Meet church planters Jon and Vicky Gorin of Holy Trinity Silicon Valley, California! We are delighted to celebrate the joys and struggles of their church planting experience in a technology-driven, multicultural region!
When did you first feel the call to plant/pastor a church?
I [John] had the privilege of joining a pastoral team at a large non-denominational multicultural church in 2003 following some years in tech and a year at an Anglican seminary. In 2017, during a retreat at a Benedictine monastery, my wife Vicky and I met two priests in C4SO who were planting a church in Southern California. Our hearts resonated with this idea for Silicon Valley and after talking with Bishop Todd Hunter, we began to discern God’s call to this new venture.
What excites you about engaging people in a post-Christian world, specifically Silicon Valley?
Silicon Valley offers so many variations of what is considered spiritual, real, and how a person finds meaning and significance–much of it technology driven. It is a place of noticeable disparities in wealth but also a multicultural region where over 100 languages are spoken. Starting a church that reflects Jesus in this place and in this time is wonderfully exciting!
What draws you to Silicon Valley?
We have lived here a long time and have a good sense of the high cost to one’s soul that the drivenness to achieve, innovate, be wealthy and significant exacts. There is a great need for the saints to demonstrate that life in Christ is what our souls were made for. The challenge is how to do this among our colleagues, neighbors and friends who are often buried under the pace of work or just unaware of the God “in whom we live and move and have our being.”
What are some of the needs and challenges in the city that you hope to meet?
The need we’re most aware of is for community. Very few people in Silicon Valley are originally from here. So when they come for work or school and put in long hours, it’s easy to become detached and isolated. We want to invite them to experience our church as a community who loves Jesus and consequently love them with His grace and truth. The challenge of this region is that people often only stay for a handful of years. This is particularly true of young families because of the high cost of living here.
What is your dream for what your church will look, feel and sound like?
We trust that our church is looking and feeling like what God had originally put on our heart: we are an intergenerational, multicultural community loving God, one another, and those around us through the blessings of the Anglican expression of faith with its Word, Sacrament, and Scripture. We believe there is so much from the early church that can form us today in body, soul and mind and we want to make that known in our community.
What makes ministry worth it for you?
The blessing of seeing people know Jesus and live for Him and talk about this life in Christ with others. For us, this calling is an
adventure with many challenges and joys, but also is greatly fulfilling.
Where are you in the life of your church? What is the timeline for where you want to go?
We began our core team meetings and vision casting in 2019 and held our first Sunday afternoon service in November of that year. We’ve had a weekly Sunday rhythm ever since–whether by Zoom, in the local park or back in our host church. We are presently increasing our compassion and care presence locally (adding refugee ministry) as well as looking to create more forums to engage intellectually and spiritually with colleagues and friends (Pub Night, Alpha).
Why are you excited about being part of C4SO?
The mission of C4SO to see healthy churches planted, and its growth in resourcing and encouraging us through the church planters’ cohort and other ways since we planted, are great blessings! Being part of the global Anglican Communion and seeing people drawn deeply into life in Christ through the rich tradition and experience of the Anglican expression of faith is inspiring.
How can we pray for you?
Pray for more local Christians, especially more families, to join and strengthen our body. We also have an opening for a Curate or Associate Pastor on our team. So, if we could just get a Curate with a large family… 🙂 Also, please pray every new person visiting would sense the reality of God’s love during their time with us.