What is the status of our residency program?
Why did we start a residency program?
Many of you know that I was a Lead Pastor Resident at Resurrection Church in Tacoma, ended up staying there as an associate pastor for several years, and then in 2020, they sent me to be the Lead Pastor at Trinity. It was a very formative and important part of my development and set me up to serve here for many years, Lord willing.
From the time I arrived at Trinity, the Elders and I began having conversations about launching our own residency. But why? It wasn’t only because I had a good experience with residency, though that was part of it. There were two other main motivations.
The first is that we value multiplication because God values multiplication. A young family doesn’t choose to have kids because there aren’t enough human beings on planet earth, they multiply because it’s what God commissioned humans to do—enjoy new life. In the same way, Christians and churches don’t multiply based on need, we multiply based on calling.
That being said, the other reason we wanted to start a residency was the need. There is a pastoral epidemic in Seattle. I’ll give you one example. A couple months ago I was speaking with the regional leader of the largest denomination in the US and he said that through his 12 years in Seattle, they planted 26 churches. That sounds great, right? Here’s the painful part: only 6 of these churches still exist, only 2 of which are healthy. The remaining 4 he expects to close in the next year. Why? Because it’s hard here. And often the only way to get a church to grow quickly is to have charisma that outpaces your character.
But even for those who are trying to be faithful, pastors are often lonely, isolated, plagued with church conflicts, fearful of failure, fragile in their faith. The result? Those who genuinely love Jesus and his church get weary and burnout because they haven’t been equipped with what it takes to faithfully endure through decades of ministry.
As a church, we want to, by God’s grace, take steps to change that. And by God’s grace, we are. We got a grant from Made to Flourish and started our residency program 2 years ago, with the heart of equipping faithful and healthy pastors to serve faithful and healthy churches in the Puget Sound region and beyond. For the church in the region to flourish, we need more pastors who are committed to Jesus, his church, and his mission—for the long haul.
What is the Status of our Residency?
So what is the status of our residency program today? We hired 2 residents 2 years ago—Jason Lim and Jayson Curry. Both concluded their time with us in May. I want to talk about where they are today and then answer the question of when we will hire a resident again.
What’s happening with Jason and Jayson?
We love Jason Lim! He is our friend, our brother in Christ, our co-laborer. We want good for him and believe God brought him to Trinity for a purpose. We deeply value the contributions he made to Community Group leadership, Member and Leader Development, Preaching and Teaching, and his sacrificial service (in all sorts of ways). Most of all, it has been a blessing to share life together with him as God’s family.
A few months ago, the elders and I came to a clear conviction that for him to become the healthy pastor we all want him to be, he would need to spend this season focused on resolving the separation in his marriage. We believe this is far more important and urgent than the residency program, and pursuing resolution and healing of this area of his heart and life would be most fruitful if done apart from the confines and challenges of vocational ministry.
We concluded Jason’s residency in early May with a farewell dessert where we honored him, celebrated his time with us, and answered questions. It was a difficult but important moment for Jason and for us as a church family. If you still have questions, reach out to the elders, we are eager to talk.
May also marked a huge milestone in the residency: our first resident being sent! God called Jayson Curry and his family to Grace Church West Seattle as their new Associate Pastor. He and his wife Whitney also wrote about this on our blog here and here. After our church service on May 3rd, We got to celebrate all God did in and through them at Trinity. We love the Curry family and we are glad that we still get to see them, even if we are part of different churches. We love Grace Church and it is a great blessing to get to bless them by sending the Currys to them. It is also encouraging that we now have one more faithful and healthy pastor in Seattle.
When will we hire a resident again?
Since I leave for sabbatical in a few days, we decided to put a hold on our residency until 2027, with a projected start date for our next resident somewhere between January and July 2027. Please be praying for Jason and Jayson in their respective next steps and also pray for us as we seek the Lord’s will on the timing of our next hire as well as his provision for the right candidate!
