Trinity's History

"Nothing happens unless first a dream." Carl Sandburg

Trinity Church officially began when weekly Sunday celebrations started in December 1997. But the dream for a new kind of church started much earlier. It was a dream born of a hunger to worship God with excellence and a desire to help our friends experience for themselves the deep satisfaction that comes from friendship with God.

In the summer of 1997, Terry Fach gathered together a group of students and friends, most of who attended or taught at Nazarene University College in Calgary. Terry invited his sister Sandra, along with Dave Neale and Kim Follis (colleagues at NUC), to consider sharing the spiritual leadership of the new church. That summer a launch team of thirteen met in each other’s homes for meals together, prayer, and planning. With a clear sense of the Spirit’s guidance—and a healthy sense of our need to rely on a greater power than ourselves—Trinity Church of Calgary was launched that fall.

The desire was to start a church on a largely untried (at that time) model—traditional in some elements but quite modern in other ways. We wanted to blend the ancient, historic, unchanging core of Christian faith with contemporary expressions of worship. We weren’t exactly sure how to do it, but we knew we wanted to connect with The Great Tradition of Christianity, even if it meant leaving behind some of the church traditions that we knew from our pasts. Sadly, our launch team realized that very few of their friends would first consider going to a church to get their spiritual questions answered. So, an equally strong motivation was to create a community of faith where our spiritually curious friends felt really welcome—a place where they would feel like co-travelers with us on a spiritual journey, a place where they could learn about God in practical and relevant ways and experience his Spirit in their lives.

Seeking to stay in the Kensington area of Calgary, we first met for our 6 p.m. Sunday celebrations in Hillhurst United Church, and then moved to the Evangelical Covenant Church in October, 1998. As we experimented with liturgy and music, processionals and LCD projectors, we realized that we were gradually growing into our own distinctive approach to celebrating God. Although our style was eclectic, it was (and still is) shaped by a strong commitment to excellence, beauty, and relevance.

We also experienced leadership changes in our first three years. Sandra Fach, who poured her heart and soul into Trinity’s first year, got married in 1998 and returned to England to continue her education. In July 1999, Terry left his full-time teaching position to become half-time senior pastor of Trinity and half-time lecturer in philosophy at NUC. Terry was ably assisted in pastoral leadership by Matt Francis that year, and in Easter 2000 Trinity Church relocated to Sunnyside Community School and moved the Sunday celebration to 10:30 a.m. In September, Matt left for England to complete a graduate degree in theology, and Ken Fach Sr., Terry’s recently retired pastor/father began to work for Trinity in the areas of visitation and administration.

In the spring of 2000 Terry and Matt realized that it was urgent to clarify Trinity Church’s cause in the clearest terms. The statistics for the survival of new churches was not encouraging—in Canada, 2 out of 3 new churches were closed within 3 years (3 out of 5 in the U.S.) The goal was to stay focussed on the essentials—our cause, core values and beliefs, and vision for the future. As a result, the seminar “Church 101: Discovering Trinity” was launched that July to give people an opportunity to learn why Trinity Church exists and how they can get connected with opportunities to serve, learn, and grow. One of the first 101 participants said of her experience: “The whole seminar was really powerful . . . the vision is what I believe in. It supports the kind of person I want to be and the type of community I want to be a part of.”

When Trinity Church moved to Sunnyside School, there was a growing sense that something exciting was about to happen. We felt ourselves growing larger in number, and healthier in spirit. We also became aware of our need to grow deeper in our spiritual maturity and our commitment to Jesus’ way. In the spring of 2001 Trinity Church began to search for a pastor to help our congregation grow deeper spiritually. That July, Wes Gorman was hired as part-time pastor of congregational care, with specific responsibilities for Community Groups, The Alpha Course, and leadership training and support.

In July of 2004 Trinity Church moved the location of our Sunday celebration to SAIT's Orpheus Theatre.

The fact is Trinity Church has experienced considerable change in its short lifetime. But because our Cause is inspired by what God is doing in our world, we feel truly blessed to be part of it. It hasn’t always been easy. Yet, we’ve grown closer through deep Christian friendships. We’ve served our community through compassionate ministries—both the local community here in Calgary and our global community. We’ve introduced many of our friends to Jesus, through the Alpha Course, our Sunday celebrations, and the everyday love of caring people. We’re a growing and fairly diverse family—young and old, students and professionals, people in recovery, sinners and saints, singles and families—brought together by God’s love.

We hope you will come and visit us, and experience for yourself what all the joy is about.

Emerging…churches resist the usual categories. They blow off such identities as traditional or contemporary; evangelical or liberal; large or small; suburban, urban, or rural; and even Catholic or Protestant. They don’t fit neatly into categorized boxes. Each of their hearts is to uniquely demonstrate the presence of God in their own native settings.  Michael Slaughter