Trinity Church, Burke Staffing Update
Dear friends,
It has been a LONG while since I have written here on this substack. Church plant updates have mostly come by way of our weekly newsletter, and preaching 50 times in the last year has kept me busy writing (you can find many of those sermons here).
That being said, we are moving into a new season at Trinity Burke, and I thought this update worth sharing.
Here is what we wrote in our parish newsletter:
Dear Friends,
Last October, when we hit our one-year mark as a church, the Advisory Team (Seth Middleton, Allison Niebauer, and Ashley Campana) and I began praying and planning for our next season as a church. We grew significantly in our first year, just about doubling in size, and our finances were in a strong position. We anticipated our church growing to a point where I would not be able to provide the necessary support to our growing, lay-led ministries. We decided to hire a Parish Administrator in winter of 2025, and to begin planning for the possibility of hiring additional clergy help for the fall of 2025.
In March, Lourdes (our wonderful Music Director), let me know that she would need to transition out of her role at Trinity in June. Her growing opportunities as a professional cellist and the requirements of the non-profit she founded and leads (StringTime) were leaving her spread too thin. And so we (the Advisory Team and myself) quickly put our heads together, and we’re delighted to share the way the Lord has provided for Trinity for this next season of our life together.
Mike Tabb will be joining the Trinity staff team as our first volunteer staff member in the role of Parish Administrator. He’ll help with the coordination of volunteers and events and some of the myriad small details that have been living in my head for far too long. We are so grateful for Mike’s willingness to help us organize our life together!
As we mentioned in our last all parish meeting, we are at a growth inflection point that has made hiring new staff a question of when, rather than if. After prayerful reflection as an Advisory Team, and with the council of diocesan church planting coaches and leadership, we have decided to move forward with several new hires.
We are delighted to share that Matt and Liz Desmarais will be joining the Trinity staff team. Some of you may know Matt and Liz from prior stints on the staff at Truro Anglican, our sending church. The Desmaraises will move to Burke the first week of July, and their first Sunday at Trinity will be July 6th. Please keep their transition in your prayers!
Liz will be joining as a two-thirds time Director of Worship and Operations. She’s an experienced worship leader, and has previously worked in operations for a non-profit, a Christian camp, and at Truro. She’ll lead and grow our worship team while helping us develop the systems necessary for Trinity to grow both deep and wide.
Matt will be joining as full-time Clergy Associate (Associate Pastor). He was ordained to the priesthood this past fall, and currently serves as the Director of Student Ministries at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Raleigh. He’ll help me (Mike+) in the work of “equipping the saints for the work of ministry” (Eph. 4:12) by supporting our lay ministry leaders and nurturing our life and ministry together here in Burke. Matt has a passion for growing leaders and walking alongside people of all ages as they explore faith in Jesus. He and Liz are very excited to join the Lord’s work here in Burke!
You may be asking: “Can Trinity afford this?” The answer is a contingent yes. We already have Liz’s position budgeted for 2025, so no problem there. We did not have a full-time associate pastor in our 2025 budget. In our last all parish meeting, we asked you to purposely consider increasing your giving in order to support our eventual hiring and move to a new rental space. Thanks to your continued and increased generosity, our income has exceeded our budget in the first quarter of 2025. If the recent giving numbers hold in months to come, we will have at least half of what we need to pay a second priest out of our giving, and will fund the remaining from our reserves. We expect giving to continue to grow as Trinity grows, and we currently have more than enough in reserves to cover the difference for at least two years without compromising our long-term financial outlook or losing our flexibility regarding rental space.
We have been so encouraged by the generosity of our parish – Trinity truly is an exceptionally generous church – and we trust the Lord will continue to provide all that we need to do the work he has given us to do here in our little pocket of Northern Virginia, both in terms of people, finances, and buildings. To God be the glory!!
Your friends and partners in Christ,
Rev. Mike Seawright and the Trinity Advisory Team (Seth Middleton, Allison Niebauer, and Ashley Campana)