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Pastor Mark Medley opened 2025 TCC Wrapped with Psalm 105 ringing in our ears: give thanks, tell of his wondrous works, seek his presence continually, remember. In Scripture, the people of God stack stones and schedule feasts so that gratitude keeps memory alive and memory keeps mission aligned. Mark took that ancient pattern and traced a living timeline of what the Lord did among us this year. What came into focus wasn’t a complicated strategy, but a simple rhythm: people showed up, opened their Bibles, opened their lives, and God multiplied the fruit.

From the start, Mark described how belonging formed the framework for everything else. We don’t operate as a single voice at the top with many hands beneath; we function as a team-led pastoral model that equips the saints and makes space for new voices. That Ephesians 4 vision has become tangible here. Pastors equip, the body builds itself up, and an army of servants—on prayer, greeting, safety, medical, kids, The Forge, the Gathering Place, and more—creates an atmosphere where people can truly belong. The result was clear: average attendance rose by more than eighty each week, thirty-eight new partners (seventeen families) joined our mission, more than fifteen babies were dedicated, and nine people entered the waters of baptism. Behind the numbers is a deeper story Mark kept celebrating: needs met in relationships, new friendships forged, and a congregation increasingly “easy to love” because it presses into Jesus and into one another, even through difficulty.

That belonging took concrete shape through Community Groups. Some of them circled around deep discipleship—Scripture discussions, apologetics, marriage strength, a moms’ support community called Diaper Daze, GriefShare, and triads that meet around the Word for confession, accountability, and application. Others opened doors through shared interests and skills—nutrition and functional medicine, sewing and crafts, traditional skills, music, exercise (our “firm believers”), money-saving wisdom, business owners, dinners for eight, and a practical local mission expression called Faith in Action. Perpetual house-church style gatherings continued through the year, and Wednesday evenings featured teaching from our Timothy Team, giving developing teachers space to grow in gifting. The first Wednesday community dinners didn’t hurt either; if you feed a family, they will come, but more importantly, they will linger, laugh, and belong.

Trinity Christian Academy became a major artery of community life. On Fridays, the building hums with the beautiful madness of 242 homeschool students—roughly 350 people including parents and younger siblings—filling classrooms and hallways. Thursdays welcomed forty-five students into core high school classes, and an umbrella program connected 133 families to TCA’s wider discipleship ecosystem. Mark rejoiced in all this not as school statistics, but as one more way belonging leads to formation. Kids are learning, families are finding their people, and the Word is tying it all together.

Growth, Mark emphasized, had a clear direction: the Scriptures at the center. Our teaching journey walked through the year with intentional depth. We began with a vision reminder—belong together, grow deeper, reach farther—then moved into Nehemiah’s burden-born vision in The Passion Project, listened to Jesus in the Red Letters of the Sermon on the Mount, and dove into Ephesians 1–3 in In Christ before closing the year Expecting the King at Christmas. Mark was explicit about the method: faithful exposition that pays attention to author, audience, context, and intent, so that we might hear the Word as it is and let it do its work in us.

This biblical center extended beyond Sundays. One hundred twenty-seven people registered to read through the Bible chronologically, and as that plan wraps, the New Testament in a year invites fresh engagement. Twenty-one days of corporate prayer and fasting stretched faith while trimming distractions, the Trinity Ministry Apprenticeship Program and the Timothy Team formed future teachers and leaders, and young mothers’ discipleship, alongside marriage and parenting equipping, pushed discipleship into the warp and woof of daily life. Triads, which will be a major focus for us in 2026, are already building rhythms of confession, Scripture application, and friendship that sharpen love for Jesus and love for people. Growth, in other words, wasn’t abstract—it looked like ordinary saints opening the Bible and their lives and letting God align both.

Then Mark pivoted to service—the place where belief turns into faithful presence. Serve Day 2025 mobilized seven projects with around eighty volunteers. We repaired facilities at First Step II Daycare, gardened at Empower School and Farm, landscaped the Tennessee Right to Life Prayer Garden, visited residents and made crafts together at Windsor Ridge Assisted Living, provided lunches and gospel conversations at a downtown outreach, and beautified three local parks: Tommy Schumpert, Sterchi Hills, and Powell Station with Collier Preserve. Others cooked for our teams and turned service into shared fellowship. This was practical faith: prayer woven with paint rollers, lunch tables turned to friendship, and quiet service that speaks loudly in places of pain.

An unexpected opportunity to buy our building turned rent dollars into long-term mission space. Mark called it providential: a purchase that enables a sanctuary build-out, flexible ministry environments, and stability for the future. Justice and mercy work advanced as our Protecting Human Life team served women and families in crisis, and partners like the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform displayed fetal development imagery across campuses and public spaces in Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee, inviting thousands to see what many had never seen. Hope Resource Center continued offering cost-free, holistic reproductive healthcare through licensed professionals, and Street Hope provided safe housing for girls rescued from trafficking. Faithful Promises, led by our own Patty Clemmons, met monthly to speak hope, mentored women one-on-one, and served widows; Patty also ministers in the Anderson County women’s jail. On campus, UT’s CHOP ministry with chaplain Ryan McCrillis discipled ROTC cadets through weekly Bible studies, meals, and mentoring, and that model is multiplying to Tennessee Tech, UT Chattanooga, ETSU, and even Michigan State. Our prison ministry at Morgan County, led by chaplain Matthew Achley and supported by faithful volunteers, continued to see the church inside the walls strengthen itself—discipleship plans created by inmates, prayer chains sustained, and the gospel preached with integrity month by month. Empower School and Farm gave us a training pathway that blends practical service with biblical equipping, and Compassion Coalition helped us join a citywide fabric of churches and organizations committed to being Christ’s compassionate presence among the poor, the unhoused, and the broken.

Mark’s local snapshots also included a tender story from YWAM Knoxville’s Christmas “stockings of love” outreach in rural Appalachia. After prayer, a young boy named Carter stepped outside, lifted a hand, and said, “Jesus, I want to give my heart to you,” then returned eager to help carry coolers and serve others—childlike faith translating immediately into love of neighbor. Mark held that up as a picture of what we pray to see everywhere: gratitude becoming momentum, and momentum becoming mission.

Globally, our community touched five continents. Two Cuba trips trained leaders and led to the purchase of a house and adjacent property—because churches can’t be built, homes become sanctuaries—that now hosts forty-plus people in regular worship. In Tanzania, we strengthened ties with Pastor Mathias and Beatrice among the Maasai in Kirya, where land development around a growing church provides a hub for outreach and care in a hard, arid valley. In France, Phil and Jenny Adams continued discipling young professionals and resourcing church leaders at a time when hunger for the gospel is reawakening across Europe. In Poland, Bartek and Daria Przybyła pastored Amazing Grace Church and worked with Evangelical Poland to unite denominations in evangelism, theological formation, and national mission. Young adults stepped into mission this year as well—serving in South Korea, Poland, Thailand, Honduras, and even Buffalo—evidence that the next generation is learning to say “Here am I, send me.”

Stories multiplied through our Sent Ones. Siberian Missions with Yuriy and Olga Drozhzhin strengthened churches in Russia, the Tuva Republic, Germany, Bulgaria, and Nepal—places some of us can’t reach right now, but where the Lord has given them open doors. Ezra Project with Neil Silverberg helped lead our oversight team locally while equipping leadership in twelve other U.S. churches and four in Puerto Rico, plus serving a network of thirty-seven churches in eastern Cuba. Thrive Ministries, which Mark and Amy oversee, resourced pastors in Nepal, Cuba, Poland, France, Bulgaria, Romania, and across the U.S., assisted the translation of discipleship materials into Spanish and Russian, and carried the Walking Through Grief message—now translated into Ukrainian and Russian—into Ukraine and Poland. The audio edition is due out soon, and the Trinity Trilogy devotional continues to encourage readers. The Melissa Movement honored the legacy of a spiritual mother by resourcing women’s discipleship from Poland and Russia to Tanzania, India, Nepal, and, as Mark joked, Alabama—which may not be foreign but sometimes feels far.

We also saw God’s hand in Ireland through Aaron and Beth Jones, who moved with a long-haul heart to disciple in County Kerry. Beth’s nursing role—her ministry, as Mark underlined—opened a vocational door into the country, and together they’ve begun serving the Jewish community through the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem in a context marked by rising antisemitism. Their story embodied a recurring theme in Mark’s recap: God plants ordinary saints in ordinary places, then uses that faithful presence to push back darkness and make Christ known.

Another global bright spot came from Victoria Watoto in Mbita, Kenya. What began as a feeding program has become a school with 153 students from nursery through fifth grade. Sixth grade opens this year, construction is underway, and the community rallied to fund a hip replacement for head teacher Boniface—an answer to prayer that turned suffering into a testimony of God’s care through his people.

Through all of this, giving increased. As of mid-December, $591,146.02 had come in. Stewardship remained intentional, with 37% to operations, 38% to equipping, 11% to missions, and the rest to savings and surplus. Mark expressed gratitude not for numbers alone, but because finances reflect trust and participation—another way the body builds itself up in love.

Looking to 2026, Mark shared where the elders sensed the Lord’s emphasis: grow deeper in discipleship to know Christ and make Him known. The pathway echoes Jesus’ rhythm with his disciples: “Come and see” (attractional welcome), “come and be with me” (relational presence), “go with me” (incarnational mission), and “go for me” (missional sending). Triads will become a major focus. The New Testament reading plan will keep Scripture central. The aim is simple and strong: sharper Christians who are prepared for anything that comes, grounded in the Word, secure in the Father’s love, responsive to the Spirit, and ready to serve.

Mark closed where he began, with thanksgiving and blessing. Gratitude shapes memory, and memory reshapes mission. Remembering what God has done among us this year doesn’t lead to nostalgia; it stirs courage. We belong more deeply, grow more steadily, and serve more boldly because Christ Himself is our Shepherd. And so we receive the benediction he prayed over us: may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, equip us with everything good to do His will, working in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever