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| Trinity History | ||||||
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| Meet our Archive Group | ||||||
Front Row (L to R) Joe Connaughton - Church Historian Dot Quarles - Archivist Marion Deuel - Archivist Joy Shackelford - Library and Archive Supervisor Back Row (L to R) Larry Breazeale - Archive Photographer Benny Sisk - Data Base Manager Vic Grimes - Publications Owen Rice - Archive Researcher Jack Amos - Archive Advisor Brief Trinity History Trinity United Methodist Church in Huntsville, Alabama is a dynamic young church less than fifty years old. Men and women ‘moon struck’ with a spiritual vision took the time to organize a new church. They were the same people who initiated the Army’s missile developments and constructed the huge NASA Saturn rockets which boosted men to a landing on the moon. They not only wanted a church to meet the spiritual needs of the large influx of new residents, but they wanted a creative church for a new age and a new generation. A small group of people under the leadership of the District Superintendent organized their first service on March 18, 1956 in the Fifth Avenue School. The overwhelming response gave them the momentum to carry through three building phases (without missing a Sunday of worship) to a completed church in a matter of six years. Membership had reached over 1,000 and continued to grow as the church functioned in all areas of church activity with an emphasis on outreach.
True to its heritage, new leadership in 1982 projected that vision into a plan for a new great church. Trinity was bursting at the seams with a membership of 2,000 (and still growing) while its innovative programs ran out of space.
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| The plan came to fruition when construction began in 1988. A tornado in 1989 so devastated the new structure that it had to be temporarily abandoned and church held at the Randolph School in 1990. Trinity worship didn’t miss a beat even holding services at the Von Braun Center the Sunday after the tornado. The reconstructed church was occupied in late 1990 and worship extended into the new sanctuary in September of 1991. Trinity was now a church that could easily support a membership of 4,000. Activities grew by leaps and bounds with programs and outreach unencumbered by limitations. New needs were met through vigorous activity of small groups. On February 25, 1996 the membership experimented with a new contemporary service called ‘Cappuccino and Christ’ that brought in crowds of new people. Soon there was no space large enough for this type service, and Trinity, in less than ten years, was faced with adding a new specific structure. The vision again prevailed as new leadership took up the challenge and thrust forward with a new building designed for contemporary services. Subsequently, the building was christened The New Room after John Wesley’s first building when coming in from the preaching fields – symbolic of Trinity’s open door to persons of all walks of life. Trinity’s vision from its beginning, like space, has been an evolving unending vision. From time to time it has been captured in words. Where God leads and where there are needs Trinity challenges its members to be there as they respond to the current mission statement: Trinity United Methodist Church guides people of all ages to hear and respond to the living God’s call by using their skills, abilities, and money to make a difference in the world as disciples of Jesus Christ. |
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