1996 to 2006
Growing in Faith
In the past decade, from 1996 to 2006, Trinity has continued to grow in faith. Pastor Roger Berner leads our inspirational and beautiful church services and ministers to our members. Pastor Berner began his ministry here in November of 1990. The year of 2006 marks Pastor Berner’s16th year at Trinity, and he will celebrate the 25th anniversary of his ordination in January of 2007. Who can ever forget our beautiful Easter Vigil service each year, a service that Trinity did not have until Pastor Berner’s arrival. He has begun an annual Ascension Day Service in which the children of the church take their first communion. Through his leadership, church growth has burgeoned, and new programs and groups have flourished. Through baptisms into the family of Christ, we have welcomed new members, young and old, and we have parted with other members who have passed away and are dear to our hearts, but we know they are now in the heavenly kingdom with our Lord Jesus Christ. New ministries have begun at Trinity. In 1998, Trinity first looked into a program called Stephen Ministry, in which lay members assist clergy in helping congregation members deal with life’s challenges or difficulties. Two church members attended Leadership Training to become Stephen Leaders in 1999. Our first training class then met for Stephen Ministers, and in the year 2000, Trinity installed our first group of Stephen Ministers. The program has been thriving ever since.
Another significant ministry at Trinity is the Reconciling in Christ Program, which is a program for Lutheran communities of faith to answer the inclusive call of the gospel by welcoming gay and lesbian believers. Through study, debate, reflection, and prayer in 1999, culminating in a congregational meeting in May of 2000, Trinity declared itself a welcoming and inclusive community without regard to race, gender, physical condition, or sexual orientation. Trinity was privileged to have Vicar Ruby Narucki serve as an intern at Trinity from September of 2005 to September of 2006. We provided a training ground for her to learn to minister to a congregation, and we rejoiced in her many gifts of ministry. We feel honored to have had a part in her training and know that the congregation who receives Ruby Narucki as the pastor will be a fortunate congregation indeed.
Trinity Members in Seminary
Trinity celebrates the Good News that several of our members have entered into the study of ordained ministry. Our own Kathy Blaner graduated from The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 2006 and was ordained here at Trinity on July 22, 2006. She is now the pastor of Resurrection Lutheran Church in Kensington, Maryland. Three members began seminary studies in the fall of 2006. Joe Lees and Katy Ross are students at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and Lois Ryan is in seminary at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Trinity rejoices that four of its brothers and sisters in Christ are serving or will be serving the Lord in rostered ministry.
Trinity’s First Associate Minister
Historically, Trinity just this year called our first ever Associate Pastor to serve in our congregation. Pastor Kari Parsons began her service to the Lord with us here at Trinity on November 1, 2006. She and her husband and young son have moved to Maryland from the Atlanta, Georgia area, where she had many years of experience ministering to children and youth and their families. Trinity rejoices and gives thanks for this gift of Pastor Kari to our congregation in this, our 50th year of life.
Living in Hope
Strong music programs are a must for vibrant congregations, and Trinity has been fortunate to have had several excellent directors of music who have provided strong leadership over the last ten years. In 2002, we installed a newly refurbished pipe organ, and we have since heard the glorious sounds of this majestic instrument in our sanctuary. Our vocal choirs have all sung out the praises of the Lord. This past summer, for our 50th Anniversary Homecoming Weekend on June 25, 2006, the vocal choir sponsored a choir reunion where alumni returned to sing. Trinity member, Christopher Lees, now a symphony conductor in Boston, returned for 50th Anniversary Homecoming weekend Festival Worship Service and composed a piece for the occasion. We are currently blessed to have Rob Wilkinson as our Interim Music Director. Two Trinity music directors have served for over 21 years! Since 1985, Nancy Nielsen has been the director of the Children’s Choir, and Marilyn Converse has directed Trinity’s Handbell choirs. Marilyn and Trinity’s Handbell Program were honored at a 20th Anniversary Banquet and Concert on April 16, 2005.
Because Trinity has always been a community of faith that is living in hope, we have been prudent and careful with our treasure, ensuring that we can feed the poor and take care of the needy as well as take care of our operating expenses in our church budget and mortgage for our church sanctuary. Because of our careful planning and stewardship, we are burning the mortgage on December 10, 2006 at our 50th Anniversary Festival Worship Service, and in doing so, according to Tom Kern, Trinity’s current congregational president, “we end our decade or so of principal and interest payments for our sanctuary and related building improvements.”
Trinity’s commitment to planning and being reflective again led to studying our purpose and mission in a series of Long Range Planning sessions in the years of 1996-1997 held at the National Lutheran Home. Led by Joe Lees, we held seven sessions of deciphering our long term goals. A long range plan was written identifying our hopes and dreams. Again in 2003, we studied and prayed together as a congregation in long term planning sessions, this time lead by Joe Lees and Tom Kern, and determined at that time that Trinity needed to call an associate pastor for our growing church, we needed more space, and we renewed our emphasis on helping the sick and suffering.
Trinity brings monthly services of hope to the residents of the Mariner Health Care Center and has also provided a monthly worship service to the Maplewood Park Place community. Our Youth Group leads both Sunday services once a year, usually leaving the congregation in tears with their moving sermons, dramatizations, and music.
In 2003, Trinity re-started its Women’s Group, which has been meeting steadily since that time. Some amazing retreats have been held, and the women of the church have benefited greatly by having an opportunity to meet together every month as sisters in Christ. With our growth, the need has arisen for Trinity to provide opportunities for getting to know one another better in smaller group settings; thus, the Trinity Supper Club and the Trinity Lunch Bunch have come into being, in which members can get together in more informal settings to dine together and have more time to share their lives and stories with one another. And in the fall of 2005, a Senior Men’s Retired Group was started. This group meets monthly at members’ homes and has participated in excellent programs such as organizing the church’s pictorial directory and providing transportation for members who are unable to drive to church functions or doctor’s appointments.
Throughout Trinity’s 50 years, the coffee hour after each service has also provided an opportunity for members to reconnect on a weekly basis. It has been said that Trinity’s Coffee Hour is the friendliest church coffee hour that visitors have experienced. Many have decided to join this congregation because they felt an immediate connection and felt that they were part of a family – all of this by worshipping with us and joining us for coffee hour afterwards. Likewise, our church dinners and potlucks have connected our members as a family of God who eat and pray together.
Reaching Out in Love
In the past ten years, Trinity has indeed been true to the tradition of looking beyond her walls to help the less fortunate. Our many social ministry programs continue to be a vital part of what we believe and who we are. In 2005, we ended our Appalachian Program that we had been doing since the 1970’s. The need had stopped for our collecting of clothing and house wares that we delivered to the Millard and Pauline Meadows family who then distributed the items to needy people in the Appalachian region. We rejoiced because this was a good thing; times were now better for these good people. We continued our active involvement in the National Lutheran Home, where many from Trinity are members of the Home’s auxiliary and where our Youth Group serves as waiters and waitresses every year at the Fall Bazaar. Trinity continues to feed the hungry through our Hunger Sunday on the first Sunday of each month, offering non-perishable foods to Damien Ministries and moneys to the ELCA World Hunger Relief. Trinity works with community groups such as Community Ministry of Montgomery County, Bethesda Cares, and Stepping Stones Shelter for Women. Trinity also actively works with Lutheran organizations such as Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, Community Family Life Services, and Transitional Housing Program. Through its own Trinity Helps program, Trinity helps members of our church as they experience illness and other life challenges by providing food for families during stressful times in their lives and sending cards to family members. Trinity has been sponsoring missionaries throughout its history, and during the last decade, we have sponsored missionaries in Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Central America, and Africa.
A new ministry, begun in the spring of 2005, is the Shawl Ministry. Members get together to knit or crochet shawls for Trinity members or friends who are experiencing illness or other traumatic events in their lives. Many shawls have been lovingly created and presented to people since the Shawl Ministry began.
Not only with our time, but with our money, this church has traditionally given generously to Benevolence in our annual budgets. We tithe each year in our budget, which means that we give 10% of our overall budget to Benevolences. The year 2006 is no exception; the church council has set a goal that over 11% of our budget be designated to Benevolence.
A Snapshot of Trinity's Ministries in its Fifth Decade
In Mathew 25:40, Jesus says, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Trinity members take this to heart and follow God’s commandment to “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Focusing outward has always been key to Trinity’s actions and beliefs. From mentoring a needy family from 1995 to 2000, to making health kits for Hurricane Katrina survivors in the fall of 2005, to sponsoring a Habitat for Humanity Work Day in honor of Trinity’s 50th Anniversary in the fall of 2006, Trinity has taken the “Love thy Neighbor” commandment very seriously.
Here are just a few of the programs currently being supported by Trinity Lutheran Church.
- Sponsoring Social Ministry Topics at the Adult Sunday School Forums
- National Lutheran Home for the Aged Programs
- Mariner Health Care Service
- Trinity Helps
- Transitional Housing Corporation
- Sponsoring a Child through the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HLCEF)
- Bethesda Men’s Shelter Meals
- School Supply Drives for Community Ministry of Montgomery County
- Food Collection for Damien Ministries
- ELCA World Hunger Relief
- Shawl Ministry
- LSS Mother’s Day Baby Shower gift collection for LSS Adoption program
- February Food Drive for LSS
- Habitat for Humanity – 50th Anniversary Service Day Project
- Give a Gift Program through Community Family Life Services
- Gifts of Hope
- Interfaith Clothing Center
- Coupon Project, Glenmont United Methodist Church
- Stepping Stones Family Shelter: Paper Products Sunday
- Community Ministry of Montgomery County
- Bethesda Cares
- Community Family Life Services of Washington, DC
Trinity will follow the heritage of our wise forefathers from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s as we continue to serve others and follow God’s will. Pastor Berner has remarked that “our service to others is the only thing that gives authority to the Word of grace we proclaim!”
Trinity Lutheran Church’s 50th Anniversary!
Growing in Faith, Living in Hope, Reaching Out in Love
From the Garret Park Elementary School in 1956 to our beautiful church here on Old Georgetown Road in North Bethesda, Maryland, in 2006, Trinity has thrived as a place where our Lord Jesus Christ is worshipped and glorified. Its congregants have served with love for 50 years. Served by four ministers – the Reverend Ray Hartzell, the Reverend Al Weber, the Reverend John Manrodt, and the Reverend Roger Berner -- and several interim ministers, Trinity Lutheran Church has flourished as a caring community of believers who are inspired to do God’s will. We have grown from a “pastoral church” of less than 150 active members into a “program church” of more than 150 active members, as expressed by Pastor Berner in recent sermons. What that means for us is that we will continue to grow in our faith, live in hope, and reach out in love. We will strive to do God’s will. Whether we are singing or ringing, praying or reciting the creed, teaching or going to committee meetings, leading or following, cooking or eating, laughing or crying, we will all be the body of Christ here together at Trinity, fellow workers in the Kingdom who love God and our fellow man. At 50, we have made a beginning. Rest up, Trinity Lutheran Church! We are just getting started on the next 50 Years.
Thanks be to God!