Here is a quick reflection from Youth Pastor, Jesi Allers, on our Youth Group and their upcoming Lasagna Dinner Fundraiser & Talent Show.

Sometimes teenagers don’t seem to get along very well.  In a place like school, where there are lots of options to pick the people who look just like you, they tend to simply end up in community with mirror images of themselves while simultaneously growing a distrust of the other.  Nature usually takes its course and they then grow up to be adults who do the same thing.  I know this because most of my friends are like me.

Here the youth are huddled around the kitchen table on their retreat last year. (Don't worry, thumbs down is the new thumbs up.)

For some reason, however, the Lord has not seen fit to let this happen in our youth group.  There is no ability to show up and anonymously slip into a sea of sameness.  There are times when this feels hard.  It takes work and intentional effort from both our kids and our volunteers to know and be known by people so seemingly different from ourselves.  Yet through the Holy Spirit, these kids are known to each other; there is a familiarity, a deep calling out to deep.

One night a year we come together as a church community to celebrate our youth.  If you have ever wondered what it would look like to have Taylor Swift take the stage, see Michael Jackson dance once again, learn how to solve a Rubik's Cube and smell pancakes cooking to the sounds of Frank Sinatra that Aunt Jemima herself couldn’t touch, all on one stage, in one hour, by teenagers who have little in common with each other…I can tell you.  To me, it looks and smells and sounds like heaven.  Each year I find myself stopping (despite the fact that there are probably people waiting for their food or something has been spilled) and looking at the people who surround me.  I am taken aback and left breathless.  Its not just the fact that our youth are celebrating each other, although that is amazing in and of itself for teenagers, but it’s the fact that our church as a whole is celebrating with them.  It’s a moment for grandparents and kids, single people, married people, Christians and people who haven’t set foot in a church in a year to come together and eat, laugh and cheer.  This breathless moment then brings me to tears.

Poised for greatness and perched on the deck railing at last Fall's retreat in North Carolina. This is where meaningful friendships are formed.

We are part of something so very special here at Trinity.  I’m so proud of the church that we are.  I’m so proud of the youth group that we have.  Our lasagna dinner on Saturday the 22nd is a fundraiser for a retreat that we will be going on in November and that’s great, but most importantly, its an opportunity for us to come together as a community and eat and laugh with those who are not mirror images of ourselves.  If you are able to make it, it’s not too late to sign up and join us.  Shoot me an email with the number of people in your party and I will gladly add you to the RSVP list or sign up this Sunday in the atrium!

Ever been worshipping at Trinity and noted the young woman at the front left signing to the congregation? We reached out to Sarah Garner asking her questions of how she learned sign language, how she uses it to connect with others and the ways the Lord has used this form of communicating for His kingdom good.

Marty Reardon: What encouraged you to learn sign language?

Sarah Garner: I met a deaf girl when I was in 8th grade with whom I wanted to be friends. We wanted to giggle and talk about boys but I was intimidated by having to talk to her adult interpreter in order to communicate with her. The interpreter started a class at my church specifically for kids in our age group so we could learn to communicate and become friends. She and I are still good friends today. I picked up the language more quickly and easily than anything else I'd tried to learn in life and I knew it was a gift from the Lord. I took ASL (American Sign Language) as my foreign language in high school and studied it in college through Georgia Perimeter's Interpreter Training Program.

M.R.: How did you begin signing for the deaf at Trinity?

S.G.: Providing an interpreting service at a church is a dilemma of which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Do you wait for there to be a need for the service or do you have someone interpret each week for years before a deaf person attends? Last year at Health day I met a deaf man named Greg. I interpreted for him at Health day and invited him to come to Trinity. I didn't hear from him for almost a year. I was serving with another homeless ministry when I met Merry and her children. Merry had not been able to attend church because there wasn't anyone sharing the gospel in her language. I began bringing Merry and her kids to Trinity each week and through Merry I was reconnected with Greg.

M.R.: What other ways have you been able to use your skill in signing?

S.G.: I was recently blessed with the opportunity to travel to Russia as an American Sign Language Interpreter for a Deaf team. There, my team and I lead a camp for Deaf children. Contrary to popular belief, sign language is not international. Ideally we would have an English/Russian translator as well. Often the Holy Spirit's power of translation that was present in Acts was all we could depend on, and the Lord was faithful to help us cross the communicational divide. I planned to go only as an interpreter but the Lord exceeded my expectations and allowed me to create and execute the games and crafts with the kids at the camp. They seemed to really enjoy the games and we incorporated a Bible lesson into each of the crafts as a hands on way of learning. This approach also helped bridge the language barrier. During our time in Russia, the Lord gifted me with being able to quickly pick up Russian Sign Language. This allowed me to enter the culture and build relationships with the girls at the camp: talking about boys, life in America, braiding hair, and just being girls. Being given the opportunity to serve through an actual service (interpreting) AND spend time sharing the love of Christ with Deaf teen girls were fulfilling in every way. The weather was beautiful in Russia. I was blessed with some alone time in creation each morning and the Lord whispered His truth to me. It is my prayer that as I return to the routine of life here in the States that I am able to apply the lessons learned from the exciting events of my trip. I also pray to remember the characteristics of the Lord that He revealed to me during my time in Russia.

M.R.: How does your knowledge of ASL inform your worship of God?

S.G.: Just as we were created to worship, I was created to communicate in sign language. I believe that when we use our gifts to serve and worship the Lord it is a blessing to our Father as well as to us. There are times that I am interpreting and the Lord gives me a conceptual translation that changes and deepens my understanding of the message.

M.R.: What would you like to see accomplished in terms of a Deaf community/ministry/signing at Trinity?

S.G.: I would love for our Deaf ministry to be an extension of the Body in a way that brings the gospel to those who would not otherwise "hear". It is my prayer that the Lord grows the attendance of our Deaf community so that they can find a "home" within Trinity's walls and they would feel a part of the church, not an exception within it. I also hope that the Lord would draw in and raise up those whose gift is communicating with their hands; that they also can find a place to connect and serve within Trinity.

Recently, Marty Reardon asked Brad Mauldin, our Small Groups Pastor, to share his vision for small groups and how he found his place at Trinity. Here is what he had to say.

Marty Reardon: Why Small Groups?
 
Brad Mauldin: Trinity small groups allow for a large community to turn toward one another on a consistent basis and in a smaller environment than a typical Sunday service. Small groups provide a platform for transformative relationships through the development of a deeper understanding of God’s word, spiritual friendships that intentionally encourage one another to the feet of Jesus, and a supportive and accountable environment to apply God’s word to our lives so that we are transformed and move toward our Lord’s hope that we develop the character and heart of Christ.
 
M.R.: What is the format of Small Groups at Trinity?
 
B.M.: Most of our small groups meet on a regular basis (weekly or every other week) in people's homes and spend time together hanging out, discussing the previous Sunday's sermon, and praying together. Many small groups also organize times together beyond the weekly meetings like a weekend retreat, meals together, or Braves’ games.

 
M.R.: What is your role as Small Groups Pastor?
 
B.M.: My role is to care for the vision of small groups at Trinity. In addition to keeping a finger on the pulse of our groups and how well they are reaching our goals, my role entails challenging, encouraging, and providing pastoral care and direction to the small group leaders.
 
M.R.: What is your vision for Small Groups at Trinity?
 
B.M.: My vision for Trinity small groups is that they would be a foundation of spiritual formation for our community. I am convinced that change takes place in the context of relationships since God Himself is relational. When we spend time with each other in the context of Christian community, we are in the midst of the deepest source of love, power, and strength through Jesus Christ. With the right intentions for spiritual friendships and focus on His word, this unifying power and strength in Christ can transform our hearts and help provide the foundation for intentional lives marked by a more mature and eternal focus on bringing God’s will to fruition here on earth as it is in heaven. Small groups can be a community that creates and sustains momentum toward kingdom-oriented living that bears the fruit of the Spirit in the actions toward one another and as the group member engages the daily rhythm of the ordinary details of their lives outside the group.
 
M.R.: What brought you to Trinity in the first place and how did that evolve into working here?
 
B.M.: My wife and I stumbled into Trinity over five years ago based on the recommendation of a total stranger. I was in graduate school at the time and during a weekend course sat next to an older lady who struck up a conversation on churches. I shared with her our frustrations in searching for a church community and she shared that her son had made a video for a church on our side of town. We visited the next Sunday and haven’t looked back. We got involved in small group leadership and other things like serving in the café and serving communion and the community has become our home. This past winter, as I was completing (finally) my grad school program at Richmont in counseling, the church approached me about taking on the full-time role of small group pastor. I had been working in education for a dozen years and most recently as the equivalent of a campus pastor. I loved my job, the school community, and the people I worked with every day. However, I couldn’t shake the sense that God had orchestrated this fork in the road and by accepting the job I was taking a step toward growing in areas He wanted to work on in me. So we excitedly (and I’d be lying if we didn’t say with some trepidation) accepted the invitation. Being life-long Atlantans, my wife and I (and our little girl Emery) are so excited to be even more integrated and planted, and to use the gifts and passions God has given us, into the Trinity and city community.
 
 
 

Village Church is a young church that has launched in the Vinings area. Curt Benham, Village Church's lead pastor, took a moment to answer a few questions from us here at Trinity. If you would like more information on the church, its mission and meeting times you can find that information here on their website: http://villagechurchvinings.org/

Jeff Guy:  How did you first realize you were being called to begin Village Church?

Curt Benham: It all started with our neighborhood.

When my wife and I moved into our neighborhood about five years ago, we immediately fell in love with the place and with our neighbors.  As we made friends there and as we started to have some “Jesus-y” conversations, we heard over and over stories of de-churched people.  These friends of ours don’t have any extreme intellectual skepticism, and most of them aren’t mad at Jesus.  They have, however, pretty-much bailed on church (mostly because many of them were burned by the church as some point in their lives).  Most sadly, most of them have never really heard the good news of God’s one-way love for them in Jesus Christ. They grew-up hearing a message of “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” at church rather than the gospel.  We really wanted them to know the unconditional love of Jesus rather than the “if you do better and try harder … then God might love you” message they received at church growing-up.

So to make a long story short, a little over three years ago the Holy Spirit gave me an inkling to start a church the could reach the people in our neighborhood.

Strangely enough, the Holy Spirit was doing the same thing at the same time in my friend Jonathan Adams’ heart.

So over the course of several years God brought us to a place where we were sure of our call to leave our comfortable ministry jobs at a very large church here in Atlanta and plant The Village Church.

J.G.: What did you feel specifically called to do with this church plant? Or, were there things and needs you immediately saw that you wished the church to meet?

C.B.: We had several years to think and pray about what kind of church we were called to plant. So when we actually started building our “launch team” (the group of Christians with whom we panted the church) we had a pretty good understanding of where we thought God was leading us.

Obviously, our main calling was (and is) to reach our unchurched and dechurched friends in our neighborhoods.  So the question was (and is!): how are we going to do that?

We knew we wanted to be a simple church (not tons of programming for programming’s sake).

We knew we wanted to be a mildly liturgical church, and we knew that our liturgy would come from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.  So it was natural that we joined the Anglican Mission.

We knew we wanted our church to embody three core values: Gospel, Community, and Mission.  Here’s what I mean by that:

The good news of Christ and him crucifiedis the foundation, the walls, the roof, the EVERYTHING of what we do and why we do it.  Only the gospel changes lives and brings us peace with God, and that’s the message we want our neighbors to hear and receive.

So when people come to know Jesus as their Redeemer, and when we Christians live our lives constantly astonished by God’s one-way love for us, then two things happen:  We live in biblical community with each other (we actively love each other and we take care of each other) and we live our lives on-mission (speaking and living the gospel message into the lives of other people.)

So if we have people coming to know Jesus as their Redeemer, and if we Christians are living in gospel astonishment, and if we’re taking care of each other and loving each other, and if we’re on-mission in our everyday lives, that’s a win for us!

J.G.: Why Vinings? How did this become the place for the church?

C.B.: Simple. I live really close to Vinings and Jonathan lives really close to Vinings.  It’s where we live and it’s where we hang-out.  It’s where our friends live and hang-out too, so it just made sense.

J.G.: For the sake of families who are searching for a home to worship from, what sort of childcare is available? What is it like for the children?

C.B.: There are more young families than any other demographic in our church, so there are children EVERYWHERE on Sunday mornings!  Our first hire was a children’s coordinator who designs and implements our Sunday mornings children’s ministry.

We have a nursery for the babies and three classes for kids – preschool, young elementary and older elementary.  It’s not Nickelodeon, but it is relational and it’s fun and we talk about Jesus a lot with our kids.

We value families worshipping together, so families are free to choose to have their children stay with them for the entire worship service or to have them attend children’s ministry activities.

J.G.: How has God been at work through the church? What sorts of ministries and events have been inspired to sprout up?

C.B.: This whole Gospel-Community-Mission thing really touched a nerve (in a good way!) with our people.  When you have people who are absolutely blown-away by Jesus’ love for them, and when you have people who want to let the world know about that love, some really cool stuff starts to happen.  From simple stuff like a guy who started a Bible study in his home for the guys he grew-up with (two of them have become Christians!) to a couple starting Young Life at Campbell High School to five couples starting a ministry to help imprisoned kids in Africa (see www.sixtyfeet.org) to one family adopting two of those imprisoned African children, to all of us striving to love our families, do good work, love our neighbors and tell them about Jesus … through all of this God is at work!

I recently proposed a few questions to the crew at Give Us Names, a missional organization seeking to bring light to an often overlooked injustice taking place within Columbia. Here is what they collectively had to say. For further exploration into the ministry and how you can be a part, go to their website at www.giveusnames.com.

Jeff Guy: What is the backstory of Colombia? How did Plan Colombia take shape and what has been the efficacy of this war on coca plants?

Give Us Names: Colombians say that not a single generation within their country has ever known peace.  From the moment Simon Bolivar began his fight to liberate the country in 1810, there has been one constant in Colombia: violence.  The violence that presently plagues the country began in 1948 between the wealthy minority and the peasant, working majority. The peasant rebellion was forced to flee to the countryside as the far-right Colombian government brutally cracked down.  In the countryside the peasants formed a leftist-marxist guerilla group calling themselves the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia(F.A.R.C.).  In response, the wealthy elite formed their own armed groups, private militias that Colombians broadly refer to as "The Paramilitaries".  These two armed groups have been fighting with one another for decades, and the people of Colombia have been caught in the crossfire. 

In the 1980's both the leftist guerillas and the right-wing paramilitaries began trafficking cocaine in order to fund their respective groups.  These groups cashed in on the high demand for cocaine in the United States, allowing them to more than triple in size in the 1990's alone.  By the late 1990's Colombia had one of the most violent internal conflicts in the world.  It was at this point The United States government began to panic about the influx of cocaine on American streets, as well as the security situation within Colombia.  In 1999 the United States launched a program to combat the production of cocaine within Colombia.  This policy is known as Plan Colombia.  In theory, this policy is carried out by flying crop-dusting planes into the Colombian countryside and spraying chemicals on and solely destroying the coca plant (the plant that is used to produce cocaine).  In reality, the chemicals are dropped with little accuracy, destroying thousands of legal crop growing farms as well.  This has lead to the forced displacement of thousands Colombian farmers.  In addition to destroying the livelihood of legal crop growing Colombians, the production and export of cocaine in Colombia has seen little change.

J.G.: How did you become aware of the situation of these displaced Colombians?

G.U.N.: As a group, we had talked about going into the world to find, document, and tell stories of injustice for some time.  As college came to an end, the conversation became more serious and we began to pray about where God might have us go.  We all spent time researching and we all came back with the same response:  Colombia.  We would read stories on Latin American and Colombian news sites about hundreds of people being displaced in one single day.  Realizing that these people were being displaced by a program funded with American tax dollars, we were alarmed that none of these stories ever reached mainstream media here in the U.S.  It was at that time we decided to get to Colombia and see things for ourselves.  That was in November of 2009.

J.G.: How does the organization hope to promote change for these displaced Colombians?

G.U.N.: The reality is that there can be no change for the displaced in Colombia so long as the people of the United States go unaware of their plight.  As an organization we believe that putting a name and a face to the situation is first and foremost.  We believe in the power of story.  So we will tell the stories of these people to restore:  Specifically restoring dignity to the displaced by giving them a voice.  We will tell stories to empower:  Specifically to empower the people of the U.S. to be a part of fixing what is broken in Colombia.  And we will tell stories to reconcile:  Specifically reconciling the people of the U.S.(you + me) with the displaced of Colombia.  As we tell this story we will be partnering with organizations that have been working to change this broken policy for years.  We will also be working on the ground in Colombia to provide sustainable agricultural options for those who have already lost their land and been displaced by this policy.

J.G.: The Film Leaving La Floresta, features one family that was forced to leave their farm.  What does Give Us Names wish to do in telling the story of Olga and Abelardo?

G.U.N.: Well, like I said in the previous response, the U.S. policy that displaced Abelardo and Olga displaces others just like them everyday.  We will use this film to mobilize normal, everyday citizens to pressure their representatives to see U.S. funding for fumigations come to an end.  Abelardo and Olga's situation and story is one of thousands.  Our hope is that by understanding and empathizing with one family, we may better empathize and be moved to action on behalf of the millions of Colombian families just like theirs.  As for the current situation Abelardo and Olga find themselves in today, Give Us Names will be a part of helping them find a place they can once more call home.  The details on exactly what that will look like are being hammered out as we speak, and we still have some work to do to ensure that solutions on the ground in Colombia are sustainable, desired, and celebrated by the farming community.

J.G.: What can be done to help?  How can people get involved with Give Us Names?

G.U.N.: This summer we will be strengthening our network here in the southeast by putting on a series of house screenings of our film.  We are doing this to adequately set ourselves up to do a more comprehensive tour of the film this fall.  Other than these house screenings, we will not be showing the final version of the film again this summer.  In early September however, we will be having an official premiere of the finished film at a theatre here in Atlanta(details coming soon).  We of course would love to see the entire Trinity community at that event.  So, to answer your question, what can people do to help right now?  You can come alongside us to help us effectively plan and execute a fall tour of this film.  As for the summer, we will be on the road in houses, but also putting on fundraisers around the city to enable us to hit the road in the fall.  Your support is fundraising is always greatly appreciated.  Right now is the time where we can dream and dialogue with members of Trinity about where, when, and how we can tell the story of displacement in Colombia.  To help us tell this story in your house, college campus, and community, email us at contact@giveusnames.com.    God is on the move in Colombia, and we are overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity to play a part in it.

Below are several pictures from the Trinity Kids Easter Art Reception which took place on Sunday afternoon, May 22nd. The children worked so hard on their works of art. It was a wonderful event and the children felt very celebrated so thank you to all who came.

Each week, Trinity's Kids are encouraged to respond to the scripture stories that are shared in their circles. Some children choose to draw, some paint, some sculpt, some write while some quietly contemplate. The works that were selected for the exhibition represent the efforts of many of the children who have chosen to respond in paint, markers and pencils. Sometimes their reflections on the scriptures are expressed in such a representationally clear visual manner, while other's reflections are rather abstract and expansive expressions of the mysteries intrinsic to the stories. Both of these expression methods are displayed for our enjoyment and contemplation at Trinity.

So the next time you get to church a few minutes early or you are slowly leaving, take a moment and honor their efforts with your gaze. We know their little icons are a way of peering into something magnificent that truly the children hold answers to and perhaps we've forgotten.

Thank you to Judith Brock for the quality shots. You can see her photography work here: http://judithbrockphotography.com/

We are pleased to share a few snapshots from our baptisms that took place at the beginning of the Easter season. As we get more, we certainly will share them with you.

Continue to pray for these fine people as they carry this Baptismal covenant into their daily lives.

We would like to thank Kyle Hale for these great photos. For more information on this photographer go to his website by clicking here.