Trinity Together | May 2017

the community of student ministry

BY ben melchers, director of student ministry

How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity! Psalm 133:1

As I reflect on my first year as Director of Student Ministry here at Trinity, one word immediately comes to mind. Community.

The Lord has been so gracious to this ministry. As Trinity as a whole has been in conversation this year about how we can be a welcoming and hospitable church, the Student Ministry has been doing the same. It has been such a joy for me to see our students wrestle with and take to heart this message of hospitality. As Dr. Christine Pohl said at the Forum on Hospitality in March, “Jesus Christ has welcomed us so that we can welcome others.” This year, our students lived that message. It felt like every week I could see our group growing closer together in new and tangible ways. Not only did our numbers grow exponentially over this year (for example, we had 30 more people at our Beach Weekend retreat than we ever had before AND there were six different churches represented by the students in attendance!), but former walls that separated our students, such as age, gender, schools, etc., seemed to evaporate. I watched the pickup basketball games that happen before our Sunday night event morph from a group of only competitive older boys to a group of middle school and high school guys and girls with widely varying skill levels all having a great time together. I watched our students voluntarily sit in multi-grade, coed groups while eating dinner instead of sitting only with their D-Groups as they used to. I watched our students invite their friends from school who were then welcomed by our other students without prodding from the leaders to do so. While these stories may seem insignificant, I believe that they are the beautiful fruit borne out of hearts being changed to love and welcome the outsider.

As our year together in the Student Ministry comes to a close and we transition to summer, I am deeply encouraged by the comments I’ve received from students and leaders alike: “How can this week be the last week!? I feel like we’ve just gotten started!” or “I’m going to miss this time so much. Sunday nights are one of the things I look forward to most in my week!” It is my prayer that the Lord continues to bless this community that He has been faithfully shaping and growing. I am deeply humbled and forever grateful for the opportunity to play a small part in what the Lord is doing in our midst!

session summary

Here is a summary of April Session activity.

Administrative: We were reminded of the April 28–29 meeting of our Presbytery, to which Elder Bill Porter was elected commissioner.
We appointed a committee to promote ruling elder attendance at the PCA General Assembly.
We reviewed the annual statistical report to be sent to Presbytery. Grateful prayer was offered for Mary Wilson, who prepared the report.
Membership status was changed for Kerry Lee (transfer) and Joyce Meng (dismissed in good standing). Also we approved Alec Kish’s request to withdraw from church membership.
We approved the March 9 meeting minutes and received correspondence from Presbytery thanking us for the high quality of our reporting to them. Standing ovation for Joyce Field, please!
We deferred until next month election of a new Session Moderator.

Please attend the May 14 Congregational Meeting to elect new deacons (see below) and hear about recent changes to church bylaws.

Please prayerfully consider nominating next year’s deacon and elder candidates. You have only until May 22 to do this! You can find the information and a link to the nomination form here.

Hope Commission: We elected Pastor Wade Bradshaw to the commission supporting Hope Church, replacing Drew Field. We affirmed the commission and all of its actions to the present. Hope Pastor Todd Johnson told us about the current new members class and his plans to hold officer training in late spring (exciting news!). Commission member Elder John Collmus offered prayers of thanks for the faithful work of the Johnsons and for Hope’s advancement, asking that the Lord draw many more into the life of this new church and continue encouraging Todd and Laura.

REOC: Elder Michael Guthrie, chair of the Ruling Elder Oversight Committee, reported that Elders Louis Nelson and Lee Livingston will be on sabbatical beginning July 1. We decided to defer until July 2018 Elder Tom Nolan’s request to be removed from active status. We prayed for Tom and expressed our sincere appreciation for his nearly 30 years of faithful service.

ODMT: Susan Prindle, on behalf of the Officer Development Ministry Team, recommended Michael Crawley and Guiming Xiao to stand for election to the office of Deacon on May 14. We accepted her recommendation and expressed our gratitude for her tireless work for the church.

We discussed ways to make clearer distinctions between deacons, who are officers of the church and elected by church members for life, and deacon assistants, who have been recognized by the congregation for their gifts of service, are appointed by the Session, and are not elected officers.

Have a question about our Session? Email session@trinitycville.org.

NOMINATE OFFICERS BY MAY 22

Help from many volunteers is needed to carry out the ministries many of us either take for granted or do not even realize go on day in and day out at Trinity. While each of us is called to serve the church in different ways, two essential groups of volunteer leaders are required for our church to exist within our denomination. These are our church officers—defined in scripture and the PCA Book of Church Order as our Ruling Elders and Deacons. The Elders collectively make up our Session, which oversees the spiritual nurture and governance of our congregation. The Deacons, constituting the Diaconate, care for the physical and practical needs of the congregation and manage the church’s resources.

Following a year of preparation these men are ordained to lifetime service. But to start that process each must be nominated to his office by three church members. Nominations for Elders and Deacons are being accepted through May 22. Click here to reach the nominations form you can complete and submit online.

Trinity currently has a great need for more elders and deacons. Both the Session and Diaconate are organizing to permit each officer a year-long sabbatical at least once every six years. But they need more members to make this work while continuing their duties. As members of this church, it is our responsibility as well as our privilege to help bring new people into these offices by nominating those we observe displaying the character defined in 1 Timothy 3. You can read this passage and other information on the Church Officer Development page.

Just as we’ve been praying for the Lord to provide additional pastors, we need every church member praying for more church officers. Every adult Trinity member is actually a member of the “officer search committee.” Talk about these offices with each other and pray for wisdom to see those around you who should be nominated. Contact those you would like to nominate and tell them why you feel they would serve our church well. Let them know you will be praying for them as they consider this call.

It has been a year since the role of Deacon Assistant was authorized at Trinity. Following a thorough assessment of the initial selection and training process over the past year, an opportunity to again recommend women and men for that role will be offered to our members.

FINANCIAL UPDATE: DONATIONS ON TARGET

BY BOB LUCK, CHAIR, FINANCE COMMITTEE

As of the end of April 2017, contributions to Trinity are continuing to track prior year giving. We are almost exactly in the same place that we were at the end of April 2016. This level of giving is good, but it bears remembering that as a congregation, we are trying to grow our giving for 2017 by about 4%.

As you may recall, our giving target for 2017 is $2.6 million—an increase of $100,000 over 2016. We need that increase to fully fund our budget for 2017 and to step toward paying the full costs of employing two additional pastors for the entire year in 2018.

Trinity is heathy financially. We have a significant balance in the bank because of your generous giving in December 2016. We are gradually spending that balance down—as our monthly expenses exceed monthly income each month. However, we are monitoring spending in each of the ministry areas to ensure that we meet the total 2017 expenditures budget. We expect to meet the planned level of spending approved for this year, and to end the year with a surplus. That surplus will be split between reserves for long-term facility needs and operating funds sufficient to carry us into 2018.

Thank you for tithing to Trinity as a priority in your weekly or monthly budgets. We ask you to consider increasing your regular giving by 4–5% to help meet our shared ministry goals for 2017 and to meet our $2.6 million target.

UPCOMING EVENTS