Trinity Methodist: It’s about the people

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-article series on the 150th anniversary celebration of Trinity United Methodist Church.

Special to the Van Wert independent

Trinity United Methodist Church, corner of Walnut and Crawford streets in Van Wert, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this Sunday, September 8. There will be a special celebratory service from 10 to 11:30 a.m., with lunch served in The Gate and Fellowship Hall following the service. Special activities are also planned for children after the meal. The public is invited to attend worship and the other events on this special day.

As nearly all mainline denominations in the United States have suffered drastic losses of membership in recent decades, Trinity United Methodist, too, has faced challenges. The church, however, has many “pillars” that continue to provide stability, inspiration, and leadership.

Trinity has many generational families, some dating back to the original founders of the church.

Joan Wallick Horney’s great-great-uncle was George Hertel, a founder of the church. After moving from this area in 1960, Horney was gone for 34 years, raised three sons, and lost her husband in a grain elevator explosion. She returned to the area in 1994 and started attending Trinity again.

“I’ve enjoyed the fellowship and the religious teaching, and the Sunday school class is just outstanding,” says Horney. “I had bypass surgery in 2007, and the pastor and everybody were just marvelous. Then I broke my ankle three years ago. They brought in food. They came to visit me. They were just wonderful.”

Shirley Harting Baxter, whose high soprano has blessed the Trinity choir for decades, started at the church during her first days on earth.

“My father’s parents — Newton and Susan Harting — went there, and they continued, as did my parents, Walter and Florence,” says Baxter. “I was baptized there. Never left, never, never thought about it. It was my salvation, my rock, my guiding light — the people, the preaching, the Sunday school teaching. Trinity

has had many names over the years, but our purpose has been constant, and that’s turning hearts to Jesus.”

Another of those pillars is Ron Bagley, longtime adult Sunday school teacher who has, with only a brief break during his 20s, attended Trinity since he was a few days old. Bagley, the grandson of John and Josephine Bagley and the son of Floyd and Helen Bagley, was born in a house at the southwest corner of Harrison and Crawford streets, not far from the church.

“It’s important to have good pastors, but as long as the church is grounded, as long as the church upholds Holy Scripture, I’ll continue to attend that church,” says Bagley. “The role models, like my mother Helen (who recently celebrated her 100th birthday), like Pearl and Bob Robey, like Bill and Helen Bowersock — all of these people and others similar to them make Trinity a place of sincere worship.”

“To me, Trinity means so much,” says Ruth Girod, who, with her husband, David, and their three teenagers, came to the church in 1973. “It is first and foremost, and has always been, a praying church. It is the center of our lives, focused on our Lord and Savior and his teachings. It’s a source for Bible teaching, Christian fellowship, and caring friends who are always ready to uplift you in prayer.”

George and Laura Clay Scott, along with their three children, Owen (6), Wyatt (4), and Oliver (2), are among Trinity’s young people. “After leaving Van Wert to attend college, we returned as a married couple to worship with familiar faces and learn from people who had provided such an example of what it was like to follow Jesus,” said Laura Scott. “As a married couple, it was important for us to surround ourselves with believers who could disciple us in the ways of our Savior.

“There were plenty of admirable people in the Trinity community who could offer that kind of leadership,” she continued. “The people at Trinity keep us at Trinity.”

In addition to two Sunday morning worship services (8:15 and 10:15) and a children’s worship service, Trinity has Sunday school classes for all ages (9:15) and a supervised nursery during Sunday school and the second worship service. Trinity also has a youth fellowship Wednesday and Sunday evenings at 7, women’s Bible study Monday evenings, also at 7, adult Bible study Wednesdays at 7 p.m., Young Adult group on the second and fourth Thursday at 7, and several other groups and special events that change annually.

The average attendance for the Sunday worship services in the past 12 months has been 213.

Scott Campbell is the pastor and Joshua Angel associate pastor of the church.

“It (150 years) says a lot about who we have been as an organization throughout the years,” says Angel. “We can read many great qualities into the statistic, such as faithfulness, reliability, toughness, cohesiveness, and so on. We must acknowledge that, despite our storied past, longevity is not the sum of our ambition. It has never been the goal of Trinity to make it to 150 years, and it is not our goal to last another 150.

“We are driven to be an organization that makes an impact in our families, community, and world,” he added. “The work of our people begins and ends with God.”