Construction is underway on both the traditional main entrance of Trinity Lutheran on Seventh Street (shown here) and the more visible Eighth Street parking lot view.
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
By this time next year, Trinity Lutheran Church will have turned its face toward Eighth Street, welcoming worshipers and guests into an airy new atrium. Behind that new Trinity Commons, they’ll witness a venerable Moorhead landmark reimagined and reborn for the 21st century, 140 years after early settlers held their first service in the bare-bones house of worship they’d struggled to build.
The new structure is the centerpiece of the current construction project drawing the attention of curious passers-by – phase 1-B of a $13.9 million project to breathe new life into one of the city’s oldest and largest congregations. The physical improvements have been underway since 2019. But planning for the transformation of the landmark church complex has been underway for at least seven years.
The ambitious plan to bring new vibrancy to the church that has served some 4,000 members since 1951 began in 2017, according to Rev. Simon Fensom. He joined the congregation as its senior pastor 10 years ago.
“The congregation recognized that our facility was doing many things right, but needed to take a look at our facility, particularly in terms of accessibility,” the British native reports. “That was our biggest challenge. We operated on 14 different levels, only nine of which were accessible to people with mobility difficulties.
“There was just a lot of brick. Some members understood that others in the community saw it as something of a fortress, especially for those entering on the east side, filled with a maze of dark, confusing hallways.”
Rebuilt in 1951 after fire destroyed its previous structure, Trinity’s main entrance has always faced Seventh Street. But on-street parking there was limited; the addition of a large lot to the east meant that many churchgoers come in through what’s essentially the back door. They must walk through what Fensom describes as “a myriad of tunnels” to get to the sanctuary. “Frankly, we sometimes find people wandering around after a wedding or a funeral, trying to find their way out,” he smiles. “And everything had grown dated and was showing its age.” In particular, he says, that applied to the aging HVAC system, with its three temperamental boilers that needed to be nursed along through the winter.
“If you grew up in this church, as they added on and added on, all this seems perfectly normal. For those not so familiar – not so much.”
Creating a vision for the future, he says, began with organizing “dream teams” of members. “We had six or seven groups thinking about different angles – hospitality, administration, facility management and more,” the pastor report. “We have tremendous resources in our membership. These are smart people!”
The plan that’s been unfolding over the last two years was developed by members on those committees, dubbed “Light Groups” in honor of the mission statement they chose: “Called To Be a Light.” Their vision was clear: To fill the church complex with light and a sense of welcome, reconfiguring its spaces into flexible multi-purpose areas to accommodate both the church’s needs and the dozens of community organizations that gather there.
What emerged from their deliberations has been perhaps the most ambitious reimagining in the church’s history. Its block between Seventh and Eighth Streets, bounded by Second and Third Avenues, included three distinct structures, including the sanctuary (with the city’s first day care housed in its basement), the parish education building constructed in 1949, and the Christian Life Center, added in 1991.
“The vision was wonderful. But the cost was ginormous – almost $14 million,” Fensom says. “We considered moving out to a new location but quickly discarded that. Trinity is, and has always been, a downtown church.” That role, he says, is central to the church’s mission. As a part of that, the church intentionally welcomes community groups into its facilities. Prior to COVID, the pastor says, 28 nonprofit organizations used its spaces. That number fell during the pandemic, but has been growing again. “This is going to be a space for the community. We welcome them,” he stresses, adding that the church doesn’t charge for their use.
Facing what at first seemed like a nearly insurmountable financial challenge, the congregation stepped up to the challenge. Campaign leaders settled on a two-stage project. The first phase began with a fund-raising campaign in 2019; construction began in 2021 and was complete by July 2022. Among its biggest benefits are new quarters for Trinity’s preschool and youth activities. Instead of the dark basement where preschool had been housed since its inception in 1969, the preschool, children and youth ministries now occupy bright, airy and safe rooms on the second floor of the education building.
That phase’s $4.9 million price has been fully covered by donations. Most of the money for 1-B, the work now underway, is also pledged or in hand; about $2 million of the $9.1 million budget remains to be raised.
The work that’s fascinating drivers along Eighth Street began last February. The old parish education building has been demolished. In its place, crews are constructing Trinity Commons, a new two-story structure joining the worship areas on either end of the complex. It will become the main entrance and central gathering space for the congregation and its guests, with glass walls and plenty of space intended to (according to the project prospectus) enable “our outward appearance [to] better tell the story of our personal, inward spirit of welcome and love so more people will take the step to be part of us and share in what we do.”
The main floor will include spaces and furnishings for people to get to know each other. There will be a coffee bar (“We’re Lutheran, after all,” the pastor smiles) and a gallery of art with meaning and purpose. Towering windows will admit a flood of light. At the same time, the asbestos that infuses the present building is being removed to support a safer and healthier environment.
For the Trinity congregation, taking on the huge challenge of rethinking their entire campus has been a continuation of the spirit that has propelled the church for 142 years. The landmark structure now being remodeled is the fourth in the congregation’s history. Even as flames were billowing from the previous facility’s roof in 1950, the church council was meeting at the parsonage – setting the pattern for what would be the greatest outpouring of support the congregation had ever witnessed.”
… until now. “Talk about stepping out in faith,” Fensom says of that moment 73 years ago, reflecting on the challenge Trinity members faced back then. “Yet they achieved what may have seemed impossible at the time.
“This is our own time to step up.”
