Tradewind Community Church's story, you might say, begins on the second Sunday of September in 2019.
That's the day the church began weekly worship services – "Launch Sunday," as it was called – in the cafetorium of Tradewind Elementary School in Amarillo, Texas.
The school filled up with about 150 people on that first Sunday, including many from the Tradewind neighborhood, to sing together, hear a sermon (from Mark, chapter 1), pray, and encourage each other. A new church had begun!
Of course, TCC’s story actually begins some 18 months prior to that first weekly church gathering on September 8, 2019.
TCC is a church start of South Georgia Baptist Church in Amarillo. More than 30 members from SGBC’s congregation were sent to "plant" TCC following an 18-month church-planting process. SGBC is TCC's "sending church," and it continues to support TCC.
Prior to September 8, 2019, SGBC's church planting team spent months in preparation – praying, choosing a church name, and establishing important values.
Of "first importance" at TCC – the Gospel of Jesus. TCC exists primarily to make known the Good News that God loves and saves sinners from eternal death and gives them eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Before "Launch Sunday," TCC hosted several community events, distributed thousands of invitation door hangers, and gathered for three "preview" church services at the school.
The culmination of those "pre-launch" efforts arrived on September 8. The church has gathered regularly since that day.
In the past five years, TCC has baptized 40 people (in a six-foot galvanized stock tank), welcomed more than 60 members (meet some of them here), and continued to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus, while seeking to love and serve the people in the Tradewind neighborhood.
In five years, TCC has gathered in six different locations.
Tradewind Elementary School — the largest elementary school campus in Amarillo — was location No. 1. TCC rented the school each week, transforming the cafetorium into a worship center. Lunch tables were turned into "pews," and the school's library, music room, and hallways became areas for kids classes.
TCC started as a “mobile church”: All church equipment and supplies were loaded in and out of a large trailer each week.
Within six months of launch Sunday, TCC had baptized eight people and added several from the neighborhood as new members.
In March 2020, however, the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered most public gatherings — including church services for TCC in the school.
TCC adapted by providing an online "Home Worship" Sunday church experience, which continued for 12 weeks — including on Easter Sunday in 2020. (See a sample of “Home Worship” here.) "Home" was location No. 2.
Then, in mid-June 2020, even as the pandemic continued, TCC began gathering in the north parking lot (location No. 3) of Tradewind Elementary School.
Each week, TCC set up a small collapsible stage in the lot; the church's trailer was used as a backdrop. Church-goers parked in the lot and could tune their vehicle radios to 100.3 FM (TCC broadcasted on an FM transmitter) to hear the church service (and occasionally honk in approval!).
These outdoor church services (called "Parking Lot Worship") continued through early 2021. (The church was allowed to gather in the school for about six weeks in the autumn of 2020 before pandemic restrictions caused the church to return outdoors, or go online, for services during the winter.)
On Easter Sunday in 2021, the church met in Tradewind School Park (location No. 4), and the church continued to gather there weekly until returning to the school cafetorium in late May 2021.
But a change in school system policy meant the church would need to find a new space to gather by mid-August 2022. TCC spent the first half of that year prayerfully seeking God's direction for where the church might move.
TCC's final Sunday in Tradewind Elementary School was August 14, 2022. And for the next four Sundays, TCC met for church in its most unique setting yet – at the nearby Tradewind Airport! (Location No. 5!)
Tradewind Airport (after which the Tradewind community is named) offered to let TCC gather in one of its large hangars for free for one month.
Then, on September 18, 2022, TCC made its next (and last, to date) location change. The Shop Event Venue, a facility just minutes from the Tradewind neighborhood, provided the church with an ideal space for church, with a large room for the worship service, areas for kids classes, and even storage for equipment and supplies.
Learn more about Sundays at TCC (including a map to The Shop Event Venue) at tccamarillo.com/sundaysattcc.
TCC is distinctly local – it really is the Tradewind community's church.
The church was established with the aim to meet, love, serve, and tell the Gospel to a particular part of Amarillo: Tradewind.
The church's longstanding relationship with Tradewind Elementary School has only enhanced the opportunities to connect with the community.
TCC has partnered with the school to provide school supplies to all kids for the past six school years, to support teachers and staff, to serve as crossing guards in the mornings, to volunteer at school events, to provide weekend food for kids on the campus through the Snack Pak 4 Kids program, and to pray for the campus regularly.
In 2023, TCC hosted its first Trunk or Treat event on Halloween night in the east parking lot of the school. The event – which distributed free candy from more than 25 cars – welcomed hundreds from the neighborhood. (A 2024 Trunk or Treat event is being planned!)
The nearby Tradewind School Park also has become one of the church's favorite places to be.
Aside from gathering in the park for church in early 2021, the church hosted its first community event – its Community Easter Festival – there in 2019. (And three subsequent Community Easter Festivals, too!)
Other park events have included back-to-school parties, movie nights, and water game events for kids.
TCC believes that God designed people for togetherness, and that the Gospel compels God's people to care for one another in meaningful ways.
If TCC can pray for or support you in some way, contact the church here.
“The Bible is the best thing we’ve got” is an oft-repeated phrase at TCC, and it’s true.
TCC believes the Bible is the perfect Word of God – His true, good, and living revelation. So, TCC opens it frequently, reads it joyfully, and trusts it wholeheartedly!
You'll find Bibles set out on seats on Sunday mornings, ready for using. TCC reads from the Bible each Sunday morning, and all sermons are Bible-based.
And even before TCC began meeting weekly for services on Sundays, the church gathered for Bible studies, opening God's Word in groups that met in homes in the Tradewind neighborhood. (Register for a current Bible study here!)
TCC's "Year in the Bible" project – spanning all of 2022 – led the church to read, study, and love God's Word from January through December. The effort included a series of "teaching seminars." And sermons preached throughout that year coincided with a year-long Bible reading plan designed specifically for TCC.
Learn more about what TCC believes here.
TCC has marked so many other milestones – some obvious and others subtle but meaningful – throughout its first five years.
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TCC officially constituted as a church in 2021, celebrating with SGBC at a special combined church service on September 12, 2021.
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Since moving to The Shop Event Venue, the church has welcomed more than 50 first-time visitors on Sundays.
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Members elected the church's first two deacons in 2023 and ordained them in January 2024.
And as TCC approaches its five-year mark, the church is expectant!
What will God do through His church in the Tradewind community in the next five years? Who will He lead from eternal death to eternal life through the Gospel? How many will the church have the privilege of baptizing? Who will become new church members? In what new ways will the church be able to serve and care for and love its neighbors?
TCC is expectant – and so grateful. It is a joy to participate in what God is doing in and through His church!
TCC's Five-Year Celebration is set on September 8, 2024, at The Shop Event Venue, 1585 S.E. 58th Ave.
All are welcome that day for breakfast at 9:30 a.m., followed by a special church service at 10 a.m.
Learn more here: https://link.tccamarillo.com/5years.