Groveland Night Out

On Wednesday, August 12th, I was blessed to volunteer for the set up and tear down of Groveland Night Out.  It was a good time to work for the community of MacGrove, and to meet new neighbors, all for the honor of Jesus.  Here is a description of the event from the MacGrove Community Council website, and some pictures that I took of the event:

Join us at Groveland Park (at St. Clair and Prior) for live music, children’s activities, root beer floats, local businesses and organizations information tables, and a viewing of the movie Madagascar 2! Activities begin at 6:00pm and the movie begins at dusk (around 8:00pm).

- Bryan

Grills and Trader Joe’s

Pastor Ryan at the Trader Joe's Grand Opening in Saint Paul

A lot has been going on since the last time I posted anything.  Allow me to give you some updates.

We have been taking advantage of summer in Saint Paul by getting people together for some grilling and outdoor entertainment.  At the end of June we grilled out, and at the beginning of July we celebrated Pastor Ryan’s birthday,  in order to connect with people who are interested in Trinity City Church (and interested in free food).  These events have been a lot of fun, and it is a blessing to hear excitement building about Trinity in the community we are ministering in.

Also, a Trader Joe’s opened in Saint Paul at the end of June.  What is the big deal?  Well, Pastor Ryan works there and played about 4 hours worth of music during the grand opening.  One of the decision we made as pastors of this plant is to work bi-vocationally so that we can connect better with this community.  It has been a blessing to do so.

I will post more about this in the future, but last night (Sunday, July 12th) we started our first gathering as Trinity City Church.  We did a gathering at Pastor Ryan’s home in Saint Paul, and worshiped Jesus by singing, praying, hearing a message from the Scriptures, and taking communion.  A larger than expected group showed up, and Jesus was made much of!  I am excited to share some more stories and pictures with you later!

Continue to pray for the work of Jesus through Trinity City Church for the joy of this city!

Grand Old Day 2009

Grand Old Day 2009

June 7, 2009 was a cool cloudy day, but the day was still grand.  The 36th annual Grand Old Day was fun to experience for the first time.  By living on Grand Avenue, I was able to check out the parade, bring my daughter to Family Fun Zone, and a small team from Trinity City Church helped tear down the Teenage Battle of the Bands.  There was not much to do for tear down, but it is a joy to be able to serve the community any way we can.  We look forward, as a church, to be even more involved with this one day festival.

Here is some interesting numbers about Grand Old Day, which is the largest single day festival in the Midwest (from the Grand Avenue Business Association):

• Average attendance: 200,000
• Percent who have attended before: 73
• Percent female: 55
• Average age: 37
• Average times attended: 8
• Average hours spent at festival: 4.5

• Volunteers: 300
• Festival vendors: over 200
• Police and safety personnel: over 100
• Parade entries: 70
• Bands performing: over 30

• City blocks: 22
• Shuttle buses: 5
• Information booths: 4

• Trash and recycling bins: 1,000
• Portable rest rooms: over 250
• Hours to clean up afterward: 12

- Pastor Bryan

Community Committee and Community Groups

I enjoy being a pastor who lives in the community he is planting in.  Living here gives me the opportunity to get plugged into various community events, including the MacGrove Community Outreach Committee.  This committee is doing a lot of good work for the city of Saint Paul.  I met a woman who has raised close to 400,000 pounds of food for the community, and another lady who directs a youth mentoring program for the Twin Cities.  In addition, this committee organizes the Battle of the Bands for Grand Old Day.  It will be a priveldge to help out with these events. 

Picture from media.decider.com

Throughout the summer, I am also facilitating two community groups that meet in order to talk about worldviews.  In this group we talk about some of life’s most fundalmental questions, such as: What is reality?  Where is history going?  What is evil?  Each person brings a different perspective to the table, and I get to talk about Jesus.  So everyone in the group gets to articulate their thoughts and challenge one another.  Also, you can’t beat meeting at places like Coffee News Cafe on Grand.

The Lord continues to bless this new church richly, and I am excited to see how the Spirit leads throughout the summer!

- Pastor Bryan