On Cochituate Road in Wayland, a few miles west of Boston along the Route 20 corridor, the Trinitarian Congregational Church has stood as a witness to orthodox Protestant faith in the MetroWest region for nearly two centuries. Its identity is summed up in a single line repeated across its communications: to be and to make disciples of Jesus Christ. The congregation describes itself as a multi-generational, multi-ethnic, family-oriented church steeped in the New England orthodox Protestant tradition of renewal and revival, and as a sending church that proclaims the Gospel both locally and around the world.
A Church Born in 1828 When Six Women and Three Men Stepped Out
The congregation's founding story is unusually clear about who started it and why. In March 1828, six women and three men came together to form a new body of believers who wanted a higher standard of Christian experience and practice. The following month, eighteen people gathered at Gleason's store, known today as Kirkside, for the first worship service of the new church. The preacher at that first service was, by a fitting providence, the Rev. Lyman Beecher.
Within weeks the founders raised $700 and erected a chapel on the present church property, dedicating it on May 21, 1828. By 1835 the rapidly growing congregation needed a larger meeting house, and a new one was built and dedicated on July 22 of that year at a cost of just over $3,000. The debt was paid in full four days after the dedication. The body took the name Orthodox Trinitarian Church of East Sudbury, and in 1896 it formally adopted the name Trinitarian Congregational Church.
The 1835 meeting house stood for almost a century until it was destroyed by fire on July 22, 1922. The present sanctuary was dedicated in May 1928, exactly one hundred years after the original chapel. In 1955 a chapel, fellowship hall, and Sunday school rooms were added, and the sanctuary was enlarged to its present dimensions in 1959. A series of upgrades in the 2000s, called the Higher Ground initiative and completed in 2009, brought the rest of the facilities up to a standard the leaders describe as first-rate for ministry. Today, nearly two hundred years on, the church stands on the same ground its founders chose, with the same conviction that moved them.
Dr. Donald S. Ewing served from 1955 to 1988, Dr. Carlyle Saylor from 1989 to 1998, Rev. James V. Pocock from 1999 to 2011, Dr. Christopher T. Ziegler from 2012 to 2015, and Rev. Dr. Tom Petter, the present Senior Minister, from 2016 onward.
Worship at 10:00 on Sundays: Organ and Praise Team Together
One Sunday service gathers the whole congregation at 10:00 a.m., with children's programming during the service and a Coffee Hour following at 11:00. The service is livestreamed on YouTube for those who cannot be present in person. The Lord’s Supper is celebrated on the second Sunday of each month.
TCC describes its worship as Christ-centered and Gospel-based, historic and modern. The service draws from a wide repertoire of hymnody and from contemporary praise music. Congregational singing is accompanied both by the church's 1929 Hook and Hastings organ and by a praise team of guitars, vocalists, drums, and piano. The Sanctuary Choir, the children's choir, and various soloists and ensembles offer special music during the year.
The order of worship typically includes congregational singing, prayer, an offering, Scripture reading (the church uses the ESV translation, with many translations available for those who bring their own), Gospel-centered preaching, updates from domestic or global mission partners and local ministries, and occasional musical offerings.
Worship at TCC is intentionally intergenerational. Children join their parents in the sanctuary for the opening portion of the service and are dismissed to their own classes at the Passing of the Peace. Middle school and high school students are encouraged to remain in the sanctuary to worship with the body. The pastoral team has resisted the old dichotomy between traditional and contemporary services; what the congregation embraces, in its own words, is a healthy balance of old and new at every gathering.
What a Sunday Morning Looks Like for Families
The Children’s Ministry seeks to be a safe and nurturing environment where children develop spiritually through age-appropriate Bible stories, songs, crafts, and relationships. Children’s Church, formerly called Little Town Adventures, is a kid-friendly version of the main service, led by pastors and teachers.
On Sunday mornings, families arrive and check in at the Children’s Ministry desk near the main lobby. Newcomers are helped through a Children’s Ministry Registration Form. Children begin in the sanctuary with their parents for the first fifteen minutes of worship and are dismissed at the Passing of the Peace. K-5 children are escorted upstairs to Room 204 for Children's Church. Infants through Pre-K are taken downstairs to Room 105 for their own program.
The K-5 curriculum is The Gospel Project for Kids, a Lifeway resource that traces the Bible as one story pointing to Jesus Christ. The Pre-K curriculum is called Simply Loved. Volunteers for both programs go through an application process that includes background checks, reference checks, and safety training. Sarah Sacco directs the Pre-K program and Markus Hustad directs the K-5 program.
The Children’s Ministry publishes clear health and safety policies. Children should be kept home if they have a fever of 100.4 or higher, vomiting or diarrhea within the last 24 hours, an unexplained rash, or lice (they must be treated and cleared before returning). Parents are asked to follow state guidelines for flu and COVID. In the event of an evacuation of the building, parents should not go to the Children’s Ministry area; small group leaders will escort the children to the designated outdoor meeting place.
Revive Youth Group on Sunday Evenings
Student Ministries gathers 6th through 12th graders under the name Revive Youth Group on Sunday evenings from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. The ministry describes itself as a Gospel-centered community of growing leaders on a journey to know Jesus and make Him known to the world.
Students in Revive are part of a small group where they share, grow, and learn together. They go deeper in their faith, explore the foundations of Christianity, and build a biblical worldview. They also have the chance to serve on a mission trip and to grow as leaders through the Student Leadership Program. The youth ministry is led by Jeridan Dyck, the Minister of Families and Outreach, and Erin Dyck, the Student Discipleship Facilitator.
Growth Groups, Semester by Semester
Growth Groups are the small-group spine of the discipleship program at TCC. Each group runs for ten weeks in the fall, spring, and summer semesters. Groups focus on transformation, intentional Christian community, and outreach, and they include a service day at the church, an outreach day in the community, and a fun day together.
Growth Groups replaced the older Life Groups model. The pastoral team observed that open-ended weekly small groups often led to uneven attendance, leader burnout, and difficulty for newcomers trying to find a fit. The semester-based format lets facilitators serve for a defined period and pass on the mantle to an apprentice, and it makes it easier for newcomers to step in. The model draws on the structure outlined in Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups. The fall 2025 curriculum, for instance, used Mateus de Campos's lessons in discipleship from the Gospel of Mark.
Mid-Week Bible Study and the Rise! Series
Adult Education gathers the body between Sundays in two regular rhythms. Pastor Allan Baldwin leads a Wednesday morning Bible study from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., offered both in person and virtually, with recordings available. The Rise! Wednesday Evening Adult Education series meets on Wednesday evenings, and recordings of past studies are posted for those who miss a week.
Pre-Worship Prayer meets in the sanctuary at 8:45 on Sunday mornings, fifteen minutes before the service, so that those who wish can pray together before the congregation gathers.
Saturday Morning Saints and Don't Walk Alone
The men’s ministry centers on two expressions. Saturday Morning Saints is a weekly men’s Bible study that meets in Phillips Hall from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. for breakfast, Bible study, and prayer. The wider ministry, called Don’t Walk Alone, gathers men in community through seasonal activities and retreats. Man Camp at Camp Berea in Hebron, New Hampshire, held the first weekend of November, has been a regular retreat.
Thursday Mornings and Woman to Woman
Women’s Bible Study meets in person on Thursday mornings from 9:15 to 11:15 a.m., beginning in mid-September and running through mid-April. The fall session studies Daniel with teacher Larisa Pelger; the spring session turns to Hebrews. The format includes small-group discussion, a large-group presentation, fellowship, and food. There is no fee, and women from both TCC and the greater MetroWest community are welcome.
Woman to Woman is a separate monthly gathering for women of all ages. Once a month the group meets for caring conversations on topics chosen by the participants, with the stated aim of supporting, equipping, inspiring, sharing, caring, and growing together so that with one voice they can glorify God. Women from local communities outside TCC are welcome.
Sanctuary Choir, Worship Team, and the 1929 Hook and Hastings
Music Ministries at TCC is built around three teams. The Sanctuary Choir is open to adults of all ages. Sight-reading experience is preferred but not required, and many members simply sing by ear; the choir typically sings during seasonal services. The Worship Team leads most of the congregational singing each Sunday and rehearses from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. before the morning service; musicians typically serve once or twice a month on rotation. The Tech Team runs the sound board and projection computer during services; basic knowledge of computers or sound is helpful, and training is provided. Charles Orr serves as organist, Mia Hustad as Worship Leader, and Alexander Kouris as Worship Coordinator.
Deacons and the Deacon's Fund
The word deacon comes from the Greek diákonos, meaning servant. TCC's twelve deacons serve as lay spiritual leaders, caring for the financial, emotional, and spiritual needs of individuals in the congregation and the wider community. They help or find help for individuals and pray for them and for the whole church.
The Deacon’s Fund is the practical arm of this ministry. Twice a year - during Holy Week and on Christmas Eve - the congregation takes a special collection to replenish it. The fund is used to meet real needs both within TCC and across the MetroWest community: home maintenance, babysitting, meals, companionship, and other forms of practical support. The fund is open to TCC members and to neighbors, and the form is available on the church’s resources page.
The Peacemaking Team
The Peacemaking Team offers another kind of care, focused on conflict. Members have gone through study and training in biblical peacemaking and partner with ICC Peace for seasonal courses and seminars with certified mediators. The team helps individuals through prayer support and one-on-one coaching and teaches peacemaking principles to new members, life groups, mission teams, leadership committees, deacons, staff, and volunteers.
The team’s approach is rooted in four principles adapted from Ken Sande’s The Peacemaker: go to higher ground and glorify God; get the log out of your own eye first; gently restore the other person; and seek lasting reconciliation. The team’s email is peacemaking@tccwayland.org.
Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry
The Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry, which serves the wider community, is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. The pantry is one of the most tangible ways TCC opens its doors to neighbors beyond its own walls. The church also publishes a Community Resources document pointing people to other forms of help available in the area.
Missions: Local, National, and to the Ends of the Earth
Missions is named as an essential ministry of the church, not a peripheral program. TCC supports individual missionaries and missionary families and organizations through prayer, monetary giving, and short-term trips. Past trips have gone to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Poland, Liberia, India, and Mexico. The church also seeks to encourage members to consider missions as a full-time vocation.
TCC calls itself a sending church. Each Sunday morning the worship bulletin includes updates from its domestic and global mission partners, so that the congregation keeps these workers and ministries in view. Locally, the church supports Bridge House in Framingham, and the pastoral team participates in collaborative outreach efforts such as The Send mobilization with other churches in the area.
Pastor-Planting and the Pastoral Residency
One of the more distinctive initiatives at TCC is a pastor-planting program that grew out of a pilot residency launched in 2023. The church’s first resident, Aaron Verbosky, moved on to serve as senior minister at South Peabody Congregational Church. In the program’s second year, an internal candidate, Jen Calverley, was prepared for the role of Minister of Community Life. In the fall of 2026, TCC is bringing in Markus Hustad as a resident for a two-year term, partnering with the Made to Flourish Pastoral Residency Program. The long-term vision is to send pastors into pulpits across New England, particularly in underserved areas, rather than to plant new churches.
What We Believe: The Triune God and the Authority of Scripture
TCC’s statement of faith begins with the Triune God, eternal and revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, without division of nature, essence, or being. The church confesses the historic Christian doctrines of God the Father almighty, Jesus Christ as the eternal Son who became incarnate of the virgin Mary, died on the cross for the forgiveness of sin, was raised, ascended, and will return in glory, and the Holy Spirit who inspired Scripture, convicts of sin, regenerates, and distributes spiritual gifts.
The church teaches that humanity was created in God’s image and that, through the fall, the human race inherited a nature inclined toward sin, restored only by grace. The Bible is described as God’s written Word, given through about forty authors over two thousand years and inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Bible is the authoritative rule for faith and conduct.
Salvation, in TCC’s teaching, is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and involves three facets: justification, a once-for-all forgiveness received by faith; sanctification, the present, ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in conforming believers to Christ; and glorification, the future consummation of salvation in the new creation.
The church observes two sacraments instituted by Christ: Baptism, which is the initiation rite into the Christian faith and is offered to both adults making a confession of faith and the infant children of believers; and the Lord’s Supper, or Communion, celebrated on the second Sunday of each month. Marriage is defined as a covenant relationship between one man and one woman.
The church is governed as an autonomous, congregational body. Every member participates in ministry through the gifts of the Spirit. The board is elected by the congregation, and deacons are elected as lay spiritual leaders. Membership classes are offered twice a year, in the fall and in the spring, and include two classes, a written application, an informal meeting with a deacon and pastor, and public reception during a worship service.
Membership and Baptism
Becoming a member of TCC is described as a clear proclamation that a believer wants to invest in the present community and take ownership of its future. Membership formally associates a believer with the body of Christ, makes them a participant in voting, giving, leading, and serving according to their gifts, and ensures appropriate pastoral care.
Baptism is required for adult membership; for infants of believers, baptism is an expression that the child is being received into the community of believers and will be nurtured in the faith until they make their own profession. The full baptism statement is available in a downloadable document, and a new class of inquirers is welcomed in the fall and the spring of each year.
The Building on Cochituate Road
The church sits at 53 Cochituate Road in Wayland, with the Sanctuary, the chapel, Phillips Hall, fellowship space, and classrooms all sharing the same campus. The 1928 sanctuary is the architectural heart of the property, with the 1929 Hook and Hastings organ still in regular use. The Higher Ground initiative of the 2000s, completed in 2009, refreshed the rest of the building. A Building By The Spirit Initiative is currently raising funds to complete a sanctuary renovation and the addition of an elevator to Bradford by the spring of 2027, ahead of the church’s bicentennial in 2028.
Giving supports the church’s ministry through several channels. Offerings can be given in person on Sunday mornings or by check mailed to the church. Recurring gifts can be set up through a bank’s online bill pay system. Online giving is available through the ChurchCenter app, where ACH transfers carry a flat thirty-cent fee per gift and credit or debit card gifts incur a 2.15 percent plus thirty-cent fee. Gifts of stock and mutual funds can also be arranged, and the church accepts planned gifts through estate designations.
Getting Connected
Visitors are warmly welcomed at TCC. A New to TCC form is available on the church’s Planning Center site for those who would like a follow-up. Services are livestreamed on YouTube, and recordings of recent services are posted on the same channel. The church also maintains a podcast called The Preacher and the Professor, available on Spotify and PodBean, where sermons and conversations are shared beyond the Sunday gathering. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and the front desk can be reached at 508-358-7717 or frontdesk@tccwayland.org.
Whether someone is exploring Christianity for the first time or has been walking with Christ for decades, TCC frames its invitation in simple terms: come as you are, learn the story of Jesus, and join a community seeking to be and make disciples of Him.