About

Trinity Presbyterian Church began in 1984 when several families who had been meeting together for weekly Bible study began a regular worship service, initially meeting in a member’s home and then a downtown office. With an increasing appreciation and love for the Reformed faith, they recognized the need for a good pastor with compatible views on key issues such as Christian education, cultural engagement, Creationism, and weekly Household Communion. After hearing of a solidly Reformed pastor named Michael Schneider, and after several visits, ‘Mickey’ and his family moved from St Paul Prebyterian in Jackson, Mississippi to Florida to labor as our founding pastor. The summer of 1986 found Pastor Schneider in Trinity’s pulpit - at that time only a shaky wooden podium in the choral room of Ruckel Jr. High School, where 14 families met for worship. As the congregation began slow but steady growth, they soon moved to "larger facilities" - the school lunch room - and later to an annex at Twin Cities Hospital where they met for several years of great preaching, wonderful fellowship, and continued growth in the Reformed faith.

After saving for some years to buy their own building, in 1991 God enabled Trinity’s congregation to purchase the old Valparaiso City Hall, necessarily remodeled extensively over the years to accommodate church growth. Two additional building lots were purchased with the need for a larger facility in mind, and by 2004 plans were underway for a new building. In 2006, an Administrative Building was completed, as well as a large Fellowship Hall complete with a modern kitchen. Regrettably, rapidly escalating prices precluded completion of an adjoining sanctuary until a later date, requiring the old ‘city hall’ having to serve additional years.

With Pastor Schneider’s expected retirement at age 70, a pastoral search committee labored to find his replacement. After mutually edifying visits, the church celebrated as Ben Rossell and his family moved from Maryland to the piney woods of north Florida, with ordination and installation as Trinity’s new pastor in April 2013. In 2021, with membership approaching 200, a building committee laid the groundwork for the long-awaited completion of Trinity’s facilities.

Events now progressed rapidly, with church services temporarily moved to the Fellowship Hall in July 2022, our old sanctuary somewhat sadly removed, and ground broken on a much-improved and architecturally-relevant new sanctuary.  In the months that followed, Trinity’s families, both young and old, watched as the new building took shape, eagerly awaiting the day worship began in the new sanctuary.  The first Sunday morning worship service was held in the new sanctuary on October 8th, 2023.  We now look back with amazement and gratitude for all the Lord has allowed us to accomplish, as we also look forward with joyous anticipation to the future.