Trinity Church Newsletter

Dear Trinity, As I write my letter today, I am deeply grieved by the terrible events that happened in Pittsburgh at the Tree of Life Synagogue. This event affects me for a few different reasons. I am disturbed by the flash of blatant anti-Semitism and the underlying racism that shapes it. I am also disturbed by where this event occurred. Not only did this event happen in a house of worship but also took place in the neighborhood of the man we have been talking about for the last few months. The Tree of Life synagogue sits just a couple of blocks from the real home of Fred Rogers. This shooting took place in Squirrel Hill, Mr. Rogers’s real-life neighborhood. This event has reminded me to continue to follow his anthem of acceptance and grace for others and to look for the “helpers” in this situation. This horrific event also reminds me that a large part of our work as Christians is in the area of grief. The act of grief and of grieving is one that involves a spiritual discipline t

Thanksgiving is upon us and we truly do have much for which we are thankful.   People have asked why we needed to go out of the country when there is so much need right here.   In fact, I have been asked since our return.   I’m going to quote Erin Bloom to answer that question.   As we rolled back into Kendallville, she was looking out of her window and said, “It looks different.”   My heart was instantly full of gratitude.   She got it!   When we leave our comfort zone and enter into a world so unlike our own, it causes us to see things differently upon our return.   I was in Peru on my second trip when I was struck with the realization that if people in Peru needed mobility assistance, then there were probably people in my own back yard who needed it.   I came home and spent the next year starting a mission at Ligonier UMC that is heading into its 10 th year in 2019!   It’s called The Health Ministry Network.   Somewhere around 200 people have been helped by that program right h

What’s Going On (by Pastor Chris) In this article this month, I would like to answer a question that I have never been asked. The question is “why is it that I (Pastor Chris) never preach/teach stewardship in service?” Now many of you reading this will say there is good reason why I haven’t been asked that, because no one cares and even more people don’t like stewardship sermons. This is because many of us associate stewardship with just giving and specifically with giving money. For those of us who have grown up in the church we almost instinctively hear the word “campaign” after the word stewardship. Meaning the church in the past has leveled stewardship and more recently gratitude with raising funds for building projects, mission trips, and even just encouraging yearly giving with pledge cards. But the truth is that stewardship is so much more than this. You see I do care about giving. In fact I encourage everyone (including non-believers) to have a plan for giving to a church.

  Brothers and Sisters, It is time for us to pray, preach, and denounce hatred. 97-year-old Rose Mallinger  and ten others were  shot and killed during Shabbat worship  at the Tree of Life Jewish Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Saturday morning, October 27, 2018. Earlier last week,  two black senior citizens  were  shot and killed at a grocery store in Louisville, Kentucky . Sadly, it is reported the gunman had attempted to enter a black church in search of African Americans to shoot. Furthermore,  fourteen pipe bombs were mailed  to numerous persons, including two former U.S. Presidents, by a man, who many could describe as filled with hatred and political animus, prompting him to define certain people, including postal workers, as deserving of potential serious injury or death. While the bombs did not explode, fear and hatred has exploded and continues to ripple. We see and experience it in rhetoric, and in subtle, and often not so