It's Hard to Keep A Good Man Down

Dear Members & Attenders, 

This past Sunday I mentioned Stan McMahan's transistion and wanted to give you a few more details. Stan is a product of our ministry where, after graduating college, he started attending.  Then as he grew in his involvement, he grew from being a member to training for pastoral ministry to being a staff intern to Associate Pastor to leading a church plant.  And time flies when you’re having fun!

Stan has been our Associate Pastor & Director of Equipping.  He has very capably helped preach, teach, serve the sacraments, train future ministry leaders in theology and overseen Education Hour and some of our ministry staff.  As of July 1, 2017 he will only be working to prepare to lead our daughter church plant to Mulberry (called Greater Hope Church).  Because we want that work to go well, all of his official duties at Trinity will come to a close so that Stan will be able to fully concentrate on the launch of Greater Hope.

As he is in his final phase of preparing to launch Greater Hope Church, Stan will still be at Trinity on Sunday’s until they start their worship services (in the coming months).  Until that happens Stan will continue preaching and administering the sacraments while training his core group and preparing to launch.

The various Equipping Ministries (Student Ministries, Children’s Ministry, Women’s Ministry and Men’s Ministry) will now report to a variety of other elders on an interim basis.  Combined with Stan’s departure, we also plan to expand Children’s Worship to include 1st through 5th graders (starting in the fall).  Therefore our elders have decided to put Education Hour on hold for the remainder of the year.  I am especially grateful for Stan, his wife Stacey, and those who may go with him, just as I am eager to see what our Lord will do here at Trinity in our next chapter.

Things to pray for:

–  Stan & Stacey McMahan and their family.  Please give thanks for God’s work in their lives and through them.  Give thanks for how God used them over the past decade at Trinity, and also for raising up this couple to lead this church plant to Mulberry.  And as they approach the birth of their fourth child, please pray for Stacey’s health and that of their son.

–  Greater Hope Church.  Please pray for the LORD to pour out His Spirit on the core group that is forming and grow in them a compelling love for the people of Mulberry.

–  Praise!  At this point, numerically, Stan’s core group has more adults than any prior daughter church we’ve planted, and because of how Stan and Stacey grew up in Mulberry, they have numerous friends and contacts in Mulberry who’ve expressed interest in joining their effort!

–  Wisdom.  Ask the Lord to give all us wisdom: for the core group of Greater Hope Church as they prepare to launch, and for us at Trinity as we shift gears and re-allocate resources as Stan changes roles.

–  A heart for the lost.  Ask the Holy Spirit to bear in us the fruit of love, especially for the scores of people throughout Lakeland and Mulberry who do not yet believe in Jesus.


Tim Rice, Lead Pastor & Director of Church Planting
Trinity Presbyterian Church
301 N. Florida Avenue
Lakeland, FL 33801
863-603-7777
www.trinitylakeland.org