Merriam Park was built between the 1880’s and the 1930’s as a neighborhood between the two downtowns. It holds not only turn-of-the-century buildings but established institutions in this neighborhood. Protestant and Catholic congregations built church buildings and schools during this time. A Catholic priest started the University of Saint Thomas in 1885. Just south of this neighborhood in MacGrove, a Presbyterian minister started Macalester College in 1874 and the college has been at the present site since 1883. A Methodist congregation built our church building in 1913 until they merged in 2010 with Hamline Church in Midway, which is when Trinity City Church started weekly Sunday Gatherings.
1849 Marshall Avenue as it looked in 1913 before the later additions.
Look around this neighborhood and you’ll see not only century-old properties, but also the long established presence of the communities who have grown deep roots here. As a new church, we’re like a young tree recently planted on the boulevard. Yet we’re growing deeper and deeper roots in this community with no plans of transplanting. Our vision is to be rooted in our neighborhood as an established Christian presence, making disciples that join in the renewal of our city and world for the next 100 plus years.
This commitment of established and deep presence is the main emphasis for this ministry year. It’s an emphasis that’ll take more than one year. Yet even large endeavors need to begin somewhere. This ministry year of 2018-19 is about being “Rooted.”
The last ministry year (2017-18) was a time of “Reset.” This included re-organizing our staff and leadership teams, re-thinking the budget, and re-energizing our volunteers. What do we hope to accomplish for the “Rooted” year?
Over the next five weeks, I’ll be preaching through a sermon series called “Rooted” in order to highlight the goals for the “Rooted” year. These sermons will include:
08/19: Rooted in Christ
08/26: Rooted in Community
09/02: Rooted in the City
09/09: Rooted to Plant Churches
09/16: Rooted on Campus
In addition to the sermon series, we have some important events coming up that will highlight the Rooted theme and begin accomplishing some of the goals. These include:
Trinity Leadership Conference (09/08). This is a one day conference for our volunteer leaders, deacons, Community Group leaders, etc. to prepare for the upcoming year.
Rally and Commissioning Sunday (09/09). This Sunday will be a time to re-launch Community Groups and to join ministry teams for the next year. In addition, we will be praying and commissioning the Immanuel Fellowship team to begin weekly Sunday Gatherings.
Immanuel Fellowship Begins Weekly Services (09/16). The Wilder Complex in south Minneapolis is the place to gather this Sunday. There will be a “vision lunch” afterwards to talk values, vision, and answer questions.
In addition to these dates, there are other important things coming this fall. Children’s Church will be restarting, and a new Sunday School class will begin meeting from 9:15 to 9:45am for kids third grade and up. There will be a couple luncheons after the service for undergraduate and graduate students. A new monthly gathering for those new to Trinity will begin in September.
With just a couple more weeks of August left, things are picking up steam for the next ministry year. There is so much more ahead for this year of “Rooted.” It’ll be a year of growing together in our rootedness in Christ, in Christian community, in service to our city, in our support of a new church plant, and in our impact on the local campuses.
Let’s get started. May God work in us in order to fulfill his good purpose for this ministry year!