Answering the Call of God - Pastor's Choice

Pastor Tyler Lynde continues the Pastor’s Choice series with a timely and deeply personal message from Acts 16 called “Answering the Call of God.” Looking at Paul and Silas on their missionary journey, Tyler shows how a plan can seem wise, spiritual, and faithful—and still not be God’s plan for that moment. Again and again, the Holy Spirit closes doors until Paul receives the vision of a man from Macedonia crying out, “Come over… and help us.” Through this passage, Tyler reminds Trinity Community Church that God often leads not by giving the full map, but by guiding the next obedient step.

Tyler unpacks what it means to follow God when direction comes through setbacks, closed doors, delays, and impasses. Paul and Silas were moving, serving, and obeying when God redirected them. In the same way, Jesus’ Great Commission calls believers to make disciples “while you are going,” living with open hands toward God and watching for the people and opportunities He places in front of them. Faith requires movement, risk, listening, and a willingness to say yes even before every detail is clear.

This message also returns to a prophetic picture given to the church: God has called TCC to be a resource church, a river and not a bog. A river church gives freely, receives freely, and trusts God enough to send even its best when He asks. Tyler connects this open-handed posture to the fruit of obedience in Acts 16, including Lydia’s salvation, a woman’s deliverance, and the Philippian jailer’s household being transformed by the gospel.

In the second half of the message, Tyler and Derek share a significant leadership transition for Trinity Community Church. Derek and Megan speak honestly about the difficulty of leaving a spiritual family after many years, while also recognizing God’s call to help another ministry. Tyler leads the church in responding with prayer, unity, trust, and maturity, encouraging everyone to bring questions directly, refuse slander, and protect love as the church walks through change together.

If you are facing uncertainty, sensing redirection, or learning to trust God through transition, Tyler Lynde’s message offers a steady reminder: God’s will is good, His timing matters, and obedience is the place where faith becomes fruitful.

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Transcript

A New Series And A Big Change

Tyler Lynde 0:03

All right, good morning everyone. So I'm Tyler, I'm the lead pastor here at Trinity, and I'm looking forward to bringing the word to you this morning. Um, I did want you to know that next week we're going to be starting a brand new sermon series called Faith, Hope, and Love. And we're going to be taking passages from Scripture and expositing them and then preaching from those things concerning those three key elements. One of the things that we felt like the Lord spoke to us for this year is that we needed to be uh strengthened so that whatever crisis we might face, that we'd be able to stand. And so we're gonna um one of the one of the key things that helps us to do that are these three elements of the character of God and also practices that we get to practice in this life by his grace. So faith, hope, and love, right? So please be a part of that starting next Sunday. Okay, so if you were able to read the message that we sent out to the church this week, um, you know that we're gonna be talking about a transition in our leadership team today. And but before I announce that change, I want you to know something. It's gonna be all right. It's gonna be good. God is with us, God loves this church, and his purpose and his plan for this church and for the individuals who are part of this church, is it's everything is in his hands, and he's very capable of caring for us. Amen? So let's remember that above all else. None of this has taken God by surprise. In fact, he's the one who's initiated and led it and caused it to come to fruition. Okay? So as I was praying about how to start this service out in preparation of the announcement, I was reminded of a passage that we recently read in our Bible reading

Acts 16 And The Call Theme

Tyler Lynde 1:52

plan. And this is found in Acts chapter 16. If you want to look there, Acts 16, verses 6 through 10. Um, and the the title of today's message is Answering the Call of God. Answering the call of God. Let's read the word together. And they went through the region of Fergia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So passing by Messiah, they went down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for what you've already done here today. We thank you, Lord, for this sense of community that we've heard about and that we are experiencing even in this moment. And so, Father, we ask that you would speak to us, that you would uh that you would calm us, that you would cause us to know that we can trust you above all else. And Father, we just pray in Jesus' name that your perfect will would be done and that we would be willing to yield to your will, even when at times it's hard. And we thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen.

Learning To Hear God And Say Yes

Tyler Lynde 3:30

So I wanted to remind you a few weeks ago, Pastor Kelly brought an amazing message to us, and it was called Yes, Changes Everything. And I want you to know that he brought that message to us before we knew anything was about ready to change. So God knew and God put that on his heart. We were going through this summer and we were doing pastor's choice sermons, and that's the particular one that God put on Kelly's heart. Um, he reminded us that we can develop our spiritual ears to hear what the Spirit is saying, right? And some of the ways that we can do that are through studying the scriptures, having quiet time with God, and also making sure that we're listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit and saying yes when he asks us to do something. And God will often confirm what he's saying to us through other means, right? He'll use other opportunities, other people, scriptures, uh, you know, somebody something that we see on uh on Christian, well, there's not a lot of Christian television anymore, but that we listen to on the radio or we hear a song or something like that. Somebody in our family says something to us, somebody sends us a text, and all of these things are sort of confirming to us that what God is saying is accurate. And so then we can step out on faith, right? So faith requires us to take the risk to do whatever he says to do. Faith requires us to take the risk, right? How many of you know it is an adventure with God? And it's something that we should embrace and not run away from. Walking with God and working with God and living with God is the best life that we can ever imagine, not only in this life, but especially in the life to come when everything will be made right again. Amen. Last week, Mark also gave us a prophetic message that God had given to him while he was in France, before we really knew what was going on here at all. And so he brought that to us last week. And it was really interesting. It was all about the fact that we can either be a what? We can either be a river that flows and produces

River Church Posture Over Comfort

Tyler Lynde 5:40

life and health, or we can be a bog. We can be a bog that is uh that produces life, but it's not the kind of life that's sustaining, is it? It's the kind of life that is ingrown and dangerous. It's the kind of life that attempts to really destroy us and to keep us stuck when God doesn't intend for us to be stuck at all, right? And so we learn from all of that that God has desired and declared TCC to be a resource church that is a river and not a bog. God has called us to be a river church and not a bog church. Amen? Are you with me on that? All right, because that affects you personally too. That's not just for the church as a whole, that's for each and every one of us as individuals, for us as families, community groups. Everything that we do here at the church, we need to understand God has called us to be obedient to him and to be a river. One of the ways that we do that is that we understand that this is how we're supposed to live. And Mark sort of brought this up in his message as well. But what does this posture say? This posture says, God, I'm open to you. I'm open to you to give you whatever it is that you ask from me. And I'm also open to you to receive from you anything that you desire to give to me, right? And a church that is healthy lives this way. And we're attempting to do that. Are we completely there? Sometimes I feel like we're we're part way there or we're, you know, we're indifferent, but we want to live. This is how we want our expression to be. We want to live this way, right? And uh, and each and every one of us as individuals want to live that way as well. So the church at Antioch, where Paul was headquartered, was a river church. They understood this concept. They oftentimes would send their very best to do the work of God around the world. And they understood that that was God's purpose. Part of the reason that he gave them the ability to train people up, to raise people up, to prepare. And also they were very spirit-led in the way that they came to those decisions. They fasted, they prayed, they sought the Lord, and the Lord showed them who it was amongst them that they were supposed to send out from them, right? And like I said, oftentimes they sent their very best. They sent their very best. They didn't like look for somebody who had really little to no effect within the church life. They said, okay, from the from the one who is most uh visible, the one who has the most kind of contact and and uh uh you know makes progress within the church, let's choose them. And let's, by the Spirit, let's let the spirit choose them and we will send them out. And so in our passage today, Paul is embarking on his second missionary journey, and this time he's leaving with Silas. Paul and Silas are heading out on this journey, and their original plan was to revisit the churches that were planted on the first missionary journey, right? So they were gonna go to the south of Antioch and they were gonna go and visit the pre-existing churches. Um, this would have been, like I said, south of Antioch in a place called Asia Minor. And so as they set off, that was what was in their mindset. But I want us to learn from them that while they were going, they were given direction. While they were going, they were given direction. So many times in our lives, we want to sit and wait for God to speak to us. We want to wait and wait and wait. And how many of you know we can grow very comfortable in the waiting? We can become so comfortable that we our recliner is permanently pulled back and you can't even push it forward anymore. We are we are in it to win it. We are sitting there, we are waiting, we're waiting, and it can even seem very spiritual, the waiting. And I'm not saying that we should get ahead of God, don't mishear me this morning, but I am saying that we can have the wrong posture when it comes to what we're called to be as believers and how we're supposed to live our lives. And so in this case, um, like I said, we've grown comfortable at times. Often he speaks to us about direction a lot more clearly when we're busy about the Father's business. A lot of times people ask me the question, how do you know who you're supposed to be witnessing to? And my answer, and I have I haven't given this to everyone, but I'm giving it to you right now, is who has the Lord placed in front of you? Because every person that he's placed in front of you is an opportunity for us to share the gospel with. Amen? We don't have to wait for a from a you know for a voice from heaven or for you know for you to listen to another one of our sermons or something like that. If God has placed somebody in front of you, and especially if they start to ask you questions that are spiritual questions, it's a pretty good sign that God wants you to speak to them. Remember, we started this year in a passage from Matthew 28, and I want to read reread that uh 28, 19 and 20. It says, Go therefore, what? Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. These were some of the last words that Jesus gave to his disciples. And this was the commissioning. This is called the Great Commission. And what it really reads in the Greek, it reads like this While you are going, make disciples. While you are going,

While You Are Going Make Disciples

Tyler Lynde 11:40

make disciples. Do you see what that what that indicates? It indicates movement, it indicates uh purpose, it indicates uh strategic thinking, it indicates looking for opportunities, right? And so that's what's happening with this apostolic team. The Holy Spirit is forbids them from going where they first wanted to go. He forbid them. That's strong, right? We need to listen to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit. They they knew not to go south, so what do they do? If you're not gonna go south, where are you gonna go? Let's go north. So they started heading north, right? And they're heading north, and as they get to the north, it says the Spirit of Jesus didn't allow them to go any further. So now they've gone south, they've gone north, they weren't ready to go east yet, and so there's one place left. Where's where did they go? They purposed to go west and they headed west and they stopped in Troaz. And Troaz is about 10 miles from the ancient city of Troy. Some of you may know that. There's been some recent movies that have highlighted that spec that area, right? But they could no longer travel by land, so they came up against the sea. They're in Troaz. They've tried everything that they know possibly to do, they've gone in every direction that they know that they that they could go, and now they're up against an impasse. When they were at an impasse, God showed them where he needed them. Sometimes in our lives, we're actually directed by coming up against a wall, coming up against something that seems like I don't know where to go. I don't know where to turn. I'm not sure which direction to look. I don't know, you know, I there's nothing behind me. Uh, you know, I can't go, I know I can't go to my left, I can't go to my right, and to go forward is gonna cost me something. It's gonna cost me a lot. I'm gonna have to leave some things behind. I'm gonna have to be willing to take a voyage. I'm gonna have to be willing to get in a boat when I've been on land up until this point. It says, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. Like I said, they didn't know where to go. They didn't, they were up against this impasse. And uh, how many times in our lives do we face similar challenges? How many times, if you recount your own journey, have you felt like that you came up against this kind of a situation? We've reached the extent of our knowledge, or we've come up against what seems like a strong barrier. We can often feel stuck in moments like this. Anybody know what I'm talking about, where you just feel like stuck, you feel like sort of useless in some ways, right? And it can be discouraging, it can cause confusion at times when we face a place like that. But how many of you know God doesn't intend for us to remain there in that space? God desires to make it clear what his purpose is for our lives in any given moment. But a lot of times he doesn't show us the end of the story. How many of you have experienced that with God? It's usually one or two steps ahead of you that God shows you. He lights the path in front of you, but he doesn't light it a mile down the road or two miles down the road. He's like, would you be faithful to take this next step? Would you be faithful to step over this situation? Would you be faithful to reorient yourself a little bit and to move with me? Right? That's the way God, at least with me, that's the way I've experienced God working more than not, right? So God loves to use these kinds of moments to supernaturally show up and show us what his plan is for what's uh what his plan. And by the way, God didn't change his plan through all of that, through all of Paul and Silas's journey. God didn't change his plan, he had a plan. But he was, they were exercising, taking risks, stepping out, trying these different things until they got to the point to where they understood clearly, God showed them clearly clearly what they were supposed to do. That's what happened to him. He had a vision. We talked about Jeremiah having a vision, Paul had a vision, and uh he saw a man of Macedonia, and this is an unreached people group at this point. And and he sees this man of Macedonia begging him, pleading with him, urging him to come over to Macedonia and help them. Right? What an amazing image, what an amazing picture. God made it very clear to Paul what it was that the next step was for him. So they responded with immediate obedience. So they're kind of trying to find their way, they're stepping out, they're trying these different things, they're going with God, and now that they have the plan, it says, and when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. I'm gonna ask the parents in the room, how many of you require first-time obedience of your children? Let me say it this way. How many of you know that it's the right thing to require first-time obedience of your children? Right? Amen. How many of us need some help in that? Right? We could just take about an hour right now and pray for the parents in the room. I can feel I can feel your angst at that very moment. But it's interesting. Sometimes it's not very complicated. The things that we teach our children are the things that we need to pay attention to concerning God. Because how many of you know He is our Father? He is, and He loves us, and He does everything that He does for our benefit, even though it may not feel like it's for our benefit, even though it may not feel good in the moment, how many of you know it's all good? If it's God, then it's good, right? And so in this same case, God is requiring of this band of brothers to immediately obey Him. And they do that very thing. And at this point,

When God Stops You To Lead You

Tyler Lynde 18:10

they've picked up a couple of passengers. So it's Paul and Silas and young Timothy joins with them. And also Luke, the author of the book of Acts, joins with them on this trip. And let's not forget, did you notice something in the reading of these four four verses, five verses? Did you notice the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all mentioned? God didn't ask Paul and Silas and Luke and Timothy to go anywhere without them. Because the Lord went with them and he went before them to prepare the way for them. Amen. So they joined forces together and immediately went into Macedonia to spread the gospel in modern day Greece, which was the gate opener to Europe. And here's my theory. I believe that there was a nasty group of people with the last name lined that were in Europe that really needed to hear the gospel. And so God sent Paul and Silas and Luke and Timothy to a place called Macedonia so that eventually, one day, these low-down, dirty dog kind of people would be able to hear the truth and repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I can sense some judgment in the room. You're agreeing with me too much. I looked around historically, and some of your caves were next to my family's caves. So let's put our stones down right now, all right? We all needed Jesus. And aren't you glad that God saw fit to send missionaries out to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ? You see, it isn't enough to know the will of God. Wouldn't it be great if that was enough? Oh, yeah, I know the will of God. It's amazing, it's great. You should do it. No, I'm serious. You should really do it. I'm not doing it, but I would encourage you to do it, right? But it's not enough to just know the will of God. It is through willful obedience that God is truly glorified. And by the way, our our main purpose in this life is to bring glory to God. And so we have the opportunity to do that whenever we willfully obey the voice of God, when we obey him and follow after his will. So, what was the result of this? Obviously, uh, you remember the story of Lydia, who had a group of seekers who were asking for clarity and understanding of what the scriptures said. And Paul shows up and Silas and they preached the gospel to them, and Lydia was baptized, and that whole group was set on fire with the Holy Spirit. We also know that there was a woman with an evil spirit that got set free, and the people weren't happy about that because she was a fortune teller and she made them a lot of money. And so Paul and Silas got thrown into prison in Philippi. And when they were in prison at midnight, what did they do? They began to praise and worship God and sing songs of worship to Him. And suddenly there was an earthquake, and the earthquake opened up all of the um the thank you, Sandy, the doors of the prison, and also removed the shackles from their hands and from their feet. And remember the jailer, uh, as he was shaken by this and he looked around and realized that everybody could have escaped. He drew his sword to end his own life, knowing that the Romans would do far worse to him. And yet Paul cries out and says, Wait a minute, don't do that. We're all still here. I'm not sure why. That's actually, you want to talk about a miracle. That may be the biggest miracle of that whole story, that they all remained. But guess what? Paul and Silas were released from prison. The jailer invited them into his house. And the jailer and his whole household got saved. What an amazing story. And all of these things are happening. Why? Because of obedience, because of willful obedience, because they stepped out on faith, because they moved past what seemed like a block, what seemed like an impasse. And they said, God, we will follow you wherever you lead us. They also saw many pagan idolatrous people saved by the grace of God. They preached the gospel that Jesus was sent from heaven because of his father's love for humanity and that he lived a perfect life that none of us could live, and that he took upon himself the sins of the world, and that he allowed himself to be nailed to a cross. And as he was there, he cried out, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing, and it is finished. We also know that he was placed in a borrowed tomb, and three days later that he rose from the dead because of the power of the Holy Spirit. We know that he walked and talked with over 500 people before he ascended into heaven and was placed at the right hand of his heavenly father and was given the name above every other name. We also know that he sent the Holy Spirit to the earth to not only dwell among humanity, but to live in us. And that we, human beings, can be saved by grace through faith. Because of the Father's work and because of us placing our faith in what God has done, we can become children of God. This is the gospel that Paul and Silas and the rest of their group preached everywhere that they went. Many churches were established in many places where there had never been a Christian church. And you know the interesting part of the story? At the end of their journey, they were able to circulate down around south again and revisit the churches that had been planted in the first journey. It wasn't that God didn't want them to do that. It's just his timing was important. The second question that I try to always ask God when I feel like he's speaking to me directionally after the what is when is when. I think that a lot of times we forget to ask that question. Right? God's timing, God's will is perfect, and his timing is perfect. And we find ourselves, I let me just say it this way, I find myself in the most trouble when I get ahead of God or I get behind God. Thankfully, he's gracious

Obedience That Opens Doors In Philippi

Tyler Lynde 24:55

enough to make to make up the difference, right? And to get me right back where he needs me to be. Okay. So I wanted just to share with you just quickly Amy and I's Macedonian call story. So some of you know this, but I just want to give you a little bit more context. Amy and I were in North Carolina and we pastored for 15 years in North Carolina. And then we moved to Florida to be a part of uh helping Neil and Shelly with the ministry that they were involved with there. And we were there for like one year almost to the day. And maybe the night or two before we left, we had dinner together, and we just sort of said, listen, our hearts are that in the future, if you ever have an opportunity for us to be able to minister together, we would love to come and just serve and do anything that we could to help. We moved back to North Carolina and I actually got a job working, and this is a miracle of miracles. This just shows how God works within his kingdom. A Baptist, a large Baptist church hired me to be their life group's pastor, knowing what I believed concerning the Holy Spirit. And so it was really interesting. I tried to be very cautious and careful in the way that I handled that, you know. But um, we were there for about nine months. I knew that that wasn't going to be a forever home for us just because of the difference in theology. I knew that that over time that was that God was probably gonna present something else to us. But man, I learned so much during that time that we were there about structures, about how to think about church, because our church had always been very small. So to think about church when it comes to scale and and and also teamwork. There was a great team of people that worked together there. So it was a great experience. And one day my phone rang and Neil called and he said, You're never gonna guess where I'm going. And I didn't know what to guess, but he said, I'm going to uh Pastor Trinity. And uh Neil is a lot of things, he's a lot of amazing things. He's not a great salesman. I'll just say that. Because this is sort of what he said to me. I know that you said that you'd like to come and help, and I just want you to know we really like for you to come and help. We need your help, but uh the church is in two and a half million dollars worth of debt. Um there are no positions, there are no jobs, and there probably aren't gonna be any jobs for quite some time, but we really would love for you to come, you know. And so I was I was very flattered and honored, but I was thinking in my head, how many pieces am I gonna have to deliver? Which I would have been willing, I would have been willing to do absolutely. I had done that for a lot of my early days and early life. But Amy and I prayed about it and we brought it to our children. And our daughter Hannah, who's right here, um, who was the most change resistant among us. Some people yeah, and I'm trying trying to be really nice with that, but she uh she looked at us. Stop, Joel. Okay, no elbows allowed. Okay, anyway. Um she looked at us and she said, I think we need to go. I think we need to we need to go. Now, did she know her husband was gonna be in Knoxville, Tennessee? I don't know. God knew, God knew, and so anyway, yeah, we prayed about it. The Lord confirmed us. Actually, our original church uh sent us out as missionaries to come to Trinity, and we were able to serve for 18 months without asking anything from Trinity at the time. And uh, and at that point in time, some things changed within the leadership team. There's a transition within the leadership team here at Trinity, and it opened the door for me to come on. I'll never forget having a conversation with Neil, and I wish I could go back and erase this. But I said to him, We've been here for a while. Do you think I'm gonna be more involved than I am right now? And he just looked at me and kind of smirked, and he's he said, You don't need to worry about that. And uh, and the rest is history, right? Neil, a few years ago, when he stepped away from being the lead pastor here at Trinity, he embraced this mantra, which he still uses to this day. Maybe you've heard him say, go ask Tyler. So that yeah, did you feel that? Yeah, it was an amazing word of knowledge that the Lord gave to him. And he has exercised that gift many, many times. And so, but anyway, I am so grateful, Amy and I are so grateful that God saw fit in his sovereignty to put us sort of up against an impasse, to get us to the point of us being willing to say yes to whatever the Lord would ask of us. And we are here and we get to serve you and are privileged to be a part of the community of this church because of the fact that God spoke to us and we yielded to his will. And uh Derek and Megan find themselves in a very similar situation right now, and so I'm gonna ask Derek to come and share some from his heart about what God's doing in their lives. We love you guys. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:11

Yeah. Good morning. So this is probably one of the hardest conversations I've had in 25 years. I came to Trinity 25 years ago and remember the day that I walked into the building, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt, that's where God had me. I was looking for a church and and I just felt his spirit. And I the very first day I said, All right, Lord, I'm here until you tell me different. And I settled into that very, very well. And a few months ago, uh actually two months ago, pretty much to this past week, I had a brother call me and uh and ask me. We were actually the day before we went on vacation, uh, we were going on a two-week vacation, and and he called and he said, uh, hey, can we get together? And now this brother and I had had we got together every six months, every year, and we'd always just keep up and and talk with one another, just love on each other. I got to hear a lot about his ministry, what the Lord was doing in and through him, and the church that he had just planted. And it was just really cool, all the things. It's just cool to hear the stories and things, but never once had he ever mentioned anything about me coming to help him. And and so when he made this phone call and he said, Hey, um, can we get together? Uh, I hung up the phone and I turned to Megan and I went, Well, uh I think I know what he's gonna ask. And she's like, Well, what do you think about it? And I was like, I don't want him to ask. You know. Um, so went and I had uh great lunch with him. And in the middle of it, he did. He said, Uh, Derek, I would like for you to pray about coming and uh and being with our church and helping to disciple the young couples that we have in the church. He says, I feel like that you and Megan have a lot to share with our couples in our church. And would you just pray about it? And if the answer is absolutely no, we totally understand. We love you, we're still gonna get together and stuff, no problem. So we go on vacation and uh we talk a lot about it for two weeks. I only shared it with a couple of people that were just family and had them praying for us, of course. And during that time, I was like, all right, after two weeks was done, babe, do you hear a no? And she says, No, I don't hear a no. It's like, okay, so what's the next step? I said, I feel like the Lord wants us to at least go check this church out. We'd never been there before. Like I'd been at a couple of events, so it's still a very new church, um, but a couple of events, but we'd never been to a service. So, all right, well, we're gonna go and we're gonna we're gonna go check out this church. And so if I'm to tell you the truth, uh, not because of anything with the church, I absolutely love the church and love the people. I didn't want to go anywhere. I don't I wanted to stay here. So I was kind of hoping that in the midst of this, the Lord would reveal to my wife the answer is no. Because a lot of times the Holy Spirit sounds like my wife. And so I was kind of hoping for that. Um, and we got there and and it wasn't a no. And so I knew then, all right, well, now it is time, Megan and I agreed. It is time to bring to our brothers. Um, the elder team here is absolutely incredible. There is no way under the stars that I would ever even begin to think about making this change without my brothers, without this elder team. And so I brought it to them. It was a hard day. Uh very hard. Like, all right, this is what's going on. And we began to pray about it. And over a number of weeks, we continue to pray about it. And I think it was uh two Tuesdays ago, this past Tuesday, um, we had a great meeting, and it was a hard meeting because there's, you know, there's feelings in all of this as well. But we realized that the Lord was calling me to go and and help this church. Um, now to let you guys know, this church is already an amazing church that uh that I'm talking about. They already

Timing Matters And Tyler’s Story

SPEAKER_00 34:20

have uh wonderful leaders and all of that, and I'm nobody. Uh the weaker I become, the stronger he becomes. So I do know that we're probably gonna learn more from them uh than they are from us, but um, God has really uh made it abundantly clear that uh God is calling us to go and and help. And so that now I've been vague about names and things. Uh Adam Lutz was the youth pastor here um before I came on. And and it was gosh, uh I first started at Trinity with Pastor Ross Jones, who was uh youth pastor at that time. And then after about two years, uh Ross went to uh help with other ministries and uh eventually ended up with the Nostal Dream Center and now is in Egypt. Um, and back at Egypt, right now he just went back, didn't he? So yeah, just left. So um, and then uh Adam Lutz came in and he was the youth pastor here for nine years. And in the very beginning, it was just me and and Adam and Sarah, and we were really lacking leaders, and we we did a really good job. We grew together, we uh made uh wonderful youth group here uh just have the the leadership that they needed. And then I met this gorgeous woman and she jumped in, and the four of us were a real power team, and we, as the uh Neil started teaching about teamwork and all those, we we had a team of people, and and that helped out so much when he went to go help plant uh Awaken City. But outside of Awakened City, uh he felt the Lord calling downtown. So he started a little meeting in a church, uh house down there, and then that ended up into a coffee shop. Awaken Coffee is what uh him and Sarah Lutz own, Awakened Coffee, and he put the church in the back. And then since then they've started another coffee shop kind of in the Curtains building. Um, but the the church is downtown in the old city in Jackson, on Jackson Street, uh, which when the church started had an old costume shop and nothing else. So uh he really had to see the Lord on that. And then um COVID came and you know how Knoxville shut down and they kind of had to restart, but they're growing rapidly. And it is a beautiful ministry to see what the Lord's doing there. Love the vision that they have for it. Um, but it was very hard for me because I didn't want to leave. I had uh this is my family, you know. You got to understand who's in this room are all my aunts and uncles, my cousins, all of that. You guys have been closer than blood in many, many, many ways. And so that was the hardest thing to actually make the decision. And no way I could have done that without my, of course, my family being on board. And if you want to hear if it was the Lord or not, I asked my wife, I was like, so babe, I'm really struggling. She's like, and she's the one who's like Hannah, very resistant to change. And I said, So what's that? You are, you're getting it today. But no, my wife is very resenting to change, resistant. Yeah, I'm gonna say some words today. Um, and uh, she goes, I'm totally fine because I know that the Lord's saying to do this. And so I was like, All right, well, let's do it. And then I went into each one of the elders as well, and I could not make this call without them. Since then, we've had uh just little things of reminders of what the Lord has done throughout the last little bit. Tyler told you earlier about the words that were already given before this was known. Um, that the elders that you'll find out over the next few weeks had already begun to see the Lord doing last October. Um, a word that Mark had given in the time. Can I share the word? Leader shift was the word that Mark received back last October, in which we thought was to what we were already trying to place in the plan. And then this came out. We're like, oh, yeah, yeah. So that's now started. And so there's just been many of these little things to show that the Lord was preparing for this. Um, and so we're ready to step out into that. And it really is what you were just saying. Everything that you spoke about this morning was 100% where we are because uh my daughter asked this week, well, what are we doing there? I says, Well, in just a few weeks, we're just gonna step in the door. First step. That's all we really know. Um, and Adam and Sarah are uh just amazing people. Their church is uh awesome, they've got great vision, and so I never in any way want you to think that like I'm going there because they're in crazy need of me. No, no. I'm sure I'll learn a whole lot more from them. One thing that's gonna hit me the worst is if at any point I lose you guys because you guys are family, and so I'm really hoping and praying that you know, as uh life goes on, I'm still welcome to come back and have dinner with family. You'll see me at different things, you're gonna see me at dinner, and if it's all right, I'm gonna come raid the fridge every now, man. Right. So uh my daughter's still gonna be coming to use here, and so I'll be seeing a lot of you on Wednesday nights. And uh, if your kids are homeschooled, I'm gonna see you on Fridays because she also goes to homeschool co-op. And so the only place that you're gonna miss me here is on Sunday morning, and I will have no clue what's going on in the building. I still know where every screw and bolt is in this building, but I won't know what's currently going on. So that part I will be able to go ask Tyler. That'll be good. That'll be good. So uh what this looks like is uh we're bringing it to you guys today. Uh first, I want to apologize really quick if I haven't gotten to you personally this week to tell you what's going on. Some of you uh are right now actually thinking, oh, that's what the missed call was about this week. That was exactly what it was. Um, and some of you might be thinking, wow, he didn't give me a call. Let me assure you that I have been on the phone hours this week and I just didn't make it to you on the list. And so please forgive me if I didn't get to you personally to try to prepare you for this. Um, because that was kind of we're trying to get to that, but I knew I wouldn't reach everyone. And this is absolutely amazing body of Christ. And I know that God's gonna do so many things here, and I'm actually jealous of what the Lord is doing in the leadership right now here, leadership. See, the leader shift is gonna

Derek And Megan Share Their Call

SPEAKER_00 41:10

be good. I'm gonna say that forever now. Um, but what the Lord is bringing here and what I've known is in the works to happen here by October uh from last October, I'm jealous of what the Lord's doing. And it's gonna be beautiful to see. It's still gonna be beautiful when I grab lunch with Tyler and Mark and Neil and everybody, because none of that stuff's gonna change. Uh, but it's just gonna be really cool to hear all those things. And so um, in uh two weeks on August the 16th, um, I'm really asking for you guys to be praying for us. And if the Lord really gives you anything after you process all of this, please write down any prophetic words that the Lord might be given to you. Um, and of course, at any time you can ask Megan and I or ask your elders. I mean, because this is there's no like they have a different story than I have. There's no rehearsed stories here because it's not one of those things. This is a true, like sin. Like, I feel like the Lord's calling. They know that the Lord's calling. That's been totally abundantly clear. And so I feel like I'm a son who's moving out of the house, but I'm gonna come home to dinner. And I am gonna raid the fridge. Like, there's gonna be things that they might need that we're gonna borrow. So, Tyler, you gotta come on up, buddy. And it has been this has been one of the hardest things for these for me and this guy. Yeah, because we've worked so side by side all for like what, seven, six years, six years now? Yeah, other than like way before that. Exactly. Full time, full time, yeah.

Tyler Lynde 42:45

Yeah, thank you, Derek. And and we'll uh I I just I'll close with some thoughts, but thank you. Love you, man. Love you, Megan. Yeah, yes. That's good. So let me just state the obvious change is hard. Let's be real. Change is hard. And uh I encourage you to take some time to work through this. It's okay. It's okay. We need to get to the point of rejoicing, but sometimes that takes a little bit of time, and that's okay. Take some time to process through this, talk to the Lord about it. I'm gonna ask you not to do anything that would disturb the unity within our church. And the easiest way for that to happen is for people to start talking amongst themselves without having clear answers or without having a a direction that is good in mind. So come to us, come to Derek and Megan. If you have specific things you want to know, we'll be glad to answer any questions that you might have. Right? Let's be careful, even though we're emotional, let's be careful not to be unhealthy. In our emotions. There's a difference, right? Let's trust that God's plans are higher than ours. Again, if this is his plan and his purpose, and if he's in it, then he's going to help all of us through this. That's his purpose. And Mark spoke to the staff this week and gave this quote. I just want to reiterate this. It says, healthy things grow. Growing things change. Changing things challenge us. Challenging things drive us to God. Going to God leads to trusting God. Trust leads to obedience. Obedience makes us healthy. And then healthy things grow. In other words, rinse and repeat, right? Life is full of this series, this series of movement. This is the movement that God takes us through. And this is part of the process of sanctification that he works in each and every one of our lives. So let's make sure that we're uh acknowledging his work, acknowledging his movement, and not resisting it. So there's some things that will change. Obviously, one of the key things is that Derek and Megan will no longer be on staff or be pastors here at Trinity Community Church. And that's going to be tough. I'm going to tell you right now, like their shoes are humongous to fill. And uh, and so part of our angst and stress, if there is any, is about that piece of it, right? But here's the thing that I came to remember. All of you are very willing to help. You've proven it over and over again. And so if all of us step up into the different things that are needed for this church to continue to thrive and to move forward, then we're going to be able to handle this, right? The other thing is that we're going to look at simplifying processes and simplifying ways of doing things so that there's not quite as much of Derek having everything in his mind and that being like the database. We're going to have to be able to get it to the point to where everybody, well, those who need to run with the vision will be able to do that. So we're working on that. And Derek's helping us with that process of transition. Um, we need to learn to relate to Megan primarily, Megan and Derek primarily as brothers and sisters in Christ. And that's that's amazing. That's initially and most importantly, relationally, that's who we are, right? Um, we're going to need, like I said, help filling the large footprints. I also want you to know that um that we have two new elder candidates that were have been being prepped for almost three years now, and we're going to be introducing them to the church. And this was already in the plan before any of this happened on the on August 30th. So we'll be presenting two elder two new elder candidates to this church on August 30th, which we're very excited about. Now, some things that shouldn't change, right? Are love and respect for each

Protecting Unity And Next Steps

Tyler Lynde 47:05

other. If you hear me slandering Derek and Megan, call me out on it. Tell me to stop. If you hear them slandering Trinity Community, or or Adam Lutz or uh Awaken Old City, if you hear any of us as a leadership team slandering anything concerning them, stop it. If you hear them saying anything, and I know that they won't, we we we have no desire to do anything like this, but I'm just making ourselves accountable to you as a church. You know, let's keep this in the right position. Um another thing that won't change is the fact, like I said, like Derek said, we are family. And if there's anything that's needed right now, it's prayer. We need to soak, especially the next couple of weeks, in a lot of prayer so that whatever God is doing here, and we believe that He is doing this, whatever He's doing, that we're prepared and committed to following Him, to listening to Him, and that we have the grace that we need to move forward. Your commitment to Christ should not change in this. Amen. He is our solid, firm foundation on him. Everything else is built. And I would also ask during this time that your commitment to TCC would not change. Obviously, there may be time in the future where God is going to uh, you know, release other people and send other people to different places around the world. We've already had this happen many times, and God's called us to be a motherlow church, a resource church. So this isn't the last. But this is also a time that Satan would love to cause people to feel sort of like I have an itch that I need to scratch, right? So just be careful with that. Let's let's uh especially if you if you have those things come up, come and talk to us. Let's talk through it, let's pray through it together. Okay. Um, we're gonna pray. Mark's gonna come in a minute and he's gonna pray today for transitional grace for all of us for the next two weeks. And then on August 16th, uh, we will pray over Derek and Megan and their family. Allie, we love you. I know this is tough, and we're we're walking with you through it. So glad that you're gonna be around on Wednesdays. So happy for that. Yep. Um, but we're gonna be praying over them and their families.