Mark Medley: I'm so glad to see you guys here and some I haven't seen in so long, and, you're sure, welcome back here, and we've all had some good times and a lot of good things that have happened.
Mark Medley: This is our 50 years is a big deal, isn't it?
Mark Medley: Anything for 50 years is a big deal, right, definitely, and a local church for 50 years is amazing.
Mark Medley: And so we got a lot of people here tonight from different seasons of Trinity's history, even some from the very beginning, when it first started.
Mark Medley: But you know, none of us can take credit for 50 years.
Mark Medley: Just, let's just get it right.
Mark Medley: Okay, let's get it right from the beginning.
Mark Medley: Tonight.
Mark Medley: It's the grace and the power, the keeping power of Jesus Christ.
Mark Medley: That's why we're still here.
Mark Medley: Right, that is it.
Mark Medley: That's it.
Mark Medley: And you know what A key to all of this was the scripture that this church was founded upon, and how many here were a part of the Dedrick Avenue building a long time ago.
Mark Medley: Okay, it was a sign.
Mark Medley: Wow, that's amazing.
Mark Medley: That's a lot of people.
Mark Medley: You know there was a sign out in front of the Dedrick Avenue building.
Mark Medley: It said Trinity Chapel and then at the bottom, do you remember the scripture?
Mark Medley: Yeah, maybe you remember the scripture, john 1, verse 13 which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of god.
Mark Medley: And that's the key, that's the reason we're still here.
Mark Medley: This wasn't man's idea, this was god's idea, and that's beautiful.
Mark Medley: So, um, I I'm kind of your emcee.
Mark Medley: Tonight we're going to go over some history, but first of all we're going to do some Trinity trivia, okay, and so you saw the questions up on the overhead.
Mark Medley: So we're going to find out the answers here, okay, and at the end we're going to figure out who of you got the most of them.
Mark Medley: Right, if you've written them down, written your answers down, there are going to be some prizes.
Mark Medley: I think Derek's in control of that, I think, because I'm not so I guess he is.
Mark Medley: So, all right.
Mark Medley: First question when was Trinity's very first meeting place?
Mark Medley: A man's mortuary.
Mark Medley: B under a tree.
Mark Medley: C Big Ridge State Park.
Mark Medley: D in homes.
Mark Medley: Oh, I hear some.
Mark Medley: Oh, what, what Very first meeting place?
Mark Medley: The answer is D in homes.
Mark Medley: That's, the first meeting place was in homes.
Mark Medley: So I'll tell you a little bit more about that in a little while.
Mark Medley: Okay, number two what was Trinity's first permanent meeting place?
Mark Medley: A man's mortuary.
Mark Medley: B Volunteers of America meeting room chapel, c 309 Dedrick Avenue or D 5838 Haines-Turkey Road, permanent, permanent, permanent when we weren't renting.
Mark Medley: The answer is C 309 Dedrick Avenue.
Mark Medley: Good, you got it All right.
Mark Medley: Number three what's the longest continuing regional slash?
Mark Medley: National Trinity ministry?
Mark Medley: A homeless outreach, b food pantry, c Trinity radio broadcast or D prison ministry?
Mark Medley: This is the one that has been going the longest continually?
Mark Medley: Prison ministry Okay.
Mark Medley: Am I hearing B or D?
Mark Medley: I don't know.
Mark Medley: D D Okay, and the answer is D.
Mark Medley: Prison ministry Okay, am I hearing B or D?
Mark Medley: I don't know.
Mark Medley: D D Okay, and the answer is D.
Mark Medley: Prison ministry, okay.
Mark Medley: And I don't even know when it started.
Mark Medley: You were part of it, sandy and Steve, and actually definitely Lonnie Gregg was part of it, sam was part of it back in the.
Mark Medley: That was at least 1980 is when it started, before, even before you guys came, so maybe before that, yeah, and now Scott is.
Mark Medley: Scott actually is leading it and Scott's here tonight and he's a volunteer chaplain there.
Mark Medley: It's still going on 40 plus years.
Mark Medley: It's great Praise God for that.
Mark Medley: It's still going on 40 plus years.
Mark Medley: It's great Praise God for that.
Mark Medley: Number four what was Trinity's most highly visible citywide event organized to promote life and stand against abortion.
Mark Medley: A Procession of healing.
Mark Medley: B March for life, c Pro-Life Rally or D Love Life Rally.
Mark Medley: And the answer is A.
Mark Medley: It is A it is A Procession of Healing.
Mark Medley: And if you don't know what that is, we had hundreds of cars lining up at Civic Auditorium parking lot and they went through the city with these black flags with crosses on them.
Mark Medley: It was mourning the unborn that were lost through abortion, but it was also holding out hope and healing for those who have been injured through those abortions.
Mark Medley: And so that was a big deal, made the paper.
Mark Medley: It made the paper.
Mark Medley: We had several events that made the paper.
Mark Medley: I mean, I'm talking about pictures and stories and local news and everything.
Mark Medley: So, okay, number five.
Mark Medley: What is Jack Wright's favorite song?
Mark Medley: Okay, wait.
Mark Medley: A the love of God.
Mark Medley: B victory in Jesus.
Mark Medley: C less insurance.
Mark Medley: D how great they are.
Mark Medley: A the love of God.
Mark Medley: B victory in Jesus.
Mark Medley: C blessed assurance.
Mark Medley: D how great they are.
Mark Medley: Now I'll tell you this answer could have changed like from week to week through the years.
Mark Medley: Probably, right, we have it from the man himself less than a week ago, and the answer he gave was C blessed assurance.
Mark Medley: I know I would not have got that.
Mark Medley: I thought, because I've heard him sing victory in Jesus for so long, so many times, I think there could be an E all of the above there and it would have been right.
Mark Medley: Probably Number seven.
Mark Medley: How many known countries have been directly influenced?
Mark Medley: Oh, I'm sorry, number six.
Mark Medley: Oh I'm sorry, thank you.
Mark Medley: Yeah, number six.
Mark Medley: We don't want to C C.
Mark Medley: Number six is C.
Mark Medley: Okay, let's just say it C, c.
Mark Medley: Number six is C.
Mark Medley: Okay, let's just say it.
Mark Medley: Regional Worship Conference hosted by Trinity for many years and basically put on by Hosanna Fellowship.
Mark Medley: We gave the building, jeff brought a team down and they administrated the whole stinking thing and it was great.
Mark Medley: So we did it together for I don't know how many years.
Mark Medley: Oh, you did, you did that's right.
Mark Medley: Procession of Healing went to other cities.
Mark Medley: Maybe you're not as good looking.
Mark Medley: That is not true.
Mark Medley: I know that's not true.
Mark Medley: So I'm sorry.
Mark Medley: What did he say?
Mark Medley: Oh, he said they did a thank you, they did a procession of healing in Johnson City too.
Mark Medley: They took the pattern that actually, norm Jones was part of the pattern, he was the pattern, he was the strategy.
Mark Medley: So here's the way it worked.
Mark Medley: Steve got ideas and, but he doesn't know how to make it happen.
Mark Medley: Am I, is that fair?
Mark Medley: But we would never have thought it up ever.
Mark Medley: I mean, who thinks up something like that?
Mark Medley: Well, he does, because Impact is his middle name, steve Impact Fado.
Mark Medley: But how do you put it on?
Mark Medley: Well, you call Norm and you get a team, and Norm had everything together.
Mark Medley: He had it all in a box procession healing in a box, basically and other places could take it and just plug it in, right?
Mark Medley: Yeah, that's what it meant.
Mark Medley: He also said they didn't have TV coverage, and that's when I said maybe he's not as good looking.
Mark Medley: I'm just telling them because they didn't hear no, it's not Okay.
Mark Medley: Okay, worship in the Valley.
Mark Medley: It was great, we did that for quite a few years.
Mark Medley: Okay, number seven how many known countries have been directly influenced by the gospel ministry from Trinity partners?
Mark Medley: Known countries, directly?
Mark Medley: Trinity partners, not just like we sent money there or something, but directly.
Mark Medley: Yeah, a more than 10.
Mark Medley: B more than 30.
Mark Medley: C more than 50.
Mark Medley: D more than 70.
Mark Medley: And the answer is D more than 70.
Mark Medley: Probably, probably quite a bit more.
Mark Medley: That's just all that we know about, you know, and of course a lot of that came from the ministry of Steve, because Trinity helped fund Steve's Crusades for so many years.
Mark Medley: And that's that's a lot of countries right there.
Mark Medley: Okay, number eight, this is this was okay, one of the elders wanted this one in here.
Mark Medley: Okay, I'm just telling you that.
Mark Medley: Okay, okay, they will remain nameless, but not shameless.
Mark Medley: But just telling you, what instrument has Mark Medley not played at Trinity?
Mark Medley: What is it?
Mark Medley: I can't tell if you're saying B, c or D, I don't know.
Mark Medley: A hammer and dulcimer, b banjo, c Brazilian rosewood whistle, d Polish bagpipes.
Mark Medley: And the answer actually is B.
Mark Medley: But someone reminded me that I sort of kind of played around with a banjo one time in a servant's heart banquet, so you would be forgiven if you got the wrong answer.
Mark Medley: The other ones I did play.
Mark Medley: It was banjo, but if you know my heart, you know it wouldn't be banjo.
Mark Medley: Banjo is way too ordinary.
Mark Medley: Do you know what the definition of perfect pitch is?
Mark Medley: It's when you take a banjo and you toss it into a dumpster without hitting the sides of the dumpster.
Mark Medley: That's a perfect pitch.
Mark Medley: That's what that is.
Mark Medley: I know I just made enemies.
Mark Medley: Man, it's like whoo.
Mark Medley: I know it's pretty bad, I'm just kidding.
Mark Medley: I like them.
Mark Medley: They're great, they're great.
Mark Medley: Okay, number nine how many books have been written by TCC pastors?
Mark Medley: A, 3, b, 5, c, 8, or D?
Mark Medley: At least 12.
Mark Medley: It is D, it's D, yeah, d.
Mark Medley: What book written by TCC?
Mark Medley: There have been other books written by people who weren't pastors, but which book was extra credit here?
Mark Medley: Which book probably had the most impact?
Mark Medley: Smoking and Joking.
Mark Medley: It's the truth.
Mark Medley: Yeah, it's probably right.
Mark Medley: You've probably done more with that.
Mark Medley: She was smoking, she was joking.
Mark Medley: She's on the back of the album cover.
Mark Medley: She dated the bass player.
Mark Medley: She's got it the whole thing.
Mark Medley: Everybody.
Mark Medley: It's great Classic.
Mark Medley: That is the real answer.
Mark Medley: Yeah, okay, there's at least at least 12.
Mark Medley: Okay, number 10.
Mark Medley: What was the name of the regional outdoor parade spearheaded by Trinity members that brought over 10,000 believers from many denominations to the streets of Knoxville to worship and pray for our city?
Mark Medley: You may think it's A March for Jesus, or you may think it's sing out loud.
Mark Medley: B or C Celebrate Jesus Parade, or D Together for Jesus.
Mark Medley: What do you think?
Mark Medley: Oh, we've got some old people back there.
Mark Medley: Okay, we were involved with March for Jesus, but pre-March for Jesus was Celebrate Jesus Parade and that's the one that made the paper.
Mark Medley: Did you get that one?
Mark Medley: You got it Good, yeah, yeah, because it was actually.
Mark Medley: It was a big deal.
Mark Medley: David Bush, where are you?
Mark Medley: You did sound for that, didn't you?
Mark Medley: Wow, I saw all those sound trucks, I was thinking about that.
Mark Medley: I was like, wow, I saw all those sound trucks, I was thinking about that.
Mark Medley: It's like wow, I'm thinking about how hard you work during that and I'm just starting to hyperventilate just sitting up here thinking about it.
Mark Medley: Okay, what was the name of Trinity's television show airing in the eighties?
Mark Medley: If you don't get this one, you're pretty pathetic, because it's sitting there, it's right there.
Mark Medley: It's right there in parentheses, right there, okay, so if you didn't get it, this was an obvious error.
Mark Medley: It's a gimme.
Mark Medley: Okay, we tithed one of these to you.
Mark Medley: Okay, we gave you one.
Mark Medley: Yeah, it wasn't Trinity Hour or experiencing God's best, or how are you going?
Mark Medley: It was miracles, okay.
Mark Medley: How many worship albums have been released by Trinity worship teams slash pastors?
Mark Medley: Okay, that doesn't include all members, because there are probably some members who also released some.
Mark Medley: But how many?
Mark Medley: One or three or four or eight.
Mark Medley: See, you're just guessing D all the time.
Mark Medley: Why are you doing that?
Mark Medley: E?
Brooke Medley: C.
Mark Medley: Because the answer is D.
Mark Medley: Eight, at least eight that we know of.
Mark Medley: David's heart had one.
Mark Medley: Pre-aaron Aaron has three.
Mark Medley: Under the Mighty Blood, which you may or may not be hearing some songs from tonight.
Mark Medley: Three, four, that's five.
Mark Medley: Neil has two, six, seven.
Mark Medley: Deb has one.
Mark Medley: Deb F seven.
Mark Medley: Deb has one.
Mark Medley: Deb Fato had a worship album, just one right that she released, I think one.
Mark Medley: Okay, am I forgetting any?
Mark Medley: Yeah, I got Neil's.
Mark Medley: Yeah, neil has two.
Mark Medley: Okay, Number 13.
Mark Medley: What was the most famous billboard campaign sponsored by Trinity?
Mark Medley: A Trinity logo with with location service times.
Mark Medley: That wasn't really very popular.
Mark Medley: I'm just telling you.
Mark Medley: If you guessed that one, that was not.
Mark Medley: It B life matters.
Mark Medley: C are you going?
Mark Medley: D call 521-8000.
Mark Medley: The answer is C are you going?
Mark Medley: And if you don't remember, you weren't around.
Mark Medley: We had billboards all over the place and it was a.
Mark Medley: It was a pretty big campaign and it just said are you going?
Mark Medley: And it was up for I don't know how long.
Mark Medley: We left it up for weeks and then we put are you going?
Mark Medley: We added on to heaven and call here and find out 5218000.
Mark Medley: And the are you going to heaven and call here and find out 521-8000.
Mark Medley: And the are you going to heaven was not just billboard campaign, it was also we were at the fair, like we had booths at the fair, you know saying are you going to heaven?
Mark Medley: And it was just an evangelistic opportunity.
Mark Medley: Number 14, this one was given away earlier by someone who will not be mentioned.
Mark Medley: What was the name of Trinity's accredited Bible college hosted between 2001 and 2011?
Mark Medley: You guys A the Master's Way.
Mark Medley: B Trinity Bible College.
Mark Medley: C Trinity College of Ministry.
Mark Medley: D Trinity University.
Mark Medley: The answer is C Trinity College of Ministry.
Mark Medley: That's right.
Mark Medley: Okay.
Mark Medley: So what methods have been used to share the gospel at University of Tennessee?
Mark Medley: Football games by Trinity members.
Mark Medley: A personal evangelism.
Mark Medley: B flyers with starting lineups and healing testimonies.
Mark Medley: C airplane flyover Dayland Stadium with the words Jesus saves, trinity Chapel, or D all of the above?
Mark Medley: And the answer is D all of the above.
Mark Medley: We were just talking this week.
Mark Medley: I don't know how much fruit we got from all that, but it wasn't for lack of trying, okay.
Mark Medley: Last but not least, the most important question of all how many times has the average Trinity partner heard Neil Silverberg tell the Dead Sea joke?
Mark Medley: Okay, okay, a.
Mark Medley: Two times B.
Mark Medley: Five times C, ten times D.
Mark Medley: Enough already?
Mark Medley: The answer is D.
Mark Medley: Enough already.
Mark Medley: I might need a reminder.
Mark Medley: You're doing it tonight.
Mark Medley: He's been under a ban, but we did lift the ban for tonight so he can do whatever he wants tonight.
Mark Medley: This is great, but Joel told me earlier.
Mark Medley: He said Joel said I'm so old.
Mark Medley: When I was young, the Dead Sea joke was still not funny.
Mark Medley: Yes, your son said that.
Mark Medley: Are you proud of him or mad at him?
Mark Medley: That's what I want to know, maybe a little bit of both, okay, okay.
Mark Medley: So how many got 10?
Mark Medley: Anybody, oh, 16.
Mark Medley: How many got 16?
Mark Medley: Anybody?
Mark Medley: Any hands?
Mark Medley: You got 16 of them, right?
Mark Medley: No, no, okay, no, 16.
Mark Medley: Okay, you missed the miracles one.
Mark Medley: Is that what you missed?
Mark Medley: Okay, 15.
Mark Medley: How many got 15, right, okay?
Mark Medley: How many 14s did we have?
Mark Medley: Wow, this is good, right here.
Mark Medley: 14.
Mark Medley: Okay, this is great.
Mark Medley: How many 13s did we have?
Mark Medley: 13s, 13?
Mark Medley: , 13?
Mark Medley: .
Mark Medley: I feel like an auctioneer, but I'm going down instead of up in numbers and I'm pretty slow.
Mark Medley: Okay, 12.
Mark Medley: 12.
Mark Medley: All right, you got 12.
Mark Medley: Come on, all right, I figured you'd win something.
Mark Medley: This is great, wow, okay.
Mark Medley: How about 11?
Mark Medley: 11.
Mark Medley: Okay, come on, good job.
Mark Medley: Come on, good job.
Mark Medley: Michael's only been a partner here like a month and he got 11 of them.
Mark Medley: You are connected, buddy in the back.
Mark Medley: I see that hand.
Mark Medley: All right, is that all of them?
Mark Medley: Or should we go to 10?
Mark Medley: Okay, 10.
Mark Medley: How many got 10?
Mark Medley: We ain't got enough of that.
Mark Medley: Oh, there's some 10s right back there.
Mark Medley: Yeah, we got 10s all over.
Mark Medley: It wouldn't be fair.
Mark Medley: Oh, okay, it wouldn't be fair, all right, well, brooke's going to hand out what she's got there, okay, Okay.
Mark Medley: So, speaking of flyover Nalin Stadium, I'm going to do a flyover tonight of the history of Trinity Chapel, slash Trinity Community Church.
Mark Medley: So for some of you, actually you've been here and you came here rather recent and so you don't know some of this, and so I'm just going to give you a little fill in the blanks here.
Mark Medley: I'm going to fill in your blanks is what I'm saying, the blanks that are in your head about Trinity.
Mark Medley: So in the late 1960s, early 1970s, on the heels of a move of God that was called the Jesus Movement, there was a growing hunger for more of the Holy Spirit.
Mark Medley: Actually, all over the world, many denominations within many denominations all over the world, there were people who felt like there was something more concerning the work of the Holy Spirit in their own lives, personally and even in the churches, and so they began to cry out for a move of the Holy Spirit and to experience the Holy Spirit more.
Mark Medley: And God heard those prayers and he sent a powerful outpouring throughout the world.
Mark Medley: Actually, this wasn't just here, it was all over the place, and the Holy Spirit swept through Knoxville in early 1970s and a charismatic portion of the charismatic movement began to happen and grow here.
Mark Medley: Many people who were involved in traditionally affiliated churches were introduced to a new and a powerful experience of the Holy Spirit and, as a result, there was a group of believers that came together hungry and they began to meet in homes and they moved out and began to fellowship in one of those homes.
Mark Medley: We've got a picture of one of those homes early and some of those people you might know, actually Some of those people are here tonight, actually At least one or two.
Mark Medley: So in 1974, they began coming together.
Mark Medley: So in 1974, they began coming together, 50 years ago, to study the scriptures and to pray.
Mark Medley: And you know, I don't think Jody Brashear is not here.
Mark Medley: Did she make it?
Mark Medley: I think she may be here Sunday night.
Mark Medley: And one of the first homes that was met, and maybe the very first, was Hugh and Jody Brashear, and Hugh has passed away but Jody, I think, is going to be able to come tomorrow night, which is great.
Mark Medley: So it was in her living room right there.
Mark Medley: So by the end or by January they'd outgrown those little small spaces and they began to meet at Volunteers of America Chapel and then man Mortuary, which was I think we have an actual picture of that as well yeah, the original man mortuary, yes, a mortuary.
Mark Medley: So we sort of began in a funeral home.
Mark Medley: This is the way it is here.
Mark Medley: Yeah, I know.
Mark Medley: No, it's not.
Mark Medley: We do what we can.
Mark Medley: Okay, we're limited by what's on the internet.
Mark Medley: Okay, that's all I can say.
Mark Medley: Yeah, eventually they found an empty church building downtown, sort of near downtown Knoxville, on Dedrick Avenue.
Mark Medley: And I actually believe, randy, was it your dad that found that building?
Mark Medley: Is that right?
Mark Medley: I think that's what April told me.
Mark Medley: Yeah, bob Timko found this building.
Mark Medley: It was for sale, it was a former Baptist church and it had closed down.
Mark Medley: And they started meeting there in 1975, I believe, and they bought this building and the surrounding lots for $76,000.
Mark Medley: Yeah, and they had it paid off in like what, five years.
Mark Medley: Five years Paid off.
Mark Medley: So in April of 75, trinity Chapel was officially chartered as a nonprofit organization and in the autumn of 1975, jack Wright, charlie Riggs, hubert Shearer and Harold Rutherford were ordained as the first elders of the church.
Mark Medley: And I just want to take a minute to recognize a few people.
Mark Medley: The first one, who it breaks all of our hearts mostly his heart that he couldn't be here tonight, is Jack, because Jack almost never misses any church service.
Mark Medley: That's like one of the goals of his life was to be in church every literally he says that to be in church every time the doors are open, and he got a pneumonia in one of his lungs just this week and he couldn't come.
Mark Medley: But he's going to be watching online, so could we just give Jack a thank you.
Mark Medley: Wow, we love you, jack, and you and other people like you have prepared the way for us so much.
Mark Medley: But also there at the beginning were Ed and Joan Fowler, who are sitting up right here.
Mark Medley: Were Ed and Joan Fowler, who are sitting up right here, and also right from the very beginning in those meetings was Wanda as well Wanda Kopp.
Mark Medley: So, ed, you want to come up.
Mark Medley: Ed wants to say a couple of words on behalf of all the originals.
Ed Fowler: And so I see all these things that happened at Trinity and I said where was I when these things happened?
Ed Fowler: Well, mark hit the nail on the head when he said that Jack Wright was the one that should be here above anybody that I know.
Ed Fowler: Jack was the original anointed minister of music for the church and an elder for many years.
Ed Fowler: In fact he is the elder emeritus now.
Ed Fowler: Jack said emeritus means he doesn't have to attend meetings anymore.
Ed Fowler: No, joan and I have served in various capacities through the years, but the big thing now is that, having been invited to participate in the pastor's prayer team, which meets on Sundays here at church, we found that to be a real wonderful opportunity for us to grow spiritually and to help the church to grow spiritually and to help the church.
Ed Fowler: When I first began to join in the groups that became Trinity, I was a lukewarm Christian, but I went to a home group where we were having a prayer meeting and they laid their hands on me and prayed for me and I received a baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Ed Fowler: Now I'm ready with an explanation of the hope that's within me and I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God and the salvation to them that believe.
Ed Fowler: Thank you, lord, for giving us the opportunity to serve for 50 years in this church.
Ed Fowler: Thank you, lord, for keeping us here.
Ed Fowler: We just pray for Jack that you will heal him.
Ed Fowler: In the name of Jesus, we thank you for his solid participation.
Ed Fowler: Amen and amen.
Ed Fowler: What a privilege to serve Trinity for 50 years.
Ed Fowler: Amen.
Mark Medley: Okay, well, okay, I still love you Okay, well, okay, the same time that all this was going on in Knoxville, there were two Jewish guys living in South Florida whose lives were totally transformed by the gospel and by the Holy Spirit, steve and Neil.
Mark Medley: And these men would play major parts in the next decades of Trinity and I'm going to let Neil and Steve tell you whatever they want to tell you about that, if they want to.
Mark Medley: Whatever I'm going to fill in the big picture.
Mark Medley: But it's beautiful because God was moving here, he was moving there and he's always moving and he always has a plan and he's moving people around to ensure that plan comes about.
Mark Medley: But what happens is in 1984, the big picture Steve received a call to come to Knoxville and to serve as senior pastor of Trinity, along with Sandy and their two daughters, and so Deb and Leah were with him, of course, and he brought a powerful prophetic ministry and a powerful pulpit presence and evangelistic ministry and emphasis on Jesus and on encountering the Holy Spirit.
Mark Medley: And there were so many things that happened through those years and those Sunday meetings were characterized.
Mark Medley: Sunday evening meetings, especially, were characterized, actually all of them.
Mark Medley: But Sunday night, you know, what would happen is people would sneak over from their church.
Mark Medley: They would go this is the truth, I know because I'm one of them Go to their whatever church on Sunday morning and they would sneak over like in the back door.
Mark Medley: I remember one time literally this happened I walked in the Dedrick Avenue building and I walked around the corner and there was somebody from my church and I did this and he went.
Mark Medley: It's like you're the, yeah, yeah, we're both here, okay, okay, this is good, I won't tell anybody.
Mark Medley: I won't tell anybody.
Mark Medley: This is great, it's great, you got to sneak around.
Mark Medley: When you're hungry for the Holy Spirit.
Mark Medley: You'll sneak if you need to, right.
Mark Medley: So there were a lot of people who came on those Sunday nights.
Mark Medley: You know, we actually had a newspaper article too.
Mark Medley: We have a picture of this and it's a picture of this is Jack during those years, that's Jack worshiping.
Mark Medley: That is me behind him.
Mark Medley: Yes, it is me behind him.
Mark Medley: It's a younger slobber, me playing the bass guitar behind him.
Mark Medley: But it was a joy to, really a privilege, to be behind Jack and man, it was nothing like watching him smile and lead worship.
Mark Medley: It was amazing and those meetings were beautiful.
Mark Medley: And, by the way, the earlier pastors of Trinity David Kithcart, don Estes were among those.
Mark Medley: We're among those and I have to mention a few names here.
Mark Medley: There's no way to remember everyone, but I think I've got a lot of them.
Mark Medley: The early years, some of the leaders, pastors and elders, deacons they were part of Trinity.
Mark Medley: You have Jack Wright, of course, russ Purcella, who's here tonight with Faye so glad you're here, russ.
Mark Medley: And we have Leonard Sisson, who's here tonight as well Such a blessing.
Mark Medley: Of course, hugh Brashear, as we said.
Mark Medley: Harold Rutherford, david Kithcart, don Estes, boogan Scruggs, jerry Thomas, charlie Riggs I'm probably missing some, I don't know, but later on, steve and Neil and Sam Oaks and Jim Greer and Ed Rosen and me of course, and these are just only the elders there was a large number of other leaders that influenced the ministries of the church greatly and I think I would be remiss if I didn't mention Rob and Chris Ellis up here on the front, because I'm not sure exactly when you guys started.
Mark Medley: I don't know when you started, but what was it 96 or 97.
Mark Medley: And all of my kids grew up under your ministry and now their kids are growing up under your ministry.
Mark Medley: And the people that helped you as well and there's no way to tell all the names, but of course, mike and Sue Brummerstedt, they were really great helpers.
Mark Medley: Curtis Phillips was such a great deacon for so many years, so faithful, and our current deacons as well.
Mark Medley: I mean actually Patty Clemons has been here for so long and she's been so faithful for so long.
Mark Medley: I don't know where you are, patty, but this is, but this is, but you know, I don't know.
Mark Medley: You were here since the eighties, right, and thank you.
Mark Medley: She does so much pastoral work with, especially with the widows and the elderly, and we're so grateful for that, so grateful for that.
Mark Medley: Beautiful.
Mark Medley: So there's too many to continue naming them, but okay.
Mark Medley: So there are also a lot of churches that came out of Trinity through the years, including New Covenant Fellowship, pastored by Russ and Faye, and then, of course, Harvest Church and Tim and Sheila, which I think it was maybe in mid-'90s when they were sent out, something like that, and Tim, by the way, sends his blessings Wasn't able to attend, but sends his blessings, he said.
Mark Medley: And then there was also we helped to plant Hosanna Fellowship.
Mark Medley: We didn't plant it, you guys did the work, but we helped a little bit.
Mark Medley: Right In Johnson City, lynn Sisson's church.
Mark Medley: Lynn started a church called Grace Connection as well.
Mark Medley: That was one of the churches that we started and we also were.
Mark Medley: We played a part in planting a church in Poland called Amazing Grace Church.
Mark Medley: You may have seen Bartek and Daria's video earlier before.
Mark Medley: And then a lot of ministries overseas and people who actually planted churches overseas as well and minister there as well, like Phil and Jenny, like Randy King and Yuri and Olga, who are here tonight, who are part of our sent ones.
Mark Medley: We send them out and support their ministry in the nations, especially in Russia, but also many other nations.
Mark Medley: So we continue to grow downtown at that location until we outgrew that facility.
Mark Medley: We actually were kind of joking about that facility.
Mark Medley: The decor of that church facility was called early poverty, right?
Mark Medley: Isn't that what you called it, steve?
Mark Medley: I think we we wore it out.
Mark Medley: It was great, a lot of great things happening.
Mark Medley: But in 2000 we bought some property.
Mark Medley: It was located by jack wright, but it was negotiated by a jew and he got the.
Mark Medley: He got the prize way down and we we later built this 40,000 square foot building on over 46 acres on Haines-Sturkey Road.
Mark Medley: Building construction began in October of 2000.
Mark Medley: We held our first service there December 9th of 2001.
Mark Medley: That was Trinity Chapel and there were a lot of blessings in moving in that building.
Mark Medley: A lot of blessings such as a lot of people reached with the gospel.
Mark Medley: It was a great facility to have conferences.
Mark Medley: We had prophetic conferences, master builders conferences, we had worship conferences.
Mark Medley: We had a Mother's Day out that served the community.
Mark Medley: We had a homeschool cooperative.
Mark Medley: Trinity Christian Academy started there in that building.
Mark Medley: It's still going today, serving hundreds of people today.
Mark Medley: And then we had our Trinity College of Ministry, training generations there through that college.
Mark Medley: And then, in 2011, there was a pastoral transition from Steve to Neal, who had moved back to Knoxville.
Mark Medley: Neal came to Knoxville with Shelly in 1991, was here for many years, moved to Florida in 2005, I think Is that right 2006.
Mark Medley: Okay, came back here in 2011,.
Mark Medley: Began leading the church, and it was around that time Stephen Sandy and Adam and Sarah started Awakened City Church and then later Awakened Old City Church, churches that are still going strong and impacting lives for jesus here, and we're so grateful for that.
Mark Medley: For for the ministry of steven sandy and ministry of neil and shelly here, um, it's a, it's a um, it's to me it's a joy tonight because you're going to get to hear a treat, you're going to hear from two of my fathers in the Lord tonight and I just want to thank God for them and what they've done into in our lives.
Mark Medley: So so Neil came and he had this.
Mark Medley: He had a few things that were his goals, thank you.
Mark Medley: Few things that were his goals, and among those goals was to look for his replacement.
Mark Medley: That was one of his goals.
Mark Medley: He had five goals.
Mark Medley: I won't tell you all of them, but he had two of them in particular.
Mark Medley: One was get the church out of debt and one was to look for his replacement.
Mark Medley: So smart guy, I guess.
Mark Medley: So you know it was like almost impossible at that time.
Mark Medley: It was like the heels of a financial crisis and all this stuff.
Mark Medley: How do you sell a 40,000 square foot building that's built as a church on a huge bit of property?
Mark Medley: There's just not a lot of clientele for that.
Mark Medley: But it only takes one.
Mark Medley: It only takes one.
Mark Medley: It only takes one, and praise God.
Mark Medley: God provided a buyer.
Mark Medley: And so one of the great things I told you the blessings of moving into that building.
Mark Medley: I want to tell you one of the blessings of moving out of that building Free at last.
Mark Medley: Free at last.
Mark Medley: No debt Money can be used for people and ministries in this city and all over the place.
Mark Medley: So this is what's really beautiful, so that's great.
Mark Medley: So we thank God for the time that we're in that building and we don't in.
Mark Medley: We don't in any way, um, overlook that or in any way think that that was a bad thing.
Mark Medley: That was a great thing.
Mark Medley: It was a lot of great things, a lot of lives changed and touched in that building, um, but here we are and, uh, in 2016, neil found his replacement.
Mark Medley: So it was another pastoral transition as Neil moved into a broader ministry across the nation and in the nations.
Mark Medley: And so the church welcomed Tyler as a newly pastor, with his wife, amy and their family four children and they brought a wonderful balance of vision and care for the church and a real emphasis on families.
Mark Medley: And it's fantastic.
Mark Medley: To this day, tyler leads the elder team toward our goal of being grace-based, spirit-empowered and outward-focused.
Mark Medley: That's our heart, that's what we want it to be.
Mark Medley: So I'm going to end up and the band can come on up.
Mark Medley: We're getting ready to do some worship, y'all.
Mark Medley: I'm going to end up and the band can come on up.
Mark Medley: We're getting ready to do some worship, y'all.
Mark Medley: So our impact from Trinity is growing in the community and in the region and also in the nations.
Mark Medley: We have our homeschool co-op that's still going and the umbrella school that serves many families.
Mark Medley: There's over 300 people in this building on Fridays during the school year.
Mark Medley: Almost every little square inch is used.
Mark Medley: Every square inch of this building is used for our homeschool co-op, prison ministry, which still goes so thankful for Lonnie for many, many, many years of faithful ministry in that.
Mark Medley: And now, passing this back on, talk about a beautiful, beautiful heart for those prisoners, and they still talk about you.
Mark Medley: And so the prison ministry, our community groups that help build Christians up and reach the unsaved development of upcoming leaders through TMAP and our Timothy team, children's Ministry, outreach and partnership with Knoxville Inner City Kids Outreach and YWAM Knoxville going on.
Mark Medley: So the impact of TCC locally in the nation and in the nations is still happening, and you're a part of us.
Mark Medley: You're a part of us, whether your experience with Trinity is past or present.
Mark Medley: You're a part of us.
Mark Medley: You're a part of us, whether your experience with Trinity is past or present.
Mark Medley: You're a part of us and you're family to us and we rejoice in what God's done and what he's going to be doing in the future, and we really do believe that the best is yet to come.
Mark Medley: And though we have sort of a banquet setting tonight, we're going to worship, okay.
Mark Medley: So I'm going to ask you to dig deep, because I know you've never been asked to eat a Karabas meal and then stand up in worship.
Mark Medley: Okay, I know nobody's ever done that, but you know this is we're going to.
Mark Medley: We're going to go for it, we're going to go for it, okay.
Mark Medley: So we have some songs we're going to do from a live CD that we recorded in 2000, over 20 years ago, and some of you remember that Some of you were there, some of you were in the choir, and so we thought this is Trinity, this is Trinity history.
Mark Medley: We might as well do songs that came from here, so that's what we're doing.
Mark Medley: So if you will stand with me and if you will push your chair back, and if you'll settle that meal just a little bit and get ready, this is one of the things that Trinity it was like an earmark of Trinity for many years was worship.
Aaron Jones: And so it's fitting tonight that we step into that and do it all right.
Aaron Jones: Does anybody love jesus in this place?
Mark Medley: oh, we love you, Lord oh.
Aaron Jones: Jesus, oh, we're not ashamed to worship you tonight.
Mark Medley: Oh, we love you, jesus, jesus, let's sing now.
Aaron Jones: Hey, I lift my hands higher and higher.
Aaron Jones: I lift my hands to you Lord.
Brooke Medley: Jesus set my heart on fire and I dance, spin around.
Brooke Medley: I once was lost, now I'm found.
Brooke Medley: Save my soul.
Brooke Medley: You broke my chains.
Brooke Medley: I am to your court Shouting your name, Jesus.
Aaron Jones: When I wear a garment of praise, the heaviness fades and I see your face.
Aaron Jones: I'm in a praise the heaviness fades and I see your face Through your blood I pour out my love, I join the angels above.
Brooke Medley: In giving you praise, I lift my hands higher and higher.
Brooke Medley: I lift my hands to you.
Brooke Medley: Lord Jesus set my heart on fire.
Brooke Medley: Lord Jesus set my heart on fire and I danced and I spinned around.
Brooke Medley: I once was lost.
Brooke Medley: Now I'm found.
Brooke Medley: You saved my soul, you broke my chains.
Brooke Medley: I am to your court, shouting your name, jesus, in your name, jesus, jesus.
Brooke Medley: I lift my hands higher and higher.
Brooke Medley: I lift my hands to you.
Brooke Medley: Lord Jesus, set my heart on fire and I've been around.
Brooke Medley: I once was lost.
Brooke Medley: Now I'm found.
Brooke Medley: You saved my soul.
Brooke Medley: You broke my chains.
Brooke Medley: I am to your court.
Brooke Medley: Shout in your name, jesus.
Mark Medley: Somebody shout.
Mark Medley: Under the mighty blood we are bought and sealed.
Mark Medley: Now, under the mighty blood, we are saved and healed.
Mark Medley: Now, under the mighty blood, we are saved from danger.
Mark Medley: Under the mighty blood, we're no longer strangers.
Mark Medley: The mighty blood Is deeper than the depths in which we fell.
Mark Medley: The mighty blood is deeper than the depths in which we fell.
Mark Medley: The mighty blood is greater far than all the powers that fell.
Mark Medley: The mighty blood will usher you into the Father's love.
Mark Medley: The love of our Lord is enough.
Mark Medley: We're under the mighty blood.
Mark Medley: Under the mighty blood, there is power for living.
Mark Medley: Under the mighty blood, sins can be forgiven.
Brooke Medley: Under the mighty blood.
Brooke Medley: Chains of sin are broken Under the mighty blood.
Brooke Medley: Chains of sin are broken Under the mighty blood better words are spoken.
Mark Medley: The mighty blood is stronger than the past, and all that's been the mighty blood is wider than the gulf of my sin.
Mark Medley: The mighty blood will usher you through the Father's light.
Brooke Medley: The love of our Lord is enough.
Brooke Medley: We're under the mighty blood.
Mark Medley: We're under the mighty blood.
Mark Medley: All right, can you clap with us?
Mark Medley: There is life in the blood.
Mark Medley: There is life in the blood of the Lamb.
Mark Medley: There is life in the blood.
Mark Medley: There is life in the blood of the Lamb.
Brooke Medley: There is hope in the blood.
Brooke Medley: There is hope in the blood there is hope in the blood of the Lamb.
Brooke Medley: There is power in the blood.
Brooke Medley: There is power in the blood of the Lamb.
Mark Medley: The mighty blood is deeper than the depths to which we fell.
Mark Medley: The mighty blood is greater, far than all the powers of hell.
Mark Medley: The mighty blood will usher you into the Father's love.
Mark Medley: The blood of our Lord is the blood of our Lord.
Mark Medley: The mighty blood is stronger than the past and all that's been.
Mark Medley: The mighty blood is wider than the rock of my sin.
Mark Medley: The mighty blood will usher you into the Father's love is.
Mark Medley: We're under the mighty blood.
Mark Medley: Hallelujah, hallelujah.
Mark Medley: Thank you, father, thank you for your grace, jesus, lord, we thank you for that blood that we rest in, for the grace of Jesus Christ.
Mark Medley: Lord, we thank you that we can approach your throne with boldness by the blood you shed through your broken body, and we thank you for that, god.
Mark Medley: Thank you for the hope that we have.
Mark Medley: We honor you, lord, and with all of the heavens, with all the angels of heaven, with all of the saints, with all of the elders, with all the angels of heaven, with all of the saints, with all of the elders, with all the creatures.
Mark Medley: Lord, we worship you because you were the lamb who was slain.
Mark Medley: Lord, for who you are and what you've done, we worship you.
Brooke Medley: All that the Father has designed, all that His holiness required Cleansing, complete, perfect in time.
Brooke Medley: The blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus.
Brooke Medley: It's still the deadly power of sin.
Brooke Medley: The blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus.
Brooke Medley: It brought me back Jesus.
Brooke Medley: The blood of Jesus.
Brooke Medley: It brought me back to God again.
Brooke Medley: The blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus.
Brooke Medley: All that the Father has desired, all that His hope requires.
Brooke Medley: The blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus.
Brooke Medley: Three stains of sin as white as snow.
Brooke Medley: The blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus.
Brooke Medley: All that the Father has designed, all that His holiness requires Cleansing, complete, perfect in time.
Brooke Medley: The blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus.
Brooke Medley: Those once far off Are now made right.
Brooke Medley: The blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus.
Brooke Medley: We stand before Him, justified.
Brooke Medley: The blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus.
Brooke Medley: All that the Father has desired, all that His holiness requires Cleansing, complete, perfect in time.
Brooke Medley: The blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus.
Brooke Medley: All that the Father has desired, all that His holiness requires.
Brooke Medley: Be quiet when deep come.
Brooke Medley: Deep, perfect in time.
Brooke Medley: The blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus.
Brooke Medley: Glory I am, jesus, glory I am.
Aaron Jones: Jesus, since we're looking back tonight.
Aaron Jones: So I guess it was 1997.
Aaron Jones: I wrote this song and first I was anyone just feel old.
Aaron Jones: Tonight it's feeling old, but it's a good old.
Aaron Jones: So I wrote the song and in the same season, while I was writing this song, maybe a little bit after that, I've shared this before.
Aaron Jones: But the story in the gospels where the woman comes, breaks the jar and alabaster and perfume all over Jesus.
Aaron Jones: And you know, a lot of people around Jesus were mad and they're like why is she doing this?
Aaron Jones: It's such a waste.
Aaron Jones: And, um, he says she does a beautiful thing and she does it to prepare for my burial.
Aaron Jones: And when I was reading that, this is back in a little rental house off of Clinton Highway and if you tripped through the front door you would roll down the back.
Aaron Jones: The house is on a slant.
Aaron Jones: But so I'm reading this and it says and Jesus says she does this to prepare for my burial.
Aaron Jones: And right in that moment I just really felt the Lord says tell me, ask me.
Aaron Jones: So what are you doing to prepare for my return?
Aaron Jones: And so we're going to do this song and why I'm sharing that is years later, about 20 years later, I added a little chorus at the end of this song Just kind of came one night in my brother's house praying and worshiping with him and Stephanie and Beth and Lewis and Kristen and others and stuff, and this little chorus just came out and then so I tacked it on to the end of this song, because it's just this idea of sitting at the feet of Jesus and your life just being wasted on him, just giving it all to Jesus in light of his return, because one day Jesus comes back and all the mess in this world gets fixed.
Aaron Jones: So yeah, so let's sing this.
Mark Medley: I cannot come to you with a crown on my head.
Mark Medley: I approach your throne through the blood you shed.
Mark Medley: I cannot come to you through titles again.
Mark Medley: Your name is above all names.
Mark Medley: Yes, your name is above all names.
Mark Medley: In view, in view.
Brooke Medley: And as I sit at your feet, call you worthy.
Brooke Medley: Sit at your feet, sing songs to you.
Mark Medley: And as I sit at your feet, cry.
Mark Medley: You are holy.
Mark Medley: Sit at your feet and fall in love with you.
Mark Medley: I cannot come to you With a crown on my head.
Mark Medley: I approach your throne Through the blood you shed.
Brooke Medley: I cannot come to you the titles I've gained.
Brooke Medley: Your name is above all names.
Brooke Medley: Yes, your name is above all names.
Mark Medley: And through all your mercy, my pride has no claim your mercy.
Brooke Medley: My pride is.
Brooke Medley: I call you worthy to sit at your feet.
Brooke Medley: I sing songs to you as I sit at your feet.
Mark Medley: I cry.
Mark Medley: You are holy to sit at your feet.
Brooke Medley: Oh, I sing songs to you as I sit at your feet and call you worthy.
Brooke Medley: Sit at your feet and sing songs to you as I sit at your feet and cry.
Brooke Medley: You are holy.
Brooke Medley: Sit at your feet, feet, I call you on holy.
Brooke Medley: Sit at your feet and fall in love with you.
Mark Medley: Return to your first love tonight.
Aaron Jones: Oh, you're coming back again.
Mark Medley: I'm looking for your kingdom coming.
Mark Medley: I'm looking for your returning, can't wait to see your face.
Mark Medley: Oh, maranatha, come.
Mark Medley: Lord Jesus, I'm looking for your kingdom coming.
Brooke Medley: I'm looking for your return.
Brooke Medley: Can't wait to see your face.
Brooke Medley: Oh Maranatha, sing it again.
Brooke Medley: I'm looking for your kingdom coming.
Brooke Medley: I'm looking for your return.
Brooke Medley: I'm looking for your returning, can't wait to see your face.
Brooke Medley: Maranatha, come, lord Jesus.
Brooke Medley: I'm looking for your kingdom coming.
Brooke Medley: I'm looking for your returning, can't wait to see your face.
Brooke Medley: Maranatha, come, lord Jesus.
Brooke Medley: Oh Mary, not the kind of Jesus.
Brooke Medley: Oh yeah, somebody shout oh Jesus, jesus, I love to sing the name of Jesus.
Mark Medley: I'm looking for your kingdom coming.
Mark Medley: I'm looking for your return.
Mark Medley: Can't wait to see your face, oh Mary.
Aaron Jones: Just the guys I'm looking for, your kingdom coming.
Mark Medley: I'm looking for your returning, can't wait to see your face.
Mark Medley: Oh, maranatha, just the ladies.
Brooke Medley: Just the ladies.
Brooke Medley: All together, now, all together.
Brooke Medley: I'm looking for your return.
Brooke Medley: Can't wait to see your face, maranatha, come, lord Jesus, I'm looking for your kingdom coming.
Brooke Medley: I'm looking for your return, can't wait to see your face, maranatha, come, lord Jesus, I'm looking for your kingdom coming.
Brooke Medley: I'm looking for your return Can't wait to see your face.
Brooke Medley: Maranatha come, lord Jesus, hallelujah, lord, hallelujah, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus.
Brooke Medley: I've been given the opportunity to sing a very special song from this album.
Brooke Medley: This song was sang by Melissa Medley and if we can just take a moment and just honor the reflection of Jesus Christ that was in Melissa Medley, can we just give the Lord a hand clap of praise and thank him for her?
Brooke Medley: Thank you, jesus.
Brooke Medley: So tonight I'm going to have some trouble singing this song, so I'm going to need your all's help to sing it with me and let's just praise the Lord.
Brooke Medley: Let's just praise the Lord like what she is doing right now and every moment hereafter.
Brooke Medley: Thank you Father, thank you Lord, thank you.
Brooke Medley: Lord, there is a place of rest For all who are weary and bound For Savior.
Brooke Medley: And our King Made one offering, once and for all men, and he sat down.
Brooke Medley: He sat down.
Brooke Medley: It is finished.
Brooke Medley: The price has been paid.
Brooke Medley: The sacrifice made, the foundation laid.
Brooke Medley: It is finished.
Brooke Medley: The blood has been spent, the prophets fulfilled, our salvation sealed.
Brooke Medley: It is finished.
Brooke Medley: The crown has been worn, the stripes have been worn.
Brooke Medley: The stripes have been worn.
Brooke Medley: The veil has been torn.
Brooke Medley: It is finished.
Brooke Medley: The work is all done.
Brooke Medley: The victory's been won.
Brooke Medley: Believe in the Son, for he has already won the war and our freedom's what he died for.
Brooke Medley: It is finished.
Brooke Medley: There is a place of rest For all who are weary and bound For Savior and our King Made one offering, once and for all man, and he sat down.
Brooke Medley: He sat down.
Brooke Medley: It is finished.
Brooke Medley: The price has been paid.
Brooke Medley: The sacrifice made, the foundation laid.
Brooke Medley: It is finished.
Brooke Medley: The blood has been sealed, the prophets fulfilled and salvation sealed been the stripes.
Brooke Medley: The veil has been torn.
Brooke Medley: It is finished.
Brooke Medley: The work is all done.
Brooke Medley: The victory's been won.
Brooke Medley: Believe in the Son, for he has already won the war.
Brooke Medley: The body won the war and our freedom's finally done for it is finished.
Brooke Medley: The crown has been won.
Brooke Medley: The stripes have been born.
Brooke Medley: The veil has been torn.
Brooke Medley: It is finished.
Brooke Medley: The work is all done.
Brooke Medley: The victory's been won.
Brooke Medley: Believe in the Son, for he has already won the war and our freedom's, what he died for.
Brooke Medley: So receive Him and work no more.
Brooke Medley: No more is being led.
Mark Medley: Amen, thanks, you can be seated.
Mark Medley: Wow, praise God, jesus is good.
Mark Medley: Okay, so I get the wonderful opportunity to introduce to you a dear friend, and to me and to probably most of you here as well.
Mark Medley: And you served Jesus so well, you served this church so well, so just welcome, neil Silverberg.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you, mark, I'm a little overwhelmed.
Neil Silverberg: Give me a second.
Neil Silverberg: Was that powerful?
Neil Silverberg: Wow.
Neil Silverberg: Every time that song was sung, I think of Melissa, it was her song.
Neil Silverberg: I want to just take a second and acknowledge a special guest, but you have to promise me not to get up and hug his neck yet.
Neil Silverberg: But Paul Queen is in the house.
Neil Silverberg: Praise God, paul, so glad to have you here.
Neil Silverberg: Brother, paul, so glad to have you here, brother.
Neil Silverberg: Well, mark mentioned that the ban has been lifted on my jokes, so I'm struggling with whether I should take the opportunity or not.
Neil Silverberg: For those of you who don't know, I've had a joke that is so old that the elders came to my house one day and posted on my refrigerator that I was under a ban.
Neil Silverberg: That joke could not be repeated at any Trinity Chapel, trinity Community Church outing or meeting, but Tyler graciously lifted it and told me, even though I promised I did it.
Neil Silverberg: In Israel, I took 34 people to Israel, patty remembers, and we I'm so old.
Neil Silverberg: When I was young, the Dead Sea was just sick.
Neil Silverberg: Okay, there it is.
Neil Silverberg: Good night, praise God.
Neil Silverberg: Shelly and I have had the privilege of being partners at Trinity Community Church for almost 30 years, with a five-year break to Florida and we love this church.
Neil Silverberg: We love the community we've been part of.
Neil Silverberg: We love the fact that our kids grew up here.
Neil Silverberg: We love working with the elder team.
Neil Silverberg: It's just been an incredible blessing and privilege.
Neil Silverberg: Mark did a brilliant flyover of the last 50 years 50 years amazing that we've been a local church and I hope tonight if you are new, you're one of the newer people to Trinity that this history was helpful in providing you some context about Trinity and how it got started.
Neil Silverberg: I've been brooding on this all week and it's blessed my soul.
Neil Silverberg: You know the average church plant lasts four years or less.
Neil Silverberg: So we're celebrating 50 years.
Neil Silverberg: It's no small matter and you know.
Neil Silverberg: Mark mentioned briefly our background.
Neil Silverberg: Steve and I met each other in Miami.
Neil Silverberg: Actually, I didn't know Steve.
Neil Silverberg: My brother, perry, was friends with Steve and introduced me to Steve for the first time.
Neil Silverberg: Steve says I was very unkind and unfriendly in that meeting.
Neil Silverberg: I had long hair and I was probably on dope and didn't realize the man of God in my house.
Neil Silverberg: I didn't realize it, but I grew up in Philadelphia and I got.
Neil Silverberg: My brother was a drug addict and my parents kicked him out of the house in 1970.
Neil Silverberg: And my father looked at me and said, neil, we don't want you turning out like your brother, we want you free from drugs.
Neil Silverberg: We're moving to Miami.
Neil Silverberg: That's exactly what he said Drug-free Miami.
Neil Silverberg: But you know what was happening in the movie Jesus Revolution?
Neil Silverberg: What was happening in California was happening in South Florida in the 60s and 70s as well.
Neil Silverberg: It was a major outpouring of the spirit and the charismatic movement was powerful in those days.
Neil Silverberg: God was touching many drug addicts and setting them free.
Neil Silverberg: Sandy was a heroin addict who got set free by the gospel.
Neil Silverberg: The night I got saved, november 9th 1971, at Bayfront Auditorium, sandy Simons was singing in the choir that night.
Neil Silverberg: I didn't know her that night, but I got to know her in the future and it's wonderful to know her.
Neil Silverberg: We're trying to get Sandy out of her shell a little bit.
Neil Silverberg: But Mark mentioned how Steve's life and my life was touched by the gospel.
Neil Silverberg: I met the Lord in November of 1971, and Steve had gotten saved, I think in 70 or 69, 70.
Neil Silverberg: So that was a period of time when the Spirit of God was poured out powerfully throughout the nation and later Steve and Sandy left Florida and moved to Alabama and pastored in Alabama, in Florence, alabama, where they pastored Calvary Temple.
Neil Silverberg: We had breakfast yesterday, mark and I and Steve, and we were reviewing, renewing some of our memories about that time.
Neil Silverberg: It was amazing and you know it was really a tailor made for Steve and I being Jewish, because we were in pastoring in Florence, which was right down the road from Tuscumbia, alabama, which at the time was the headquarters for the Ku Klux Klan, so it was perfect setting for two Jewish guys from South Florida.
Neil Silverberg: You know it really was, really was.
Neil Silverberg: But in 1984, when Steve and Sandy got the call to come to Knoxville and serve as senior pastor, we stayed, shelly and I, in Florence for another seven years and then, in 1991, we moved here to join the staff of the pastoral staff and work with Steve and Sandy.
Neil Silverberg: By the way, steve served as senior pastor for almost 30 years.
Neil Silverberg: We wouldn't be here tonight if it wasn't for their faithfulness.
Neil Silverberg: In 2006, shelly and I left Knoxville and went to Cape Coral, florida, to work with a church there.
Neil Silverberg: And then, in 2010, steve called me and asked me to prayerfully consider returning to Knoxville and went to Cape Coral, florida, to work with a church there.
Neil Silverberg: And then, in 2010, steve called me and asked me to prayerfully consider returning to Knoxville and taking the lead role, which we did in 2011.
Neil Silverberg: We were accompanied by Tyler and Amy, who actually came down before we got here, and for Tyler it was like going home, because his father had planted a church in Cape Coral and Tyler actually graduated high school in Fort Myers, so it was like going home for him.
Neil Silverberg: We were asked on this first night of our special Jubilee service to start to speak about what God did in establishing Trinity.
Neil Silverberg: I want to take a few minutes and just give you a broad overview of what I believe he did when he established this church.
Neil Silverberg: Tomorrow, we're going to focus in the morning on what God is presently doing and then tomorrow night we'll be praying for people prophetically and we will be talking about what God's going to do in the future.
Neil Silverberg: We call this thanking God for a firm foundation.
Neil Silverberg: I believe that Trinity has existed for 50 years because it's been planted for a firm foundation.
Neil Silverberg: I believe that Trinity has existed for 50 years because it's been planted on a firm foundation.
Neil Silverberg: Can you agree with that?
Neil Silverberg: And we could describe that foundation in many different ways.
Neil Silverberg: We could talk about the worship, the fact that this church has been characterized by dynamic worship, and we saw some of it tonight Aaron Jones, mark Medley, jack Wright, others who have been part by dynamic worship and we saw some of it tonight Aaron Jones, mark Medley, jack Wright, others who've been part of the worship team.
Neil Silverberg: It's always been an important part of Trinity, but I believe that the best way to describe the foundation upon which Trinity was founded is that God called Trinity, from the beginning, to be both a word and power church a word and power church.
Neil Silverberg: We may not have been that to the best of our ability.
Neil Silverberg: We may not be that to the best of our ability right now, but from our inception we've striven to be balanced in both of those areas of word and spirit.
Neil Silverberg: What do I mean by word and power?
Neil Silverberg: Church and spirit.
Neil Silverberg: What do I mean by word and power church?
Neil Silverberg: If you go to the gospels Matthew, mark and Luke, they all tell the story of Jesus running with the Sadducees.
Neil Silverberg: Remember, he had confronted the Pharisees and they couldn't confound him.
Neil Silverberg: And now the Sadducees came.
Neil Silverberg: It was their turn.
Neil Silverberg: They were the political power in the day.
Neil Silverberg: They were, you know, and they were mainly described by the fact that they denied any of the supernatural in the Old Testament.
Neil Silverberg: They were sad.
Neil Silverberg: You see, that was worth listening to the sermon up to now, just for that little bit right.
Neil Silverberg: They were sad, you see, and they disbelieved in angels or spirits, and that included, they disbelieved in the core issue of the Old Testament the resurrection of the body.
Neil Silverberg: On that basis, they come to Jesus with a fictitious story.
Neil Silverberg: Remember that there was a man who died and his brother married his wife, and seven men married her.
Neil Silverberg: And they had the question in the resurrection, whose wife will she be?
Neil Silverberg: And Jesus, as he often does, knowing their deception, answers by going right to the heart of the issue.
Neil Silverberg: He says you are in error because you are deficient in knowing the scriptures and the power of God.
Neil Silverberg: You err because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God.
Neil Silverberg: If they knew the scriptures, they would have had no problem believing the resurrection, because the Bible teaches it very clearly.
Neil Silverberg: And if they knew the power of God, they would know that in the resurrection, men and women are transformed and brought into a realm similar to angels.
Neil Silverberg: By the way, I encourage the pastors in the room to use this for pastoral counsel for marriage.
Neil Silverberg: Just tell the couple if you can hang on to the resurrection, then you won't be married.
Neil Silverberg: It's really helpful.
Neil Silverberg: I've used it many times.
Neil Silverberg: It works well.
Neil Silverberg: But Jesus expected them to know both the Scriptures and the power of God.
Neil Silverberg: Because they didn't, they erred.
Neil Silverberg: And there's a warning in Jesus' words for us.
Neil Silverberg: I believe if any church wants to ensure that it qualifies as an apostolic company, they need to know both of these the scriptures and the power of God.
Neil Silverberg: And guess what?
Neil Silverberg: We don't have to compromise and choose one above the other.
Neil Silverberg: Both are our heritage.
Neil Silverberg: It's important to recognize that, as far as Jesus is concerned, both of these belong together.
Neil Silverberg: If there is to be avoided, it should be immediately recognized, though, that for many people, for many churches, this is rarely the case.
Neil Silverberg: We don't see a church, many churches, that are balanced with both of these word and power.
Neil Silverberg: In fact, two distinct camps have emerged today, each stressing one of these to the other, each camp viewing the other with antagonism.
Neil Silverberg: The two camps are evangelicalism, which has put its focus on knowing the scriptures so that we're pursuing a biblically-based religion, and the charismatic church, which has emphasized, rightly, our need of the power of the spirit and the gifts of the spirit in operation.
Neil Silverberg: Unfortunately, these two camps in the past have remained antagonistic, but we're coming into good news, that we're coming into a day when something is going on causing both camps to recognize their need of the other.
Neil Silverberg: Praise God.
Neil Silverberg: Evangelicals can continue to insist on the importance of biblical knowledge and scholarship.
Neil Silverberg: In the past they've rejected the charismatic emphasis on the power of the Spirit.
Neil Silverberg: The danger for them is things can become only cerebral.
Neil Silverberg: They can embrace the idea that God wrote a book and disappeared off the scene.
Neil Silverberg: You know, they easily become like many evangelicals which you know, jesus, many of the Pharisees.
Neil Silverberg: Jesus said to them you diligently study the scriptures because you think that in them you possess eternal life.
Neil Silverberg: These are the scriptures that testify about me, and yet you do not come to me to have life.
Neil Silverberg: Charismatic saw this tendency and reacted against it.
Neil Silverberg: But in their reaction they forgot that God's power is not a substitute for a knowledge of truth.
Neil Silverberg: Are you with me?
Neil Silverberg: Even the spirit is called the spirit of truth.
Neil Silverberg: One of the problems in this entire scenario is that we have accepted the notion that it has to be either or or both.
Neil Silverberg: And there's a man who did some brilliant work.
Neil Silverberg: His name was Jim Collins.
Neil Silverberg: He spent six years researching great companies, trying to find out what makes companies great and better than others.
Neil Silverberg: He grouped them into bronze and gold and metal companies, gold being those who performed well over time, and he found that these companies were those who eliminated the notion of either or and discovered the power of both, and he cites as an example a pharmaceutical company that found out how to make both a profit and serve the needs of humanity.
Neil Silverberg: I believe the church should be the ultimate example of the both and paradigm, and I believe God has called Trinity from its inception to exemplify that we don't have to choose between a word-based church and power-based.
Neil Silverberg: We can and must have both.
Neil Silverberg: If we want to recapture the genius of the apostolic church, we have to embrace both these camps.
Neil Silverberg: First, we must ensure that we're building biblically-based churches, churches that take the scripture seriously.
Neil Silverberg: We will not shun serious biblical study.
Neil Silverberg: We will see the importance of theology in our ministry.
Neil Silverberg: But secondly, we must recognize that the New Testament church is a supernatural church and we must be comfortable in the supernatural even when we embrace scripture.
Neil Silverberg: The man who wrote Romans raised the dead and we have an example of this in the Old Testament Two men who worked together in the Hebrew Bible, their one book, the book of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Neil Silverberg: You know what Nehemiah's name is in Hebrew, it's comforter.
Neil Silverberg: And you know what Ezra was, the scribe who studied the law to teach it in Israel.
Neil Silverberg: And both of those work together, exemplifying the word and power paradigm.
Neil Silverberg: I myself owe a great debt from both camps.
Neil Silverberg: I've gained so much.
Neil Silverberg: So if we want to ensure that our people are growing in knowledge of both the scriptures and the power of God, we must make sure that our ministry, as leaders, exhibits both.
Neil Silverberg: Are you breathing?
Neil Silverberg: We must model what knowledge of both means for our people.
Neil Silverberg: The following should be demonstrated in our lives and ministries as part of our evangelical heritage we must first and foremost be students of scripture, can't just give lip service to it.
Neil Silverberg: We have to make sure that what we preach and what we pursue is biblical, and that can't be faked.
Neil Silverberg: It must be the result of living constantly in the book and grappling with its message.
Neil Silverberg: You know, in the past few years the church has been inundated with new techniques and emphasis that are not biblical.
Neil Silverberg: People don't notice because there hasn't been a waning of authority of the scriptures.
Neil Silverberg: We still quote the Bible occasionally, but we really look elsewhere for answers.
Neil Silverberg: We need to desperately return to the authority of Scripture.
Neil Silverberg: If we don't, we will make experiences authoritative.
Neil Silverberg: It's like Luke 16.
Neil Silverberg: You remember the parable of the rich man and Lazarus?
Neil Silverberg: Many believe it's not a parable because Lazarus is named by name.
Neil Silverberg: But you remember Lazarus?
Neil Silverberg: The rich man rather said send me back to my brothers.
Neil Silverberg: If someone rises from the dead they'll believe.
Neil Silverberg: And they said.
Neil Silverberg: And Father Abraham said, if they have Moses and the prophets, if they don't believe them they won't believe if someone rises from the dead.
Neil Silverberg: Our public ministry must expound scripture.
Neil Silverberg: Leaders need to return to preaching the Word of God.
Neil Silverberg: Not only do we study the Bible when we preach it from our messages, we must expound it.
Neil Silverberg: We've got to be delivered from what I call state your text and depart you from it.
Neil Silverberg: You know, listening to many preachers today, you get the idea that the Bible is just a springboard for their own thoughts, because the message isn't drawn from Scripture.
Neil Silverberg: The Scripture is used to bolster their own thoughts.
Neil Silverberg: But besides the Scriptures, the following should be demonstrated clearly in our lives and ministry as part of our charismatic heritage we need our churches and ministries to live in and minister from the presence of God.
Neil Silverberg: You know, we have settled for a Christianity which is a little more than a commitment to propositions.
Neil Silverberg: It's obvious from Acts that the success of the apostles was that their ministries were committed to both word and power.
Neil Silverberg: The power of the Holy Spirit in the presence of God was evident, and we needed it, especially in an hour like ours.
Neil Silverberg: Acts 5,.
Neil Silverberg: With great power, the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.
Neil Silverberg: Nothing, nothing, nothing can substitute for the power of the Holy Spirit in our ministries.
Neil Silverberg: Without it, we're like the man in the story of Elisha Remember the man with the axe head who lost his axe head?
Neil Silverberg: We're like him beating the tree with no axe head.
Neil Silverberg: Spurgeon said it best.
Neil Silverberg: He said to us as ministers the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
Neil Silverberg: Without him, our office is a mere name.
Neil Silverberg: We claim no priesthood over and above that which belongs to every child of God, but we are the successors of those who, in olden times, were moved of God to declare his word, to testify against transgression and to lead his cause.
Neil Silverberg: Unless we have the spirit of the prophets resting upon us, the mantle which we wear is nothing but a rough garment to deceive.
Neil Silverberg: We ought to be driven forth with abhorrence from the society of honest men for daring to speak in the name of the Lord.
Neil Silverberg: If the spirit of God rests upon us, we continue his witness upon earth, but upon him, and his testimony for daring to speak in the name of the Lord.
Neil Silverberg: If the Spirit of God rests upon us, we continue his witness upon earth, but upon him and his testimony the Spirit always rested, and if it does not rest upon us, we are evidently not sent forth into the world as he was.
Neil Silverberg: Wow.
Neil Silverberg: In this regard, we should desire earnestly the spiritual gifts in our ministries and our churches.
Neil Silverberg: You know, we may not be doctrinal secessionists, but we can end up being functional secessionists.
Neil Silverberg: Doctrinally we believe in the gifts, but functionally, you know it's forbid not but seek not is the motto.
Neil Silverberg: We need to return to the simplicity of what charismatic means.
Neil Silverberg: It means pertaining to the gifts.
Neil Silverberg: They have been abused but we still desperately need them today.
Neil Silverberg: So I believe God has established Trinity on the foundation of being a word and power church, and may we become more and more.
Neil Silverberg: May that characterize us more and more in the days ahead.
Neil Silverberg: Mark's going to introduce Steve, thanks, thanks.
Mark Medley: All right.
Mark Medley: So before you heard Derek give his little testimony about how he came to Trinity, we're going to be doing that this weekend.
Mark Medley: We're going to be talking about how each of the elders are going to be talking about how God brought us to Trinity and what we see happening in the future.
Mark Medley: I just want to tell you one story about my coming to Trinity.
Mark Medley: Okay, as I'm introducing Steve, because the first night I ever came to Trinity I was invited by some friends.
Mark Medley: I had some friends who went here.
Mark Medley: It was at Dedrick Avenue.
Mark Medley: I don't know if you know the story or not, steve.
Mark Medley: So Steve used to prophesy over people during services.
Mark Medley: Dedrick Avenue building was a long building, right, and so we had.
Mark Medley: There was no wireless microphones.
Mark Medley: Steve had a little lapel mic and he had like seven microphone cables.
Mark Medley: It's the truth and all the so it would reach all the way to the back of the building and he would go back and he would pull people out and prophesy over people.
Mark Medley: Okay, first time I ever came to Trinity I've never.
Mark Medley: I was hungry for the Lord and for the spirit, but I'd never been prophesied over.
Mark Medley: So he's like doing that and I'm going oh, what's going on around here?
Mark Medley: You know, you've probably done the same things, maybe, if I don't make eye contact, whatever you do.
Mark Medley: So Steve pulled me out.
Mark Medley: I was out in the aisle and my first prophecy I ever got and he said God is joining you with those who are around you and God is going to use you with them and God is going to send you out and you will go out and come back, and go out and come back.
Mark Medley: Okay, I don't know exact words, but that's what it was.
Mark Medley: Okay, I had no idea that meant join me with Trinity.
Mark Medley: You know, I didn't know that's what it meant.
Mark Medley: I couldn't imagine that because I was pretty young.
Mark Medley: But that's exactly what's happened.
Mark Medley: And now part of what I do, I'm here, part of the pastoral staff, six months out of the year, but the other six months of the year I'm going out, I'm in other nations and I'm coming back and other nations coming back, and it's the word of the Lord.
Mark Medley: I mean the word of the Lord is strong and powerful and we need that right.
Mark Medley: So very interesting.
Mark Medley: So anyway, I just want you to welcome Steve.
Steve Fatow: He's such a wonderful father in the Lord.
Steve Fatow: Thanks, mark, great to be here.
Steve Fatow: Hey, great food.
Steve Fatow: Thank you so much.
Steve Fatow: Great fellowship, wow.
Steve Fatow: I'm not going to share long, but I do have a little five-minute capsule of something that Holy Spirit has prophetically given.
Steve Fatow: I've shared it with Clem so he released me to give it.
Steve Fatow: But you know, when I came here, it was 1984.
Steve Fatow: When I came, I first preached here.
Steve Fatow: I think it was 1982 or 1983.
Steve Fatow: And the first time I preached here was a Sunday night and that morning whoever the pastor was I don't know, he had only been here for about five or six months he had resigned that morning and I was the guest speaker that Sunday night.
Steve Fatow: And I was trying not to connect the dots, honestly, because Neil and I were working together in Florence and we had just, I felt had, taken the church to another level, where we were finally something was happening and I certainly didn't want to go anywhere.
Steve Fatow: I was feeling very comfortable.
Steve Fatow: So I came back to Alabama and told Neil.
Steve Fatow: I said, neil, one of us have to go there, and I think it's you.
Steve Fatow: And I told him I said, please pray about you know, they don't have a pastor there.
Steve Fatow: Of course, him and I being best friends.
Steve Fatow: I didn't want him to go, but at the same time I felt this like needed to go.
Steve Fatow: So anyway, he said he'd pray about it.
Steve Fatow: And he was praying about it and the elders here were praying about it, and while everybody's praying, the Lord spoke to me and to my wife, sandy and doesn't Sandy look so beautiful here?
Steve Fatow: Hallelujah, yeah, she's doing great.
Steve Fatow: And we felt that we were supposed to go.
Steve Fatow: And then we said, well, gee, we're supposed to go.
Steve Fatow: How are we going to break the news to Neil Because he, you know, it, looks like he's wanting to go.
Steve Fatow: At the same time, the Lord downloaded to him that I was supposed to go and he was supposed to stay in Alabama.
Steve Fatow: So that's how it worked out by me coming in 1984.
Steve Fatow: I'm just going to share a few things.
Steve Fatow: You know we got so many things that happened during my little tenure here.
Steve Fatow: A little it was almost 30 years, 29 years.
Steve Fatow: In one of our services we actually had the glory cloud Shekinah, glory of God actually came into the building and we had a balcony.
Steve Fatow: And it's kind of a funny story because Tim Ashley, who started another church and he wasn't able to be here, started Harvest Church.
Steve Fatow: He happened to come for the first time as a visitor to Trinity Chapel and he was sitting next to Bobby Ewing how many remember Bobby Ewing, anybody remember?
Steve Fatow: And Bobby was sitting there and all of a sudden this cloud comes in.
Steve Fatow: Okay, and Tim is sitting next to Bobby.
Steve Fatow: He doesn't even know Bobby, he just happens to come in as a guest and turns around to Bobby.
Steve Fatow: He goes what is that?
Steve Fatow: And Bobby like nonchalantly goes oh, that's the glory cloud, as if it comes every Sunday or something.
Steve Fatow: I mean he did it like every day.
Steve Fatow: Oh, that's the glory cloud.
Steve Fatow: Tim goes.
Steve Fatow: Glory cloud Because Tim was going to a Baptist church.
Steve Fatow: He was going.
Steve Fatow: We don't have that in our church.
Steve Fatow: So Tim left his church and came to Trinity and later was sent out to some things that are kind of in my memory.
Steve Fatow: I remember having this dream and in this dream all the cars in the Trinity parking lot were all driving around without anybody in the car.
Steve Fatow: There was nobody in the car, just cars driving around the parking lot car.
Steve Fatow: There was nobody in the car, just cars driving around the parking lot.
Steve Fatow: So I woke up and I said, lord, what is that?
Steve Fatow: And he said I'm about to do something in which you have no control over.
Steve Fatow: You know, to a pastor that's like the most fearful thing you could hear, because pastoring it's like we have to have a little bit of something.
Steve Fatow: You know, like you're I'm about to do something you have absolutely no control over.
Steve Fatow: So we had a whole crew that went to Toronto and I know Sandy Patty and a bunch of others, they all went to Toronto, all got blasted.
Steve Fatow: I know Russ went to Toronto, really got blasted.
Steve Fatow: So church really got blasted Anyway.
Steve Fatow: So they came back and one of them was Dee Durfee, and I don't think she's here tonight but she's not here.
Steve Fatow: But anyway it's a Sunday night and Sunday night Dee Durfee gets to the microphone and this is what she says.
Steve Fatow: She says would you like to see a move of God?
Steve Fatow: That's what she, you know in a very low voice, because d had a very soft voice.
Steve Fatow: Would you like to see a move of god?
Steve Fatow: And I still remember, jim greer, what she said.
Steve Fatow: Arms were folded like, yeah, you're going to do something like you.
Steve Fatow: A move of God.
Steve Fatow: That's all she said, and I'm not kidding.
Steve Fatow: The heavens opened and we had this outpouring of the spirit.
Steve Fatow: Nobody left the building till one o'clock in the morning.
Steve Fatow: Everybody was out in the spirit and laughing hysterically.
Steve Fatow: I'm not exaggerating.
Steve Fatow: I never got it.
Steve Fatow: Honestly.
Steve Fatow: I never got the laughing.
Steve Fatow: Everybody was asking me to help them to stop laughing.
Steve Fatow: Neil was there.
Steve Fatow: I mean, we could not stop it and we could not start it.
Steve Fatow: And I remember all the teenagers were piled up in a pile like a haystack.
Steve Fatow: I couldn't figure out how they did that.
Steve Fatow: And we didn't get out till, you know, one o'clock in the morning and this went on and we had to go every night and this happened.
Steve Fatow: This is the truth.
Steve Fatow: We would have months where no one could preach on Sunday night.
Steve Fatow: Every time you were ready to preach, you couldn't speak.
Steve Fatow: Is Ed Rosen here?
Steve Fatow: Great, now I can tell what happened.
Steve Fatow: So, ed Rosen, he was one of our elders and he had a teaching and he didn't care.
Steve Fatow: Man, I'm going to give forth this teaching and you're going to hear it.
Steve Fatow: I've got something I believe you're supposed to hear and I remember.
Steve Fatow: So he gets up to the pulpit.
Steve Fatow: Like I told you, every week no one could speak.
Steve Fatow: On Sunday night, the power of God was so strong, the glory, the presence.
Steve Fatow: You could not.
Steve Fatow: All we could do was worship.
Steve Fatow: That's all we could do was worship.
Steve Fatow: So, anyway, ed gets up to the pulpit.
Steve Fatow: God bless him.
Steve Fatow: He's standing there and we're waiting for him to speak.
Steve Fatow: He's just standing there and this weird look comes over his face.
Steve Fatow: And we're all waiting over his face and we're all waiting.
Steve Fatow: He's just standing there.
Steve Fatow: Then he finally goes.
Steve Fatow: I'm absolutely drunk in the Holy Spirit and I think he falls over and the whole church just exploded.
Steve Fatow: That's what we had meetings like that.
Steve Fatow: They were insane.
Steve Fatow: They really were.
Steve Fatow: I mean, there was no way to and the worship was incredible and Aaron would play the most famous song on Sunday night.
Steve Fatow: Here he comes, here he comes We'd be jumping and dancing.
Steve Fatow: I mean it was no way to stop it, it was unstoppable.
Steve Fatow: So we had a lot of that.
Steve Fatow: You know that took place.
Steve Fatow: But you know even before that we always had worship was kind of always something big and I think it was already mentioned.
Steve Fatow: You know people would sneak in.
Steve Fatow: Sunday night was our biggest meeting and on Dederick Avenue we just had something special, I hate to say it, beloved.
Steve Fatow: I appreciate Mark was so kind of how he shared about when we moved to Haines, turkey, sharing about all the good things, but I hate to say it, the cloud seemed like it never left Dederick, going over.
Steve Fatow: God bless that place.
Steve Fatow: But all I can tell you there was something special at Dederick.
Steve Fatow: I don't know if because it was in the ghetto.
Steve Fatow: In other words, if you went there you really took a chance in the ghetto.
Steve Fatow: In other words, if you went there you really took a chance.
Steve Fatow: I mean, we would have new cars would be stolen from the parking lot, people would come up to me crying my car's gone.
Steve Fatow: You know, I still remember Gene Wright was in the vestibule of the and I think it might've been with Joan too, and I remember they were crying.
Steve Fatow: I go.
Steve Fatow: What's the matter?
Steve Fatow: There was a gunfight going, bullets flying all over the place.
Steve Fatow: Maybe that's what made it special, I don't know.
Steve Fatow: We had bullet holes in our stained glass windows on Dead or Again, we had bullet holes in our stained glass windows.
Steve Fatow: And you know, I learned a lot since then, believe me, I used to have a saying, and one of my sayings was if you didn't like what I said, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Steve Fatow: I used to say it all the time.
Steve Fatow: I used to say you don't like what I'm preaching on, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Steve Fatow: And I remember Linda Wheeler that was her name, precious sister.
Steve Fatow: She came up to me one day and said Steve, I'm so sick of you saying If I don't like what you're saying, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Steve Fatow: Would you please not say it anymore?
Steve Fatow: So I repented and never said it again.
Steve Fatow: But I remember one of our worship services.
Steve Fatow: At one time we had four trumpets.
Steve Fatow: We had four trumpets and then one Sunday night I think we had five.
Steve Fatow: And I remember asking somebody does anybody know who that person is?
Steve Fatow: We didn't even know who he was.
Steve Fatow: It was like somebody can just get up on the stage and play.
Steve Fatow: I mean it was like, and then we used to have a tradition, it was called special song, special music, before the preaching, and every sunday morning somebody would sing, and sometimes who absolutely could not sing.
Steve Fatow: And we had one dear sister who used to have a great, a great operatic voice.
Steve Fatow: Neil would call it the seventh seal.
Steve Fatow: She would get up and all she had left was falsetto.
Steve Fatow: All she had left was just falsetto, and we would let all the teenagers are under the that's when we had pews.
Steve Fatow: They were under the pews and I'm pinching myself because I'm about to burst out laughing and we didn't have the heart to say to her you can't sing, to say to her you can't sing.
Steve Fatow: Anyway, that was some of the stuff that went on before Mark led worship and then Aaron, you know, jack Wright.
Steve Fatow: I think literally people would come to church just to see Jack smile.
Steve Fatow: I mean he had the biggest smile on his face when he led worship.
Steve Fatow: I mean he made everybody feel like $1,000 just coming in through the door, unbelievable.
Steve Fatow: I met Neil back down in Miami.
Steve Fatow: Like I said he just mentioned, he did have long hair and he was very.
Steve Fatow: He was not nice to me, let's put it that way, because he wasn't saved yet and his brother was.
Steve Fatow: I want you to meet a friend of mine.
Steve Fatow: Neil looked at me and go, hey, hey, you know.
Steve Fatow: So Neil and I came into that background.
Steve Fatow: We were part of the Jesus movement and one thing about the Jesus movement is we were totally abandoned to the Lord.
Steve Fatow: So it was kind of hard for us to actually fit in to organize church because of our background, of what we used to do.
Steve Fatow: I mean, we were every day.
Steve Fatow: We were just the passion that we had, not just for the loss but, you know, for Jesus.
Steve Fatow: Let me just share real quick just a very simple prophetic word that I feel like the Lord's given to me for Trinity.
Steve Fatow: We already mentioned the pioneers, which was Jack and Charlie, and you, brashear and Len, you were thrown kind of in that too, in that kind of mix, also even Russ, coming back later.
Steve Fatow: But I almost look at them.
Steve Fatow: They were like the Abraham realm.
Steve Fatow: That was like the Abraham realm.
Steve Fatow: You know it cost a lot Most of those guys.
Steve Fatow: I remember one time somebody asked a survey how many came out of the Baptist church.
Steve Fatow: I couldn't believe almost the entire congregation had come out of the Baptist church.
Steve Fatow: Wow, had come out of the Baptist church.
Steve Fatow: Wow, that was a big deal to all of a sudden believe that in a Holy Spirit, in the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Steve Fatow: By the way, most of them were disfellowshipped.
Steve Fatow: It wasn't like they were sent out with laying on of hands.
Steve Fatow: I mean, there was just so many people that were in the churches.
Steve Fatow: So I look at Jack and Charlie, they were the Abraham you could call that particular section of Trinity.
Steve Fatow: Praise God for that pioneering spirit, praise God for the.
Steve Fatow: And, by the way, a little more background that perhaps you didn't know is that a lot of this started way back when, when many of them went to Frank Meredith's church yeah, I think I hit a note there and then he got into legalism of the shepherding movement and all that stuff, and so Trinity was kind of established to be a church that would again like Neil mentioned, that would really believe in the word of God and wouldn't be submitting just to man but would be submitting to God.
Steve Fatow: So they really made a stand and in a sense this was the real major charismatic church in the whole city.
Steve Fatow: It was like the start of the first charismatic church in the entire city.
Steve Fatow: So therefore people came.
Steve Fatow: They would sneak in in the balcony because we had a balcony.
Steve Fatow: They would sneak in, nobody knew who they were, to hear what we were doing and hopefully they would get baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Steve Fatow: Anyway, those guys were the pioneers.
Steve Fatow: That's the Abraham.
Steve Fatow: Now, when I came in 1984, and then later Neil would come I look upon myself in my little tenure with my wife and I.
Steve Fatow: I look at myself as simply being Isaac.
Steve Fatow: I was more of the Isaac.
Steve Fatow: This is something that's interesting about Isaac that most of us would know.
Steve Fatow: First of all, isaac, his name means laughter.
Steve Fatow: Come on, you know, having Neil and his one-liners.
Steve Fatow: How many know we're going to have a lot of laughter.
Steve Fatow: By the way, we had even a spirit of laughter that actually came into the place.
Steve Fatow: Interesting that Isaac actually moved into a city and I actually wrote it down somewhere and it was called Gerar G-E-R-A-R and it actually the word means excitement and we had a lot of excitement.
Steve Fatow: I mean it was good excitement.
Steve Fatow: We had some crazy things that happened.
Steve Fatow: I remember one Sunday morning, all of a sudden it was silence and all of a sudden I heard om, some far eastern guy was oming or something and of course me, in my nice, polite, gentle way, from the pulpit, I said shut up.
Steve Fatow: That's what I said.
Steve Fatow: I said shut up.
Steve Fatow: I remember my daughter later would say why weren't you kinder to that person?
Steve Fatow: I said because that was a spirit and we had to deal with it that way.
Steve Fatow: Perhaps I would deal with it in a different way now.
Steve Fatow: So we had a lot of excitement and we did.
Steve Fatow: We had a lot of excitement and, by the way, if we think of Isaac, what do we think of?
Steve Fatow: We think of him upon the altar right and all of a sudden a substitution comes.
Steve Fatow: There's a ram caught in the thicket and that represents all of us.
Steve Fatow: You know Jesus taking our place.
Steve Fatow: You know we all should be dead, but Jesus took our place.
Steve Fatow: Praise God for that.
Steve Fatow: And so we saw a lot of that at Trinity.
Steve Fatow: We saw a lot of people saved and this is the truth.
Steve Fatow: We had a time that we would have 50 visitors every weekend, every Sunday, 50 visitors, but they never stayed.
Steve Fatow: We never could figure out why they didn't want to stay.
Steve Fatow: We were always scratching our head.
Steve Fatow: I'd be signing 50 pages.
Steve Fatow: We used to send up something in the mail.
Steve Fatow: If you came to our church.
Steve Fatow: My hands would get tired from signing, but they never would stay, maybe a few, you know it was like they would check us out.
Steve Fatow: I don't know.
Steve Fatow: I don't know where they went, but I was the Isaac part, I believe.
Steve Fatow: Now you're at the Jacob part and let me just share a little bit about the Jacob part.
Steve Fatow: You know, jacob experienced a lot of sorrow and a lot of pain and a lot of grief.
Steve Fatow: You've gone through a lot of sorrow and a lot of pain and a lot of grief.
Steve Fatow: But in the Jacob part, which I believe Trinity is in, he had 12 sons.
Steve Fatow: You see, isaac only had two and one was worthless.
Steve Fatow: I mean Esau, jacob.
Steve Fatow: I loved Esau, I hated Jacob.
Steve Fatow: I loved Esau, I hated.
Steve Fatow: But Jacob had 12.
Steve Fatow: So I look at our Isaac tenure and Neil was with me during that time.
Steve Fatow: It was basically just Neil and myself doing most of the ministering, neil and myself going out.
Steve Fatow: But now at Trinity, you're not just going to have one or two going out, jacob had 12 sons.
Steve Fatow: You're going to have many and many and many going out.
Steve Fatow: A matter of fact, more than all that we did, as Isaac and even Abraham had.
Steve Fatow: You will have now from this Jacob tenure.
Steve Fatow: And on that, by the way, I actually believe what I'm preaching.
Steve Fatow: So if you're thinking I just came so everybody would like me, that's I'm telling you.
Steve Fatow: The Holy Spirit downloaded this word for you at Trinity.
Steve Fatow: You went through your sorrow, you've gone through your pain, you've gone through your grief.
Steve Fatow: That's I'm telling you.
Steve Fatow: The Holy Spirit downloaded this word for you at Trinity.
Steve Fatow: You went through your sorrow, you've gone through your pain, you've gone through your grief.
Steve Fatow: But not just two sons will you have.
Steve Fatow: Twelve ministries will come forth, more than that that will affect the whole earth.
Steve Fatow: So what I want to do and then I'm going to give it back to Mark, and then I'm going to give it back to Mark is I want to show you the prayer, the prayer that Isaac prayed for Jacob, because I believe it's prophetic also for us here, and it's found in Genesis, chapter 27.
Steve Fatow: It's actually two little prayers.
Steve Fatow: By the way, I brought my Bible with me.
Steve Fatow: You know, somebody introduced me.
Steve Fatow: I was preaching to some pastors just a couple of weeks ago and they introduced me by saying he still carries a Bible, carries a Bible.
Steve Fatow: I couldn't help that.
Steve Fatow: I'm a rebel.
Steve Fatow: I'm never going to go through that phone.
Steve Fatow: I'm always going to use a Bible.
Steve Fatow: A phone is a phone, a Bible is a Bible.
Steve Fatow: I don't care.
Steve Fatow: I'm just saying that doesn't matter to me.
Steve Fatow: I'm one way or the other.
Steve Fatow: Genesis 27, verse 29.
Steve Fatow: This is part of a prayer and a blessing that Isaac gave Jacob.
Steve Fatow: So I am representing Isaac here, and so is Neil.
Steve Fatow: I think in some ways he's kind of overlapped.
Steve Fatow: We all overlap.
Steve Fatow: But listen to this Let people serve you and nations bow down to you.
Steve Fatow: Bow down to you.
Steve Fatow: You're going to impact many nations In this tenure of the Jacob tenure.
Steve Fatow: You are going to affect many nations.
Steve Fatow: Be master over your brethren.
Steve Fatow: Let your mother's sons bow down to you.
Steve Fatow: Listen to this.
Steve Fatow: Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be those who bless you.
Steve Fatow: Gee, I think you need to receive that.
Steve Fatow: Come on, that sounds pretty good.
Steve Fatow: And then this last one is in Genesis 28, 3 and 4, but I'm just going to read verse 3, because that's the one that really May God Almighty I guess I'm saying this to you as like a prayer May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you.
Steve Fatow: That you may be in assemblies of people.
Steve Fatow: Father, in the name of Jesus, let it be done.
Steve Fatow: Hallelujah, hallelujah.
Mark Medley: Wow, praise God, that's good news, right?
Mark Medley: Okay, could you stand with me, because we've got to do one more song.
Mark Medley: I think we have to do one more.
Mark Medley: Do we have to do one more song?
Mark Medley: I think?
Mark Medley: All right, come on up, man, we're going to do one more.
Neil Silverberg: Yeah, while we're getting ready.
Mark Medley: I just want to thank everybody so much for coming out Again, a lot of you from Trinity present, but so many of you from Trinity past, and we're so grateful you came.
Mark Medley: We're so grateful to have been a part of your life and for you to be part of us.
Mark Medley: We're so grateful to still be connected to you.
Mark Medley: We love every one of you and we just want to celebrate right into heaven.
Mark Medley: We want to serve Jesus all the way into heaven with you.
Mark Medley: We want to walk with you maybe separate churches, whatever it is but we're in this kingdom.
Mark Medley: We're in this great big kingdom with this great big king.
Mark Medley: Walk with you, maybe separate churches, whatever it is.
Mark Medley: We're in this kingdom.
Mark Medley: We're in this great big kingdom with this great big king and we're serving him together and we love you and we thank you for your part here and what you've done.
Mark Medley: Thanks for coming tonight.
Mark Medley: Alright, all right, all right.
Aaron Jones: You guys want to sing White Horse?
Aaron Jones: Okay, you get a bonus.
Aaron Jones: Tonight I wrote a new verse, so we'll sing that one at the end.
Aaron Jones: And they don't even know it.
Aaron Jones: None of nobody knows except me.
Aaron Jones: Isn't that great?
Aaron Jones: It's like you, it's like a cheat code or something.
Aaron Jones: All right, but in all seriousness, a little quick, I know we're all going gonna get out of here.
Aaron Jones: So, uh, it was a Sunday night and I was at the piano on deadrick and, uh, the band had left, like, and it was just me.
Aaron Jones: And you know, it was probably like one of those nine, 30 ministry times.
Aaron Jones: It's not 30 night, people just all over the place, people get in prayer.
Aaron Jones: And then this little ministry times, it's 9.30 at night, people just all over the place, people get in prayer.
Aaron Jones: And then this little chorus just came to me and the whole idea was just Jesus, as I'm watching people get in prayer and minister to.
Aaron Jones: It's like Jesus, you're just the hero and you come into our lives and you just do this, you know.
Aaron Jones: And so a couple weeks later we're at a winter retreat.
Aaron Jones: My brother, ross, was youth pastor and we were at a big winter retreat.
Aaron Jones: Those winter retreats are huge, like two, three hundred people and all of a sudden we were having ministry time and it's all good, and I was like you know, I think I've seen that little chorus.
Aaron Jones: I sang a couple weeks ago and the band just picked up on it.
Aaron Jones: I sang a couple weeks ago and the band just picked up on it, and it was just, I mean, it was just like a bomb had gone off in the room.
Aaron Jones: And so a ton of kids said I got to say this.
Aaron Jones: Toby Wise, who's sitting here tonight, he helped write this song.
Aaron Jones: So I got to, because we would sing the chorus and then we would make up words.
Aaron Jones: We would just make up stuff on the spot.
Aaron Jones: One day I said, toby, we've got to make verses.
Aaron Jones: I'm tired of trying to make up stuff.
Aaron Jones: All right, so here we go.
Aaron Jones: Here he comes, riding a white horse, with passion in his eyes.
Aaron Jones: He'll set you free.
Aaron Jones: People will come into this place.
Aaron Jones: Oh, they will come into this place and be set free.
Aaron Jones: Oh, trinity's best days Are ahead of them.
Aaron Jones: Oh.
Aaron Jones: And here he comes.
Brooke Medley: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, you free.
Aaron Jones: Here he comes, riding a white horse, passion in his eyes, he'll set you free Jesus Christ, the living God, poured out his blood to save the lost and freedom wakes.
Brooke Medley: Jesus hears your plea and here he comes.
Brooke Medley: He's setting you free.
Brooke Medley: Here he comes, riding a white horse, passionate in his eyes, he'll set you free.
Aaron Jones: He wants to set you free.
Aaron Jones: Power of the cross, power of the cross, power of the cross Stretches through time To reach you today.
Aaron Jones: Break the chains that bind.
Brooke Medley: There's nothing too great, there's nothing too small, and Jesus died To free us all.
Brooke Medley: Here he comes, riding a white horse, crashing in his eyes he'll set you free.
Aaron Jones: The power of darkness Compelled your life.
Brooke Medley: You can't recall when you last saw light, but this is your day and this is your hour To feel His love and to know His power.
Brooke Medley: Here he comes, riding a white horse, Passing in His eyes He'll set you free.
Brooke Medley: Here he comesiding a white horse, Touching his eyes He'll set you free.
Aaron Jones: Alright, here we go.
Aaron Jones: All right, here we go.
Aaron Jones: The past approaching, the day is near.
Aaron Jones: The white horse rider will soon appear.
Brooke Medley: The throne of David will have its king.
Brooke Medley: With hope in our hearts, let us sing is He'll set you free.
Brooke Medley: Here he comes, running a white horse, passion in His eyes.
Brooke Medley: He'll set you free, here he comes.
Brooke Medley: Running a white horse, passion in His eyes.
Brooke Medley: He'll set you free.
Brooke Medley: Oh, that's so great.
Brooke Medley: Oh man, this has been such a wonderful night.
Brooke Medley: It doesn't have to end Tomorrow morning 11 am.
Brooke Medley: I want you to be with us, if you can.
Brooke Medley: It's going to continue.
Brooke Medley: We're going to have a wonderful time together tomorrow night at 5.
Brooke Medley: But tomorrow is an all-day thing.
Brooke Medley: It starts at 11 am.
Brooke Medley: We've got a big cookout after We've got things for the kids and then we'll start back in worship and prophetic prayer on tomorrow night.
Brooke Medley: We're going to release you here in just a moment.
Brooke Medley: If you're a partner here and you don't mind staying about 15 minutes and help us stack these chairs and get these tables out, that would be great for tomorrow morning.
Brooke Medley: But, lord, we just thank you so much for each and every person here.
Brooke Medley: We thank you, lord, god.
Brooke Medley: At some point in time they were here and they touched this church and God.
Brooke Medley: Through them, your work has been done.
Brooke Medley: We thank you, god, for each and every person that's here tonight to celebrate what you have done through them, and we just pray that you would bless them tonight In Jesus' name.
Brooke Medley: Amen.
Brooke Medley: Thank you, guys, so much and we just pray that you would bless them tonight.
Brooke Medley: In Jesus name, amen.
Brooke Medley: Thank you guys so much.
Brooke Medley: I'll see you in the morning.
Brooke Medley: Bless you.