A Congregation on East Second Street
Trinity Lutheran Church sits at 601 East Second Street in Waconia, Minnesota, where the congregation shares a campus with Trinity Lutheran School. The church belongs to the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and works under the Minnesota South District of that body. A single line shapes how the congregation talks about itself: "Making disciples of Jesus Christ in our homes, church, community, and world." Members describe Trinity as an inviting, multi-generational community that gathers, grows, serves, and goes - a rhythm that plays out across a large building, an attached school, and a deep bench of volunteer-led ministries.
Trinity's reach goes well beyond its own walls. The church partners with local ministries in Waconia and Carver County, with regional efforts across Minnesota, and with cross-cultural mission work in Ethiopia and the Philippines. On the home campus, more than 140 volunteers serve across thirteen specific care ministries. An ongoing capital campaign, called Give B.A.C. (Boiler, Air, Conditioning), is raising one million dollars to replace a 1968 steam boiler and add air conditioning to most of the building. Two of seven HVAC zones are already cooled; the campaign covers the remaining five, including the sanctuary and fellowship hall.
Weekend Worship: Three Styles, One Altar
Trinity gathers three times each weekend, plus a monthly service designed for people with disabilities and their families.
- Saturday at 5:30 pm features weekly Holy Communion and offers a quieter evening option.
- Sunday at 8:15 am is the traditional service, led in large part by the Trinity Choir.
- Sunday at 10:45 am is the contemporary service, led by the auditioned praise team.
- Special Connections Worship is held on the third Sunday of every month at 4:00 pm for individuals with emotional, intellectual, and physical disabilities and their families.
On Sunday mornings, Holy Communion is celebrated on the second and last Sunday of each month. The Saturday service includes Communion every week. Both Sunday services are livestreamed at 8:15 and 10:45 am, and a library of past messages lives on the church's YouTube channel. A current sermon series, called Eden to Eternity, walks the congregation through the basics of the gospel over nine weeks.
Holy Communion and the Means of Grace
In keeping with its LCMS identity, Trinity teaches that the Lord's Supper is a real gift from Christ. The congregation believes that in Holy Communion, Jesus offers believers his body and blood in, with, and under bread and wine, and that through this meal God offers the forgiveness of sins and strengthens faith. Baptism, similarly, is taught as the place where the Holy Spirit brings new life and makes the baptized a child of God. Members are welcome to bring infants and young children forward for baptism after a meeting with one of the pastors.
Kids Ministry: Nursery, Sunday School, and Children's Church
Children are a visible part of life at Trinity from birth through the elementary years.
The nursery is open every Sunday from 8:15 to 11:45 am for children from birth through age three. Paid staff are trained in CPR and child development. Parents can leave children in the nursery while attending worship or Bible study, or bring them into the service.
Sunday School runs from 9:30 to 10:30 am throughout the school year for children from preschool through third grade. The curriculum is the Gospel Project, a chronological walk through the Bible that highlights God's plan to rescue his people through Jesus. Kids also take part in service and mission projects together.
Children's Church takes place during the 10:45 am service. After the Children's Message, kids in preschool through first grade are invited to the Fireside Room, where they hear a version of the day's lesson and return to their families before the sermon ends. Children in preschool through first grade must be checked in at the Connections Center before the service.
Middle School and High School Youth
Trinity runs parallel youth programs for middle schoolers (5th through 8th grade) and high schoolers (9th through 12th grade). Both meet on Sunday mornings from 9:30 to 10:30 am and on Wednesday evenings from 6:00 to 7:45 pm. The Sunday morning hour uses the Gospel Project curriculum and breaks each Bible chapter into discussion-friendly pieces. The Wednesday program is built around three goals: digging into Scripture, connecting through group activities, and serving one another. A small annual registration fee helps cover curriculum, snacks, and supplies. A summer youth ministry runs June through August.
Confirmation: A 22-Week Journey
Confirmation is the next formal step for students in eighth grade and beyond. The program runs during the Discipleship Hour on Sunday mornings (9:30 to 10:30 am) for twenty-two weeks. Students who attend Trinity Lutheran School complete Confirmation through their daily religion classes. Outside the classroom, students are asked to log at least fourteen service hours, with at least seven of those served within the church, and to complete twenty to thirty sermon notes. Notes can be turned in on cards found in worship bulletins.
Adult Ministry and Community Groups
Adult life at Trinity is built around three flavors of small groups: ongoing Bible studies with rotating topics, ministry groups that share a service focus, and Community Groups that gather in homes for the everyday work of discipleship. Community Groups meet to study the Word, pray, eat, share stories of what God is doing, practice generosity, and love their neighbors. Existing groups serve families, mixed stages and ages, and couples, and new groups are launching all the time.
The church also offers a year-long, congregation-wide Bible reading plan called The Whole Story, with weekly study guides and book overviews. Adults can walk through Genesis to Revelation at their own pace, with online resources for each book.
Music and Arts
Music is described as core to the worship experience at Trinity. The Trinity Choir leads congregational and special music at the early service one to two Sundays a month, rehearsing on Wednesday evenings from fall through early summer. The auditioned praise team leads the late service on a rotation, with extra rehearsals during the week and individual practice outside of church.
Beyond music, Trinity has active technical arts and media teams who handle audio, video, and lighting for services and events, and a visual arts ministry that has featured paintings, pottery, photography, and other expressions in and around the facility.
Trinity Lutheran School
Trinity Lutheran School shares the campus with the church and offers preschool through grade eight. The school is overseen by the Board of Education, which sets policy for the educational ministry. Trinity's Confirmation classes are woven into the religion curriculum for school families, and an Associate Pastor is being called specifically to bridge the school and the wider congregation - building relationships with school families and supporting faculty.
An Extensive Care Network
Trinity takes seriously the call to walk with people through hard seasons. Care Ministry operates thirteen specific ministries with more than 140 volunteers, all under the leadership of Care Ministry Director Rachel Ash.
- Prayer Ministry lifts up confidential and public requests, with Moms in Prayer groups meeting on Friday mornings.
- Stephen Ministry offers trained laypeople who provide one-to-one, confidential, Christ-centered care. Stephen Ministers are paired by gender with a care receiver and meet weekly for about an hour. Trinity has embraced Stephen Ministry since 2023.
- Grief Ministry offers a four-week Hope in the Midst of Loss support group at various times of year, resource packets for the first year after a loss, and funeral support and services.
- Visitation Ministry makes monthly in-home visits to homebound members, leads monthly communion services at local care facilities, organizes Christmas caroling, and supports fellowship events at area care centers.
- Meals Ministry prepares and delivers food during illness, grief, and other life transitions, and serves supper between services on Ash Wednesday.
- Stitches of Grace Ministry creates hand-made, prayed-over prayer shawls for people in crisis and offers simple mending and sewing help.
- Transportation Ministry provides rides to worship and fellowship events for members who cannot travel on their own.
- Crisis Care Support offers attentive listening, prayer, and triage, connecting members with pastoral care, internal ministries, or outside resources.
- Special Connections Ministry includes the monthly 4:00 pm worship service, plus creative learning and worship opportunities for individuals with disabilities and their families.
- Guardians Ministry surrounds first responders, correctional officers, military members, dispatchers, EMS personnel, nurses, and their families with care and encouragement.
- Card Connections Ministry sends personalized cards for birthdays, holidays, baptisms, confirmations, sympathy, and encouragement.
What Trinity Believes
Trinity Waconia teaches, in its own words, that the Bible is the foundation of Truth and that all doctrine is tested against Scripture. The congregation affirms the historic Apostles' Creed as a summary of the Christian faith. God is triune - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and desires all people to be saved and to know the truth.
Trinity teaches that human beings are sinful from birth, alienated from God, and in need of new birth through faith. God sent his only Son, Jesus, who is both fully God and fully man, to give his life as the perfect sacrifice for sin. Salvation is received by faith, not by works. The Holy Spirit brings, keeps, grows, and matures believers through the Word, baptism, and the Lord's Supper, and offers forgiveness of sins through these means of grace.
Mission Partnerships Near and Far
Trinity frames its mission work with Acts 1:8 - the call to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
- Local partners include Enkrateia House of Hope (a refuge for pregnant women facing homelessness), Love INC of Carver County, Timber Bay (a ministry to adolescents through camping and adventure trips), Mayer Lutheran High School, and the Waconia Food Shelf, which serves residents of Independent School District 110, Victoria, and Cologne.
- Regional partners include the Minnesota South District of the LCMS, On The Line (a podcast produced by the church that connects timeless truths to modern challenges), and Heart Response Ministries.
- Cross-culture partners include Children's HopeChest, through which Trinity has helped establish a CarePoint of families in Ethiopia with around 150 sponsored children and regular volunteer mission trips, and Mission of Christ, which supports missionaries Brandon and Lynnea Holmes in Manila, Philippines, where they serve at Faith Academy.
B.A.C.: A Capital Campaign for Heat and Cool Air
Trinity's 1968 steam boiler is roughly thirty years past its expected life, and annual maintenance runs fifteen to twenty-five thousand dollars. The Give B.A.C. campaign is raising one million dollars to replace the boiler with more efficient hot water units, remove asbestos from the boiler room, and add air conditioning to the remaining five of seven HVAC zones. The projected savings are about twenty thousand dollars a year in combined utilities, maintenance, and energy costs. Donations can be made online, dropped off at the Connections Center, or mailed to the church office.
Weddings, Funerals, and the Cemetery
Couples interested in marrying at Trinity or with one of its pastors begin with an information meeting that covers the service, costs, and premarital preparation classes. Funerals at Trinity are framed as a service of victory in Christ, marked by sadness but also by the hope of resurrection. The church also maintains Trinity Cemetery, with inquiries handled through the church office.
Leadership and Staff
Duncan McLellan serves as Senior Pastor. The Visitation Ministry is shared by Pastor Alsleben and Pastor Halvorson, who lead monthly communion services for homebound members. Rachel Ash serves as Care Ministry Director and Stephen Leader, with a direct line at 952-856-1640. Heidi Rauworth serves as Interim School Principal. The lay-led Boards of Elders, Administration, and Education, along with the Church Council, share oversight of doctrine, property, finances, and the educational ministry.
Staying Connected
Trinity runs on the Church Center platform, with an iOS and Android app that gives access to events, registrations, and giving. The congregation also produces the On The Line podcast, hosts online Bible reading plans with weekly study guides, and maintains a YouTube channel with a deep archive of past services and sermon series.