July-Aug 2008.pdf - Trinity School for Ministry

the front line as she organized relief efforts, comforted
parishioners, and hosted church work
crews (including a group of Trinity students). “A
variety of services but the same Lord.”
Several months ago I attended the AMiA annual
conference and connected with a number of
Trinity alumni. One of those is the Rev. Matt
...and all the
members of
the body, though
many, are one
body...
an Episcopal church in New Jersey. His congregation
has been moving ahead step by step to the
point that Kent was ready to call his first assistant
rector – and of course he wanted a Trinity graduate.
Kent says with confidence that this is where
God has him and this is the work God is doing
through him. God did not used Kent to plant a
new church, but certainly Kent was used to restart
a garden in the Garden State.
That same re-start diversity is in the Rev. Duke
Vipperman. Duke completed his MDiv with
Trinity in 1983 and served churches in Toronto in
the Anglican Church of Canada. Several years ago
he was given the opportunity to lead a re-start of a
dying church. This may not have been what Duke
felt during seminary that God would lead him to
do, but God led and Duke went. In 2007 Duke
completed his DMin at Trinity and through these
studies was able to process with others the work
he had done in his parish, thus passing on the
Burnett (2002) and his wife, Lauren. Matt was a
classmate of mine and had a calming pastoral
presence even as a seminarian. While I had confidence
he would be a great pastor, he did not give
me the impression of a guns blazing church
planter. But a church planter he is today! Leaving
The Episcopal Church, Matt and a small team
have built a new, thriving congregation. God provides
a multitude of gifts. Matt was certainly not
the only Trinity alum I saw at this conference who
became a church planter not because it was necessarily
his initial calling and inclination, but
because that is what God needed. The list of
Trinity grads who thought they would be established
church pastors – but God turned them into
church planters – is growing daily.
On what some would call the other side of the
coin, a few weeks ago I received a telephone call
from the Rev. Kent Walley (1999). Kent is rector of
6 Seed&Harvest