Trinity Lutheran Church and School sits on a forty-acre campus along Highway 83 in Franktown, Colorado, where the suburban edges of South Parker and East Castle Rock meet the open ranch land of Douglas County. From this single piece of ground, Trinity runs two ministries side by side: a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregation and a preschool through eighth grade school. Today more than 175 families call Trinity home, drawn from a wide stretch of the Front Range south of Denver. Its motto, "Connecting our Community to Jesus," sets the tone for everything that happens on the property.
Two Sunday Services, One Lutheran Liturgy
Worship is the center of life at Trinity, and it follows a Lutheran liturgical order in both Sunday gatherings. The early service at 8:00 AM is a traditional service led by organ, with hymns and responses from the Divine Service hymnal that longtime LCMS worshippers will recognize, alongside thematic litanies and orders of confession and absolution. The later service at 10:30 AM uses the same liturgical bones but wraps them in modern songs, with a praise band leading the music and responsive readings introducing the Lutheran confessions and creeds to those less familiar with them. Holy Communion is celebrated every Sunday except the last Sunday of the month.
Both services are live streamed on the church's YouTube channel. The 8:00 service is broadcast on the first, third, and fifth Sundays of the month, and the 10:30 service on the second and fourth Sundays. Anyone watching from home can also fill out an online form to let the church know they joined in.
Sunday Discipleship Hour
From 9:15 to 9:30 AM, coffee and refreshments are served in the fellowship hall. At 9:30 AM, the Sunday Discipleship Hour begins. Children from babies through eighth grade gather first in the Sanctuary for a fifteen-minute large-group opening with song, prayer, and an introduction to the Bible story of the week, using the Concordia Publishing House Enduring Faith curriculum. Children are then dismissed by age into crews, while high school students and adults head to their own studies. Parents of Early Learning Center children are asked to pick up their kids from the ELC downstairs at the close of the hour.
Wednesday Evenings, Saturday Mornings, and More
Sanctuary Choir rehearses on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM from September through May under the direction of organist Ila Twogood. All ages and experience levels are welcome. Men of the congregation gather on Saturday mornings from 8:00 to 9:30 AM in the fellowship hall for the Wake Up Men's Bible Study, a relaxed breakfast and study time. Trinity Playdates run on select Thursdays from 8:00 to 9:30 AM in the sanctuary, offering open play, coffee, and a brief devotion for caregivers with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. On Fridays from 8:30 to 11:30 AM, the Piecemakers gather in the fellowship hall to sew, quilt, and knit handmade items for charities and missions both local and overseas, sharing coffee, a devotional, and encouragement along the way.
The Campus on Highway 83
Trinity's entrance is a long drive just south of Bayou Gulch Road, off Highway 83 (Parker Road) in the South Parker stretch of Douglas County. The forty acres blend the feel of open country with quick access to the suburbs, and the church and school offices share the same main building, reachable from either the upper or lower entry. Parking attendants and golf carts assist during busy services and events, and accessible parking spaces are reserved in the lower lot.
The campus is used in layers: the sanctuary anchors worship, the fellowship hall hosts community meals and Sunday morning coffee, the Early Learning Center rooms downstairs serve the youngest students, and the upper hallway and Room 202 house older student discipleship groups. Worship bags are available for little ones, and nursing mothers are welcome to feed their babies wherever they are most comfortable.
Trinity Lutheran School, Preschool Through Eighth Grade
Trinity Lutheran School grew out of a need the congregation identified in its own neighborhood. After worshipping together since the early 1980s, the families launched a school in 1993 to provide Christian education to the growing community. Today the school shares the same campus as the church, with preschool, kindergarten, and elementary classrooms running through eighth grade.
Deanna Ayers serves as Principal (Head of School). The faculty includes Jennifer Woods, Julie Duffy, and Charissa Rae in the preschool; Jayden Ayers in kindergarten; Jill Struve in first grade; Shannon Fielding in second; Jennifer Finley in third; Rhaya Shull in fourth; Harrison Maas in fifth; Christa Mekled in sixth; and Laurie Parton covering seventh and eighth grades, with Traci Goldsmith serving as K-8 teacher aide. Julianne Atwood handles admissions and marketing. The school seeks teachers who can integrate faith and learning in a Christ-centered, mission-driven classroom.
Because the school and the church are housed on the same campus and under the same mission, children move naturally between chapel offerings, classroom faith integration, and Wednesday enrichment activities.
Kids' Crew and Family Ministry
Trinity treats children as active participants in God's family now, not only the future of the church. The Kids' Crew Sunday morning ministry gathers children from babies through fifth grade during the 9:30 AM discipleship hour, with separate rooms for Parents and Tots, Early Preschool, Kindergarten through first grade, and second through fourth grade, led by volunteer leaders from the congregation. A high school study meets in Room 203.
Family Ministry also oversees Trinity Playdates for young families, Camp Firelight summer programming, and family-friendly events throughout the year. Angie Walston coordinates Children and Family Ministry, and parents can expect worship bags, a come-as-you-are approach to children in worship, and a quiet Family Room available when little ones need a break. The church is open about the realities of family worship: some Sundays a child sits quietly through the whole service, other Sundays a family spends time in the hallway or the Family Room. The goal is not perfect behavior but helping children discover that church is a place where they are known, loved, and welcomed by Jesus.
Foundations, Confirmation, and Student Ministry
Students in fifth through twelfth grade have their own long arc of formation through Foundations, the church's student ministry program. Joe Redmann is the Student Ministry Assistant. Foundations gathers students monthly on Sunday evenings from 6:00 to 8:00 PM in consistent small groups with a dedicated adult and student leader, so the same group stays together across the year. Two tracks run side by side: Lutheran Foundations, the confirmation program built around Scripture, the Small Catechism, and core Lutheran beliefs; and Faith Foundations, for students who have already been confirmed or who are not pursuing confirmation, with a focus on applying faith to everyday life.
The confirmation process is family-paced. Students in sixth grade and up can begin the journey at any Foundations night, working through journal lessons, Scripture reading, and the Catechism with a parent or mentor. At the end, students are invited to publicly confirm and claim their identity as disciples who intend to continue following Jesus. A special March Foundations night Seder Meal connects the confirmation study of the sacraments to Lent and to first communion. Lesson handouts and reflection forms are published online so families can keep up between gatherings.
Elevate events add a seasonal, student-led rhythm to the student ministry calendar, gathering middle and high schoolers about six times a year for fun activities, food, student leadership opportunities, a grace-centered devotion or worship moment, and an intentional culture of welcome. The summer Elevate Youth Nights are an open-door way for incoming fifth graders through high schoolers to sample the ministry. Each summer wraps up with a Foundations Retreat.
Eagle Enrichment and Community Meals
Eagle Enrichment is a midweek ministry that brings the church and school together for school-age children on select Wednesdays from 3:30 to 5:00 PM. After an opening gathering and check-in in the fellowship hall, students choose an enrichment group such as Makers and Crafts (ages 6 to 14), Kickball with Pastor Bobby (all ages), the Woodworking Workshop for grades four and up, STEM Lab (all ages), Chef's Corner for grades four and up, or Little Eagles Play and Create for preschoolers. The afternoon closes with a short gathering in the sanctuary before families stay for a free family-style meal in the fellowship hall from 5:00 to 6:00 PM.
The meals are open to everyone, no registration required, and have become a steady midweek touchpoint for the Trinity family. Special evenings like the September Oktoberfest meal and the January Chili Cook-Off turn the meal into a small celebration. Eagle Enrichment is donation-funded, and volunteers are always welcome to lead a new session.
Partnerships Near and Far
Trinity organizes its outreach around three rings of partnership. Locally, the church supports the Parker Task Force with a back-to-school supply drive, student volunteer service, and ongoing prayer, and is building a relationship with the Help and Hope Center through volunteer service and congregational engagement.
Regionally, Trinity walks with Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, supporting the refugee resettlement ministry through a Palm Sunday supply drive, Camp Firelight donations, and a Christmas Giving Tree. Summit Mission Alliance is the church's link to missionary planting and support in the central Colorado mountains.
Internationally, the congregation has begun a relationship with Children's HopeChest, focusing on the Modjo CarePoint in Ethiopia. For the current season, the church and school are turning their attention toward the Modjo Poultry Farm, an income-generating project designed to help twenty-five guardians raise poultry for local sale. Students participate through weekly chapel offerings, and the whole congregation is invited to pray, learn, and contribute.
Through Mission Experience, members have taken part in international mission trips, and Pastor Mike has helped connect Trinity to global opportunities. The Piecemakers extend the partnership work into the fellowship hall, where handmade items are stitched and sent to charities near and far.
What Trinity Believes
Trinity is associated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The congregation holds to the historic Lutheran confessions summarized by the Reformation watchwords: Grace Alone, Faith Alone, God's Word Alone. Salvation is received by God's grace through faith, apart from works, and is sustained through the Word, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper. The congregation confesses the Apostles' Creed together each Sunday, affirming belief in God the Father, in Jesus Christ His only Son, in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
The Lutheran character of the worship shows up in both Sunday services, with orders of confession and absolution, responsive readings, creeds, and the rhythms of the historic liturgy. The congregation is deliberate that what is done in one hour on Sunday is carried into the other one hundred sixty-seven hours of the week, in service, love, work, and witness.
Serving on Sundays and Beyond
Worship is not only something to attend. Trinity runs a wide set of Sunday Teams that make the services work. Volunteers serve as greeters, on the golf cart crew, in the welcome desk, in the nursery, and in the family-friendly spaces; they read Scripture and prayers during services; and they operate the slides, sound, and video for the live stream. The Praise Team, led by Tom Speed, welcomes vocalists, guitarists, percussionists, and keyboard players at the 10:30 service. The Sanctuary Choir, led by Ila Twogood, is open to all ages and experience levels. Lisa Peterson and Annette Schurich share the work of Altar Guild, and Nazan Wolfe oversees facilities.
Elders and lay leaders carry a large share of the work of the congregation. The elders include Kevin Hobbs (chair), Walt Keith, James Stewart, Matt Buchholz, Dave Gempel, David Fonda, Noah Rolf, Lynn Trenda, and Brian Wilson. The Trinity Board of Directors is led by Mike Going (chair) with Todd Borchert as vice chair, Dan Reif as treasurer, Chelsea Duclos as secretary, and Nazan Wolfe as trustee. The Trinity School Board is chaired by Hannah Buchholz and includes Colleen Brewer, Paul Reimnitz, Jason Rogness, Ben Feuger, Lauren Hannemann, and Jessie Reif. The congregation's stated vision is to remain lean on staff and strong on lay leadership, raising up the next generation of members to be sent into their neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces with God's love showing through them.
Joining In
For visitors, the church keeps the door open in straightforward ways. Sunday worship runs at 8:00 AM (traditional, organ-led) and 10:30 AM (modern, praise band). Worship is come-as-you-are, with biblically grounded Christ-centered teaching. Kids are welcome in services; worship bags are available; and Kids' Crew meets during the discipleship hour at 9:30 AM. Online giving is handled through Realm, the church's online ministry tool, which also serves as the directory, event registration hub, and giving statement center. A weekly email sign-up keeps members current on events, and a YouTube channel hosts the live-streamed and recorded services.
Trinity Lutheran Church and School began in 1981 when a handful of families gathered for worship in a local elementary school, dedicated its first building in 1984, opened its school in 1993, and has grown into a community of more than 175 families from South Parker, East Castle Rock, and the ranches around Franktown. The story is still being written, on the same forty acres, with the same conviction that the relentless grace of Christ is best lived out together.