Church Without Walls on Lake Drive
Trinity United Methodist Church sits at 1100 Lake Drive SE on the east side of Grand Rapids, just south of the East Hills neighborhood, where it has been a steady presence for generations. Pastor Mike C. Desotell, who arrived in Grand Rapids after seven years of parish work in Ypsilanti and Canton, leads a congregation that has chosen a name for itself and lives by it: Church Without Walls. "An inclusive community extending God's love," reads the tagline on the sign out front, and the rest of the building, from the choirs to the classrooms, the gym, the kitchen, and the long list of community partners, is built around that single idea.
Rev. Mike's welcome from the front of the sanctuary sets the tone. "To the baptized and not baptized, welcome. To the doubters, the believers, and the doubting believer, welcome. Welcome if you are female or male, black or white, rich or poor, young or old, or anywhere in between. Welcome no matter who you love or who loves you. Welcome all to this community of worship and service." Trinity is also a long-time member of the Reconciling Ministries Network, the well-known caucus of United Methodist congregations that publicly affirm LGBTQ members, and the congregation's own hospitality statement declares full participation "regardless of gender, race, national origin, physical or mental ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status or economic condition." It is the kind of welcome that shows up plainly: at Trinity, ALL truly means ALL.
Sunday Morning at 10 a.m.
One worship service gathers the whole church at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday, in person, on Zoom, and on YouTube, and the building stays busy in the hours around it. Members and visitors stream in beginning at 9:30 a.m. for coffee, tea, water, bagels, and fruit in the parlor behind the sanctuary, and many carry their cups into worship. The service itself runs 60 to 75 minutes and is, in the church's own word, truly blended. On any given Sunday a visitor might hear a contemporary song from the praise band, a classical anthem from the twenty-voice Chancel Choir, a hymn backed by the 1978 Casavant pipe organ, the Children's Choir singing from the front pews, and the handbell choir ringing from the balcony. The offering is collected during a musical response, worshipers walk to the front and place their gifts in a basket, and connection cards travel the same route so no one has to feel awkward about giving online or not giving at all.
Trinity celebrates an open table at Holy Communion, which means no one has to be a member of Trinity, or of any church, to receive the sacrament. The communion bread is one hundred percent gluten free. There is no dress code beyond wearing clothes; the pastor typically preaches in khakis and a t-shirt, and jeans are common in the pews. Parking is split across three lots and the street. The large lot west of the building, off Calkins Avenue, is for general use; the Lake Drive lot on the north side of the building and the small lot to the south are reserved on Sundays for people with mobility needs. If Grand Rapids Public Schools close for bad weather, Trinity's weekday events close with them, and any Sunday cancellations go out through the church's Facebook page, WZZM, WoodTV, the church's own online channels, and email.
Children are welcome to stay in worship. A Prayground at the back of the sanctuary gives fidgety kids a place to play quietly while the sermon continues, and noise from young ones is openly embraced. A staffed nursery, coordinated by Kristen Gifford and run by background-checked paid staff and volunteers, is open every Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. from September through May, and from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in summer. On the 2nd through 5th Sundays of the month, kids in Pre-K through 2nd grade can leave after the children's moment for Children and Worship, a Montessori-style storytelling class upstairs, and kids in 3rd through 5th grade can choose Kids Connect, which leans into video, games, STEAM activities, and Old Testament stories. Both run 10:15 to 11:15 a.m.
The Chancel Choir, the Casavant Organ, and a Blended Sound
Music is one of the things Trinity is most clearly known for, and the building itself is part of the program. The Casavant Frères pipe organ, Opus 3380, was dedicated on October 22, 1978, replacing a Baldwin electronic from 1962, which had itself replaced a pipe organ from the 1920s. The organ has thirty-six stops, forty-nine ranks, and 2,368 pipes spread across three mahogany keyboards; the drawknobs and pistons are rosewood, and the current replacement value is estimated at over a million dollars. The Casavant is still the principal instrument of Sunday worship, and it shares that job with the Chancel Choir, a twenty-voice ensemble that leads worship every Sunday from September to early June and offers more than 120 introits, anthems, and benedictions across a season. The choir is open to anyone who wants to sing, no audition required, and its repertoire runs from eight-part motets and English Cathedral music to African-American spirituals, vocal jazz, and the kind of theatre-influenced choral work Randy Burghart, the Director of Worship Arts, prepared during his years conducting the Choral Society of Grand Rapids.
Rehearsal is built into the weekly rhythm. The Chancel Choir rehearses Thursday evenings from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. as part of Thursday Nights at Trinity, with a community meal beforehand at 5:15 p.m. and nursery care during the rehearsal from 5:45 to 7:30 p.m. Jane VanHof, a fifth-generation pipe organist, plays the Casavant, and Andrea Gay, the vocal music educator at Crestwood Middle School, directs the youth choir and handbells, which rehearses on Sunday mornings during the Faith Formation hour. Children's choir membership is open to children from Pre-K through 12th grade, members and non-members alike, and the young singers participate in worship regularly from October through May.
Children, Youth, and the Prayground
The children's ministry is built around one mission: "Showing all children the amazing love of God and empowering them to love themselves and others." Laura Johns, the Director of Discipleship, and Kristen Gifford, the Child Care Coordinator, share the load with a long bench of trained volunteers. As of the 2026-2027 program year, Sunday afternoons have picked up a new offering called Kinship Quest, an 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. gathering of Trinity Kids (Pre-K through 5th) and any interested youth that mixes gym time, games, special snacks, and the occasional service or justice project. The whole children's team, from nursery through 5th grade, is supervised under Trinity's Protection Policy, which requires background checks, in-person training, and Safe Gatherings certification for every adult who works with minors.
Youth ministry at Trinity serves 6th through 12th graders and is led by Annie Slabaugh, the Youth Director, who came to Grand Rapids from Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Traverse City. The flagship weekly gathering, called Youth Group, meets on Sunday mornings from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m. in the upstairs Pellowe Room, and the year's theme is Why Church?, a six-question walk through topics like why the Bible is still relevant, why worship matters, and why a community chooses love. There is room to play pool and video games, burn energy in the gym, and plan the next Youth Adventure, the quarterly outings that have included a Mall and Movie trip and a Clothes Relay and Roller Rink outing. Parents are encouraged to share their students' after-school schedules so Annie can show up at games and recitals, and one-on-ones are available for any youth who wants a quieter conversation.
Family programming draws all three generations together. Recurring events on the church calendar include God's Naturehood (a family version of the monthly adult walk), Fall and Winter Family Nights, an annual visit to Schwallier's Orchard in Sparta, a Greatest Advent(ure) series, a Holy Week program called From Hosanna to Hallelujah, Family Camp on Lake Michigan, a West Michigan Whitecaps outing, and Party in the Park. An annual registration packet is required for every child or youth who participates in any programming, and a separate communication consent form is available for 6th through 12th graders.
Adults, Faith Formation, and Friends of Rohr
Adult ministry is shaped by the same mission: "Showing all adults the amazing love of God and empowering them to search for truth, strive for justice, and live out God's purpose for their life." The weekly Adult Faith Formation class meets on Sunday mornings at 11:30 a.m. from September to May, and a year of programming typically includes a six-week sermon-series study, an Advent study, a Lenten book group, and a roster of guest speakers from partner organizations. Past and present offerings include The Deep End: Diving into the Book of Acts with Pastor Mike, an Incarnation: Rediscovering the Significance of Christmas Advent study, a Divine Flow: Reclaiming the Lost Art of Contemplation for Everyday Life book study, and LGBTQ+ 101 trainings with Equality Michigan.
Trinity's signature adult small group is Friends of Rohr at Trinity, known as FoRT, which meets twice a week to walk through the writings of Franciscan teacher Richard Rohr. The DBC group (Deeper, Better, Clearer) meets on Sundays from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. in the Fireside Room; the Everything Belongs group meets on Thursdays from 6:15 to 7:30 p.m. in the upstairs Library. Two other book groups fill the rest of the calendar: the Sacred Justice Book Club, hosted by the Library Team, meets quarterly on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. and has worked through titles like Radical Inclusion by David Moinina Sengeh, The Land Is Not Empty by Sarah Augustine, The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee, and My Body Is Not a Prayer Request by Amy Kenny. The Spiritalk Book Club, hosted by United Women in Faith, meets the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. and tends to lean toward fiction.
On any given week an adult Trinity member can also find themselves at Coffee and Conversation (Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. in the Parlor), the Gophers Exercise Group (Tuesdays at 9:15 a.m.), Ping Pong (Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m.), Mahjong (the first and third Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m.), Mugs and Munchkins (a caregiver-and-kids drop-in on the third Tuesday from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.), Faith on the Fly (third Mondays at 6:30 p.m.), and the Dinners for Eight monthly sign-ups. The Widow's Lunch gathers on the first Thursday of each month. God's Naturehood: Adult Edition, a monthly walking group for ages 18 and up, hits a different Grand Rapids park on Fridays from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.
Thursday Nights at Trinity
If Sunday is the front door, Thursday is the heart. Thursday Nights at Trinity, TNT to regulars, begins at 5:15 p.m. with a community meal in the gathering area, and the schedule that follows it packs most of the church's evening programming into one night. The Chancel Choir rehearses from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. with nursery care from 5:45 to 7:30 p.m. for kids 5th grade and under. The Everything Belongs small group of Friends of Rohr gathers in the Library from 6:15 to 7:30 p.m. so anyone can eat first and then head upstairs. Sign-ups for each semester's dinners are run through the church office.
TNT is also where a lot of Trinity's volunteer energy shows up. Greeters and acolytes sign up each fall and serve in teams, a children's registration table sits near the Prayground, and the Safe Gatherings platform handles the background checks and online training that every volunteer working with minors has to complete. The current sign-up season runs from September through December, with a similar window in the spring.
Kids Club, Transitions, and the Wider Neighborhood
Wednesday evenings are when Trinity's Community Ministries Program shows up most visibly. Kids Club, for children in 2nd through 5th grade, runs from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the church building. The program pairs weekly STEAM activities (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) with time in the church's own gym, a homestyle cooked meal that the kids help prepare, and a quiet hour for homework and reading. Transitions, the next step up, is built for 6th through 8th graders who have aged out of Kids Club and now attend different middle schools across Grand Rapids. The Transitions curriculum keeps an eye on grades and academic work, teaches practical life skills (cooking an egg four ways, tying a tie, changing a diaper, riding the bus, budgeting a grocery trip), and frames each lesson with a scripture quote. Both programs are free to families and run year-round.
Through its Community Ministries Program, Trinity has been a long-term partner of Congress Elementary School, supplying winter coats and hats, sending reading tutors into classrooms, supporting the school health center, and bringing the John Ball Zoo education team in for hands-on science days. The church is a recipient organization of Access of West Michigan's Walk for Good Food, which helps fund the homestyle meals that Kids Club and Transitions are known for; a pilot breakfast program for students in the tutoring program is part of the same effort. The "seen" Project, a special-needs advocacy program run out of Community Ministries, works to put positively representative books about children with special needs into elementary school libraries across Michigan. The Just. Love. Project, started by Pauline Fuller of Greenville, pairs good-quality children's books with matching stuffed animals and channels them into underserved and under-resourced neighborhoods; Trinity helps connect the project with families in Grand Rapids. Kids Food Basket, a regional meal-packing program, is supported monthly by adult volunteers.
Trinity's formal partnership list is long and locally rooted: Clark Retirement Community, the East Hills Council of Neighbors, the GR Pride Center, Heifer Project, the Kaufman Interfaith Institute at GVSU, Reconciling Ministries Network, Scouts BSA and Girl Scouts troops, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), United Methodist Community House, Urban Roots, and the West Michigan Environmental Action Council. The Missions team also walks with a covenant relationship with Haitian Assets for Peace International, takes special Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas offerings for Red Bird Mission, United Methodist Community House, GVSU Wesley Fellowship, the Clark Home Foundation, Church World Service, and Native American Ministries, and gathers Thanksgiving food for South End Community Outreach Ministries and North End Community Ministries. NECOM Supper House, a long-running neighborhood meal program, is one of Trinity's regular service sites.
Faith on the Fly
The most unusual thing on Trinity's ministry list, by a comfortable margin, is Faith on the Fly, a fly-fishing community built around the idea that the sport itself is a sacred art. Founded out of Matthew Witkowski's outdoor ministry, the program pairs fly-fishing instruction with conversation about faith and creation, drawing on West Michigan's rivers and lakes. The tagline is simple: "We see fly fishing as a sacred art. Through this art, we connect people with a passion for the outdoors to learn this sport in the most beautiful places ever created. We are building a community, growing our faith and having fun!" The same outdoor sensibility drives God's Naturehood, the family and adult walking programs that visit a new park each month.
A Progressive Welcome Inside the United Methodist Church
Trinity is a member congregation of the United Methodist Church, and the church's mission statement is the denomination's own: "To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." For its own vision, Trinity says it "strives to be an inclusive faith community that extends God's love in our neighborhood and world." When it comes to doctrine, Trinity is candid about the limits of labels. "If we had to put a label on it, we would call Trinity a progressive community. But that doesn't mean that moderates or conservatives would be unwelcome. We take that ALL MEANS ALL thing seriously." The Core Values list Diversity and Inclusiveness ("Seeking to affirm every person as a child of God"), Scripture, Tradition, Experience and Reason ("Searching for truth in our faith community"), and Peace and Justice ("Striving for positive social change in our neighborhood and world").
Pastor Mike, who has a long track record in youth ministry and holds a Master of Divinity from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, hosts a weekly podcast on Spotify (RevCast) and keeps a sermon blog. The church's regional body is the Michigan Conference of the United Methodist Church, which is also where the Safe Gatherings background-check service used by Trinity's Protection Policy is recommended.
Safeguarding, Practicalities, and the Parish Office
Trinity updated its Protection Policy in August 2026, and the policy is treated as a working document. Every staff member and volunteer who has significant contact with children, youth, or vulnerable adults is required to complete an application, pass a background check through Safe Gatherings, take an online abuse-prevention and boundary-awareness course, and attend Trinity's in-person training once every three years. Drivers who transport minors also complete a separate Volunteer Driver Application. The whole congregation is invited to the in-person training, which is held once a year in late August.
Trinity's main office is open Monday through Wednesday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and closed Thursday and Friday. The Community Ministries Office can be reached at (616) 456-7260. The church office line is (616) 456-7168, and the general email is office@grtumc.org. The Trinity Guide, the fall and spring program flyers, and the current Trinity in Touch newsletter are all kept on the church's resources pages; printed copies sit near the church office. Weddings, both members' and guests', and funerals are scheduled through the church office, and baptisms are arranged the same way, with no membership requirement. The building itself can be rented for parties, classes, and other gatherings by contacting the office.