June Pastor's Note

An update from Grounds for Hope:

Over the past 9 months, we have worked with Proximity Project and Cite Design to engage the congregation and community in a process to discern a comprehensive vision for the missional use of our grounds, now and in the years to come. The deteriorating state of the parking lot has been a catalyst for this work, but we don’t want necessity to drive mission and vision. We are grateful for the participation of the congregation and community in this process, and for your trust as we continue the work.

We have a final “concept plan,” and we have been working with Cite Design, the landscape architects, on a “rough order of magnitude” draft, which suggests phases and estimates costs for the implementation of the concept plan. We are continuing to chew on all of this before we get back to Cite Design with comments and requests for changes to the ROM. The estimates we have seen are not insignificant, but we believe they are ultimately not beyond our reach, either. Even so, the team is taking more time for discernment and discussion before suggesting any particular course of action. 

We are excited for the potential, and we want to move carefully and deliberately as we articulate the vision and mission to guide our suggestions for next steps. Thank you for your patience!

In the meantime, we are excited to receive a generous donation from renowned sculptor, Charles Sthreshley, which will be delivered on Sunday, June 7th. You can read more about that below. Shtreshely has a few connections to our congregation. He is the step-father of Kate Hoffmeyer, and he and his family are longtime friends and mission coworkers with the Reinholds. Charles visited Trinity on Easter Sunday and was inspired by this project, which moved him to offer this gift. 

We invite your continued prayers, excitement, and ideas, as we move forward. We would also love to hear from you: what are you particularly excited about as you think about potential improvements for the grounds, especially as it connects to our mission and outreach to the neighborhood and beyond? Feel free to follow up with any of our team members. We appreciate you!

Grounds for Hope:

Malcolm Cameron

Mark Facknitz

Mary Lou McMillin

Andy Sale

Stephanie Sorge

Cheri Stakely 

Tracy Stakely