Walking Before Running

Trinity Church Update

Six weeks have passed since Trinity Church covenanted together to officially become a church. We miss gathering with you and ministering alongside you.

In many ways the reality hasn’t set in yet, almost as if we are just on a long vacation. The reality, though, is that we are a new church learning how to gather and minister in a new context.

Many people from both churches asked me what book or series we would start with at Trinity. We decided to begin with the letter of Paul to Titus.

There were two reasons for this: First, it is short and would give us an opportunity to get through a book quickly, start to finish. I thought this would be wise for a new church just learning how to gather.

Second, and much more important, Paul writes this letter giving Titus instruction for young churches. Paul wants Titus to go to every young church on the island of Crete and “put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town.” This letter is immediately practical for the right ordering of a young church.

Every week there have been new faces attending, some multiple times.

Going through Titus has encouraged and equipped us well in our infancy. In fact, we have just concluded the section on qualifications for identifying and appointing godly leaders. This will be one of our first undertakings as a church: to identify those men who should be leading as elders. Several have already expressed a desire to lead in this way down the road.

Pray for us as we develop processes for evaluating qualifications for biblical eldership and creating pathways to train men in doctrine and skill for this task. We also need prayer as we choose those who will lead by serving us as deacons. Pray for wisdom and boldness to follow the prescriptions clearly set forth in Scripture.

We have had a wonderful start to our gatherings at the Spokane Valley Event Center. Every week there have been new faces attending, some multiple times. Our first membership class starts this week, with several signed up to attend.

We have already had our first conversations regarding baptism. The logistics of baptism in our location might take some creativity, but by God’s provision we will figure it out.

Our gathering place is very basic and meets the needs we currently have. However, going forward we desire to be in a location where we can offer equipping classes and Sunday School. While a permanent location is our desire long-term, we have embraced the motto, “we must walk before we run.”

The ministry of the body is thriving through our weekly gatherings and our discipling groups that meet in members’ homes. We are using our group time to go over the sermon with the aim to apply what we have heard.

So far, this has been really encouraging for the people. One known unbeliever attended one of our groups. This young lady had a lot of questions and seems to be sincerely seeking the truth. Please pray that she would be given the gift of eternal life through Christ.

Several of our members are also having gospel conversations with co-workers, neighbors, friends, and family members. Pray that this desire would continue to grow and that we would see a culture of evangelism take root as a young church.

Trinity Church is built on the labors of Faith Bible Church over many years. The vitality of this church plant and the fruit it bears owes itself in no small way to the faithfulness of those that have discipled our members. Trinity Church was built by you to the praise of His glorious grace! Thankful for you and for what God has done in your midst!

Paul Funchess

Paul is Pastor of Trinity Church in Spokane Valley, planted by Faith Bible Church in 2022. He studied at Shepherd's Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Christie, have eight children: six girls, and two boys!

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