and what is also to come. So I'm looking forward to that conversation. However, in true to Trinity Talks fashion, we're gonna play a little game first and it's going to be about fruit. So before I explain the game, could each of you just tell me maybe what your favorite fruit is? - It's hard 'cause I like watermelon and strawberries. - Watermelon and strawberries. Sounds good? - Well, give them my age. I like elderberries. (laughing) - You never have one? - Yes. - Really? - Is this a joke or you actually do like the elderberries? - Oh, very pines. - Yes. - Perfect, yeah. - Okay. All right. That's a first answer on this show for this question. - Your turn. - I would say raspberries. - Raspberries. Okay. All right. Well, thank you very much, everybody. Now, in front of you, you will see that you have a clipboard and on that clipboard, you have two fruit-based idioms and just like fruit sayings that are common, I believe, and they all have a fruit in them. I'd like you to choose one. So here's just some choice for you. And using the markers beside you, you're just going to draw that idiom and we are going to see if your fellow interviewees can guess what you are drawing. So I'm going to give you about a minute to draw one. And then we'll see. Feel free to move your mics out of the way if you need to. You have everybody here has been given a rainbow of colors, including black and brown, to make sure that there is just a nice equitable assortment of colors for everybody. So really, there's no excuses not to have a beautiful picture here. And the reason for those of you who may be joining us just now that we are talking about fruit is because during our recent sermon series, we've been walking through the fruits of the spirit as they are described in Galatians. And we are also having some fun and doing some fruit-based activities and recipes and games alongside that to keep it more exciting. So I see that Judy and Gary are using red. Diane looks like maybe some brown over there and some yellow and they are deep in thought and deep artists. So maybe what I'm just thinking is for the next prime time event, we could definitely see some art in the future because there's definitely some talent going on over here. And I'm gonna give you a countdown everybody of 10 and we're gonna wrap it up. So we'll just count down from 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two. That's for Judy, I'm counting slowly. 10, one, perfect. All right, so because Diane seemed to finish first, Diane, could you just turn your paper around and see if your contestants, I'm calling you contestants now, can guess what your fruit idiom is? - A banana on top. - All right, I think. A banana on top. - Oh, ice cream or-- - What's the phrase? - Sunday with a-- - So I think Gary was pretty close there. So you're the-- - Pea. - I don't know. - You're the cream of the crop, you're the, not the bottom, you're the top what? - The top banana. - The top banana, all right. - Excellent, you said a banana on top. Pretty good, that's actually pretty good, it's excellent. Some of these were easier than others, by the way. All right, so I think Gary, you finished second, so let's see what you've got right here. - This is what I got here. Everybody see that? - Speaking me a little bit hungry. - Well, that does look like the ice cream with the cherry on top or the banana split, not the-- - Oh, with a cherry on top. - But the cherry on top. - So very on top, very good, very good. - Well done, the talent is just rainy. - Oh my gosh, with the cherry on top. - Love it. - I always did really, really poorly in school with drawing. - It's time to-- (laughs) It's time to make a comeback, the apple of your eye. - Oh, good for you. - Oh, show it to the camera, Judy, hold it up there, the apple of mine. (laughs) With eyelashes and everything. - If I didn't get those eyelashes in the end. - I know, I know it's a very easy one. - That's right, that's right, that's right, oh my gosh. - That was fun, so thank you, you're great sports. And it's been a pleasure just getting to know you a little bit in the chairs here, but maybe for the rest of us who are listening in, could you just take a moment maybe to tell us a little bit about yourselves and maybe a bit about your experience here at Trinity Church? Diane. - Well, Dave and I started coming to Trinity 36 years ago. - Okay. - When we moved from having lived in Australia for six years. And this was the first church we came to, we thought we'd go to others, but we never left. (laughs) And it was the beginning of Harold Percy's ministry here. He'd only been here a few months. And we got acquainted and he found out a bit about my background. I had been a part of, on a very large Episcopal church in Pasadena, California. I was on staff and charge of the children's ministry for 10 years. - Wow. - And so he wanted to get some things going here and I started helping with children's ministry, leading that and then organizing some parish events. And decided that I could be hired and be a part of the staff. So I kind of became the director of programming and parish life and I did that for 24 years. - Wow. - Wow. - And my responsibilities were involved in meeting newcomers and helping them get involved with the church and getting assimilated and planning at a parish life committee that planned events, usually monthly events where we would get together for different social activities and parties and all kinds of different things to just kind of help people build community and get acquainted with people. - That's great. - And so there were numerous other things involved in that position. And I also started the ESL program here. And so I retired 12 years ago. - Okay. - And started getting more involved in ESL, teaching the classes and organizing that and leading some community Bible study which we have hosted here at Trinity for many years. - The CBS's. - The CBS. - That's great. - Right. And then, oh, in almost 2017, we had a new pastor come and new staff members. And we thought it would be a good idea to get our seniors together. I kind of came to the conclusion, yeah, I guess I am a senior now. And there are other people like me and we knew each other but we hadn't really had opportunity to gather together. So I organized an event and we wanted to have an opportunity for the new pastor and staff to get to know each other with the seniors. And it was so well received. They decided we had to keep doing this. - And was that the birth of Primetime? - That was the birth of Primetime. - It was a couple of years to come up with a name. - I love it. - It's a good name. - That's how we started. - That's amazing. Thank you, Jay-Ann. Wonderful. And what would you, Gary? - Well, Anne and I, my wife and I, we have been attending Trinity for a total of 23 years now. We were here for 20 years and then we left for eight and then came back for the last three. And, but over those years, I've been involved in a number of different things that from table leading at various events and greeting, if you will, the very beginning days. But early on I got involved with the life groups and I really enjoyed that. And so I've been leading life groups, perhaps maybe for the better part of the last 28 years so, you know, in total the other churches and with Trinity. And so, and there were times when Harold might have been without an associate. And so he, that would ask me to oversee the entire life group ministry, you know, which I did. And also another part of what I did, I got involved with International Outreach. And so back in, like is around 1999, a long time ago, now I got involved with a number of people here, including Diane and Dave and Harold. And, and I think also a few other people. And then we got involved with Honduras. And so I led teams to Honduras for about seven or eight years. And I think we finished off with a couple of trips to the Dominican Republic as well. You know, building homes, usually building homes, right? You know, so, and so more recently, I guess, today I'm, I guess I would say I'm a mentor. I am part of the life group steering committee. So I participate in that. And I've also been a coach over the years as well for other life group leaders. And after this morning's service, I'll be going downstairs to be a mentor for two of our camp leaders as well. - Wonderful, all right. So busy and active. - Yep, very much so. - You love that, thank you. - And how about you, Judy? - Well, I don't do nearly, or haven't done nearly as much as Diane or Gary. I've been here for 17 years or so. And I started out in the nursery a bit and helping a bit with the camp before it got as huge as it is. As it is now do belong to a small group, which I really like. I guess I've only been doing prime time now for a year and a bit or so. I'm not sure exactly. And then now I do more on Sunday, either ushering or serving communion or at the prayer flag. - Wow, yeah, thank you. That's great, that's wonderful. So maybe just in a moment or two, you could just share with me a sentence about what it is that you love about this particular church community. So Judy, how would you say you enjoy the church? What do you enjoy? - Well, I enjoy the friendliness of the people and all the different choices there are of things to do. There's never a lack of a need for volunteers for things. - That's true. - But, and I really like that if I can't come to church, I can watch it either live or see it later. That's been a real boost to a lot of people, I think. - Yes. - That part, that would be my favorite. But I love the Sunday services, yeah. - Excellent, thanks Judy. How about you Diane? Is there something that you love about the community here at the church? - There's the people, just having gotten acquainted with so many people over the years. And what really is a delight to me is to see people that started coming about 30, 20 years ago, whatever, and they're now in leadership and doing all kinds of things. And she's just really fun to see that. And I think the spiritual, the teaching has just been continually strong and helping me grow in my faith and all the abilities to use my spiritual gifts. - Nice, thank you, thank you. Thank you, Gary, do you have anything to add there? - Yeah, I think, years ago when we first came to Trinity, I would have said it's the preaching and the music. That's what really got us in the door and kept us here for all the length of time we've been here. But, you know, answering the question now today, I would say perhaps it's Trinity's diversity of people. Many different cultures and backgrounds. And, you know, I really appreciate the number of volunteers that will only step up to make this church run, you know, type of thing. - Absolutely. - You know, in many other churches, it's the old 2080 rule, you know, type of thing. 20% of the people do 80% of the work. That is not the case here at Trinity. We have a tremendous number of volunteers who have stepped up. And that resonates with me. I really appreciate that, you know. And it challenges me at the same time too, by the way, you know? So, I would say that people that, you know, we are what you would expect to see and have happen in a church community, you know, here. - Thank you, thank you. So we're here really to talk about prime time. So, what is prime time? We know Gary described who it's for, what types of sort of things you're looking for. And if it resonates with you, you're welcome to come out. But how would you describe prime time? And what types of things do you do at prime time, Diane? - Well, we've sort of developed a routine. And we start out with about 15 minutes at a table, discussion, some kind of interactive game, discussion, whatever, so you can get acquainted with the people that you're sitting with. - That's right, yeah. - And then Gary does an interview with maybe one of our attendees. - Okay. - That it's not sprung on them. - So it's a planned interview? - It works with them. - That's a planned interview. And, or we have someone from the church staff that involved in some other ministry come and just talk a bit about it. So we just got to get acquainted with each other a bit better. - I like that. - And then we do some singing. And we always enjoy having different, usually, and Nancy Gwyn-Von comes and plays piano and her daughter-- - Grace comes and helps lead the singing. - Right. - But we have had other people come in and do some singing with us. It's usually old-time hymns. And then after that, we have, we break and have a huge buffet of refreshments that people have brought to share. And we have refreshment time together. And then we have our special speaker or special activity for the rest of the time. And we close with like a five-minute biblical reflection that Paul Fowler does for us very brilliantly. And it always kind of brings the whole afternoon together. - That sounds so nice. I'm learning actually right now from you about this. And I love the structure, but I also love the diversity that you include in there and the community building that follows this definitely seems very well planned out. And it sounds very interesting. And I'm sure that since you've had many of these meetings, you all have some good memories or maybe some good memories. So maybe starting with Gary, could you share with us maybe a story or a memory that you have from a past prime time? - In the two years that I've been part of prime time, the one memory that stands out for me was one of our guests. His name was Dr. Ken Schonk. And Dr. Schonk came out to talk to us about the importance of laughter and humor in our lives. And his talk, he brought into his talk a lot of science and statistical information around the importance of it. And he had a slideshow as well in presentation. I would say in the hour long presentation he gave, everybody was chuckling, smiling and laughing. It was a lot of fun. And I would say that particular event was supercharged fun. - Okay. - Yeah. - Wow. - Really good. - Okay. - Excellent. And then what about you Judy? Do you have any memories? - There's been a couple. The one was a female police officer. And she came to talk to us about so many scams that had been around for a long time, especially one's targeting seniors. - Okay. - And Gary reminded us the other day that one of the things, or two of the things she said not to carry in your wallet was your sin card and your birth certificate, which I've never carried my sin card, but I always carried my birth certificate or a copy. So it's good to learn these things. And the other favorite because we have him every year is of course Paul Henderson talking about his life in career, but especially about his walk with God and his love for God and total dependency and thankfulness on what Jesus has done for us. So that's probably our biggest draw. - Okay. - That's him. - I love that. But all three of those examples and speakers are also diverse, so different, but all equally interesting. I like that and Diane. - Well, one of the strong memories I have is one of the interviews Gary did with Rita Gunston. - Okay. - And she was as one of our participants and just hearing a bit about her life and she's just so delightful and funny and that was just fun to get to know her. - Just get to know her, right. Someone that you see every week and then get to know them. And past years, we had a Gab and Games event and we broke up into different tables, the different games that were available and just played games together. - Well, that's fun. That's great. I would like to join. - That was fun. - That's good. So how are each of you specifically involved in prime time? Do you have a leadership role? Are you just a participant? What's your role, Diane? - I sort of function as the coordinator. It's kind of bring together lead the planning group and we meet together by Zoom once a month or at least the month before our event. - Yeah. - And we do planning and I work out an agenda and then Gary and I kind of co-lead when we gather together. - Nice. All right. And both you Gary. - Well, I guess I'm the one who hosts those Zoom meetings that we have. And as Diane had mentioned earlier, during each of our events, we're trying to interview one of our participants. And so I have the pleasure of interviewing those people for either 10 to 15 minutes. And, you know, people have been here for like 20 years or more that I'm interviewing and most people in the audience, they're hearing things they've never heard before. - Right. - You know, so it's really good part of our event and what I'm involved with, you know, as well. I'm also the co-editor of a prime time newsletter that we just launched a number a few months ago. - Okay. - A few months ago. And Suresh Jacob, by the way, is the other co-editor. He's brilliant. He can make me look good. So he's really good. - Okay. - And so we launched that earlier this year. And I think that basically, as Diane said, I will help her out, you know, in terms of maybe the agenda being up front in front of the microphone, you know, as well for that. So I would say that's perhaps maybe some of the duties that I have, if you will. - Right. - And, you know, together, we represent a think tank. So when we get together on Zoom, we're thinking about how it's going to go, you know, type of thing and who we should be maybe looking at next to invite out. - Right. - Because, so we put a lot of thought into that, knowing who our audience is, you know, as well. - Thank you. - And Judy? - Well, oddly enough, I'm the one in the kitchen, but I'm the person who is least likely to be in the kitchen at home. But since I don't have to cook, it's fine. - Right. - Usually there's some other volunteers and they come and make a lot of coffee and tea. And we put out the tables in the hall for people to self-serve. So that's a lot of coffee and tea and water and coffee cups. And then we usually have about two tables of snacks that people have that we have snack time after a while. And those tables are just full of goodies that people bring. And quite often there's enough that people get to take some home in snack bags. - Hi, so nice. - So it works for both of you. - Yeah. - And then there's a cleanup at the end. So I'm always looking around for helpers, but usually people will show up even at the last minute I know like Diane's got to buy a lot of strawberries this week. And so all of us will probably be cleaning strawberries as well as other things on Thursday. - Oh, that's fine. We're going to talk about that in just a little bit. Oh, I can imagine actually. So what's the value? Maybe Gary, you can answer this in a group such as primetime that a church having this type of ministry value do you see? - Well, you know, I think it's all about keeping the community connected. In fact, that is our tagline. We use that on all of our communication, keeping the community connected. And it's the primetime community I'm referring to, of course. Primetime is also known for its outreach as well. We have many of our members who will bring occasionally friends with them. Some of these friends have never been in a church before. Others have belonged to another church, but do may not have something like what we're offering here at Trinity, you know? So I think it's a bit of an outreach for us as well. And you know, the other thing is this, Trinity is an intergenerational church with programs and events for everyone. Many of our primetime members helped build the church. We're in today. And so primetime is a way of saying to them, you're not forgotten, we love you. And now let's have some fun together. - Great. - And by the way, if anyone doesn't have any transportation to come out, call the church. We'll get transportation for them. - That is very helpful, very nice, wonderful. So what would be your maybe hopes for this ministry going forward, Gary? - Well, obviously going forward, we're averaging around maybe 70, 75 or so each time we have an event. And I think going forward, I'd like to see that number maybe get to at least a hundred. - Wow. - And I think we can do that quite frankly. Now that we're kind of gearing up this past year, I think we've got some things in place. But over the next year or two, I think we will reach an average of at least a hundred people, you know, type of thing. And our hope is always to bring in interesting speakers and entertainment guests as well, that we know that our primetime members will really enjoy, you know, and say, am I ever glad I came out today? - Right, something is worth a while. - That's right. We're also looking to expand our primetime newsletter, by the way. And so we're looking for always for new information and say, we just started it about maybe four issues ago. And so we're looking for other ideas for content and what have you. One idea that I came up with recently was to maybe start something called, where are they now? In other words, we have a lot of parishioners who have maybe just left the church. They've moved away or something has happened that they're no longer here. And so, and so I thought to myself, we get into conversation from time to time saying, whatever happened to so-and-so. - Right. - And you know, so I thought that I have a number of people in my mind right now, who I'm going to be calling and researching and finding out what's going on in their lives. 'Cause I think other parishioners that are here today would like to know that. - I love that. - And we're gonna keep that in our-- - A bunch of names just came to my mind. - Oh, great. - Absolutely, what a great idea. So let's talk a little bit in the five minutes that we have about this upcoming event that is this Thursday. And this is Strawberry Social. Maybe in the background, we can just have any photos that we have from last year from the Strawberry Social. I'm not sure how much of these photos are gonna show. Really, the whole idea. But you can definitely see there's a big crowd there. Diane, what can we expect this Thursday? - Well, we're going to have a time to gather around the tables with our friends and meeting new people. And we're going to have an interview with one of our participants. - Okay. - And we're going to have a strawberry shortcake brought out to the table and each have your own can of whipping cream and you can put as much on as you want. - No judgment. - But the big event really is having a Matt Zaddy and Heather Christine. This will be their third time coming to entertain us. And they are just superb entertainers and it's just delightful to have them. And we sing along with some old songs and new songs and they entertain and that will be really special. - Oh, that will be. - They're being sponsored by the Credit River retirement community, which is over on Tannery. - Right. - And this is the second time they've sponsored us. We've had them come for Christmas last year. We did a Christmas thing with them last year. - Oh, right. - So they're just really special and we think we're going to have a big enough turnout. We're going to have our first hour in the parish hall and then we're going to go over to the sanctuary to have our entertainment and singing. - Oh, that will be fun. - That'll be a little different. - Yeah, it will be good. That's great. Anything to add to that? - Gee. - I know. - I don't know. That sounds pretty cool to me. - Thanks, Diane. You took a lot of my notes. - I am very down here on my notes, everyone. I'm supposed to talk to him next. - No, you know what? I would have spoken about the entertainment as well because I think Matt, Zaddy and his wife, Heather Christine, those are their stage names and they are, this is their full-time career, by the way. This is not just occasional stuff for them and they are really good. They've made their mark on the Canadian music scene for the last few years. They're songwriters. I know with Heather's music, she's played with some well-known jazz bands as well and she also, her music has heard a number of radio stations. In fact, I heard recently, even as far away as Spain. - Yes. - Her music. - They're playing it on the radio there. - That's right, exactly. Yeah, so they're really good. So I'm gonna be saying, welcome to the prime time stage. Matt, Zaddy and Heather Christine. - Oh, that's exciting. - And so it's going to be good and we're looking forward to it. And also they've made available a couple of songs or maybe a few songs for us and they put the word that put the words on the screen. So we're all gonna sing along with them. - That will be fun. - And being in a sanctuary, we got good acoustics and everything else. So we're looking forward to this. This is gonna be a good one. And as you said, lots of strawberries. - Lots of strawberries. Well, it sounds like a lot of fun and I'm really happy that you took the time to come and join me today for this conversation. And if you're listening in and you haven't yet registered for prime time strawberry social this Thursday, make sure to either contact us at the church and we'll get you on the list or you can just sign in through church center and register there on the events tab. So I just wanna say thank you once again to Diane, Gary and Judy for joining me. - Thank you. - All right. Bye everyone. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (gentle music)