Case Study
Trinity Church in Fuquay-Varina, NC is a small church with a bright future. Unlike many of the churches we discuss in this paper, the church is located in a rapidly growing town. In fact, FuquayVarina more than doubled in size from the 2010 census to 2021 (17,937 people to 36,736, respectively). The town itself is the result of a 1963 merger of two previous towns that covered much of this formerly agricultural land. Its recent population growth is largely due to the growth of the towns surrounding the Research Triangle Park area in the state’s Piedmont region, a major metropolitan area buttressed by the cities of Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill, Trinity Church sits on South Main Street, an important regional thoroughfare also known as State-Route 401. In addition to a strategic location next to a busy road, Trinity’s neighborhood across the street is building 8,000 new homes and the town has added two new schools in recent years.
The church community is poised for serious growth, if for no other reason than local demographic trends. But the leadership of Trinity is not interested in waiting for new families to come waltzing in the door. Instead, they’ve undertaken several initiatives to improve their outreach and engagement with parishioners and newcomers alike.
One of their most successful initiatives thus far was their 2021 Blessing of the Animals information. In one area they set up a photo booth so pets and their owners could take pictures together, while food trucks lined up in the parking lot. Though the parish’s average attendance hovered in the upper thirties to low forties for many years, more than 200 guests attended this event. This event was a major production, but it had excellent
service. This service took place on a Sunday afternoon, resembling something closer to a community festival than a typical Blessing of the Animals service. The church invited vendors who had anything to do with pets and animals (e.g., pet rescues, pet acupuncturist, local veterinarians, etc.) who set up shop to provide services to the animals and their owners. They also had several prize giveaways, and one major prize, to entice people to leave their contact outreach value.
Another important initiative, as with many of the parishes working with TryTank, took the form of their text-outreach program. Of all the members for whom this parish had contact information and to whom they reached out via text, only 15% opted-out of the text messages. Additionally, several members who had stopped coming or had come only infrequently started returning to the church and claimed that the text ministry was a key factor in getting them back in the door.
So far, more than 12 families have joined Trinity over a six month period representing a major increase for such a small parish. With a new rector in place (the Rev. Bob Henderson arrived in spring, 2022), enthusiastic lay leadership, and a booming local population, the only limiting factor in Trinity’s possible growth over the next few years may be their building size. Fortunately, they’ve decided to address indoor size limitations by forming a Building Committee to plan and prepare for major additions to create more classroom, office, and parish gathering spaces. Trinity Church in Fuquay-Varina has a perfect combination of motivated leadership and local demographic growth—two critical components of church growth for the years ahead.