Our Story
Holy Trinity has been the Episcopal Church in International Falls for more than a hundred years. For most of that time, we followed a familiar pattern: a seminary-trained priest, hired to lead and serve the congregation.
Then, in the early part of this century, we did something different.
We became a Total Ministry Church. Instead of waiting for a priest to be sent to us, we raised up a team of leaders from among ourselves, trained them, and asked them to carry the work forward. Today, those team members are unpaid volunteers who give no more than ten hours a week. Part of their job is making sure no one in the congregation is left out of the work of the church.
We are each and every one a minister. We all carry out many ministries in our lives, and the ministry of the church is the combined ministry of all its members.
Forty years ago, Holy Trinity counted 360 members, a thriving Sunday School, a choir, and an active women’s group. Like many small-town churches, we’ve grown smaller as our community has. Sunday attendance now runs between twenty and forty people.
But something else has changed too. Our worship has grown more joyful and more flexible, with contemporary music sitting alongside the old hymns and more of the service’s optional elements making their way in. The pews aren’t as full as they once were, but the people in them are still here, still ministering, still finding new life in this place.
Total Ministry
We are a Total Ministry Church. This new approach to church leadership arises from two situations: the baptismal understanding that we are all ministers and the cultural reality of small congregations that can no longer afford to pay a seminary-trained priest.
In a Total Ministry Church, the congregation raises up a team of leaders from within their own ranks, and then hires a seminary-trained priest to mentor and train the team. This training usually takes four years. When the team is commissioned and one or more members are ordained, they take over the role formerly filled by a priest. Each team member works no more than ten hours a week. They are paid expenses only and they continue to be supervised by a seminary-trained priest, who works for the congregation on a very part-time basis.
Each person on the Total Ministry Team is responsible for one or two functions that used to be done by the pastor:
Holy Trinity Total Ministry Team and Mentor. Deacon Lee Grim, Priest Reverend Samantha Crossley, Reverend Andy Berry-Littlefork Lutheran Church. Not pictured Retired Priest Reverend Lynn Naeckel.
Our Ministry Team
Key to the success of Total Ministry is the involvement of everyone in the congregation. Team members encourage, train and send forth members of the congregation to do the ministry of the church. Eventually additional teams are called forth to augment and/or replace the original team.
Vestry
The Vestry constitutes the Board of Directors for Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. Vestry meets once a month to take action on the church financial responsibilities, church buildings and property, any concerns or requests from the church members, and the general operational functions of the church.
The Vestry, in conjunction with the Total Ministry Team, leads the church through its daily operation, programs, ministry, Sunday services and other special services that are required or desired.
The Vestry consists of seven members, who include a Senior Warden and Junior Warden, who are elected at the Church’s Annual Meeting held in January of each year. The Senior Warden is the presiding officer of the Vestry and in his/her absence the Junior Warden is presiding officer.