A church of their own: Trinity Grace Chapel members begin services at new home in Jackson

These are exciting times for Troy Truitt, pastor of Trinity Grace Chapel and self-described bivocational preacher. The church has found a new home at 5195 Old Cape Road East in Jackson. The building was the former home of Dayspring Missionary Baptist.

The building didn't stay on the market long. Patty Main, a member of Trinity and a real estate agent, found the property for the church, "and we snapped it up before they ever got the sign out," Truitt said.

"We had been looking for a church building in downtown Cape where we have an outreach program for kids, but for some reason or another, the one we wanted just wasn't available," Truitt said.

Trinity Chapel had been renting a Seventh-Day Adventist Church on Sundays because Adventists meet on Saturdays for services.

"The people at Seventh-Day were great people, but our congregation has grown to an average of about 60 people per weekend and 20 to 30 kids. So we needed the space and a place of our own," Truitt said.

The Rev. Troy Truitt welcomes people to the first service at Trinity Grace Chapel.

It didn't take long for them to decide that this was the place they wanted.

"We looked around the place for about 45 minutes and then took a vote. We closed on Friday and had our first service on Sunday. It just seemed to fall into place for us," Truitt said.

Trinity started in Truitt's living room in 2003 after he left another church with about 25 people with him.

"There were some politics that I didn't think fit with my mission," Truitt said.

Though Trinity Grace Chapel is denominationally Pilgrim Nazarene, "the church functions as a nondenominational family," Truitt said.

"We've got people from all walks of life and every kind of church background," Truitt said.

Truitt also owns his own construction company, which is what makes him bivocational. He was raised in the construction business in Oklahoma City, and he said it makes sense for him to work part time building in the world and part time evangelizing to the world.

"I'm a contemporary preacher, but our church is a loving family that sings traditional hymns and has reached out to the poorer neighborhoods of downtown Cape. We're not leaving those kids just because we're moving buildings," Truitt said.

The church meets in the new building at 10, 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday; there is Bible study at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.