5 /5 Andrew Rose: Ive gone to Trinity Church Seattle since February 2015 (almost 10 years!!!). I moved up from San Francisco and attended my second week here...absolutely loved how they prioritize communion, fellowship, different aspects of church liturgy, and of course, they value kids soooooo highly (I guess I should say "we" now since Ive been here for 10 years).
My wife was diagnosed with Leukemia our first year at TCS (then Green Lake Presbyterian) and most of the elders immediately made time to come to the hospital and pray for/with us. There was even one time I was able to text Pastor David about a major issue we encountered that was life threatening and it happened to be during one of the church services. I wasnt at church, but Pastor David took a moment to pray for us during the service (btw, my wife is fine and well, and we now have two kids).
Speaking of the two kids, they are so loved and known in this church community. We can let them run around before and after service and folks know them, make sure they dont get into trouble, prevent them from going outside of the building. Its just a wonderful community. TCS prioritizes kids, so theres teaching and nursery for them in both services. Our oldest comes home with scripture memorized, and friends made.
Trinitys core avenue for plugging into community is their "Community Groups" (CGs). Our CG meets in Ballard and is a wonderful source of community for us. We tend to see folks from that group (or outside of that group) daily, whether with playdates, grabbing drinks, or...sometimes our group does a sleepover or a retreat (funny enough, weve got some close friends we made at TCS coming to spend the night this Saturday!).
Anyway, I could go on, but a note on the pastors. Pastor David is a good leader. He thinks organizationally, which helps us massively as we grow. Hes also been a great mentor over the years and I respect his continual dedication to strategically directing our church through a changing body during changing times (he did a wonderful job during COVID, which is really saying something). Pastor Luke is extraordinarily musically talented (and for some reason our church is full of insanely good musicians). Hes got such a heart for creatively worshipping God and orienting our community toward better using and cultivating particularly our musical gifts toward glorifying God. We do a mix of hymns, modern music, and, this is pretty cool, we do a bunch of original stuff too. Pastor Kelly, who used to lead Trinity some time back, and who leads the PNW Church Planting Network, is a wonderful mentor...he also always prioritizes praying for me and my family when something comes up...or just randomly! There are other pastors and staff who are just wonderful...but Im at work and I have to stop procrastinating.
An important, very important, thing our pastors are very good at is often overlooked is their protecting us from trouble. There are ALWAYS going to be troubles and tribulations in any community and that includes church communities. Good pastors, and ours do this, are competent to protect their congregations from the dramas that invariably occur. Ive loved how our pastors insulate us from a lot of that, taking on much suffering and consternation themselves, so that those of us who arent involved with, say, a divorce, or a visitor/congregants theological disagreement, or pro/anti-masking, etc., dont have to take on the anxiety that comes with being a part of conflict. They protect those involved in conflict from gossip, and they protect those not involved in it from the drama. And yet, they are transparent. Its a hard balance and they do it well. Ive felt very protected, cared for, and even long-suffered with, over the years.
Im probably too plugged in to give an unbiased review. But how cool is it that I can go here for 10 years and provide this review. Only church Ive been to in my 36 years of life for which itd be this easy to write a glowing, indeed, gushing, five-star review.
If you made it this far, good on ya. Hope to meet you soon.
