READY. SET. GROW! | MINISTRY FAIR LIVE

Hello and welcome to Trinity Sermons. We are a church located in the heart of Streetsville,

Mississauga, and we want to spread the good news with others as we work together to love

Jesus, live like Jesus, and lead others to Jesus. In our sermon today, Rob Hirkmans

is going to be taking us through Part 2 of our Ready, Set, Grow services as we move towards

preparing for two Sunday morning services. Our scripture reading comes from Mark chapter 10,

Mark 10:42–45

verses 42 to 45. Our sermon is titled Set, and we are learning about taking our places and getting

in position on our journey. We hope that you enjoy the sermon and God bless. So today's reading is

from Mark 10, 42 to 45. Jesus called them together and said, you know that the rulers in this world,

lord it over their people and officials want their authority over those under them. But among you,

it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants

to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be

served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many. This is the word of the Lord.

Well, I want you to imagine the scene. There they are. The runners are all loosening up.

They're getting ready. The audience, the crowd, the spectators in the stands, they're all getting

very, very excited. The race is about to begin. And so the starter walks onto the track. Of course,

the starter is holding the starter's pistol, and they walk over to the starting line. And

everybody's getting really, really psyched up. And the first thing that the starter says is

something like this, runners, take your mark, mark, mark, mark, mark. And so they all kind of find

their way up to the line, and they start crouching down and getting into position. And in just a few

moments, boom, the starter pistol is going to go, and they are going to run their fastest. But,

but in between the starter's command to take your mark, mark, mark, and go, go, go, there is this

other thing that the starter will say, and that is this. The runner will, the starter will say,

get set, set, set, set. So it's not just ready, go. It's ready, get set, set, set, set, go. Right?

Getting set, it turns out, is actually really, really important, a really essential part of

having a strong and successful race. You know, when a runner gets set, you've probably seen how

this goes. When they get set, they make these little moves that put them into the perfect position,

the perfect position, so they can get maximum horizontal acceleration when the gun fires. And

usually that looks like kind of, they're obviously, they're crouched down. They, they, when they say

get set, they, they, they bring their, like, their backside up a little bit over their, their

shoulders. They extend their, their legs a bit, and they put their weight toward the front. Sometimes

it's just really their fingertips are really the only thing that is touching the ground and in front

of them. Ready, get set, go. The get set is important. Well, back on May 28th, we kicked off

a campaign here at Trinity called Ready, Set, Grow. And it wasn't a campaign to raise money,

so don't worry about that. It was a campaign to raise energy, because we know that on November 5th,

the Starters Pistol is going to go here at Trinity Streetsville, and we're going to launch a second

Sunday morning service. And so back in May, we talked about how can we get ready? How can we get

ready? And you guys actually asked a whole bunch of really helpful questions, and we tried to answer

some of those questions. And in fact, this, this week coming up, we're going to be publishing a

video where we answer a lot of the real common questions you guys had about this new service,

like when it's going to happen and what it's going to look like. So stay tuned for that. And then in

November, of course, we're going to go. We're going to go. But between the getting ready and the

going, there's this other thing that we need to do, which is to get ourselves set, to get everybody

in the perfect position and the perfect stance to make sure we make the most of this opportunity.

Because one of the things we know that is as a church grows, the number of people serving,

the number of people volunteering and doing ministry must also grow. And so this fall, before

the starters pistol goes, we want to make sure that we all get ourselves into position, the

perfect position to get set in volunteer ministries, serving roles, to make sure that

everybody is perfectly placed before we start. That's why after today, we're having our ministry

fair. You've already heard us talk about that a couple of times this morning, and there's going

to be tables and you're going to be able to walk around and talk to ministry leaders, ask questions,

find out more about the ways you can get involved and maybe even sign up to get involved. And again,

for those watching online, do not tune out at the end of the stream because the live stream is going

to continue and Elizabeth is going to walk you around the ministry fair and find out about all

the opportunities that you can get involved with too, because we need people serving here at Trinity

in all sorts of ways. But here is the thing. Here's the thing. Before we go and look at those

ministry positions, we have to look at our hearts position. Before the church gets set, we have to

get our hearts set. And here's why. It's because we live in a culture that doesn't value serving

others. Most of the world defines greatness in terms of power and position and prestige. If you

can get people to serve you, then you're successful. If you're serving someone else, it's usually a

sign that you haven't arrived or you're not successful. It's a self-serving culture. It's a

me first mentality. There's been thousands of books written about how to be a great and effective

and strong leader, but very few books have been written on the topic of servanthood. Most of us

want to lead. We don't want to serve. You need to only look at our scripture reading today and see

that taking the role of a servant has never, ever been a popular concept. Just prior to the reading

you heard, the story starts. This is 2,000 years ago. James and John, who are the sons of Zebedee,

they were fishermen. They were early followers of Jesus and they came along to Jesus and they

said, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. Well, excuse me. Well, okay. Jesus says,

what do you want me to do for you? He asked them and they replied, let one of us sit at your right

and the other sit at your left in your glory. You see these two disciples, they wanted to be served.

They thought that's what this was about, about being served, not about serving. They wanted the

place of honor. They wanted the place of privilege. They wanted to be sitting on the throne. They

wanted to be in charge telling others what to do. See, this has always been this way, right? They're

even trying to tell Jesus what to do. And I love Jesus's response here. Jesus says, you don't know

what it is you're asking. You don't know what you're asking. In other words, he's saying, you're not

set on the inside. Your heart is out of position. We got to work on getting your heart into position.

They don't realize that for Jesus, the throne is the cross and they don't realize that Jesus's

glory will be his death. Here at Trinity, we say almost every Sunday that we want to live like

Jesus. But in order to live like Jesus, we have to learn to serve because that is what Jesus did.

He was a servant. He laid down his life and that was a lesson that his disciples had to learn 2000

years ago. And it's a lesson we need to be reminded of, especially on a day like today. Therefore,

before our church goes and gets set in ministry positions, we need to get set in our hearts.

Before we look at those positions, we need to look at this position in here. Four things in

particular I just want to look at today. We need to get our perspective set. We need to get our

hearts set. We need to get our minds set. And we also need to get our priorities set in order to

really get set. Let's take a look at the first one here. The first thing we need to do is we need to

get our perspectives set because you might be saying, Rob, you know what, Rob, don't you feel

guilty going up there on stage and asking all these people to volunteer for ministry and to

volunteer to get involved in church? Where do you get the gall to do this, right? To place such a

burden on people, people with busy lives at work, they have busy lives at home, lots of demands on

their time, and here you come along and you have the gall to ask them to give a little bit more,

to do a little bit more, to serve more. Rob, don't you feel guilty? Now, that is one perspective.

That is one perspective. There is another perspective though that I think you're missing

if that's what you think. You see, of course, most of us have things we do all day long. We have jobs.

You might work, for example, in the manufacturing field. And so for 10 hours a day, for five days

a week, you work at your job and you love your job and you're good at your job, right? But at the end

of your day, you come home and you do not feel a deep satisfaction in your soul. When you are

standing at the drill press all day long, you don't feel a deep satisfaction in your soul. You like

your work, but it's not the same thing. Or let's say, for example, you work in finance, you work

in a bank, or you're an accountant or something like that. And again, you're amazing at your job.

We need you to be good at your job. We're glad you're good at your job. And that job has been

good to you. It has put food on your table. It has put your kids through university. And yet,

selling an insurance policy doesn't give you this deep and lasting joy in your spirit.

Some of you might work in healthcare. You might work in schools. You might work in law enforcement

or construction or real estate or whatever. You love your job. You're good at your job. We need

you to be good at your job. And yet, you don't arrive home at night and say, that's what life

is all about. But serving in your church is different. Here at Trinity, we believe that the

church is the hope of the world. That it is through the church that God is restoring and

transforming our world and all creation, the whole cosmos. That the church has something. That the

world desperately, desperately needs. So when you serve at the church, you are going to be used by

God in ways that you never, ever imagined. When you serve at the church, you're going to realize

you had gifts that you never realized you had before. When you serve at the church, you're going

to meet people that are going to become like family to you. And you will not have expected that. When

you serve at the church, you're going to get a chance to make an impact in people's lives that

will last for an eternity, not just for an afternoon. So what we want you to do is that when you go over

to this ministry fair today, we don't want you to go over and say, this is something that I have to

do. This is something that you get to do. Or in other words, we're not talking about a obligation

today. What we're talking about is an invitation. Don't walk out of here today and say, well,

better sign up for something. No. Walk out of here today and say, I get to be part of God's mission

to heal the world. That's the perspective we need. When Jesus invited people to join him in his

mission, he didn't go around and say, well, you know, I hate to bug you guys. You guys look really

busy. I know you're fishing here and I just, I really, I don't even want to say it, but would you

mind just, could you spare a little time and just come along and maybe just spare a little time and

spend a little bit of time volunteering with me and my mission? No. That is not what Jesus said.

Jesus gave them an exciting invitation. He said that time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is

at hand. Come on and follow me. To serve in the church is to participate in the kingdom of God

that Jesus is building here on earth as we sang this morning, as it exists in heaven. Can you imagine

anything more exciting than that? Anything more thrilling? And I tell you, I tell you this,

when you realize that you've helped another person have a life-changing encounter with Jesus,

experience maybe the sense of forgiveness. When you help another person know that they have a group

of people who love them, when you help another person realize that God loves them, then I will

tell you that will give you a sense of deep, deep satisfaction in your soul. And you will come home

at the end of the day and you will say, that's what life is all about. So no, I don't feel guilty

when I ask people to volunteer and to serve in their local church, not even a little bit,

because what I'm asking you to do is to come off the sidelines and get onto the playing field and

get involved in one of the greatest adventures ever. That is the adventure of following Jesus

and changing the world. That needs to be our perspective before we head over there.

That's the first way we need to get set. We need to get our perspective set. But the second way we

need to get set is we need to get our hearts set. True service and ministry always begins in the

heart, begins with love. Imagine, for example, if it was our anniversary and I came home

to Sally and I brought with me a bouquet of flowers and I gave them to her and she was like,

oh, these are lovely. I love them so much. Thank you. You're so thoughtful. You're so sweet.

Wonderful. Great, great, great. Great. And then I said to her in return, I said, well,

it's kind of what you're supposed to do, right? I mean, what's the big deal, right? You buy the

white flowers on the anniversary. And I can guarantee you, if I said that, you know what she'd

probably do? She'd say, on second thought, I don't really want the flowers after all, because what

she sees in me is my heart is not in the right place. My heart's out of position. It's not

set right. She only wants the flowers if they flow from my love, if they flow from my heart.

In other words, she can tell, she can tell if the reason that I'm doing this is out of duty or if

it's out of love. Sometimes we serve people and sometimes we serve at church and we do it out of

a duty. We don't really want to do it, but we do it because we have to. When you love someone,

you don't actually mind serving them, right? The service flows right out of your heart. It's not a

chore. It's actually something you want to do, you love to do. I don't want anyone to walk out of here

today and go to the ministry fair and say, okay, let's see. Well, I guess I'll volunteer to help

take care of the kids. We don't want you to take care of the kids. It's not just about taking care

of the kids. The whole idea is that you'd actually love the kids. The whole idea is that you would

actually, Sunday by Sunday, see this 30 or 40 or 50 kids running around here and your heart would

break for them and you'd have a burden for them and you would say, you know, actually I care about

them. I'm concerned about them and their future. Being a kid these days, it's really hard. There's

so many influences. There's so many kind of pressures on these kids and maybe I could be of

some help to them. Maybe I could be a positive influence to them with all the kind of influences

around them. Maybe I could help them learn a more positive lesson about Jesus because I care about

them and I love about them. That's why I want to serve them. What about youth group? Maybe you go

by the youth group table and you're out there and you say, you know what, I can remember what it was

like to be a youth. It was a confusing and crazy time in my life and I wonder what's going on in

the lives of our own youth and I wonder if they're struggling with anything and my heart breaks for

them and I want to care for them. I want to love them and I want to pray for them and I want to have,

I want to be an example for them and maybe I can help somehow because I care for them and I love

them and that's why I want to serve them. Or maybe you are a youth, a young person and you're here

today and for you, like your online community is the most important thing to you and you know exactly

how important it is for people who are online to have a sense of community and so you have a heart

for people who are trying to connect with Trinity and trying to join the Trinity community online

and you say, you know what, I want to be part of the social media team or I want to be part of the

tech team or I want to help engage our online audience somewhere because I don't want to do it

out of duty but because I care about them and I love them that's why I want to serve them.

That's what Paul said in Galatians 5 13. Paul writes, he says, serve one another

humbly out of duty. No, no, he said serve one another humbly out of obligation. No, he said

serve one another humbly out of love. So whether you volunteer with the kids or the youth or the

cemetery committee or the property committee or the media team, I hope you're not doing it because

well I need to serve somewhere, sure I'll work with the kids. No, actually care about the kids,

actually love the kids, actually love the mission, actually love the ministry, actually love the

opportunity that stands before you. It's all got to come from this place. It's got to come from our

heart. If you leave here today feeling like I better do my duty, please don't sign up.

This has to be done out of love, not out of duty. That's why we got to get our hearts set. So we

have to get our perspective set. We have to get our hearts set this morning. But thirdly, we have

to also get our minds set because to truly serve another person requires a mental shift

and the mental shift that needs to take place is you have to think more about others and less about

yourself. Now that is really easy to say, but that is really, really hard to do because even times

when we think that we are thinking more about others and less about ourselves, we actually might

be thinking more about ourselves and less about others, right? So for example, when you're serving

others, but we're serving other people in order to get some people to like us or we're volunteering

in order to be admired or to achieve our own goals somehow. If you serve in that way, then you know

who you're really thinking of is you're really thinking of yourself. Or sometimes when we serve,

we do it because we think that maybe if we do something for God, then God will do something

for us. And so our serving becomes a bargaining chip, say like, I'm going to serve now and God's

going to owe me. And but what's really happening there is instead of letting God use us for his

purposes, now we're using God for our purposes. And again, that means we're still just, we're just

thinking of ourselves. Jesus told his disciples though, he said, listen, whoever wants to become

great among you must be your servant. He said, whoever wants to be first must be the slave of

all self promotion and servanthood cannot coexist. Servants don't serve for others approval. They

don't serve for the applause of others. They serve for an audience of one. And that one person, of

course, is God. If I'm honest with you, I spend most of my time thinking about me. And maybe you

do too, because I am and you are, we are and human beings are, I think by nature, very selfish.

And the kind of humility that we're talking about is it got to be like a daily struggle for each

and every one of us. You know, C.S. Lewis once said that true humility isn't thinking less of

yourself. It's somehow just thinking of yourself less. Or Paul once said this, Paul once said,

forget yourself long enough to lend a helping hand. Maybe you could advance to that slide, Kevin.

Forget yourself long enough to lend a helping hand. That's the shift that has to happen in our

minds to forget ourselves. Because it's only when we stop focusing on our own needs that we can

actually start to see the needs of another person around us. He goes on to say, he goes on to say,

let the same mind again, let the same mind be in you that was in Jesus Christ who when the time

came, he set aside his own privileges and took on the status of a slave. So if today you go and sign

up because you think it'll make you look good or you think God will be impressed and God will be in

your debt, please don't sign up. First, we have to change our thinking. We have to get our mindset

in a different way. So getting set means, let's just review, it means getting our perspective set.

It means getting our heart set and it means getting our mindset. But here's the last thing,

we have to get set and that is we have to get our priorities set. I wish I could tell you that today

out there, there was a great serving opportunity for you that will not cost you any time, any energy,

any thought, any inconvenience or any sacrifice. If we had a volunteer option like that, I guarantee

you'd be the longest line at the ministry fair. But no, serving and volunteering always cost us

something. They always cost us some of our life or some of our schedule or some of our energy.

There is no way around it. Serving will require you to rearrange your lives, to rearrange your

priorities. And you might say, well, listen, I'm here today, Rob, and I've been living my life to

the max. Like I have no margin for anything else to happen in my life. Not one more thing. And I

suppose what we could say to you at this moment is, well, then, hey, I understand. Don't worry

about it. Obviously, now is not a good time. Obviously, God doesn't want you to serve right

now. God doesn't want you to volunteer. We can't expect you at this time with that schedule to get

involved in a time like this. And I guess maybe we could say that to you. Or we could say maybe

this is a chance for you to do a little rethinking of your priorities, to reevaluate how you spend

your time. You know, I know in some office environments, they have this calendar system

where different staff members can share their calendars with each other. And so staff can

actually see each other's calendars. And some offices, staff can actually see an opening and

book themselves into each other's calendars. Now, we haven't got that far here at Trinity,

and I'm not really in a rush to get there. But I can tell you that God does want us to share our

calendars with him, to give him the permissions, click, click, click, permission granted to

to rebook our schedules. Is there room in your calendar to serve? Can God mess up your plans?

Can you give God your schedule and work around his priorities? Paul used a military analogy.

That was an office analogy. But Paul used this other analogy. He says that no one serving as a

soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please the commanding officer.

The soldier needs to be ready to go at the moment's notice when the commanding officer says,

I need you. They can go and God's people need to be ready. They need to be available to serve him

when he calls us. But maybe the best way to say this is just what Jesus said. Jesus said,

seek first the kingdom of God. Priorities are always about what comes first and what comes

second, what comes third and fourth in your life. And Jesus is saying, you can decide what

comes second and what comes third and what comes fourth in your life. But first seek the kingdom,

first serve the king. Can you set your priorities to put God's kingdom first?

So just a few moments, we're going to head across to that ministry fair and we're going to get

set for all the opportunities that are before us. But first we need to get set in a bunch of

ways inside of us. We need to get our perspective set. This isn't something you have to do.

This is something you get to do. We need to get our hearts set. We do this not out of duty.

We do it out of love. We need to get our minds set. We are not thinking about ourselves here.

We're thinking about others. And then we need to get our priorities set. We're seeking first

the kingdom of God. You might say, Rob, that's a lot. I am not sure I can get my mind, heart,

priorities, perspective set like that so quickly. How would I get there? What would be the motivation,

the determination, the inspiration to get set to serve like this? Well, that's why I need to end

this way and just say that Jesus himself is our inspiration. Jesus who said, even the son of man

did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. We can change

our minds and think about others because we know that Jesus thought about us first. We can give our

hearts to others because we know that Jesus gave his heart to us first. And we can sacrifice our

time for God because Jesus sacrificed his life for us. And we can make God a priority

only when we realize that God made us his priority first.

Thanks be to God. Amen. Let me send you away with a blessing and then we're going to,

we're going to switch the live stream over to Elizabeth to take our online viewers through the

ministry fair. But may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds and

the knowledge and love of God and of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and the blessing of God Almighty,

the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit be amongst you and remain with you always. Amen.

Over to you, Elizabeth. I'm an engagement director here at Trinity Church,

Streetsville, and I am so excited that we are continuing our live stream for the very first

time and we get a chance to do that during the ministry fair that is happening right here,

right now, outside of the sanctuary right after our service. So thanks so much for joining. We

are excited because we have 21 tables and 30 ministries all representing the various groups

that contribute to the life of the church here at Trinity Church, Streetsville.

Some of these ministries are long-standing and they've been here for years and years.

Now some of these ministries are brand new and this is their very first year being represented

at the ministry fair. But regardless, we can consider ministry something that is done when

we give our time, our talents, our resources, and as Rob mentioned, our hearts to be a blessing to

others. But I like to think that in giving of all of these things, we are as well blessed.

Trinity is heading into a time of significant growth. We are going to be heading to a time of

two services very soon. So there is no better time to get involved in the life of the church

here at Trinity. So what I'm going to do is wander around to various ministries,

meet some of the ministry leaders, and get to know a little bit about who they are and how we

can be involved. Well, we have one table over here that we are going to visit and we are going to

first start it with the coping table. Here we are. I'm going to be right here for the coping table.

It's very busy here, so just bear with me. We're going to meet table number one. May I have your

name, please? Hi, I'm Annie Shalvarchin. And what is your table? My table is the coping,

the Streetsville Coping Program, which we've been running at Trinity since 2013. So every fall,

we run a bereavement support group for people in the community who had a death in their family.

And it's a very difficult time for them. They're hurting, and we try to give them emotional support

and also the love that Jesus gives us, we share with these individuals.

Thank you very much. Now, can you let us know just a little bit about how we can be involved? Can we

sign up for the program or can we contribute or support to it even if we haven't experienced grief

or loss? Actually, we have a brand new flyer that talks about the support that individuals in our

church can provide. We're asking if they could provide hospitality support. Every time that

we run our group, we host food for the individuals because often when you're grieving, you forget to

eat and look after yourself. So if a life group, for example, or an individual who wants to do it

in memory of a loved one would like to sponsor the food for that evening, we run it for eight weeks.

And we would welcome that. You can contact us through the church office and we can do that.

Yes. Thank you very much. This definitely sounds like a ministry that would be very important for

so many people as well. It would be a ministry that many different people can get involved with as

well. Maybe your life group would like to help support the coping ministry. That would be great.

Now we're going to head over to the prayer chain.

There's a lot of chatting happening. Hello. May I have your name, please?

Susan. Yeah. So that's Susan and we're going to find out a little bit about the prayer chain.

Can you tell us a little bit about the prayer chain? Yeah. It's a group of people who pray

for other people. When we get a prayer request, we send out an email to all of the people

and everybody prays for whoever. That's wonderful. Right now we're talking to our online audience.

If someone is at home and is a member of Trinity but doesn't come to church,

can they still get involved in the prayer chain? Sure. It's a group that is confidential.

If you want to be involved, yes, I think that's great.

There's opportunities to get involved. Thank you very much. If you're part of the online group,

you can get in part of the prayer chain. You can also still submit your prayer requests to the

prayer chain and they will be happy to pray for you. As Susan mentioned, it's all confidential

and it's done in a loving heart. We are now moving on to the home visitors. The home visitors is one

of our newer ministries here at Trinity. May I have your name? Ruth Flynick. So we've got Ruth

and I'm going to ask Ruth just to tell us a little bit about the home visitor ministry.

Hi. Yes, we started the home visiting ministry back up again, I think post-COVID. It was

not happening as much. But now we have five teams of two people each to go visit and provide

communion as desired to those in the home setting who aren't able to make it out to a service.

Training is provided and as I said, they always go in teams of two. We also are providing visiting

to people in hospital when we hear about that as desired. Thank you very much. That was great.

And I think that the home visitor table is going to be very popular because they have a candy dish.

All right. Thanks, Ruth. All right. We're going to head over this way to the Stephen ministry table.

Come with me this way. As you can tell, it's very busy. We have a lot of action going on.

We have a whole team of people over at the Stephen ministry table. Who would like to talk

at the Stephen ministry table? Who's our spokesperson? Wow. Don't all fight over it,

guys. I think we've got Tracy here going to tell us a little bit about the Stephen ministry or

Stephen, which one would like to talk and tell us about Stephen ministry? Oh,

all right. I'm going to hand the mic over to Tracy.

Hi, online Trinity. This is Stephen ministry and we are a group of trained volunteers who offer

one to one care to people who are going through a difficult time in their life. It could be,

you know, you've you're grieving the loss of a loved one. You're lonely. You've lost a job.

You're new in the community and you don't know anybody. We basically meet with you for one hour

a week as members of the church and we listen and we pray for you and we offer encouragement and

support. Have a good day. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Stephen ministry. We're going to actually now

head into the room that used to be the library. So as you see, we're going to fight the crowds.

We're going to walk through here into this room where we have two different ministries. Oh, hello.

We're going to patient. Oh, it's time. I'm not sure where Gary is. It's just Diane. It's the

Diane show here. We are now in the room that used to be the library and in this room is our table

for the community Bible study as well as the prime time group. I think Diane Diane can wear all the

hats, all the hats. She just wears all the hats today. So Diane, do you mind just telling the

online viewers a little bit about community Bible study, which I think we call CBS as well, a little

bit about prime time. Well, they're two very different things. Community Bible studies,

we've been hosting at Trinity for many, many years. And this year we're doing a special core

group here and it's on Wednesday mornings at nine thirty to eleven fifteen. And we're going to be

studying community Christian living. And it's the study of the Book of Philemon and first and second

and third, John and Jude. And then after that, we're going to do a study of Ruth and first and

second, Samuel. I'm just going to ask a quick question about CBS. Can anyone join?

Our particular core group is for women. And yes, anyone can join. There is a co coed group that

runs on Tuesday evening online that we are also a part of. And so if you have any more questions

about it, you can always contact me. Thanks so much. Now we're going to put her on the spot

because Gary was supposed to be here, but he's not. So Diane, can you just tell us, just maybe

just shove over to the next chair. Now she's Gary and she's going to tell us a little bit about the

Primetime group. Well, Primetime is a group for seniors at Trinity and their friends. They're

invited in to bring friends from the from the community along with them. And it's just the time

that we meet. We used to meet once a month, but we're down to like five times a year this time.

And our first meeting is September 28th on Thursday afternoons. And so we're going to be

meeting from 1 30 to 3 30 and have a great time just kind of getting acquainted with each other.

Have fun activities, sing, usually a speaker of some kind on an interesting topic to us.

And it's just a wonderful time to connect. And particularly people, you don't want to admit

you're a senior, but you know, if you've reached 65, that's what you're going to be able to do.

And that's what we consider a senior. And so you're all welcome. Amazing. And I don't think

we're checking anyone's driver's licenses either. So if you would like to join Primetime and you fit

in the senior category, that would be great. I know they're a very active group and they have

some really exciting events that happen. And if you do have any questions about any of the ministries

that are going on here, feel free to give us a call at Trinity or email us at info at Trinity

streetsville.org. Now let's continue back out into the very busy hall and find a few other groups.

We're going to walk past the welcome table. Maybe we'll just wave at the welcome table.

If you come to Trinity, the welcome group will be happy to answer any questions that you have.

We're going to stop for a second at the chancel guild.

Here we have the chancel guild, which actually this ministry was referenced by Rob during our

service today. They are sometimes considered a behind the scenes ministry, but very important

to the life of Trinity. I'm just going to ask them to tell us a little bit about who they are

and what they do. Would you like to tell us a little bit about what the chancel guild is?

The chancel does is sets up the vessels for Holy communion. So we bring out the chalices

filled with wine, the bread baskets, doing the appropriate candles, making sure that the

proper colour of the church season is on the altar. At the end of the service, we do the cleanup,

which is getting rid of the consecrated stuff, which means you either bury it, eat it, or burn

it. You cannot throw anything away. So there is a process in doing that. Then you wash chalices and

wash linen and you're all done. Thank you. Thank you. Again, a very important ministry here at the

church. So it's very interesting and they are always looking for new people to join their group.

We're just going to wave at the communion assistance. Would you like to tell us a little

bit about being a communion assistant? All right. This is Nellie. All right. So we're going to

have Nellie. All right. Let us know a little bit about what you do here at Trinity. Okay. So it's

my passion. Like every week we celebrate the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So we serve

communion. And so we serve the re blood of Jesus Christ and the real body of Jesus Christ. So the

assistant server in communion and they are giving this to the people. So the first time you're going

to be trained for that. And it's really, very nice. I really enjoy it. And it's my passion to serve.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I love hearing that we're finding pleasure in our giving and

in our ministries. When we find something that we love to do, that is what it's all about.

We're going to skip past the prayer and worship group right now. Change of plans. We're going to

join in. We've got the prayer and worship table here. Um, may I first just have your name? My name

is Rick Bradshaw. All right, Rick, you are at the prayer and worship table. Can you tell us a little

bit about what the prayer and worship ministry does? So we organize, uh, we're trying to encourage

corporate prayer in the church, which means praying together. So, um, we have a monthly

prayer and worship meeting on Sunday nights, first Sunday of the month. And then at the beginning of

each year, we have a week of prayer where we encourage people to come every evening in the

prayer and into the church and pray. Uh, I'm also at Easter. We've running a good Friday prayer

vigil. So it's really about organizing that and then getting involved in, in those services.

Now, Rick, just a quick question. Who can get involved? Can anyone from the church or community

come to these events? Absolutely. Anyone can be involved at the moment. We're not doing online

versions of this, but that would be somewhere we want to grow. So, uh, but all I'm planning

meetings are done on zoom. So if you're interested in, and you are maybe can't make it to the church,

but you live somewhere else, but you're, you have ideas, you want to get involved,

maybe help us expand into the online world, then that's exactly the kind of people we're looking

for. Uh, anybody, if you're interested, just get in touch with me. Thank you so much. Again,

I think that we are now heading into a season where we're back to doing our, our worship nights in

person. So we're really excited to get that started. Now we're going to just head over to

Grace here. Grace has been doing ESL, which is English as a second language for several years.

Hi, Grace. We are actually doing a live stream interview with some of our ministry leaders. Can

you tell us a little bit about what that ESL group is at Trinity? Okay. It's a group of mainly seniors

and they are not, they come from different parts of the world. Okay. They are usually shot in

grandparents looking after young kids. So they're not fluent in the language. Now the ESL we teach

is mainly conversational stuff that would give them confidence in going to the drug store and to the

and to the grocery and to get on a bus and even to talk to people. Yeah. That's great. What an

important ministry. And I believe Grace, anyone from the community comes, they don't have to be

church members to come to the ESL group. This is a community based outreach program. Is it community

based outreach? So the people that come aren't necessarily members of Trinity. They aren't,

they are not members of Trinity, but some have joined the church. Yes. So a wonderful outreach

ministry that happens. Thanks, Grace. All right. We're going to actually backtrack through here.

You might notice we have coffee hour set up. The cookie trays are starting to dwindle. Maybe there's

going to be a few cookies left for me. I'm not sure. We're going to head right over past the coffee

hour and visit the table that is the Trinity board. Wow. We've got some lovely people here

representing the Trinity board. I believe actually all people at this table are members of the board,

but we've got Kyla over there who does our neighborhood assessment group, which is one

of our new groups. But I think I'm going to ask the Trinity board to tell us a little bit about

who you are and what you do. Don't all raise your hands at once guys. No, no, we need the mic first.

Just let me know your name and what you do. So the Trinity board basically provides governance

to the church. We help make some major decisions around operations and any type of programs going

on. And during our general or annual meeting, when we need to, that's when we decide who the

new board members are going to be. Thank you. Amazing. How many people are on the board?

I would say that we have, we're in the process of gaining some new members. So right now we

probably have at least six or seven and we're getting quite a few more. Thank you. And thank

you, Curlin. Bye Kyla. Now we're heading back out into the lobby towards some more ministries. As

you see, it's a very active place here. Here we are. We're going to head towards the cemetery group.

I see the cemetery team here. Hi, we're doing some live stream interviews. Hello. So first

may I just have your names? Oh, I'm Laura, Debi. Hello Laura and Debi. Which one of you would like

to tell us a little bit about what the cemetery committee does? Well, we've been around for a few

years now. Well, there's been different iterations of it over the years, but this current one,

a few years. And our mission has been to try and beautify the cemetery and honor those who have

gone before us. And so we beautified it. As you can see, there's new walkways and the fences were

just painted. There's the new Salmon Hazel McCallion Memorial Prayer Garden. And so now we have,

our newest projects are we want to plant some daffodils in the fall to just make it look nice

and sunny every spring. And we also have in the background, we have this new database. We're trying

to keep really good records on who's there, who can be there in the future. And so we want to do

more historical research and put that in the database as well so that people can just click

and go, oh, that's my Auntie Grace. And she was, you know, a settler of streets fills, that kind of

thing. There certainly is a lot happening in the cemetery. I do notice your Come Plant Daffodil

sign up sheet. Can anyone sign up for that? Sure. Anyone who's interested in any part just

or in the background stuff for more just planting and making it prettier. Absolutely. Okay. So if

you have any questions about the cemetery committee, you can again email us at info at

trinitystreetsville.org. There are definitely lots of ways to get involved with this committee.

It's very active. And if you haven't had a chance to check out the new developments that have been

going on in the cemetery, please make sure to come by and check it out. It's a great place of

peace and rest and as Laura said, beauty. Now we're going to head over to the women's ministry in

just a moment. We have Karen here at the women's ministry. Again, a ministry that can be very active

at some points. If you are a man, I'm going to have to say no boys allowed here, but we are going

to, uh, we're going to talk to Karen. She's going to let us a little bit, let us know a little bit

about what's going on with the women's ministry this year at Trinity. Hi, Karen. Can you tell

us a little bit about what's going on this year at Trinity with women's ministry? Hi, Elizabeth. Hi,

everybody online. Um, women's ministry is a way to connect women with each other. And our goal this

year is we're going to plan some Bible studies and we will have online groups as well as in-person

groups. And then we have, um, women's breakfasts and women's stays apart. And we've, in the past,

we've had hikes. Um, and we're always looking for ideas of different events to plan and we're

looking for, always looking for people to organize, whether, uh, be an online leader for Bible study

or something along those lines. That's perfect. I'm looking forward to it for sure. Now we're

going to continue on down along our window here to the Trinity moms ministry. Again, a ministry

for women, but specifically for moms. And Jen Searson has been heading up this ministry for a

few years now. Jen, can you tell us a little bit about Trinity moms? Okay. So Trinity moms is an

extension of Trinity Tots. Trinity Tots meets on Friday mornings from nine 30 to 10 30. And then

we have an hour that's just for the moms. So we have childcare for the littles and then the moms

will come and just have time with each other. And it's a time of just encouragement and care for the

moms. Um, there's also moms that come that don't have little kids. Um, their kids are in school or

older. My kids are teenagers. So, um, I'd say 50% of the moms are, uh, moms with little kids,

like toddlers and babies. And then 50% are moms with kids that are in school and they, they just

come for the mom time. Uh, what we really could use help with is, um, people to help mind the

babies. The ones that have babies and toddlers need someone to take care of the little ones. So

if, uh, you have a heart for, if you love babies and toddlers and, um, we could definitely use

help with care for them. Thank you very much. And my kids have all gone through the Trinity,

Trinity Tots, and I have definitely been a part of the moms group in the past and it's wonderful.

So thanks Jen. All right. Hope you get a lot of signups. We are going to actually head towards

the youth table here. We have a new youth leader at Trinity Church streets. Phil, and I wonder if

you can just tell us a little bit about what is going to be happening in the youth group this year.

All right. Zion, welcome first of all to Trinity in this new rule. Can you tell us a little bit

about what we can expect for youth group this year at Trinity? Sure. So youth group is going to be

every Friday, um, for up to four hours. We split them into two age groups this year. So we're going

to have the junior youth, which is grade six to eight, the middle school age. They're going to be

here at the church from six to eight PM. And then from eight to 10, we've got the high school aged

youth. Um, and while we're here, we're just going to be playing lots of games. We're going to do,

um, fun activities and we're also going to have time for Bible study each night, of course.

So we'll just need people who are good influences for the youth and, you know,

they're willing to have fun and play games as well. And then on top of that, we're also going to have

about one, one Friday each week, we're going to go out and we're going to, uh, do a fun activity

like mini golf or go karting and trampolining, something like that. So if you're willing to come

out and help supervise and have fun there, that would be awesome as well. And that's about it.

No, that's great. We're looking forward to it. Youth group starts next Friday. So if you are new

to Trinity, if you are new to the area, you are welcome, bring a friend. And I think it's going

to be a lot of fun. Now you may have seen grace before, um, she's our, uh, kids director and she

has three different signs on her table. So maybe grace, four, I don't, oh, okay. Grace is chatting

away, but she doesn't have the microphone. All right. She's going to let us know a little bit

about what's going on at her table. Hello, I'm grace. I'm sure you know me. Uh, you're probably

gonna have to turn down your volume because I am a very loud person. I actually have so many

ministries that I have an extra table here. So let's start out with this table. This table here,

we have knitting for others. So we have a group of congregants who meets at the church from one 30

to three 30 every Wednesday and they get together and they knit different projects. So some of them

go to children's aid. Some of them go to long care term, um, long term care homes. Um, and so they do

lots of knitting. Actually a way that you could get involved is if you love to knit at home,

you could knit at home and you could maybe drop off your knitted stuff or you could mail in your

knitted stuff and we can get those to all our donations. Um, another part of my table, let's

go to the opposite end of our table is we have Trinity Tots. So every single Friday morning from

nine AM until 10 30, we have, um, a little play group together and caregivers and moms and dads

and grandparents are welcome to bring their little, little ones who aren't in school over.

We have toys, we have crafts, we sing some songs and it's just a time for caregivers and parents

to come and have a cup of coffee and just talk with other people who are in the same life season

as them. Um, as well on a Sunday morning, we have Trinity kids. If you watch the live stream,

I'm sure you see me dismiss them every week. We have different programs from anywhere from

um, newborn to grade five. Um, it's a great way to serve. It's a great way to, um, meet new people.

And our last one, my most favorite one is our community events. So why don't we open this up,

Elizabeth, can you open that for me? So here are some of our community events coming up.

We have dog day, which is fun. We have them over. We have little competitions for your dogs.

We have prizes for humans and dogs. We have trunk or treat, which you can have families

come on out. You carve a pumpkin and then do some trick or treating from everyone's

trunks in the parking lot. We will be handing out free hot chocolate at Christmas in the village

on November 18th. And last but certainly not least, we're going to have a gingerbread house

decorating evening. Now I know I just sped through all of those super, super fast, but we're going to

have all that information coming up on our social media over these next couple of weeks. But this is

a great way to maybe invite your family with kids to these events. Um, it's just strictly there to

serve the community and, and, and love them and welcome them. There are also a bunch of different

ways you can volunteer. So for dog day, you can help set up or take down for trunk or treat. We

love to have people handing out pumpkins, welcoming the families. And of course we need people to

bring, uh, treats from their trunk to hand out. Obviously you can't have trunk or treat without

treats from the trunk. Say that five times fast. You can't. I know. And then we have Christmas in

the village. If we're handing out 1000 hot chocolates, we need some help making 1000 hot

chocolates. So that's a way that you could come in. Um, for gingerbread houses, this is actually

one of my most favorite ways you can serve. So if you have a gingerbread man, cookie cutter hanging

around, you can register here and you'll receive a recipe for gingerbread. And then you can bake

your gingerbread and drop it off at the church. So we'll be using this gingerbread to hand out to our

families who come to the Christmas Eve service to the kids who come to the, um, community kids

Christmas party and at our gingerbread cookie decorating event. So I know I just went through

lots of things with you. If you have any questions about knitting community events,

Trinity tots, or Trinity kids, please feel free to reach out to me. My name is Grace and my email

is grace at Trinity streets, fill.org. Thank you so much for coming to my table. I hope you have fun

at our event. That was a lot of fun. And that does seem like a lot of fun. I'm a little disappointed.

There's no cat day. Um, I have two cats at home, but, uh, dogs, you know, dogs are all right too.

So we're going to head over to the sanctuary, but as we do, we're going to pass the online table.

That's my table. And because we're a newer ministry, that means we have some newer volunteer

options. Um, what I'd like to do is just to let you know that I'm looking right now for people that

can do some online reading as well as do some intercessory prayer. And what that means is doing

some pre-recorded scripture readings or doing some pre-recorded prayers, send them in ahead of time,

certainly something that I can help you with. And then we can have that on during our live stream.

So I would love to have you join me as well. If you are interested in hosting, if a microphone is

something that you'd like and you'd like to be in front of the camera, I'd love to have someone join

me as we're looking to do a few more online segments in the coming weeks and months. All right.

Let's head into the sanctuary. Okay. We've got, I believe a few tables set up in here. Hello, Rob.

Rob, how are you finding the ministry fair right now? It's very, very exciting. Yeah. I just hoped

everybody knew that there was also some tables in here, but as you can see, there was a good crowd

of people for all the tech stuff, which is great. Yeah. Excellent. So that means we're going to see

some of the people that are often behind the cameras and behind the scenes. That's right.

All right. Well, I hope more people find out about it in here. Oh, actually, I don't know what he's

talking about. There's a big crowd. We've got a crowd, but we're going to talk to the worship

band as well as to our AV and tech team. So we have Stephanie here, the worship band. And Sean,

are you also here at the worship band table? Sean, would you like to tell us a little bit about the

worship band, what the worship band does, as well as what the commitment looks like? Yeah. So I've

been, I've been working with the worship band for a long time and we have, we have many different

opportunities, including vocal opportunities, instrumental opportunities. If you play an

instrument, it doesn't necessarily have to be like electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums,

those sorts of things. We're also completely open to concert band instruments. Like if you can play

the trumpet or the saxophone or anything like that, it would be super cool to have you work with us.

The commitments basically align with how much time you have for rehearsals. Right now we're

doing rehearsals on Thursdays and they're, they're like way after when work would be and those sorts

of things. It's like seven o'clock ish. I kind of forget, but it's more, it's later. We do those

rehearsals and then we also have early Sunday rehearsals as well. But yeah, if you're interested,

please, please sign up. We would love to have you with us. Thanks, Sean. That's great. Definitely.

I know we have a lot of talent here at Trinity and if that sounds like something you'd be interested

in, we'd love to see you come out. So now we're going to just sort of wiggle our way through here.

We have Stephanie and we've got our speaking role people over here. So our speaking role ministry

involves those who do online hosting, those who do online or who do not online hosting. What am I

talking about? Who do in-person hosting and who do in-person intercessory prayer and who do their

in-person readings. But we're going to skip past them right now and get right to our tech team.

So here is Alex. He's busy. A lot of people interested in the tech roles, but I'd love to

talk to Alex and Liz about what the tech team does here at Trinity. There are a few different roles.

Hi, Liz. Hi, Alex. Could you guys let us know a little bit about what the tech team does at Trinity?

Sure. Yeah, there's a huge blanket of media roles covered under the tech team. So we have camera

operators, there's video switchers, audio, what else? Photography and there's also in-person slides.

Do you want to talk to us a little bit about what happens with that? Yeah. So there's the projecting

the words on the screen, everything that people see on the screen. So the words to songs and the

liturgy that the person in the back booth is a projectionist who makes all that happen. And

those words also appear on the live stream as well. So really, really important part of the service.

And I've been talking to a lot of people who've been really interested to learn about this, which

it really excites me, I have to say. And, you know, I've been talking about how the, you know, having

the words on the screen is a real, a fabulous expression of hospitality as well, because it's

a way to ensure that everybody has access to the words and they can participate in the prayers and

the singing. It's just a great opportunity and it's a lot of fun and it's sort of behind the

scenes as well. So for people who are maybe don't like being up in front of, you know, a group of

people or whatever, they can have a really significant impact in the service and with the

congregation and they don't have to be in front of people, which is, you know, always a good thing.

And piggybacking off that, it's a great way right now we're giving accessibility here to everybody

online who's joining us right now. And there's lots of ways that people can get involved. And

this is the new era right now. Everybody's online. We need to provide this service. So it's really

helpful to have a huge base of volunteers that can come, takes the load off of everybody if we

can all share that responsibility, because it's not going away now. And we have, yeah, we have

multiple camera operators. So you don't even have to sign up for every Sunday kind of thing. It

could be once a month, could be twice a month, could be even less than that. So I would definitely

suggest we have an orientation that's coming up. And if you're interested at all in tech, we have

we have any range of background, could be amateur, anything. We'll train you up as long as you're

interested and you have drive, you want to learn, then you're hired. So come on down and yeah, even

just come for the orientation. We'll show you all the gear and decide then whether or not you're

interested and what that commitment might look like for you. But yeah, lots of roles and excited

to see all of you joining tech team. I sense a competition here at Trinity. Who's going to get

the most signups? Well, I see a few signups there on the tech team, so they may be in the lead.

Actually, I don't know. I don't know. I'm just giving them some some false hope.

But as you notice, I'm wearing gardening gloves. And that's because the theme of this tech,

of this tech, of this ministry fair is ready, set, grow. And at ready, set, grow, that just means

that we are looking to develop and to strengthen and to just to grow our ministries here at Trinity

so that we had some plants, we had some garden hose. And at ready, set, grow, we hope that you

can help Trinity to develop and to grow as we move towards our mission, which is to love Jesus,

to live like Jesus, and to lead other people to Jesus. As we know, Jesus himself, like Rob said,

did not come to be served, but to serve. And that's what we are called to do as well. So if you find

it in your heart to join the life and the mission of the church, we would love to have you. Thank

you very much for joining and have a great week. Thanks so much for listening to our sermon today.

And we are so glad that you decided to join us. Also, if you enjoyed the sermon, could you please

take a minute to rate and review our podcast. Thanks again for joining and make sure to come

back next week. Today's sermon was taken from the September 10th, 2023 service at Trinity Church,

Streetsville and Mississauga, Ontario.