Miami Church Eyes the Future With 2020 Vision

With its Miami Gardens facility jammed to capacity with four weekend services that minister to more than 4,000 members—and with a fast-growth online campus reaching about 500 people a week—Trinity returned to its roots by reopening its original church building in September.

“We’ve been crying for space,” Wilkerson says. “My cousin, David Wilkerson, used to tell me to put all my eggs in one basket and then guard that basket with my life. He said you can never be dynamic until you become specific. So we’re reopening our original campus and we plan to launch on South Beach or midtown Miami next, God willing.”

In South Beach, seeds were sown recently when a Trinity youth conference jammed a 2,500-seat theater three nights in a row. 

Wilkerson was appointed as senior pastor of Trinity Church in 1998. Since then, the church has grown about 10 percent a year. Now the church is witnessing exponential growth, in part, via community evangelism. 

Trinity Church’s model of ministry works to help transform the lives of individuals and families in its community. First, the church addresses the physical needs for food, clothing and medical attention. That opens the door to address the spiritual condition. Then Trinity takes the next step and helps people with challenges such as job training, purchasing a home and parenting.

Nearly 200 Trinity volunteers are returning to the north Miami campus to launch the new location. In the weeks before the launch, members knocked on the doors of their neighbors, shared the gospel, prayed for the sick, and invited the lost and unchurched to come back to God’s house. Wilkerson and his staff are working to put the infrastructure in place to serve 10,000 members in weekend services.

The biggest challenge is dollars. Trinity campuses are located in inner-city areas of Miami. And although Wilkerson says his members are faithful tithers and generous givers, their income levels don’t match more affluent Miami neighborhoods. But that’s OK with Wilkerson because then, he says, God gets all the glory for growing His church.

After 18 years as an evangelist, Wilkerson is convinced that the final push for souls will come through local churches that continue to focus on reaching unchurched people. He believes God will provide grace and resources for them.

“You can go to suburbia, but give me the city. Paul was a city preacher,” Wilkerson said. “He went right to the center of where the pain was and he attacked the pain. That’s what we’ve got to do, and I see it happening across this country. Men and women who are just fearless and full of the Holy Ghost—I love them.”