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Trinity Community Church
Trinity Community Church
Celebrating 2024 - A Look Back At What God Has Done
Pastor Mark Medley offers an inspiring look back at 2024, celebrating how God has moved among the people of Trinity Community Church. Drawing from Psalm 105, Mark underscores the importance of remembering and proclaiming the wondrous works of the Lord. Throughout the year, TCC has seen incredible growth through baby dedications, baptisms, and families finding new ways to connect in community. By reflecting on heartfelt stories like Peg’s experience of receiving support during a season of difficulty, Mark highlights how bearing one another’s burdens cements our sense of belonging.
This message also reminds us that TCC’s reach extends well beyond our local neighborhood. Mark sheds light on global missions in places like Tanzania, where digging wells, providing medical care, and sharing the gospel brings genuine hope to those in need. The difference between animistic rituals and the sacrament of communion becomes starkly clear—our God has already provided the Lamb, and we remember His body broken and blood poured out in thankful worship. Whether it’s through micro-business development, mentorship programs for women, or other mission initiatives, TCC is committed to sharing the good news both near and far.
Mark points to the “Belong, Grow, Serve” vision that frames TCC’s heartbeat. We belong by embracing community groups, triads, and ministry opportunities that foster closeness among believers. We grow by digging into Scripture, pursuing discipleship training, and immersing ourselves in teaching on books like Jonah, 1 Peter, and more. We serve by engaging with outreach projects—locally via Serve Days and globally through trusted partners. Every ministry, from children’s programs to missions, is part of a larger tapestry, woven together by God’s faithfulness.
As Mark leads us into a new year, he shares gratitude for the generosity that fuels TCC’s mission work. Even with changes in giving, the congregation remains dedicated to extending the grace of Christ to those who haven’t yet experienced it. Looking to 2025, Mark invites everyone to continue pressing into God’s call, cherishing how He has led us thus far and trusting Him for the road ahead. This reflection on 2024 stands as a reminder that when believers unite around Jesus’ love, remarkable transformation—both personal and collective—can happen.
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almost, almost 2025. That is really crazy, isn't it? I love it. We're going to do something a little bit different this morning. Instead of a a sermon, we're going to look back over 2024 and we're going to celebrate together, uh, what god has done and what he's done in us and what he's done through us as a church.
Peg:So I want to read from Psalm 105, because, you know, the Lord tells us to remember things right. Remember. He even told his people to set up these stones of remembrance to remember the things he set up, feasts so that we would remember what God has done for us. And that's what, also what Psalm 105 speaks of, starting in verse 1. Oh, give thanks to the Lord and call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, sing to him, sing praises to him, tell all his wondrous works. Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his presence continually. Remember the works, the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered. So we're told to not just remember them, but to tell of his wondrous work. So we're going to do that this morning, and you know what we.
Peg:Our heart is for all of you is that, through the course of the years, that you grow in your belonging and you're growing in your serving. So belong, grow, serve. That's our three ways that we kind of express walking with Jesus, and so I'm going to take each of these little vision points belong, grow, serve and we're going to talk about what happened in the last year. So we'll start with belong. Belong has to do with connecting in community and I want to tell you first of all that, on behalf of the pastor team, that we love this church body. I guess maybe every good pastor is supposed to feel this way about his church, but we really do. We have a great church body. You guys are beautiful and we see your sacrifice, we see the things that you, your faithfulness. Even though you've gone through many of us have gone through so many things this year, it's our privilege to be your pastors and to meet the pastoral needs and ministry needs of the families here at TCC. And I also think, because I do get to travel a lot and I walk, I work a lot with pastors and walk along with teams, ministry teams, in different places.
Peg:And I just want to tell you, in my opinion, my humble opinion, being part of this pastoral team we have a great pastoral team. We really do. We have a great. I mean, it's not that we are great, we have a team. We have a team and it's really team ministry and we honor each other and we each bring something special to the team and it's really a joy to serve with this team. But also we have many people that serve in ministries here that help us pastor this church.
Peg:You know we have the responsibility of pastoring the church, but you know the body provides for the needs of the body, each joint supplying what other ones need. That's what the scripture says. And so, from prayer teams to serving teams, to Sunday morning teams, our kids ministry, the Forge youth ministry, greeting teams, safety teams, medical teams to gathering place, the young adults ministry, the Young Adults Ministry Everyone who serves here helps care for their larger church body and to create an atmosphere where people can belong, and so belonging, knowing that you have a place, is really important, right? So, peg, are you here? I don't know where you are this morning, peg, but come on up if you don't mind. So Peg has a story she wanted to tell. It's just a testimony of how the body came together to meet a need for her. So if you can, yeah, that's great.
Mark Medley:Galatians 6.2 says Bear one another's burdens and fulfill and that is a big word the law of Christ. My older son bears the burdens of his family better than most people I know, but this year, especially this semester, has been very hard for him. He is finishing nursing school and I needed to move and of course he agreed I'll drive the truck, mom, I'll take care of it. But Patty Clements, when she heard I was moving, mentioned that Trinity has a moving ministry. And Mona Porterfield Mona, are you in here? Connected me with everybody that needed to.
Mark Medley:And four young adults from this church I can't remember their names showed up on Saturday morning. Come on, face recognition work. Nick Prisco wave at me if you're here, she's not here. Taylor Jarvins, sam Henderson and Kayla Brunke. All showed up before nine on Saturday morning when I moved. We loaded and unloaded before noon.
Mark Medley:Bobby had gotten up with a migraine and he worked and didn't tell me till after we were done with a migraine and he worked and didn't tell me until after we were done. He was sitting in my recliner after taking some medication and coping and he looked at me and said Mom, your friends that showed up, let us finish before noon. It would have been after dark if it had just been the guys and my his teenage sons were with him. The other thing that happened that day that they didn't even know they were doing Tristan and Nathan were helping my teenage sons, grandsons, and they saw people loving, loving to serve Jesus in a way they'd never seen. My encouragement to you is if you know you're called to ministry here in any form, you make a difference, do it.
Peg:Thank you, that's great Thanks. Thanks, peg, that's beautiful. Thanks for the story. It's really the way it's supposed to be in the body, meeting the needs of the body, and that's what's happening here. And there's so many stories, and probably most of us here have a story that's similar to that of being able to be helped out or, because we're connected to the body, there's some kind of a blessing, some kind of a help that's come to us this year. So, and of course, we had so many people, so many babies, that were dedicated. We had so many people baptized. We have new partners that are joined this year and so many who've gone through that new partners track. And if you feel that God is joining you here to TCC or just you want to get to know a little more about us, then look out for those Getting to Know TC classes that we do after the Sunday services. You'll see them, we announce them, and then we have fit classes that help you understand your spiritual gifts and your calling and your uniqueness and get you plugged in. And then we have foundation classes as well, and all this is to help us all find a place to belong classes as well, and all this is to help us all find a place to belong.
Peg:We also have community groups, and community groups offer a chance to engage more deeply in the church community, and so, whether you're drawn to deep theological discussions or eager to learn a new skill or just hang out with people who have similar hobbies or interests, you can connect to a community group. So this last year we had groups on parenting. We have groups that were drinking coffee and thrifting who doesn't want to do that? We had grief share, we had diaper days, which is for the moms of young kids, young babies, dinners for eight, warrior poet society. You can learn money saving, you could laugh your way to a better marriage, you could win the war in your mind, you can learn ASL and you could get breaducated if you wanted to. We had groups that were on mission, that were journeying into freedom, that were bending and stretching and learning about nutrition and living well. We had moms who were praying and we have. We are wonder, if you know. You know we are wonder, all those. So this is just opportunities for you to join in and if you weren't able to do that last year, we're going to have these community groups next year and then we also have these triads that are just small groups, usually three people or a few people that get together and it's just connecting more deeply with a few people and especially around scripture, especially around discipleship. So those are informal. Those are not things that we said, that we encourage them, but we just allow you guys and the Holy Spirit to put people together to have just triads that are just little discipleship circles that we're able to grow in.
Peg:Also, our Jubilee was this year, so we celebrated throughout the year and marked what God has done through 50 years of Trinity Community Church, trinity Chapel, originally Trinity Community Church. Now we remembered and we recommitted ourselves to this vision and the value of the active work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers and in our church services and we committed to the value of the word of God, a high value on the preaching of the word of God. So we really hope that you feel safe and that you have a safe place here and that you've connected to God and connected to others at TCC and that our prayer is that you'll feel more connected at the end of 2025 than you do even now. So that's belong. We go to grow now. Growing really has to do with growing in the knowledge of Jesus, in love for him and in love for others as well. So our goal is that you're farther along in your growth journey in Jesus this time next year than you are today, and hopefully you are today farther along than you were this time last year. So we do that in a lot of different ways. We facilitate that through the pulpit ministry. Of course, we think deeply about what we're presenting in the pulpit. We seek the Lord about the seasons and what needs to be spoken at what times, and this last year we started the year and we finished the year, except other than our Christmas series.
Peg:We started and finished with a series called Encounter, and Encounter was really about the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer and in the life of the church, the spiritual life of the church. We also had a sermon series on Jonah and we learned about Jonah. What we really learned about is embracing God's mission. Jonah teaches us a lot about how to join with God in mission, how to not join with God and how to join with God, how to say yes to God's mission in our lives. We talked about 1 Peter. We spent many weeks on 1 Peter and that was really about enduring hardships, or enduring persecution or suffering through the grace of God, allowing the grace of God to be planted in our lives and to spring up in our lives and give us strength to not only cope with hardship but to be victors through hardship and to see progress through it. We had a summer series called Gospel-Based Community, where we talked about how the gospel itself works in us as a community and changes our relationships, and we also had a couple of lessons from walking with sheep as well. And then there was the Christmas sermon series. Is he Worthy? All of this really is. We're always presenting to you what we feel like the Lord is speaking to our church at this time, and it's part of the way that we grow is hearing the Word of God consistently from the pulpit.
Peg:Also, as Derek already mentioned, the Bible reading plans. We did the Psalms and New Testament plan, just finished it today. Today we read the last three Psalms and we read the 22nd chapter of Revelation on Friday, and so we're done for this year. If you were with us last year and this year, in two years, you've read through the entire Bible. So I didn't get to see. Derek asked the question but I didn't get to see the hands. I know we had about 97 people that were joining with us by the end of the year, 97 people that were reading along with that. So how many of you read through the Bible, either our plan or some other plan this year? That's great. That's great, praise God. That's terrific.
Peg:How do you grow without the Word of God? The Word of God gets inside of you. The Word of God is living and it's active and it does what he decides for it to do inside of us. It always does His purpose and never returns to Him void. It's like a hammer that breaks in pieces. The rock is like life to you. It's spirit and life, and so you can't grow without that. So, as Derek mentioned, we're starting a new Bible reading plan, reading God's story, and it is a chronological plan, so it's not going to be straight through the Bible, it's going to be all of the Bible, but chronologically, so you'll get to read it in the order it was written. It's a really unique way to read it and, again, you can scan the code and you can connect there and we will start on January 1st. Also, we grew in getting people into their fit and the way that God has uniquely made you.
Peg:There are a lot of people who join ministries kind of learned new things about themselves, learned to know themselves better, the way that God's made them, and connected in ministry. That way A lot of people are leaders. We have Trinity Ministry Apprenticeship Program that Neil and I do TMAP and that is where we have Trinity Ministry Apprenticeship Program, that Neil and I do TMAP, and that is where we have some handpicked leaders that we grow through the years. We have a two-year program that we're taking them through spiritual formation and theology and they're growing for the purpose of serving the church. There's also the Timothy team and Tyler takes some people through a really practical application of ministry. So Neil and I are kind of the theology and spiritual formation and Tyler is a lot more of the practical aspects of ministry.
Peg:And then we have our Trinity Christian Academy and most of you know this, but some of you may not, that we have a homeschool co-op here at Trinity. It's an umbrella school registered with the state of Tennessee. We have almost 50 families under our umbrella school but we have over 90 families that are involved in our co-op. That meets here every Wednesday through the school I'm sorry, every Friday through the school year. So if you're here on Fridays, you'll see a lot of life and there's a whole lot of life. There's a whole lot of kids. There's about 375 adults and kids involved in this thing and so there's probably 250, 300 people in this building, every little corner of this building, in closets, everything they would do classes in bathrooms if we would let them, I think, because there's just so many classes that they're doing enrichment classes and more advanced classes. It's a real blessing to those people. So, thanks to TCC and to the Lord for his faithfulness, and we're praying for more families. We've got to bring more families in. So we really hope that in the course of this year you're feeling farther along in your growth journey than you did last year.
Peg:Belong. It's connecting, growing in discipleship and knowing the Lord, and then, lastly, it's serving, and serving is a big part of what happens here. You know we're all about getting the gospel right and getting the gospel in, but then getting the gospel out to other people. So serving really has to do with making an impact through prayer and through practical works of service and through missions locally, nationally and internationally. So we did a lot, a whole lot, this year. Concerning missions, we could probably do an entire service, and maybe a couple of entire services, about going into more detail about what happened here, but we'll start with our hands and feet offering. Every year we do a large offering in the spring hands and feet offering and a smaller one in the autumn. It's a concentrated missions giving offering. So it's giving to missions above and beyond our normal missions budget, because we have a certain percentage that we have a purpose to give from our budget, the money that comes in. But this is a chance for us all to kind of give above and beyond that, not only of money but also of your talent and your time. So to pray and to serve and to give.
Peg:So many of you committed to serve in ministries on Sunday mornings. Many of was big this year and we have some pictures here. So we were basically in the community just doing works of service through here. So we did a cleanup at a local public high school, at Central High School. We did a homeless outreach. We worked with repairs and painting for the kids' first daycare next door, who we partner with for many years. We've worked with them and helped them and they have their kids. They send their kids over to our VBS so we try to connect to those parents there because they're neighbors. We also worked at Knoxville Dream Center helping in the warehouse and washing vehicles. Some of you worked at TCC here house and washing vehicles. Some of you worked at TCC here organizing storage areas and cleaning toys, did a cleanup at Tommy Shumpert Park, a county park here nearby, prepared meals for UT campus ROTC ROTC there that Ryan McCrillis oversees or works with, and the staff here also serves many hours washing windows at one of our Serve Day outreach locations, which is Blueberry Ridge, which is a retirement community for those who are on low income nearby here. So a lot of great things that happened and so thank you for your service. Thank you for not coming and sitting in a seat and watching us talk that would be pretty boring, I think but thank you for doing more than that.
Peg:Also, part of the hands and feet offering was our Street Hope and Melissa Movement connection. So TCC is working together with the Melissa Movement, which is a fund in honor of my late wife Melissa, with the Melissa Movement, which is a fund in honor of my late wife Melissa, who was a spiritual mother to many, and Melissa Movement really helps to resource and enable older women to mentor younger women in many different contexts. So part of that is here in Knoxville area, in East Tennessee area, with Street Hope. We partnered in 2024. Tcc and Melissa Movement and Street Hope worked together to resource the spiritual mothering of the teenage girls that they serve at Street Hope who've been rescued from sex trafficking. And I met with Street Hope staff many times this year and they're doing wonderful work with those girls at the house, the safe house, and they're giving hope and giving identity and giving a fresh start to these girls who've endured so much. So from the hands and feet offering, we raised money that was matched with funds from the Melissa movement. So we gave a total of $6,000 to Street Hope. So thank you guys for that.
Peg:Also, other local ministry I mean the biggest part of our local ministry really has to do with the Ellis family and yeah, and YWAM, knoxville, cmo, children's Ministry, Outreach. So they work with TCC here. Of course they work with Knoxville Inner City Kids Outreach, hopewell Church, galilee Bible Camp, riseville Elementary School. They do Boys and Girls Clubs, they do camps and VBSs and mission trips and sidewalk Sunday schools and Bible release time and they did. How many hundred stockings of love. Does anybody know? Hundreds and hundreds of stockings of love. You guys, you guys helped do that, so they do this. They are just like I won't say tireless, but sometimes they get tired but they're pretty tireless, you know. But also there's a whole team here that goes with them and if you are interested in doing that kind of outreach, inner city kids ministry, doing something locally like that, please contact the church office, write it on the back of one of those cards, put it in the kiosk in the back or talk to the Ellis's themselves. We're so grateful to them. They are our missionaries to Knoxville. They don't only do work here in Knoxville. They were all over East Tennessee, especially helping with the flood victims. They're in Buffalo and they go to other nations as well. But they're a treasure. They're a treasure and so we're really happy to be able to minister through them and they're a great blessing to us.
Peg:Also, we work with Hope Resource Center here in town and Hope is Knoxville's only holistic reproductive healthcare center for women with cost-free services provided by licensed medical professionals, and they really help the women who are struggling and we partner with them as a church. We partner with Compassion Coalition, as do a lot of churches and organizations in Knoxville. It's a faith-based nonprofit here in Knoxville. It's a coalition of churches and organizations and businesses that work together to really be the hands and feet of Jesus and really to go outside the walls of our churches and our nonprofits and our organizations to be the compassionate presence of Jesus in the midst of poverty and pain and brokenness in our community. So we support Compassion Coalition and work together with them. We also have a hospitality team here at church and that team has served with preparing meals for many of our partners who have either had surgeries or had babies. Some of you have received that kind of help from the hospitality team. They've also helped many people pack and move or clean houses when needed, as we heard the story of this morning. So we're grateful for that hospitality team.
Peg:And in national ministry we've done a few things also this year Buffalo Missions team partnering with Buffalo Dream Center. Again this year it was a team that went there. Also there was a team that served in North Carolina and parts of East Tennessee as well in the wake of Hurricane Helene and the catastrophic flooding in those areas. We worked with Florida Empower School, the farm and school there, and looking forward to working with Empower School and Farm this year. Here, locally, they have a large piece of property with a farm that's happening out in the halls area, and what great capacity to train leaders because it's a training center, it's a discipleship center, but also training people in sustainable farming practices, not only for here and raising farm goods, organic farm goods, for this community, but also to be able to take those things into other nations and impact internationally.
Peg:Speaking of international missions, tcc partners have touched five continents in 2024 directly. I mean literally been on the continents, right. So the ones I remember Colombia, cuba, france, kenya, poland, tanzania, czech Republic, liberia, honduras, ivory Coast, india, sri Lanka, mexico, usa. Did I miss anything? Ireland? Oh well, that's coming up. That's coming up, yeah. And Ireland, that's true, but I was going to make a big deal of that in a few minutes. You're right, it should have been on this list. Ireland, where else? That was a lot, that's a lot of places, right. And then our affiliated partners also have worked in Afghanistan and Cambodia as well.
Peg:We continue to partner with Gospel Herald Ministries in Tanzania and Pastor Matthias and Beatrice. We help the ongoing development of a Christian community there that serves the Maasai village of Curia. I think there are some pictures there in Africa, if you guys can pull that up. This Maasai village serves about 4,000 herdsmen there. Some pictures there in Africa, you guys can pull that up. This Maasai village serves about 4,000 herdsmen there and their families, and very arid. Actually. It's a different picture. It's a little bit further down. I think this is other parts of Africa. Sorry, we'll come to that though. Okay, that's okay, keep going, keep going, keep going. One more. There you go, one more.
Peg:This is the church there in Tanzania, and I'll go back one and this is Pastor Matthias and Beatrice, and they left their life in the city and moved there to this very barren place to serve as pastors and missionaries to the Maasai, and so we've helped with a lot of different things there through the years digging a well, medical missions, training materials, women's conferences, help purchase property for them to farm on, help with the construction of a church building partially and help start micro-businesses, and we have distributed discipleship booklets there in Swahili as well. And also the Melissa Movement is also partnered together with Beatrice. The pastor's wife here is also partnered together with Beatrice, the pastor's wife here. We are helping support them and give some income so that she doesn't have to work as much milking cows on the farm one hour away, so she doesn't have to do that and she can spend more time with these Maasai women who are coming to Jesus, and that's really a blessing. Other ministries overseas we have missionaries that we support, of course, philip and Jennifer Adams, and you can go back to there. You go, you got it, thanks. They're in France and planting churches. I was with Philip and they have been planting churches all over. He works with a network of churches over 120 churches I think that they're a part of and they are planting churches in places where there aren't churches. They're serving leaders nationally in France and other parts of Europe as well, and Afghanistan and in Haiti.
Peg:When you can get there Can't always get there. Right now you can't and also our friends Bartek and Daria in Poland. They have a church plant there Amazing Grace Church. I was with them this year. They have a new church building. This year they needed a church building. They were actually in a school and they were setting up and tearing down every week and it was pretty tough because they were outgrowing the school. So they have a church building there and this is a church plant that we have helped with for several years.
Peg:And then they also do a ministry called Evangelical Poland, poland. They are pulling multi-denominations together to help resource each other, to get ideas from each other for discipleship, for evangelism, for training, and so they're doing great things there. And of course, there's the Victoria Watoto Fund with our friend Alois and I think I don't have a picture up here for them, but Alois is a good looking guy, I mean, take my word for it, and there was. There's a lot of work that's going on there. We've been or actually Heather's been there this year. I don't know how many people are from Trinity are helping to support the children's feeding program in the school in Bita, kenya. But thank you so much for that. There's there's a lot that could be said about that.
Peg:Also, oh yeah, aaron and Beth Jones. We did send out Aaron and Beth Jones to Ireland and I have a little greeting from them. I'm going to read to you they sent to me this week. Greetings TCC. We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas season. We just wanted to give you a quick update on what we've been up to in the past few months. Beth has completed her training and has begun her official shift at the hospital. She'll be working three 12-hour shifts every week. We have an appointment with the immigration office in a few weeks. Please pray this meeting runs smoothly. Beth and I have been blessed to become part of a wonderful faith community. We've been attending Cornerstone Church and have already begun building relationships. I've had the privilege of leading worship and have become a part of their monthly rotation of worship. Saoirse is adapting to the new culture well. She loves playing with all the other kids at church and visiting the park near our apartment. We may even sign her up to learn how to play rugby. I think Aaron's living his life through her.
Peg:That's what I think that's my opinion. Come on, come on, come on. God continues to confirm our calling to live and serve in Ireland and we want to thank all of you for your support. It truly means a lot to us. Our prayer is that God will continue to open the eyes of the Irish hearts and grant them a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him. Our hope is the Irish will know the heights, the depth TCC as the day draws near. With much love Aaron, beth and Saoirse. So we're really grateful to have them as part of our extension of ministry in the nations. Of course we also give monthly to Evangelism of Earth, which is the crusade and pastor training ministry of Steve Fado. Steve does evangelistic crusades and pastors conferences in many Latin American nations. He does it still almost every month. He's going out of the country, so we're grateful to be a part of that. Brad Martell is also a person we support here locally. He is with the Center for Bioethical Reform, which exists to change public opinion and ultimately public policy in the area of abortion. And we also have such a faithful and fruitful ministry of Patti Clemons' Faithful Promises. She does so much. You've already heard a little bit of what she does and a lot of you receive her love and her support and she's connected to so many of you in the body. But I'll tell you, she's one of our deacons, deaconess, and she really serves especially the women of this body so well and she's connected and she's faithful and her ministry is Faithful Promises and we help support her as well.
Peg:Some we have three ministries that are based out of TCC, that we call Scent Ones. They're doing apostolic work in our nation and internationally. First is Yuri and Olga Drozhin. They are part of Siberian Missions. They're not here this morning. They're visiting friends and family in Pennsylvania, but they go to Siberia nearly every year. It's been difficult to get there because of circumstances around the war, but Yuri is planning to go with me to Nepal in about a month from now, so we're going to go together there. But they're such great faithful ministers and they do stay in touch with the people there in Siberia and the Altai region and in the Tuva Republic the people there in Siberia and the Altai region and in the Tuva Republic.
Peg:Also Neil Silverberg, of course, part of Ezra Project and part of us. Neil was part of our. He was actually our senior pastor for five years here and he's part of our oversight now. He gives wisdom. You hear him in the pulpit sometimes here as well, but when he's not here, he's traveling a lot and so he did a couple of conferences in Cuba this year, a couple of pictures here. Also in Mexico, a minister's conference there. And when he's not in the nations and he's not here, he is training leadership teams in local churches here in the United States, and that averages, I guess twice a month you're in some church somewhere in the nation as well, and his input is invaluable. His experience and his knowledge really helps these churches. It helps us, but it also helps other churches as well.
Peg:And then there's Thrive Ministries, which is the ministry that I started and it's also a big part of TCC's thrust into nations and looking back over 2024, there's just so many beautiful things God has done through our partnerships. It's Trinity connected to Thrive, connected to different partners and nations. So we connect with people who are leaders of networks and important people in other nations that have influence that we can bring whatever we can to help support these pastors, especially pastors who don't get a lot of support, and by support I mean teaching, training, building relationships that are ongoing relationships and resourcing them. So we were able to distribute thousands of discipleship booklets that were translated into multiple languages last year and this year, translated into Swahili, translated into Russian and translated into Spanish this year. These are discipleship books where people are, leaders are taking these and they're taking other leaders leaders through these simple uh discipleship materials and then they are turning around and they're also uh training others.
Peg:This is a, this is a conference in india here and that you're seeing um through thrive. We've trained hundreds of church leaders, mostly in local settings, and challenge them to focus on christ and to preach christ, to reveal christ in their sermons, and challenged them to focus on Christ and to preach Christ, to reveal Christ in their sermons and their ministries. There have been dozens of conferences and forums and podcasts and broadcasts and meetings around tables with pastors and leaders, and there was also a new group of Polish worship leaders. We started work with Polish worship leaders and songwriters that are trained and are now writing and producing and publishing songs for Poland and the Polish diaspora all over the world, and it's making actually a big difference. These songs are being sung, it's Polish songs from a Polish soul, in Polish style, and it's not something that's been translated clumsily into their language and it's really beautiful and it's making a big difference. Also, there's a picture of a small church in India. And then this is a leadership team for the songwriting group that we're working with, the songwriting group that we're working with.
Peg:And then my book Walking Through Grief has been translated into Polish and Ukrainian and it will be out next month in those two languages. And we're planning to do a musical play I don't know an experience with spoken word and music, original songs and dance, like choreography, and an interview with me that's built around those phases of lament that we see in the lamenting psalms, to help people grieve in a healthy way. So we're looking to do a Polish tour through many Polish cities in the early part of next year. So praise God for that. And the last thing for us is a new book that I'm just putting out called the Trinity Trilogy. It's a trilogy because it's three books in one. It's a book about the Father and a book about the Son and a book about the Spirit. It's a 30-day devotional on each part, each member of the Godhead, and it is 90 days of learning about the Father through the ministry of the Son, learning about the Son through His interaction with His disciples, learning about the Spirit through His work in the early church, and so the books are being printed right now. If you're interested in it, there's a table out in the back and you can see us afterwards. So you guys are a huge part of all this that's been going on. The fruit that we've seen this year it's a lot. It's a lot. Many of you have been a part of doing it and all of you who have been giving have been a part of doing it.
Peg:We have a prayer retreat and planning retreat every October. Last year, our words that we heard for the year were encounter and prepare and jubilee. So the jubilee, of course, because of the jubilee year and celebrating what God has done for 50 years here. The Jubilee year and celebrating what God has done for 50 years here. Encounter, because we realize that the active work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, in our families, in our church, is what brings life and what sets us apart from anybody else. As Moses said, how will anyone, how will they know that we're different from other nations, unless you are with us? It's your presence with us. So the encounter sermon series we're focusing on that. And then prepare really had to do with preparing people for ministry. So we also received some words this past October for the coming year and you're going to hear more about that in the next few weeks.
Peg:And the last thing I want to do this morning is to give you a financial report, which we have to do because we're a nonprofit and we usually give it in a very simple form, in the form of a pie chart, because most of you don't want to know the details. But if you do want to know the details, they're available. We're an open book with our finances and you can come and ask questions if you want to. But for the operational expenses of Trinity, or actually for Trinity income, this year our income was $540,000. Just a little right around there. I rounded it off.
Peg:But there and that's for our church. That's split up in three ways Our operating expenses for operations, 38% of that goes there. Equipping is 48.5% and admissions we gave 13.5% and I have to tell you this is amazing for a church this size. But also to tell you that our giving actually was down 9.7% this year from November to November and I don't know exactly why that is, but even though it was down from last year you gave so much. It was down from last year. You gave so much. And also, if you add in what was given to other ministries directly, like directly designated to other ministries, it was about $720,000 that this church gave to the church at large, but also to ministries through the church. So, thank you, thank you for your generosity, thank you for your giving.
Peg:I hope you know that our heart is to create a place where you feel safe and you belong and you're connected, and in that connecting you're growing and part of that growth is you're serving as well. I hope you know that we are about building people and in that connecting you're growing and part of that growth is you're serving as well. I hope you know that we are. We're about building people and I hope you can see we're about being on mission for Jesus, not about bricks and mortar so much, although we try to keep this place nice and we're grateful for it but it's really about building people and building the kingdom. So I would like to pray over these things that we've just talked about and also pray a blessing over you as we end. Well, father, thank you, and we look back and remember Lord, like these stones of remembering we set up here today. Your wondrous works, god, what you've done in us, the beauty of your body ministering to one another, the beauty of growth in Jesus and people getting into their ministry callings and bearing fruit, fruit of the Spirit and fruit of faithful ministry as well. And we're so faithful for what you've been able to do through the members of this body here in service, locally, nationally, internationally. Thank you for that, god.
Peg:Lord, we do pray for Aaron and Beth, as they've asked for prayer. Lord, we want to pray that you would continue to meet them. We pray for this appointment with the immigration office. Lord. Things need to go well for their continuing to be connected and just rooted in that place. Lord, for Beth and her job and for their community and the church there. Lord, we pray your grace to give them everything that they need and give them health and safety as well. Protect them, god, and their family. That's here as well, lord.
Peg:We pray for that For all of our missionaries.
Peg:Lord, we pray those same things, lord, that you would give what's needed. You would provide the things that they need for everything that you've called them to. Lord, we pray for a greater connection for all of us, for these community groups, for triads, for discipling Lord, for growing in different ways. Lord, we pray that this time next year we can look back and say we've grown, we've gone farther and we've done great things by the grace of God. We thank you for that, lord. We thank you for the privilege of being able to do this in a body that is so faithful and so committed and so generous. We are grateful, we give you praise for it, lord, and I pray this prayer now, lord, over all of us. Lord, now may the God of peace be brought again from the dead. Our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with every good thing that you may do, his will working in you what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
