[This is a portion of an email that went out to the TPC congregation on 10/1/25.]
TPC family,
This is a longer than usual “updates” email, but there are several essential items to share this week:
First, make plans to attend the congregational meeting after worship on October 19. This might be the most important congregational meeting we have ever had, at least in terms of casting a vision for the future of Trinity Presbyterian Church (and Trinity Classical Academy). We have had sermons and we sing hymns that remind us of God’s generational faithfulness; he is the God who keeps covenant to a thousand generations. Now is the time for us to act on that conviction by thinking big and thinking long term. Many of us share the postmillennial hope – the expectation that Christ’s kingdom will grow to fill the earth as the Great Commission is fulfilled. Now is our opportunity to do our part in furthering the reality of that hope in a new way.
At the congregational meeting, we will be introducing our “Building on the Promises: Cultivating Wisdom and Worship” campaign. We’ve never done anything quite like this, and I want you to attend if at all possible! At this meeting, we will unveil architectural renderings of the proposed sanctuary building and explain how the sanctuary and school tie together. You may be wondering: Why build a sanctuary? We believe worship is central to everything we do. The Lord’s Service on the Lord’s Day, culminating with the Lord’s Supper is the center of our life together. It is our highest privilege this side of heaven. We believe our desire to have a more beautiful, more fitting space to worship is a godly and biblical desire. We want to build a sanctuary that is more suitable, aesthetically and acoustically, than our present facility for our liturgical form of worship. We desire a building that will inspire reverence and joy, a building that will be worthy of what we trust God will grow TPC into in the generations to come. We want to build a sanctuary because, frankly, beauty matters – it matters to God and it should matter to us. Throughout Scripture, we see a concern with the structures that house the people of God when they worship; we want to reflect and embody that concern. A building whose architecture and design reflect the majesty and glory of God is a worthy investment, and honors the Lord. While we are obviously grateful for our current meeting space, the reality is that it was designed to be a fellowship hall, not a place of worship, and the more we grow, the more its limitations become apparent. I think you’ll be very happy with the design proposal for the new building. Obviously, it has taken a long time for us to get to this point, but it will be worth the wait.
Why start a school? Trinity Classical Academy obviously ties in with our vision as well. The sanctuary building will serve the school at a pragmatic level by housing several more classrooms – but the sanctuary/school connection runs much, much deeper. If we really believe everything flows out of Lord’s Day covenant renewal, that includes education. We want a school that extends the liturgy and teaching of TPC into the classroom, and from there, into the world. When a child is baptized at TPC, we all take a vow to assist the parents as they seek to raise their covenant child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Building a covenant school is one way we can work towards the fulfillment of that vow. While we recognize not every child at TPC will be a student at TCA, we believe the value of starting an institution like TCA has tremendous kingdom significance that goes far beyond the here and now. We all have a stake in the faithfulness and maturation of the next generation. We want TCA to be a kingdom project we all undertake together, even if you will educate your children in a different way, or even if you do not have any children in the home (like me!). Education is the great battleground of our day. Schools are the frontlines of the so-called “culture war,” which is really a spiritual war at root. If we are serious about building Christendom (Christian civilization) as we have been talking about for years, and as we sing about in our psalms and hymns, then forming Christian institutions like TCA is an absolute necessity. There cannot be a Christian culture without Christian institutions, especially Christian educational institutions. Joe Rigney has illustrated holistic Christian culture this way: the church’s worship gathering is the heart that pumps blood through the body, the Christian school is the skeleton, and community life is the flesh. We have the heart and the flesh, but we are in need of a skeleton. TCA will provide it, Lord willing.
As I’ve said before, we are long overdue for starting a Christian school. Even as we desire to have a sanctuary that will serve as a fitting place for worship for generations to come, so we want to build a school that can fill that sanctuary with faithful worshippers for generations to come. While it is very difficult for modern Americans to think outside the little box of their immediate needs in the present, we believe God trains us through his Word to think covenantally – and that means thinking in terms of extended generations and in terms of cultural transformation. We do not want to merely play defense against the onslaught of the progressives and cultural Marxists; by starting TCA, we are going on the offensive in a new way. Our intention is not just to fight the culture war, but to win it — alongside countless other faithful Christians throughout our land. The point of TCA is not merely to keep kids away from the world; nor is it to prepare them for the job market (though we want to do both those things, they are not the main point). The point of TCA is to raise up generation after generation of faithful children who can go forth and build the next Christendom. Nothing less will do.
The vision the session has developed (with a great deal of help from others) is broad, deep, and long-term. We believe that these two projects – the sanctuary and the school – are wise undertakings and good stewardship of the resources the Lord has given us. We do not want to bury our congregation’s talents in the ground; we want to use them for kingdom purposes, and we believe both these projects serve that end. God has been very good to TPC over the years – but I trust our best days are very much ahead of us.
At the congregational meeting, you will hear a thumbnail sketch of how we want to involve all of you in these projects, through prayer, service, and generosity. And I really do mean ALL of you! We want the congregation to take ownership of these projects. We will have a more complete launch of the “Building on the Promises” campaign in early 2026 – but we did not want to wait that long to share with you our plans for the future. The session’s hope is that we can come before God together in prayer, asking him to guide our steps in these endeavors and provide for our rather large needs, financial and otherwise. As part of the “Building on the Promises” campaign, I will be preaching an occasional sermon series that further develops the vision we believe God is calling us to. The first sermon in that series will be October 19, in preparation for the congregational meeting.
One more note on the school: More details will be available later, but set aside the evening of November 16 for the Trinity Classical Academy launch celebration. You’ve already heard an overview of the school if you attended the informational meeting on September 7. But this event will be much bigger, with much more information, including an overview of vision/philosophy, enrollment details, class schedule, tuition, and so on. Maybe, just maybe, the school nickname/mascot will be revealed. This will be a great event to invite people to if you think they might be interested in sending a child to TCA or simply hearing more about the school. We will not have Home Fellowship Groups as normally scheduled for the evening of November 16 to make way for this meeting. It would be great to have as many TPC members as possible attend, along with anyone else who is interested from the wider community.
Blessings,
Pastor Rich
TPC Pastor's Page 