LEAD PASTOR residency
Equipping faithful and healthy pastors to lead faithful and healthy churches.
The Trinity Lead Pastor Residency exists to equip faithful and healthy pastors to serve faithful and healthy churches in the Puget Sound region and beyond. This is a paid, intense, 2 year equipping program designed to teach, apprentice, and immerse the candidate in all major aspects of leading and overseeing a church. Character and competency will be developed in preaching, leadership, shepherding, discipleship, and mission.
The Resident must be called to ministry, be versatile in his skill set, creative, and enjoy working within a church culture that values being as much as doing. The ideal candidate will deeply know the Lord, be wise beyond his years, and have a passion for seeing Jesus’ church flourish.
Our Approach
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God has made his plans for his church very clear. In Ephesians 4:11-13, he gives us a picture of what a healthy church looks like—it’s one that has unity and maturity in Christ—but he also gives us a picture of what it takes to get there: various sorts of gifted leaders (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) equipping his people (the saints) for service (ministry). Local churches and the universal church will only become who we were meant to be when each part of the body is working properly, making the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. At Trinity we are committed to God’s vision for his church and deeply desire to see not only our own church thrive, but many churches thrive. This is only possible through senior leaders being equipped.
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Our Lead Pastor Residency program is designed to immerse leaders in our church community, both so they can develop their gifts to multiply ministry, but also so that leaders can experience the culture of a healthy church. We call this gospel culture: where the realities of the gospel are not only proclaimed propositional truths, but are also the lived experience of the community.
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The Christian life is holistic—we live for Jesus in every sphere of life: where we live, learn, work and play. Because discipleship is much more than just worshiping together, learning to be a Lead Pastor must include life-on-life apprenticeship in every context where we minister.
WHY?
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Being a church pastor is one of the most challenging tasks today. Fewer people than ever want to become pastors, and many of those that do are not prepared for the common struggles we face. The result? Pastors are sidelined, burned out, or disqualified. These problems are at an all-time high and pastoral instability has taken a toll on the discipleship and commitment of church members—especially in an era when so many young Christians are deconstructing their faith.
We believe the church must do better, and by God’s grace, we can. Since the biggest problems in churches are rooted in unfaithful and unhealthy leaders, if we have more faithful and healthy leaders, more churches will be faithful and healthy. The result? God’s purposes will be fulfilled on earth as it is in heaven! At Trinity, we want in on this, and we want to help you thrive as a developing lead pastor.
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Our church family meets in a historic building seated at Seattle proper's highest altitude. God has literally and figuratively allowed us to be a light on a hill and has done so through many churches who have met in this space over the past 100 years. We are a replant that by God’s grace was birthed out of the ashes of Mars Hill Church. We have learned so much from that experience—both what can create toxic culture or gospel culture, what can harm a church or nurture it to health. We believe this part of our story and our resilience through it uniquely suits us to help the next generation of pastors heal from past church wounds and avoid the pitfalls that plague the western church today. We believe that God is not through with us and have immense hope for the future of the church!
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We think there is nowhere better to get to do life and ministry than in West Seattle! This community boasts one-fifth of Seattle’s total population in a diversity of people from many different cultures, classes, countries, and colors—all on a small peninsula a few minutes drive from downtown yet geographically removed enough from the hustle and bustle that it almost feels like life on an island. West Seattle is a small town feel in an urban setting.
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Urban ministry is vital for the renewal of the church in America. Yet, this comes with a challenge, because the thing that’s so great about cities is the same thing that makes them a mess: people. All cities are in need of Jesus because all people are in need of Jesus.
Tim Keller says, “In cities you find more diversity in background, socio-economic status, worldview and ideology. More skeptics, more religions, more suffering. More everything. More image of God per square mile than anywhere else on earth.” Seattle fits this description in its own unique and amazing way. And we love Seattle for it. But Seattle is also a uniquely challenging place for Christians. We so desperately want to see the people here flourish, and yet it is a place where the majority of people reject the God who gives us abundant life.
This is why we want to be here. The mountains are gorgeous. The cultural diversity is wonderful. The food, art, and tech is exciting. The sports teams are…well…above average. But most deeply, we want to be here because we want to see Jesus’ kingdom come and will be done in Seattle as it is in heaven!
you should apply for the residency if:
You want to learn how to pastor in an urban context
You want to minister in a place that desperately needs the real Jesus but may not think they want him
You want to multiply discipleship and ministry but still need the tools and context to see it and work on it firsthand
As much as you have learned from books and seminary, you want to learn the real stuff of ministry in the church
If these things get you excited, then Trinity (and Seattle) is the perfect place for you—but be warned, you may never want to leave!
Application Deadline and residency start date
Our next cycle of reviewing applications will be once our current residents have completed the program in 2026. We are not currently interviewing but will leave applications open during this waiting period.
The next Trinity 2-year residency will likely begin July 2026. You’re encouraged to connect with us and apply ahead of time.
If that timeline doesn’t work for you, we are also a part of the Made To Flourish residency accelerator program, along with a multi-denominational group of over 50 other churches. If you would like to explore or apply for another residency at a different church, follow the link below and scroll to the bottom of the Made To Flourish page.