In June 1981, a group of about 30 believers began meeting with the intent of seeking God’s will for starting a new church. Three core values that prompted this were:
- What is biblical leadership?
- What is biblical worship?
- The importance of small groups.
In August 1981, Trinity Fellowship was incorporated as an Evangelical Free Church in the state of Michigan. Enoch Olson, then Director of Spring Hill Camps in Evart, served as the first preacher. Starting in September, worship services were held at Riverview Elementary School in Big Rapids.
Property on Woodward Avenue was purchased on a land contract in 1982 and was paid in full less than one year later. In Spring 1987, construction on a church building began. The first two weeks of July families used their vacation time to help frame the building. The building was completed over the following year with the congregation contributing many hours of volunteer labor. The first worship service in the Woodward Ministry Center was held on October 2, 1988 with almost 200 people in attendance.
As we grew in numbers, it became apparent that the facility on Woodward Avenue would no longer be adequate. In 1996 a campaign was launched to generate resources that led to the purchase of property at 220th Avenue and Fifteen Mile Road, which is the current location of our Big Rapids Campus.
The next few years brought another period of stabilization and growth. Medical missions trips, as well as other short-term missions trips, became a regular part of Trinity Fellowship’s vision to reach other countries with the Gospel, while giving people within the congregation an opportunity to experience missions first-hand.
The focus on 3-year Visions started in 2007 with the launch of Vision 2010, “From the Men Up.” Building on that was Vision 2013, “From the Church Out” to those in our communities who don’t know Jesus yet. And then “Vision 2016″ focused on making “disciplERs” through small groups. August 2016 saw the launch of our next 3-year vision – Vision 2019, the focus being “Make the Most of Every Opportunity IN Our Communities.”
The recent years have been a time of focus on our core values and vision, and living them out as a body.
This included more aggressively pursuing the launch of a multisite venue in Fall 2018. God’s time table was much sooner than that with the River Valley Community Church, also an Evangelical Free Church, unanimously voting to donate their property and assets to Trinity Fellowship on January 22, 2017 and the members at Trinity Fellowship unanimously voting to accept those on February 5, 2017.