A Church on East Busch Boulevard
Temple Terrace United Methodist Church sits at 5030 East Busch Boulevard, on the edge of the city of Temple Terrace within the Tampa address of 33617. The church has been part of the neighborhood for more than sixty years and describes itself as a faith family overflowing with support and grace. Its life is organized around three simple steps - worship, community, and service - that shape everything from Sunday gatherings to global mission partnerships. Members and newcomers alike find a congregation committed to radical welcome, justice, and making faith accessible to all people.
Sunday Worship at 10:30 am
A single Sunday worship gathering meets at 10:30 am in the Worship Center on the church campus. The service is interactive and participatory: the congregation sings, prays, reads Scripture, and shares in the sacraments of communion and baptism as ways of experiencing and responding to God's grace. Worship begins with the whole family together; following the opening praise and prayer, children in kindergarten through fifth grade are dismissed to their own age-appropriate program. The service offers praise, confession, and the offering of lives and concerns so that the Kingdom of God can flourish in hearts, in the community, and beyond.
For those unable to attend in person, services are livestreamed on Facebook. The broadcast begins muted, and viewers are invited to comment, add prayer requests, and interact with the worship community during the gathering. Archived services are available online for anyone who wants to revisit a recent message.
What First-Time Visitors Find
TTUMC works intentionally to remove barriers for first-time visitors. There is no dress code: people attend in everything from suits and dresses to shorts and jeans, as well as cultural clothing from different parts of the world. The paved parking lot at the center of the campus is accessible from both Busch Boulevard and Temple Heights Road, with multiple handicap-designated spaces and additional spaces reserved for those with mobility difficulty. Families using the nursery are encouraged to use the spaces closest to the playground and Building 400.
Visitors enter the sanctuary from the north end of the courtyard through double glass doors, where greeters are stationed to help with directions. Inside, the Connection Center sits just inside the entrance to worship, where guests can check in, ask questions, and connect with a host. Children and teens are enthusiastically welcome to remain in worship; activity bags are available for anyone who needs tools to participate, and a section of the Worship Center offers appropriate furniture and floor space for toddlers.
Life Groups Form Twice a Year
At the center of TTUMC's small-group life are its Life Groups, which form twice a year, in January and August, and meet weekly for nine weeks. Groups of six to twelve people gather in homes, restaurants, or rooms on the church campus to experience connection with one another and explore the transformative gift of holy communion in the United Methodist tradition. Members learn about Jesus' presence in communion while also learning about one another, deepening the fellowship that the church considers at the heart of the sacrament.
Life Groups are organized through the Church Center App, which serves as the hub for the small-group system. The app allows participants to receive group updates, communicate with one another, access resources, and view meeting schedules and locations. Anyone interested in facilitating a group can contact the church office for help getting started.
GriefShare on Wednesday Nights
For those navigating the loss of a spouse, child, family member, or friend, TTUMC hosts GriefShare on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. GriefShare is a friendly, caring group of people who walk alongside participants through one of life's most difficult experiences. As the church describes it, "Going to GriefShare feels like having warm arms wrapped around you when you're shivering." The group meets on the church campus and provides a confidential, supportive environment for rebuilding life after loss.
Classes and Studies for Every Season
The church offers a range of ongoing classes and short-term studies. Among the recurring offerings are the Covenant Class, which meets from 9:00 to 10:00 am on Sunday mornings in the Youth Room; an Adult Class on Sunday mornings from 9:00 to 10:00 am in Room 33; and another Adult Class that meets Wednesdays from 10:30 to 11:30 am in the courtyard gazebo on the church campus. A Citizenship Class is also available for those preparing for the naturalization process.
Short-term studies, often based on books by contemporary Christian authors, run in various small groups throughout the week. Recent examples include a six-week study on Adam Hamilton's "The Lord's Prayer: The Meaning and Power of the Prayer Jesus Taught," which explores each line of the prayer and what it asks of God and of those who pray it.
Wednesday Night Dinners Around the Table
Each Wednesday evening the church gathers for a free community dinner in the Fellowship Hall from 6:00 to 7:00 pm. The dinner is built around food, family, fellowship, friends, and fun - an opportunity to deepen connections in a relaxed atmosphere around the table. Following the meal, attendees can join one of several community groups, studies, or special events that meet on the campus that evening. The dinner is free, and no advance registration is required.
The dinner is hosted in partnership with Metropolitan Ministries and serves anyone in the community. During dessert, a Bible story, commentary, and prayer are offered as encouragement to guests. There are opportunities to serve as a welcome host, table host, table server, or kitchen help.
The Food Pantry and Foster Closet
On the church campus, TTUMC partners with West Florida Foster Care Services to host both a Food Pantry and a Foster Closet. The Food Pantry, which serves foster families as well as the broader community, sources food from Feeding Tampa Bay, local grocery stores and markets, and other food pantries. It is open on Wednesdays from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm and again from 6:00 to 7:30 pm, and on the fourth Saturday of each month from 9:00 am to noon. The pantry relies on a rotating team of volunteers to drive pick-ups, unload and stock shelves, and assist families during distribution hours.
Adjacent to the pantry, the Foster Closet provides new clothes, shoes, and school supplies to foster children, helping to remove barriers to acceptance and giving children something of value they can call their own. The Foster Closet operates on Wednesdays from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm and by appointment.
ZoeEmpowers and a Global Mission
Beyond its local outreach, TTUMC partners with Zoe Empowers, an organization that helps children escape extreme poverty. The church currently supports the Imanzi Mukindo Group in Rwanda for the 2024 to 2026 commitment period. Zoe Empowers' distinctive model focuses on self-sufficiency rather than relief, working through a global network of local organizations to equip vulnerable youth-led families with the tools they need to become safe, healthy, skilled, and supported within their own communities. The congregation provides prayer support and financial partnership, and progress updates are shared through video presentations during the year.
Children: From Nursery Through 252 Kids
TTUMC's children's ministry is designed for every phase of a child's life, from birth through elementary years. The professionally staffed nursery, located just off the lobby of the Worship Center, uses the First Look curriculum to introduce pre-reading children to the fundamental principles of God's love. Children can be dropped off before worship and picked up after - or at any time during the service.
Older children, kindergarten through fifth grade, are dismissed from worship after the opening praise and prayer to attend 252 Kids, a thirty-minute experience featuring music, small groups, games, stories, and relationship-building. The 252 Kids curriculum combines child development and theology to nurture three key growth outcomes: making wiser choices, building stronger relationships, and developing a deeper faith. Parents are encouraged to download the Parent Cue app to access take-home materials, conversation topics, and parenting tips, while the Church Center App is used for check-ins, group registration, and calendar access. Every child must be checked in and out by a parent or custodial adult.
Serving On Campus
The church offers numerous on-campus volunteer opportunities that fit a variety of skill sets. Behind-the-scenes roles include sound, lighting, cameras, video, livestream, projection, directing, and producing for the worship services. Greeters welcome people as they arrive on campus, help guests find connection, and assist with parking and ushering. A campus care team meets on Wednesday mornings from 7:00 to 8:30 am to tend the grounds and building, followed by breakfast and conversation at a local restaurant. Musicians and vocalists are invited to join the worship band, which leads God's people in worship on campus and online. The prayer team receives requests and concerns from the congregation and shares them through email, with members committing to pray daily for those concerns. The compassion team visits hospitals, nursing homes, and members who are homebound, supplementing visits with phone calls and encouragement cards.
With the Community
TTUMC's community partnerships extend well beyond the church campus. In partnership with Metropolitan Ministries, the church serves a free dinner for anyone in the community in the Fellowship Hall on Wednesdays from 6:00 to 7:00 pm. The church also partners with Palm Terrace by participating in communion services, Christian movie viewings, weekly Bible studies, and special holiday celebrations. A Meals on Wheels team continues the church's tradition of food ministry in the broader community.
Additional organizational partners include the Tampa Bay Hurricanes Youth Football and Cheer, which uses the TTUMC campus as its practice facility; the Caribbean Community Association of Tampa; and Trinity Cafe, a program of Feeding Tampa Bay that operates a free, full-service restaurant for those in need of a healthy meal. TTUMC serves at the Trinity 2 location on Busch Boulevard.
Wesleyan Beliefs
TTUMC identifies as part of the United Methodist Church, a global denomination whose mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The congregation holds to the Wesleyan theological tradition, which places primary emphasis on Christian living and on putting faith and love into action - what John Wesley referred to as "practical divinity."
The church teaches that the writers of the Bible were inspired by God and filled with God's Spirit as they wrote to the best of their knowledge, and that the Holy Spirit continues to work today in the thoughtful study of Scripture, especially as believers study together and seek to relate the old words to life's present realities. The Holy Spirit is understood as God's present activity in the world - sensed in prayer, in the study of Scripture, in reflection on a difficult decision, and in the community of believers. Humans are created in the spiritual image of God, marred by an attitude of disobedience toward God called sin. Salvation comes by grace through faith: humans are made whole and reconciled by the love of God as they receive it and trust in it. Conversion is described as the moment when a person stops trying to justify themselves to God and instead accepts Jesus' death on the cross as reconciliation for separation from God - the start of a new life in Christ and the assurance of salvation through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Pastoral Care and Prayer
A Pastoral Care Community Group shares care, love, understanding, and prayer with persons in need. Following training, individuals are equipped to listen and offer support through illness or grief - not counseling, but a prayerful, kind presence that seeks to affirm and share the unconditional love of Jesus. Senior Pastor Anna-Brook Opalinski also invites anyone to message her directly for prayer, offering that she will lift up their concerns because she believes that prayer changes things and changes us.
Membership and Generosity
Those who wish to become members of TTUMC complete a form and attend a brief orientation where membership responsibilities are explained. Members commit to pray for the church, the community, and the world; to be present in the community life of the church; to support the work of the church financially; to take part in serving Jesus with the church and with the community; and to be a witness to the transformation of God's grace in the world. Membership is an annual commitment that requires personal investment and faithfulness, and it opens the door to serving in certain leadership roles that shape the direction of the church.
Generosity is understood as part of the Wesleyan tradition, with the church encouraging members to engage in five practices: prayer and Scripture meditation, corporate worship and small-group community, financial generosity, spiritual gifts and gifts-based service, and invitational evangelism. Giving can be made online through the church's giving portal or by text message, and an annual commitment card invites members to prayerfully consider their pledges for the year ahead.