5-Year Anniversary update from Walt Alexander, Senior Pastor, Trinity Grace Church:
Who is someone you cannot imagine life without that you never would have met apart from Trinity Grace? That was the question. As we anticipated five years of gathering together as Trinity Grace Church in October, that’s the question our family discussed over dinner. The names of specific people began to roll off our tongue. Carter. Lauren. Adam. Ella. Sawyer. Chris. Tony & Gladys. Allison. Josh & Mandi. Bess. Greg. And many more. Each individual providentially drawn to Trinity Grace. Many called to life in our midst. All—whom we did not know five years ago—now precious to us. It’s hard to describe the effect of watching God build a church over five years, but let me try.
The Beginning of Trinity Grace
Location is never incidental to church planting. The God who determines the “allotted periods and the boundaries of [our] dwelling place” prepares people in specific places to receive the gospel and walk together. But, unlike most church plants, Trinity Grace did not begin with us choosing a location; Trinity Grace began with a location choosing us. Over about a decade, God began drawing a unique and impressive group of folks from the smaller, rural town of Athens to Cornerstone Church (Knoxville, TN). Each week, this growing group of folks would drive 50 miles to worship with Cornerstone. Many of them joined and began serving. A number of them made this commute week in and week out for years. While they loved Cornerstone, they had no plans to move to the big city. They were praying and longing for a church like Cornerstone in their town. When one family joined Cornerstone, they were direct: “I only want to join this church (Cornerstone) if you will prayerfully consider planting a church in Athens.” Years later, the penny finally dropped. We—the pastors of Cornerstone—realized God wanted us to plant a church in Athens. In fact, it seems that God had already begun planting it! So, with a group of twenty five folks, we began gathering as Trinity Grace Church on October 28, 2018.
The Story of Trinity Grace
Athens is a smaller, rural town. Situated in the heart of McMinn County, it is the county seat with a population of around 15,000 people. Like many of the small town across America, life in Athens is better than you think—intact families, life-long friendships, and thick community. But, life in Athens is also worse than you think—job loss, substance abuse, and loneliness. Without the transience that brings visitors to church plants in bigger cities, we resolved to not be a hurry. We wanted to build friendships. We wanted to engage the community. We wanted to communicate to the people of Athens that we were here to stay. As we have said many times, we want to build a church “outlives us and thrives long after we are gone.” So, we began meeting at the local middle school. After that, the local college. Then the movie theatre and later a few wedding venues. Now, we meet at the Athens YMCA. Perhaps more than anything else, over these past 5 years, the story of Trinity Grace has been the rescuing and reviving of people who thought they were Christians.
Athens is not the heart of post-Christian America. It’s a smaller town, where prayer still happens before the football game and where Jesus makes it on to more billboards than McDonalds. But it’s still an area filled with people who are lost, even though they think they are Christians. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, “One of the most exhilarating experiences in the life of a preacher is what happens when people whom everybody had assumed to be Christians are suddenly converted & truly become Christians. Nothing has a more powerful effect upon the life of a church than when that happens to a number of people.”That has been true for us. And it has been exhilarating. It has been exhilarating to watch folks come to grips with superficial Christianity and turn everything over to Jesus. It has been thrilling to see vague notions of the love of God shattered by the unfathomable love of God for them in Christ. It has been exciting to see “good people” born again and to see the fruit of the Spirit in their lives.
Five Years of Trinity Grace
It has been said that people in small towns are not used to being excited about something in their small towns. They are excited about things going on in the big city, but not in their small town. One of the most staggering things to me over these five years is watching people realize the biblical vision for the local church and finding Trinity Grace to be the local church for them. And then watching them become excited and thankful and committed to the local church. On Sunday, October 29, 2023, in God’s kindness, we celebrated five years of gathering together as Trinity Grace Church. There was a lot of joy that day—that our names are written in heaven but also that God has given us a family to worship with and walk with in our town!
