About Us

 All Are Welcome.

No matter who you are or what your story is, we welcome you with unconditional love – exactly how Jesus does. Whether you’re a longtime churchgoer, someone in the midst of deconstructing their faith, or an individual exploring this whole Jesus thing for the first time, we are excited to have you join us here at Trinity!

Trinity United Methodist Church is an open, affirming, and inclusive faith community located in Midtown KCMO. We welcome people of all sexual orientations and gender identities into the full life and leadership of the church. As a member church of the Reconciling Ministries Network, we actively work toward full equality for all people in the United Methodist denomination, ensuring that everyone can serve as an ordained minister and be married in United Methodist churches.

 Trinity’s Values

Inclusive Hospitality

Welcoming all persons, celebrating the worth, dignity and gifts of every person as a child of God.

Reconciliation

For us, reconciliation means restoring relationships on an interpersonal level and a societal level. It also means restoring relationships with those who have been harmed by the Church.

Service + Justice

We serve our community because people are hurting and have needs that must be met today in order to survive through tomorrow. We also practice justice because we know that without systemic change, people will keep on hurting and have the same needs tomorrow.

Authentic and Creative Worship

We challenge ourselves to be dynamic and creative in worship, embracing a variety of musical traditions and avoiding the boxes of “contemporary” or “traditional.” Although we strive to grow across all worship arts, worship at Trinity is not a mega-production. We are communing with God but we are also human, which is what gives our worship services an authentic feel.

United Methodist Beliefs

Trinity is a United Methodist Church (UMC). United Methodists share a common heritage with all Christians, but what we’d highlight more than anything about Methodism is our understanding of grace: As United Methodists, we believe that grace is the undeserved, unmerited, and loving action of God in human existence through the ever-present Holy Spirit. While the grace of God is undivided, it precedes salvation as "prevenient grace," continues in "justifying grace," and is brought to fruition in "sanctifying grace." Watch Pastor Tino’s sermon “Rooted in Grace” for an introduction to a Methodist understanding of Grace.

Check out the “What We Believe” page of the UMC website for a comprehensive look at what our denomination believes, our Wesleyan heritage, our Social Principles, and for more on a Wesleyan understanding of grace. The United Methodist Church is a worldwide church! To learn more about how Trinity fits into the global church structure, check out this document, The Road to General Conference.

How We Interpret Scripture

  • Like other Christians, United Methodists believe that Scripture is the primary source and measure for Christian beliefs.
  • We read Scripture within the believing community, informed by the tradition of that community.
  • We interpret individual texts in light of their place in the Bible as a whole.
  • Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we also consider scholarly research and personal insight. As we work with each text, we take into account what we’ve learned about the original context and intention.
  • While we acknowledge the primacy of Scripture in theological reflection, our attempts to understand it always involve tradition, experience, and reason, which we consider indispensable. Like Scripture, tradition, experience, and reason may become creative vehicles of the Holy Spirit as they function within the Church. They quicken our faith, open our eyes to the wonder of God’s love, and clarify our understanding.

For more, see “Theological Guidelines: Scripture” from The Book of Discipline of the UMC, 2016.

Trinity’s Story

The Beginning
Trinity formed on July 9, 1916, with the merger of Howard Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church and Hyde Park Methodist Episcopal Church. Hyde Park dated back to 1907, and Howard Memorial dated back to the mid-1880s. Trinity held our first church service in this building on September 14, 1919, with over 1,100 people in attendance!

The AIDS Crisis
Trinity has a long history of political activism and community service that has taken different shapes throughout the decades. In the 80s and 90s, Trinity responded to the AIDS crisis by becoming family to those people living with HIV/AIDS who had been disowned by their own families. Members of our congregation, often at their own professional risk, offered medical, dental, and social services. Trinity was one of the first, if not the first group in Kansas City, to have an organized care team for people with HIV/AIDS, and we continue to work, support, and raise funds for this cause through the annual AIDS Walk KC.

Reconciliation
In 1994 Trinity became the first Reconciling Church in Kansas City, MO, welcoming people of all sexual orientations and gender identities into the full life and leadership of the church. In May of 2024, 30 years after Trinity became a Reconciling Church, our denomination passed legislation that removed harmful language that prohibited LGBTQ folks from getting married or ordained.