TCC 2025 Wrapped

Mark Medley opens Psalm 105 and invites us to practice gratitude so we can remember and retell God’s works among us. He frames the morning as “stones of remembrance,” rehearsing how the Lord formed belonging, deepened growth, and multiplied service in 2025—and how those simple steps will shape the year ahead.

Under Belong, Mark celebrates the fruit of a team-led pastoral model that equips the saints and makes space for many voices. Average attendance rose by more than 80 people each week. Thirty-eight new partners (17 families) completed the New Partners track. More than 15 babies were dedicated, and nine people were baptized. Community Groups ranged from apologetics, traditional skills, and business cohorts to support groups and “Dinners for 8,” while house-church style gatherings carried fellowship through the year. Trinity Christian Academy surged to 242 Friday co‑op students (104 families), added 45 high schoolers in Thursday core classes, and now connects 133 families across TCA’s ministries. Midweek equipping and a growing rhythm of Triads point to where we’re headed next.

Under Grow, Mark highlights Scripture at the center. The church moved through Nehemiah, the Sermon on the Mount, and Ephesians 1–3, with 127 people in a chronological Bible plan. Twenty-one days of corporate prayer and fasting pressed roots deeper into God. Leadership pipelines—Trinity Ministry Apprenticeship and the Timothy Team—multiplied emerging teachers and mentors. Marriage and parenting equipping, FIT classes, and young mothers’ discipleship helped homes become disciple-making hubs.

Under Serve, presence turned belief into action. Seven Serve Day projects mobilized 80 volunteers across parks, schools, assisted living, and downtown outreach. A providential building purchase provided long‑term stability and room for a sanctuary build‑out. Justice and mercy advanced through protecting human life initiatives, Street Hope, Hope Resource Center, and a thriving prison ministry. ROTC cadets found discipleship, meals, and mentors through weekly rhythms on campus. Partnerships with Empower School and Farm and Compassion Coalition deepened local impact.

Globally, our people touched five continents. Two Cuba trips trained leaders and helped purchase a house‑church property now hosting forty-plus people. In Tanzania, the Maasai community grew in discipleship and development as the Victoria Watoto School surpassed 150 students. Partners in France and Poland discipled young professionals and united churches, while next‑gen missionaries served in South Korea, Poland, Thailand, and Honduras. Sent Ones extended reach through Siberian Missions, the Ezra Project, and Thrive Ministries, including new translations and grief-care resources in Ukrainian and Russian.

Looking to 2026, Mark calls us to grow deeper to know Christ and make Him known. Imagine your next step—belong, grow, or serve—and join the story.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Why We Remember: Psalm 105
• 2:55 Framing The Year: Belong, Grow, Serve
• 5:50 Belonging Through Teams And Pastoral Vision
• 9:45 Attendance, Partners, Baptisms, And Baby Boom
• 13:40 Community Groups And Midweek Rhythms
• 18:20 Trinity Christian Academy’s Big Leap
• 22:30 Triads And Deepening Community
• 24:45 Growing Through Scripture And Series
• 29:20 Prayer, Fasting, And Leadership Development
• 33:10 Serve Day: Loving Our Neighbors
• 36:50 Local Outreach And Buying The Building
• 41:20 Children’s Ministry Moments That Last
• 44:30 Justice And Life Initiatives
• 48:10 Campus Discipleship And Prison Ministry
• 52:20 Empower Farm And Compassion Coalition

Transcript

Mark Medley: 0:02

So Psalm 105 is where we're going. If you have a Bible, you can turn to Psalm 105. A lot of announcements today because there's a lot going on here, but a lot of a lot went on last year, and this is what we're doing this year. This is uh actually our annual, it's a little different service, and that is our annual TCC recap service so that you can see, we can look back and see what God has done in us and through us through 2025. Big year this year. And here's the reason we're doing this. Psalm 105, starting in verse 1. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, sing to him, sing praise to him, and tell of all of 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. Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments that he uttered. So God in his dealings with people always has set in motion these ways for them to remember what he has done. He's always encouraged them, set up stones of remembrance so you don't forget. We'll set up these feasts so that you can remember, that you won't forget what the Lord has done. And feasts and festivals. So don't forget what the Lord your God has done. Tell of his wondrous works, remember his deeds. And that's what we're doing this morning. So we're talking about praise reports this year. We're talking about the good things that God has done. And you know, this year, looking back over as I'm looking through what we've been, uh what we've gone through this year, it's been a year of increase. This is what the big word is is increase. God has increased us in a lot of ways. He's increased us in attendance. Although it seems like some people are out today, maybe sick or maybe out of the out of the city or something, out of state or something. But he's increased us in our discipleship venues, he's increased us in our homeschool co-op, he's increased us in our local outreach, in our international outreach. And uh we bought two church buildings, but I'm getting ahead of myself. We'll get to all that. But our goal today is uh is to be actually our goal in this church is to be a local expression of the body of Christ and create a space for you where you can belong, grow, and serve. You see the big words on the wall out there, belong, grow, and serve. That's really what we're about. Helping you connect in community, helping you go deeper in your understanding of Jesus, helping you uh reach out and uh let God invite you into his mission and work through you to other people. That's what we're talking about. So, belong, grow, and serve. That's how we're gonna break it down today. So, how do we belong in 2025? So I think the goal for us as pastors, the goal when we talk about belonging is the goal is to be is to be more connected in community than we were last year. This year, more than we were last year, connected together. That's what belong is about. And I just want to tell you as as uh one of the pastors here that your pastor team loves this congregation. You guys are really easy to pastor, you're easy to love, honestly. You guys are um you guys are it's not that you're like low maintenance. I want to say it that way. But you're but you're but you you love Jesus. You press into Jesus, you you find Jesus in even in your difficulties. You press in together to one another in your difficulties. And though we, as your pastors, are happy to meet your needs ministerially, pastorally, it's a joy for us to do it, and we love you. And we have a great team here, and it's a unique thing. If you guys are any of you are new here, it's kind of unique. You see that there are different people in the pulpit, different weeks, because we have a team ministry here. It's not one pastor who does everything or makes every decision or one guy at the top and a bunch of little pairs of hands that do his bidding. It's nothing like that. It is a team ministry, and we really function together and we function uh really well, you know, beautifully together. But also, Ephesians 4 says that the the ministry gifts that Jesus gives to the church are for the purpose of building up the saints so that the saints do the work of the ministry, and the saints help bring unity, the saints help bring us into the fullness of the knowledge of Christ and bring us into maturity. So it's really the saints that do the most of the ministry. So we are equipping the body, but we have so many people serving in different ministries here in this church that help us care for the needs of this church. From prayer teams on Sunday morning to service teams on Sunday morning. We have uh greeting team, we have safety team, we have medical teams, we have kids' ministry, then we have ministry teams like um the Forge Youth Ministry and the Gathering Place for our young adults and more. Everyone here serves and they help to care for the larger body of Christ. You guys are helping to pastor one another. This is the way it's supposed to be, you know. Um we don't shirk our responsibilities as pastors. This is part of our calling, but our big job is really to equip you to do it. And you guys are doing it, and belonging, belonging is really happening through you guys this year. So we did have an increase of our attendance. Probably our average attendance has gone up about 80 people this year, which is great. This is one reason we're taking that back wall out soon, and we're going to uh have some more uh room for chairs. We have uh 38 new partners that have gone through the uh partners track, uh 17 families. We had more than 15 baby dedications, so that's going strong. Growing in many different ways here at TCC. I have two granddaughters that are expected to be born in the next week and a half, so this is awesome. Just threw that in. It was not in my notes. We had nine baptisms this year. It's great. We had a lot of people that attended our fit class to help understand so that they can grow in their understanding of who God's made them to be uniquely, so that they can not only just who they are, but who they're for, how they can serve in the body of Christ. And one of the great ways that we have here to belong is our community groups. So our community groups offer a chance for you to engage more deeply with each other and with this with the scriptures. And so if you're drawn to deep discussions about scriptures or apologetics, or if you're drawn to you want to uh connect with other people that have like-minded interests, or you're just looking uh to learn new skills, we have a lot of community groups. Last year we had community groups that were focused around nutrition, sewing and crafts, marriage, money-saving tips, apologetics, music, traditional skills, exercise. That's our bend and stretch group, or as we like to call them, our firm believers. Firmish. Gonna hit that, hit that more in January, right? Uh Christmas doesn't count. Uh, groups about uh for business owners, groups uh we have the grief share group, we have the mom support group, diaper days, we had the teenage boys group, we are wondering, we had practical local missions groups that were doing local outreaches here uh called Faith and Action. And then we have our perpetual community groups or groups that go on throughout the year. Uh the other groups have start and stop dates, but this these groups that uh meet in homes, we have three of those across uh the county, actually in Knox County and in Anderson County. So belong. There's going to be more groups uh starting in March, so stay tuned about that. Also, we were able to belong together with our Wednesday night uh community uh teachings. Uh, and it was great because we got to not only every Wednesday night, there's a teaching. These this is teaching from people who are being trained uh in. Maybe we we have seen teaching gifts or leadership gifts in, and they have been trained uh and we're giving them venues to teach on Wednesday nights. So that's great. That happens every Wednesday night. Um starting, it will be starting later on in January. But uh on the first of the month, as Derek mentioned, we have our community dinners, and it's been great. Those of you who have come up, it's been really encouraging to see uh how many people came out to eat. I think you know, you throw food down and people just come. That's just great, but but you but you want to be here. This is this is a great thing. Then we have our uh Trinity Christian Academy, and uh this has been a big area of increase this year, our homeschool co-op that happens on Fridays. Some of you don't know this, but on Fridays, this place is fuller than it is today. It is full, and this this uh sanctuary is sectioned off, and we have 242 students in our homeschool co-op. So if you put the parents together with that and the non-uh school-aged children, there's about 350 people here every Friday. So it's it's uh madness, it's beautiful madness. And then we also added Thursday core groups for high school classes, and we've got 45 students doing that. So there's a total of 133 families that are connected to our umbrella. They're registered under TCA's Trinity Christian Academy's homeschool umbrella, which is registered with the state of Tennessee. So it's an opportunity for people to connect in that way. And it's it's it's growing. It's great to see these kids growing and learning about Jesus in school. So we also have our triads, which is our our, these are our informal discipleship groups that meet around the scriptures and around building relationships, just a way to make disciples uh, you know, with each other, just growing in in the knowledge of Jesus and also connecting and being able to be accountable to each other. It's a major focus of our church in 2026, which you'll hear about next month. And we've increased the community part of Trinity Community Church this year. That's what we're that's what we're saying here, the community part of belonging together. And we really hope that you feel more connected this year than you were last year. This is one of our main goals here, and that you'll be even more connected to the church body at the end of 2026 than you are now. And if you're newish here and you feel like God may be joining you or you'd like to know more about TCC, uh next uh January 25th, uh next month, uh, we're gonna have our Discovering TCC lunch right after the service on the 25th of January. So you can go for that, go to that and learn more about that. Okay, that's belong. We'll shift over into grow. So, growing, our goal for growing or helping or creating an atmosphere for you to grow is is uh that you are farther along in your walk with Jesus, your growth journey than you were last year. And that means growing in the knowledge of Jesus, and that means growing in love for him and growing in love for people. That's basically what growth is. So we tried to create an atmosphere that was conducive to that this year. Part of that is through our Sunday morning services, and this is our sermon series this year, which I loved. I don't know if you guys did or not, but I loved them. Uh, we had a little vision sermon series at the first of the year about belonging together, growing deeper and reaching farther. But then we went into the Old Testament, we went through the book of Nehemiah together, this passion project sermon series, and we learned a lot of things about working together, about allowing the burden of God to precede our vision. And out of that burden comes the vision and the provision and comes the um the uh equipping of God to fulfill that vision. We learned uh during the summer sermon series, we talked about um the Sermon on the Mount. So we had especially about uh the Beatitudes there. We talked about uh Ephesians. We went to the New Testament and we uh went through the first three chapters of Ephesians from September through November. So we're gonna finish that, chapters five through six, or four through six uh next year. And then we did our Christmas sermon series, expecting. So part of the way we want we want to help you grow is by faithfully expositing the scriptures, not just picking something out and throwing it out to you, but going deep in the scriptures, going deep into the books, understanding what they're what what the author is really saying, who is saying it, who are they saying it to, what are they saying, why are they saying it? When are they saying it? And what does it mean to us? And going through that verse by verse really helps you grow. We had uh 127 people registered to read through our chronological Bible study last year, which is great. How many of you have gone through our either our Bible study or some kind of a Bible reading, daily Bible reading last year? Man, that's fantastic. That's great. Good job. So Derek's already brought up the fact that we're doing it again this year, and we're going back to the uh the Old Testament reading or the New Testament, reading through the New Testament in a year. Uh, there's there's a QR code that you can scan, you can join that. We're gonna start that in a few days. We're finishing up Revelation in our in our um chronological Bible study now. I think tomorrow's the tomorrow's the last day. We finish it up last tomorrow, and then we have two days of devotion, and then the new year starts. So, we also had 21 days of corporate prayer and fasting this year, which was uh a growth avenue for many of us and a shrinking avenue for some of us. That's a joke. We we grew, we increased while we decreased, you know what I mean? It's kind of biblical, actually, really. Yep. So that was a great time to press into the Lord together. And uh we developed leaders through Trinity Ministry Apprenticeship Program and through our Timothy team, which is um the avenues that we have to work together with leaders and try to equip them uh for the future. We have discipling triads that many people have been a part of. Uh we've had a lot of people go through the fit class of us, as I said. This is part of your growth. And when you understand who you are and you plug into your purpose, this is part of your growth. And then we had equipping uh opportunities for families. We had a marriage seminar and a parenting seminar, and then we have uh young mothers discipleship group. So so we hope this is all about growing, right? We hope that you have or you feel that you're farther along in your walk with Jesus this year than you were at the first of this year. That's our goal. So we shift over into serve. And this body has made an impact. This is our goal for serve is to make an impact through praying and through practical works of service and mission locally, nationally, and internationally. And that's what's happened this year. It's been a it's been a lot. It's been amazing what this body has been able to do. So we'll start with our 2025 SERV Day. We got some pictures here. Many of you were part of the Survey projects. We had seven Survey projects. We did repairs here at the uh next door at the uh First Steps Daycare. Um we did help do some gardening at Empower Farm and School, uh, some landscaping at Tennessee Right to Life Prayer Garden. We visited and helped make crafts with the residents at uh Windsor Ridge Assistant Living. We provided lunch and evangelism uh at uh homeless outreaches downtown. Uh we did some park beautification at Tommy Shepherd Park and Sturkey Hills Park here nearby, and also uh at Powell Station Park out in Powell. So, plus all the people who cooked and served meals, prepared uh meals for the volunteers who are working on Serve Day. So thank you for that. Just really a way to practically reach out to the neighborhood, and you can be sure to join us for uh serve day projects in 2026, too. So watch for that. You got an opportunity to do that next year. Um, other local outreaches. Well, we did we did uh we did buy a building. This was part of our local outreach. We owned this, we own this, we own this. We had an incredible opportunity offered to us, a really unexpected opportunity to buy this building and to do it basically uh at uh the same kind of cost range that we were renting this building because of the way things worked out, just was really almost couldn't pass it up. So um here we go. This is great. We have an opportunity not only to be in this space and and expand this space, but also use it in many different ways to glorify God. So you can still give toward the building expansion project that you heard about last week or the week before last, that we week before last, and uh Derek's uh mentioned that we're expanding uh the building here and doing some work over here as well, uh beyond this wall. Um so you can still give toward that project that that's current currently undergo that we're currently undergoing now through March 2026. So you can still uh give to that. You can give to that by going to tccknox.com and designating to sanctuary sanctuary build-out. And so that's an opportunity. We also had um our missionaries to Knoxville, Robin Chris Ellis and their family, slash family, slash other people here, YWM Knoxville, and children's ministry outreach have been so busy this year. So there's so many different stories uh that happened this year. But we I just wanted Chris to share at least one of them.

Chris Ellis: 19:25

So our stockings of love. I don't know if anyone saw the picture of the sanctuary before we delivered Host and Oaks. I think everything but this youth side had a stocking in it, all the chairs, and it was incredible. But the story that um the event when we went to New River, so we've been going up there, I think this was our tenth year, and it's in rural Appalachia. Really, the first six years they were kind of standoffish, and then when we had that crazy Washington team come, it's never Been the same. It's something was a breakthrough there, and so we're invited to baby showers and everything now. But we always uh do the same lesson at Christmas, and it's about Christmas is all about giving, and that God gave the greatest gift of all, and we can give our very best. So after we prayed, Rob dresses up as Santa for the pictures, so I had to kill some time between. But in the meantime, a little boy named Carter, who had prayed when Rob did the prayer, he went outside and he put his hand up. He said, Jesus, I want to give my heart to you. And he threw it up in the air, and then he came back, he goes, I just want to help people. I just want to help people. And so Lee Curry, Lydio's Lee Curry, was helping us, and he was trying to help him carry coolers, and it was just, it was just such a sweet, like tangible way of them getting that. That Christmas is all about giving. I give my life to Jesus, and now I want to serve others.

Mark Medley: 21:02

Beautiful. Thank you. Wow. Wow. Wow, beautiful. Well, I'll tell you, you can be a part of that, you know. You can do that if you're not involved in anything. If that kind of uh lights a fire inside of you, they do ministry weekly to kids, and there's opportunities for you to help uh join in and help with that. Okay, locally, what else? Well, we have uh Patty Clemens and Faithful Promise Ministries. Patty does so much ministry that probably most people don't know about, but she is one of the greatest out arms of outreach here uh that we have locally. Um she has meetings that she holds once a month to share a word of hope. But she also is our deaconess, one of our deaconesses here, who serves widows and many people with different kinds of needs. And she meets one-on-one with women and mentors them and also goes to Anderson County Women's Prison, right? She does so much stuff, so she's part of a big part of our local outreach. Also, Brad Martell is with Center for Bioethical Reform, which is basically an organization that exists to change public opinion and ultimately public policy on abortion. And Brad has had such a busy year this year. Um busiest travel season he says he's ever had. And uh they set up awareness projects at 15 different sites in three months. That's a lot, a lot of different campuses, so 11 colleges, three churches, and a downtown public square. They set up these huge um awareness displays, uh, pre-born child displays. He put up, they put it up in uh Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Thousands and thousands of people saw this visual display. Many of them uh saw prenatal development for the very first time. You get these things in front of people and people start thinking differently. And this is what's happening. He's part of our Protecting Human Life Team, by the way. And the Protecting Human Life Team is a great uh outreach of this church as well. They work with um uh women at risk, they work with uh women who have been sexually trafficked and exploited in other countries, they work with right-to-life issues, so we're really grateful for that. And they also uh we also can um also uh work together with Hope Resource Center, which is Knoxville's only holistic reproductive health care center for women, and they offer cost-free services uh provide uh provided by licensed medical professionals. And so this is this is a great opportunity. Also, we work with Street Hope, and Street Hope is a safe house for young girls who've been rescued from sex trafficking. A lot going on in the area of justice here from this church. Another one of our uh great local outreaches is uh the campus house of prayer with Ryan McCrillis. Ryan, are you here this morning? He's sick. Okay, maybe he's are you watching, Ryan? Uh you know, nearly 10 years, um, as far as I as I know, that Ryan has been on the campus of the University of Tennessee working as a volunteer chaplain with ROTC cadets, uh, active duty and civilian staff. This year they held a Christian retreat, and with the help of TCC, they also were able to feed their cadets during weekly ROTC Bible study. He, but Ryan participates in, they they did this retreat and he does weekly uh mobile food pantry. But the big thing he does is he mentors students. He is he is a one-on-one discipler and he disciples in groups and he prays with them, he walks with them through these Bible studies, and he does great work right there on the University of Tennessee. And the University of Tennessee uh currently has the largest ROTC program in the United States. You didn't know. And they have been actively trying to duplicate their ministry to ROTC candidates in other surrounding schools, and so far they've gotten that established at Tennessee Tech and UT, Chattanooga, ETSU, and Michigan State. So what they're doing here, I don't know what's I don't know what's what does Michigan have to do with Tennessee? I don't know. There's a little bit of a rival there, but you but uh you know he's taking what what they're doing there and they're they're uh planting in other places, so that's terrific. Of course, we also have our prison ministry from TCC, and that's uh headed up by Matthew Achley, who's one of the um chaplains there at the uh Morgan County prison. Patty goes, Edmund goes, Mike Bumerstead, James Boyd, Tyler goes, and the gospel has been faithfully presented to these prisoners uh two nights a month, and every every month, and the there's great friendships that have been happening and relationships have been built through the volunteers and the and and the prisoners, and God's been moving mightily in those services. And the church in the prison has continued to grow. Those men have continued to get stronger in their faith. They have managed to set up their own discipling plan among themselves, which is great. And they have a prayer chain they continue to do with the prison that is uh that's just a little bit of what Trinity's done there in the prison. And uh and special thanks to everyone who provides for that, who prays for that, supports that, and cooks so that the uh ministry can be effective. We also are connected locally to the Empower School and Farm. Our friend Buddy Walker is part of that, and we've had opportunity to train some leaders there and impact locally and internationally there through the farm. Empower students have participated in service projects with TCC, and also some of them have been part of our TMAP program and have been trained in the Bible this year. And uh Compassion Coalition, the last thing locally, we also work with Compassion Coalition, which is a faith-based nonprofit here in Knoxville, that is a coalition of churches that um and different kinds of organizations and businesses, and they're committed to moving beyond the walls of the church buildings into the community and uh seeing the compassionate presence of Jesus make a difference in the midst of poverty and pain and brokenness. And so we're part of that as well. So we're making a difference locally, uh, but we should turn to internationally now too. TCC partners have been personally involved and personally touched, been on the ground in five continents this year, uh with significant ministry in Poland, France, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Tanzania, Ireland, Kenya, Thailand, Honduras, South Korea, and the United States of America. Did I miss anybody? Africa? Yeah, I got Tanzania. I got that one. That's good. Yeah, and Kenya. Yeah. Great. So and and our Cuba trip, our Cuba outreach. Did I did I mention Cuba? Okay, Cuba. This is a big deal. This was a big deal, Cuba. So we we did trips to Cuba this year. Uh, we did two trips uh to Cuba and ministered training pastors and leaders. Um, and also we we bought a building. And and you guys probably remember this. That last last April, Tyler came up after our trip and said, we have an opportunity. There's a there's a town that doesn't have a church. We have an opportunity to buy a church. You can't buy a church building, you have to buy a house in Cuba. You don't buy church buildings, you don't build church buildings. That's not uh that's not allowed. If there's a church building existing from pre-revolution 1959, then you can use that building, but you can't build a church. But they buy houses and they convert them and they make church meeting places out of them. And so we had an opportunity to buy uh this building you see behind us, actually, two buildings. It's a church and a house next to it, along with some property. And Tyler just came and mentioned it one Sunday, and we needed $7,500 to buy this thing outright. Amazing. And I think what came in was $12,000, I believe. So it was amazing. We did not only that, but we actually helped outfit and equip the building. And so uh what I found out is two, three weeks ago, there were over 40 people in attendance in this uh which is fantastic. So beautiful, so beautiful. Um, so uh we're planning to do other conferences in November. We're uh joining a team with Cornerstone Church in Alabama uh that's sending uh team down to do children's ministry, children's uh camp in April. So we're gonna uh help with that as well, and we have other conferences, multiple conferences planned in November. So uh that's a great opportunity there in Cuba. In Tanzania, we still we continue to uh partner with Gospel Herald Ministries and our our precious friends, Pastor uh Matthias and uh Beatrice, who help the ongoing development of a Christian community among the Maasai people in a little village called Kiria in Tanzania. Beautiful people. Uh it's a village of about 4,000 people, mostly just herdsmen and their families, very, very poor, but there's a great work going on there. The church continues to grow, and the outreach and the development of the land around the church, which has happened because we've been helped able to help them uh purchase some things that were necessary for that. That's going on. So that's happening. Also, we've had a lot of our young young people that have been in the nations this year as well. Um uh we have Rebecca Geiger, who's in South Korea, Kayla has been in Poland this year, Kayla Grainer. Uh Ruth is here, Ruth and Ice is here this morning. She was in Honduras and in Buffalo, which is not a foreign nation, but sort of. Anna was in Thailand, Anna Jones. So we have just a lot of people, a lot of young people going out. Did I miss anybody? Okay, good. But we have other missionaries uh overseas that we support uh in in a in a rather kind of a major way. One, of course, Phil and Jenny Adams, so many of you know them. They're still helping plant churches and working with young professionals in parts of France. Um, and you know, there's this has been such um Europe has been such a such a dead place. The gospel has been so needed there, but there's a reawakening in the hearts of young people there in Europe, and it's a beautiful thing to see. And Phil's in the middle of that. He's just in he's in tall grass right there, because what he does is he works with uh discipling these young people and serving the leaders nationally in France, also in other parts of Europe, and also in Afghanistan and Haiti as well. That's the the Adams. We have our friends Bartek and Daria, Bishobiwa, who are in Poland, and um uh they serve a church that we helped to plant there called Amazing Grace Church, and uh we were able to be with them this uh this summer. It was great to be with them and their new baby, their their son, and their new their new newer son. Uh they work not only at the church there, but they work with an organization called Evangelical Poland, and they are working with different um types, different uh denominations of evangelical churches all over to unite them, to strengthen them, to grow together in their um uh knowledge of the word, in their uh outreach uh and evangelism, uh, and in many different ways, and they're impacting the nation there. And of course, we have uh Victoria Watoto Fund.

Speaker 3: 33:23

Which thank you for supporting here's here's a video soccer balls. We can now play soccer. Thank you, thank you for uniform at Victoria Watoto School because our beloved sponsor, may God bless you, happy giving Tuesday. Thank you for quality education at Victoria Watoto School. May God bless you, happy giving Tuesday. Thank you for well balanced out at Victoria Watoto School because of our wonderful sponsors, may God bless us.

Mark Medley: 33:56

Praise God. Our friend Alois Leonard, uh who was a who was also a partner here at Trinity for many years, uh, has been working there with the children's feeding program, which turned into a school, and it just keeps growing. And so we're really great. Uh currently there are 153 students enrolled there, you know, and it wasn't in existence even a few years ago. And uh nursery through fifth grades, uh opening our doors next uh to sixth graders next year, hiring a new teacher, construction's already begun on the new sixth-grade classroom. So it's a big big deal. Thank you so much. Uh a lot of uh you have been partners together with Victoria Watoto Fund. And um, oh, we have some people in Ireland as well. Uh Aaron and Beth are here this morning. And Aaron, come on up. You gotta say something. We were able also to to visit them uh there near Dublin this year, and it was great. It was a great opportunity to do it.

Aaron Jones: 35:06

So hey everybody. Yeah, so Beth and I, we've come in uh spending Christmas with our families, and um so yeah, just a quick update. Um so Beth and I, we moved uh September 2024, landed in Ireland then. Um before I say anything else, first of all, thank you to everyone here who is financially given to us, prayed for us. Um obviously, uh before we left, there was a hands-and-feet offering taken up for us for Beth and I. That really, really, really, really is appreciated. And thank you. Just uh there's a few of you that have given through the year. Um, and uh a few of you just gave uh you know, just you know, when you felt like the Lord led you. So just we really, really appreciate that. Um very quickly, so Beth and I moved um in 2024 to to Ireland. We were living in a little town called Bray, south of Dublin. We only lived there a couple months, and then we moved um up north a little bit to another town called Black Rock. They're all um you know right near Dublin. Um, and uh we were attending a church in uh Bray called Cornerstone Church. And uh we were there um uh this this whole time that we were in Ireland, and um and uh Beth uh obviously when we first got there, she uh started uh her position at the hospital, one of the hospitals in Dublin and City Center called Matter Private, and she was working in post-anesthesia um and serving the Irish and and everyone else who came through those doors um uh in that capacity. And I was leading worship um about once a month, twice a month when people were sick and things like that. Um and um and so all along we knew we were wanting to move to County Cary. Um and we actually did that um the week uh last weekend. Last weekend. Wow, last weekend. So uh we literally uh uh we had to take a few trips down and and uh and so we threw it all in our in the house and we locked the door and then came here. And so um, and so yeah, so leading worship, um I got and then Beth, um it's funny, I wanted to say this, you know, some people think, well, you know, yeah, Beth's job was a nurse, but no, that's her ministry. And so um I I always want to highlight that just uh that it wasn't just what you're doing on the side. So what Beth was doing, and and to be honest, let's I don't want first of all, she's the brains of the bunch. Let's we have no problem saying that around here. Amen. And so um, and uh it's through because she got a critical skills work visa. Uh Ireland is in desperate need of nurses, and that's what got us in the country to work visa. Um, and that that's that's why we can actually stay in the country. A religious visa in Ireland usually gets you three years and then they boot you out. And so, um, and so and uh one of the things that was has been very interesting is that Beth and I have um we started uh to help and volunteer um with an organization called ICEJ. It means International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem, which is very interesting. Um, but uh and I won't go into all of it, um definitely don't have time. Uh but um uh Ireland has a troubling history of anti-Semitism. Um and currently um in the government and in the higher ups, there is a and uh just with a lot of people, it there's a real uh spirit of anti-Semitism. And to be honest, the Lord gave me a couple dreams, uh very sobering dreams, um, one before I left, and then I had a few while we were in Ireland. And the and the father was just really uh kind of putting his finger down on that, that that was something that Beth and I needed to um be a part of is is to bring just love and support to the Jewish people who live in Ireland, is not many, uh, but Dublin has a concentration of that um community. And um, and so uh Beth and I became we're part of that organization. We still are, we're we're actually now that we've uh moved to Kerry, we're gonna kind of be representatives of that organization in Kerry. Um, and so uh I mean I don't think I have to say it, but anti Semitism's it's growing in in the world. And um it's very troubling, obviously. What happened in Bondi and Australia and stuff, and there is no place for it in the body of Christ.

Mark Medley: 39:59

Yeah.

Aaron Jones: 40:00

At all. There is, yeah, there is one people group in the world that God calls the apple of his eye. And so one of the burdens on my heart is that the Irish that the Lord turns their hearts actually toward the Jewish people. And that sounds weird maybe to some of you, but actually I really truly believe that's part of discipleship. And so we we live in County Carey now. It's a town called Killorglan. It's um and so I don't think I don't know if Harrison and Ashley are here today, um, but they're Ashley's parents. Um sh uh they pastor in a town right next to where we're living in Killarney, and um uh Michael Nympha Robson and they passed a Living Rock Church. We were actually just there uh last weekend and stuff, and so um we're glad to be around uh in that area. Uh and we live we went from a city of 1.5 million people to a town of 2,000 people. And so um but so basically that's kind of the stuff we've done this year, and just looking forward, um, just through some prophetic words and stuff with our local church and in Bray. Uh, really feel like the Lord's wanting um us to network with pastors in the County Carey uh area. Um that's like I said, kind of a long story, but um, I really feel like uh that's one of the things the Lord wants to do with Beth and I. Um and it maybe at some point we would like to start a house church in our little town and disciple people that way. And um, and then also uh my music gets in there somewhere and every now and then and figures its way out. So um, but anyway, once again, um I just uh uh want to thank all of you um uh just for your prayers and your giving. Um and uh really to be honest, we've been in Ireland now since September 2024, but um first of all, we're in it for the long haul. Um we're not there to you know hang out for a couple years and then go home. We really want to bring disciples um and raise up disciples in County Cary. That's our heart. Um and um and also to just uh whenever and however to just really love and support the Jewish people in Ireland. And um and so yeah, so uh we just uh um just thank you guys and love you guys. And if you want to talk to Beth and I afterwards of you know about Ireland or or I don't know if you got a home group this week or something and want one of us to come or something, you just let us know and uh and all that. So but and Mark, thanks a lot for letting us uh oh and yeah, and there's Sersha. That's our three-year-old, and uh and that's actually at one of our ICEJ meetings. Um, and the picture in the middle there, that's between Killarney and Killorgan. I thought I'd just throw some sheep in there, you know, with a great sunset. And then there's a QR code that goes to our website.

Mark Medley: 43:08

Hey, how old is Anna? How old is Anna? How old is Anna?

Chris Ellis: 43:14

Anna's 23.

Mark Medley: 43:15

Okay, good. Okay. Yeah, they're three, that's their three-year-old, but their 23-year-old was leading worship this morning. Yeah. That was all for Beth. All that is for Beth. Okay, so we have three three more groups that are part of our church that we call Sent Ones, and they are ministries that are based out of TCC that are doing you could call apostolic work in the nations uh in terms of uh helping build churches and ministry in different ways. Uh, number one is Siberian missions with Yuri and Olga Drojan. And Yuri and Olga are here this morning. This year, they've been ministering in Russia and in Tuva Republic in Germany and Bulgaria and Nepal. And so we were able to be with them in for a few weeks in a couple of weeks in Bulgaria, which was great. It was it was great, it was great. We were in a tiny little uh commie condo, like built during communists, little bitty thing with uh one bathroom, the four of us for a couple of weeks, and it's beautiful. It's like it life as it should be. Comarod. Uh so we're really grateful that they they're able to uh to go and reach places even that we can't go now because it's I can't we can't get into Russia, it's very hard to, but they can. And they're they've been a they're a huge help to the churches that they help serve there. Many of them they planted, or they're the churches that came out of churches they planted in Siberia. So thank you for for what you do. Uh and then, of course, there's Ezra Project with Neil Silverberg. You guys know Neil, and he's here with us sometimes in the pulpit because he serves as oversight here at Trinity Community Church, but also he he's on the oversight team of 12 other churches in the United States, and also four churches in Puerto Rico. And he also serves a network of 37 churches in eastern Cuba in his spare time. Last year he did two conferences, uh, in one in Cuba and in Puerto Rico. Uh he travels, he does ministry in in different local churches here in the United States, yeah, in his spare time. And he trains leadership teams in the United States, and so he's out averaging maybe twice a month. Normally he's out twice a month to different churches. Uh and he continues to serve in the leadership team of Master Builders, which is a network of uh Ephesians, Ephesians 5 ministers, uh, Ephesians 4 ministers that um that uh that work to serve churches in different capacities. If you want to um hear like hundreds of hours of teaching, there great teaching. There's a podcast, Neil Silverberg's podcast. You can check that out. Hundreds of hours of great teaching on that, and then neilsilverberg.com as well. You can go there. So there's Neil, and then then there's Thrive Ministries, which is which is uh the ministry that Amy and I oversee. And 2025 has been a year of new beginnings, obviously, for us, and expanded vision. We've been uh privileged to personally visit and resource and encourage pastors in Nepal and Cuba twice, Poland three times, France, Bulgaria, Romania, and here in the United States as well. And also there have been a lot of, we've seen a lot of women discipled through the Melissa movement, uh which is a fund that's been was set up in honor of my my late wife Melissa, who was a spiritual mother, and we are we are helping to resource spiritual moms in many different nations. Uh Poland and Russia and Tanzania and India and Nepal and Alabama, which is not a foreign nation. I don't want you to know that. But it is Alabama. And so there's it's amazing how God is really just continues to bless that and provide, and there's a lot of things going on getting ready to do um a women's conference sponsored uh by uh uh Melissa movement in India. Uh so this is great. We've helped uh the translation of discipleship materials into Spanish and to Russian this year. Walking through grief book was translated translated into Ukrainian. It was uh distributed throughout Poland, and we did a little Polish tour. I did a little Polish tour on the book. It was called, well, I called it affectionately the grief tour because it was a tour about grief. Uh and that's but it's also uh in Russian now. It's translated into Russian, so it's soon to be published in those languages. The audio version of that book will be available and audible in a few weeks. And then the Trinity Trilogy uh book, the devotional book, is also being has been distributed and uh is being enjoyed by people, which is great. We give God all the glory for this, and you're a huge part of the fruit that we've seen this year. So we want to thank you so much for giving. So in key and so speaking of giving, it's been a year of increase in giving too in 2025. So we've got just a real quick update and that we had uh as of like two weeks ago, we had $591,146.02 that came into the church, um, which is which is amazing uh from this group of people. It's just so great. We're so grateful for that. You can see the breakdown there. 37% of that went to operations, 38% to equipping, uh, 11% to missions, and then we have some that went directly to savings. Um so this is um uh this is if you want more information about that, you're welcome to. I don't want to bore you with details, but we are wide open about our finances here. If you have for any reason some kind of curiosity about that, you can talk to us about that. So that's 2025. Looking forward to 2026, at our elder prayer and planning retreat in October, we felt the Lord really push us toward this idea of growing deeper, to know Christ more and making him known. Really discipleship. We felt like sharp Christians are best prepared for anything that comes along, for any crisis that happens, anything that might come along. We want to help sharpen you this year and to be prepared to make a positive impact, no matter what happens in the future, to see Jesus better, to be with him, and to be on mission with him, to go for him, taking the truth of the gospel to those who desperately need it. You're gonna hear more about that in January, because that's part of uh our vision series in January. But all of this was done together. It was a lot. It was a lot that happened. There's sometimes a voice in our culture that says, Yeah, I don't really need church, though. I can just be a Christian by myself. And church is just, I don't know, it's not, it's an old thing, right? And I hear that sometimes, and I always answer it with one statement, and that is, well, what have you done this year? Because let me tell you what my church has done this year. And I start talking about all the things we've done locally, all the things for justice issues, for practical issues, for gospel issues, what we've done nationally, what we've done internationally, how people are growing. You know, what you know, this is I would I would say, what are you actually doing to affect your world? And together, as one local expression of the big body of Christ, this is what we have done. Together, all of us, you have done it. Whether you went on a trip or you served locally or you serve in Sunday school or you give or you pray, you are part of this. And we have done all of this together, and we did a lot last year. And may we even do more in 2026. And that's how how I want to leave you this morning. Imagine yourself this time next year. Imagine yourself growing, belonging more, connecting more in community, getting your needs met in relationships in the body of Christ. As the scripture says, the body of Christ, every joint supplies what the other joints need. Being connected together, receiving and also giving, because there are people who need what you have. Imagine yourself growing closer to your church family through Sunday services, through small groups, through community groups. Imagine yourself growing deeper in your Bible reading plan or getting involved in discipling triad to know the word of God better. Imagine yourself serving God more effectively in ministry on serve day in one of the teams here, local outreach, or or giving or going to the nations. Where could you be this time next year if we belong and grow and serve together? So, as we read earlier, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name and make known his deeds among the people. Rehearse his wonderful works. So that's what today is about, and we're gonna pray and thank God for it all, and we're also going to ask him for more in the future. Father, thank you. We give you glory. Every bit of glory goes to you because you have drawn us to yourself, you've changed our lives, you've brought us together, knitted us together with one another, and you've given us opportunities, and you've done great things, even through this small expression, this local expression of your great big body. Thank you that we're part of it. We're so grateful to be a part of each other, Lord. And we're asking for more next year, Lord, more community, more belonging, Lord, more growing, deeper discipleship, more understanding of Jesus, more experience with your Holy Spirit, more security in our walk with our Father, and more opportunities to serve, to impact this place, our place where you've put us here, Lord, and the nations is what we pray. I pray that for every person here. God, for for this year, you're our great shepherd, Lord. Would you guide us? Would you shepherd us into these areas of belonging and growing and serving through this year? And that this time next year, we won't even be able to recognize ourselves, Lord. Because of the beautiful things you have done. All glory goes to you in Jesus' name. Amen. And I want to pray over a blessing over you. A little different one this morning from the New Testament. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen. If you have prayer need this morning, please come up. We want to pray for you. We don't want you to leave without getting prayer. Let the body minister to you this morning. And we love you guys and happy new year.