Dear Members & Attenders,

It has been 20 amazing years!! I do not know where you were or what your life looked like the first week of January, 1997, but ours was about to be turned upside down with the goodness of God’s call on our lives.

On the first Sunday of January, 1997, Trinity began worship services. In the basement of the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce no less! And when we started, I don’t think any of our whopping 23 adults envisioned all that God has done since that day.

So to celebrate all that God has done, we are meeting Sunday evening, January 29th at 5:00 p.m. at Branscomb Auditorium (on the campus of Florida Southern College) for a joint worship service with all of our network congregations. We want to look back with gratitude, and we want to look forward with hope.

We still believe that the basis for any progress is the Gospel of Jesus – by which He can justify the guiltiest sinner in God’s court, and it can transform any life, any family, any institution, any culture, any society. And we want to dream of what God could do in the next 20 years as we work as hard as we can to prepare the rising generation.

We said 20 years ago, “We believe in the power of prayer, expecting God to accomplish surprising things when his people express their dependence upon him. Therefore, we are boldly asking God to do things in us and through us in Lakeland that are so identifiable as His work alone that we know we could not possibly achieve them in our own wisdom and strength.” I believe God has answered that prayer just like His Word teaches us in Ephesians 3:20-21: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Will you please pray for:

• Gratitude: Give thanks to the Lord for His work to save people like us and to form His church by His power and grace. Thank Him for working in us for His glory in our city, in our time and generation.
• Vision: Ask the Lord to give us the faith to “attempt great things for God and expect great things from God.” Pray for the hope of our network of establishing 20 churches in 20 years.
• Stamina: We need His power and provision. Ask the Lord to provide us strength by His Spirit, especially to be faithful and diligent in seeking to reach the lost in our city.
• Hope for the rising generation: Ask the Lord Jesus – as He said that He came to seek and save the lost, and that if He would be lifted up that He would draw all men to Himself – to work in the lives of those under the age of 25. This generation is now (nationally) below 10% churched. Pray for revival among what is called the Millennial Generation.