About Us

Walking in Christ as Community on Mission

Who We Are

Trailhead Church is a group of regular people learning what is means to love God and each other in a real and authentic way. You are invited to join us - whether you are a committed Christ-follower who is looking for a church home or someone who has never been to church and is curious to see what it is all about. Trailhead is a safe place to ask questions, enter into dialog, and learn more about how Jesus invites us into a new kind of life set free by love and filled with purpose.

Our Story

Trailhead Church is a daughter church of The Journey, a multi-site church in St. Louis, MO. In the spring of 2008, The Journey sent Steve Mizel, their family pastor, to shepherd a small group of people who were part of a failed church plant into becoming a new site for The Journey in the Metro East. In the next two years, the group grew in health and number, and it became clear to the leaders at The Journey that it could become an independent church. So, The Journey commissioned Steve to lead his site into becoming an independent church and Trailhead had its first independent gathering in January, 2011.

Since that start, Trailhead Church has continued to grow, pursuing its mission to be a group who are “Walking in Christ as Community on Mission.” While gathering on Sundays to worship and learn, the church meets weekly in small Community Groups to grow in their relationships with God and each other while serving their neighbors in the name and love of Jesus.

Our Future

Trailhead Church continues to be passionate about starting new churches. Steve serves as the regional church planting director for Converge MidAmerica and as an active member of the Acts 29 Network. Trailhead has had a hand in helping coach and partner with a half-dozen church planters, including sending out their own daughter church, Heights Church, in the spring of 2014.

The Bible makes it clear that the church isn’t a building. It is the people who have faith in Jesus and follow him together, living out the redemptive power of God’s work for us on the cross and in the resurrection. Trailhead is a church that has been defined by that redemptive work from its start and is made up of regular people who are learning to love God, each other and the world around them.

Our Values

Rooted in Scripture

In Acts 2, we read about the start of the church. This group grew rapidly and found themselves suddenly thrown together because of their common faith. They were a diverse community who “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers…and day by day attending the temple together” (verses 42 and 46). In this passage, we see the core values of the early church – the essential ideas that were the foundation for all that they did.

Their core values were: Truth (the Apostle’s teaching), Community (fellowship), Worship (the breaking of bread), Prayer, and Mission (met daily in temple).

Trailhead will seek to build all it does on these same core values. That means that our core values should be practice in core practices that are part of our church’s regular daily life.

Truth

The early church was devoted to “the Apostle’s teaching.” The Apostles were God’s chosen leaders of the early church and were used by God to write the New Testament. We believe that God is the measure of all that is true and right and that he has revealed himself in the written message of the Bible.

Core Practices:

We will commit ourselves to studying God’s word individually as well as in community.
We will expect to be led in our study by practical, systematic, exegetical preaching.
We will look for God’s solutions for our personal and interpersonal problems.
We will be a community of truth-tellers, but will always speak the truth to one another in love.

Community

The early church was also devoted to “fellowship.” The Greek word for fellowship (koinonia) means “mutual sharing, generosity.” The early church was devoted to sharing life together – both its experiences as well as its material wealth. God himself exists as eternal community as the trinity – eternally sharing life as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He created us in his image to need this community as well. The heart of an authentic experience of community is generosity: with our lives, talents, time, and resources. We believe that the experience of true community is essential to experiencing all the other blessings of the gospel.

Core Practices:

We will share life with other people at Trailhead, even if they aren’t like us in age, race, interests, economic status, or politics.
We will be generous with our time, abilities, and money.
We will pursue authentic transparency and real transformation, refusing to put up a fake religious front in order to impress each other.

Worship

When the text says that the early believers were devoted to “breaking the bread” together, it is speaking of what is sometimes called “the Lord’s supper” or “communion.” They were worshiping together in the way Jesus had commanded at his last supper when he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Our hearts were created by God to continually pour out worship. This explains why people end up worshiping possessions, relationships, status, or life experiences – and why they are so dissatisfied in that worship. These things take our worship and drain us dry. God is the only one worthy of our hearts’ continual outpouring of worship – the only one who will give us endless joy as we pour out endless praise to him.

Core Practices:

We will gather corporately with the express purpose of worshiping God in song, prayer, and by learning more about him in his Word.
We will celebrate communion together on a regular basis.
We will stop looking to things that aren’t God to give us the things that only God can give.

Prayer

Like every good parent, God wants us to open our hearts to him as his children and come to him with our joys and sorrows, with our achievements and our requests. He wants us to talk through our problems and questions with him so that he can help us find the truth and his hand of grace in them. He wants to unleash his power in our lives and in the lives of others – and it is often the humility of prayer that prepares our hearts for his ongoing work in us. Prayer is not the exclusive domain of mystics and monks – it is the simple practice of every child who delights in talking with his or her father.

Core Practices:

We will develop daily habits of prayer.
We will expect God to hear and answer our prayers.
We will pray for those who are sick and hurt and expect God to bring healing.
We will seek God’s face in our lives personally and for our church and expect him to give us clear guidance.

Mission

God is on mission to win back what has been lost to sin. He sent his Son to live the life we could not live and die the death we deserved to die in order to win us back. And when Jesus rose again, he entrusted the church with the message of hope that he purchased with his blood. So, we are on mission with God to share his message of love and hope so that other can come to have faith too.

Core Practices:

We will share the love of Christ in practical, sacrificial kindness and service to those outside our community.
We will share the truth of Christ in simple and honest conversation so that those far from God can be brought near.
We will serve with one another so that we can be a community on mission.

Our Culture

Sunday Morning Gatherings

You do not need to wear anything special or put on any airs to be our guest – you will fit right in if you just show up and be yourself. When you come, you will be able to grab a cup of coffee and then join us in our worship. We sing. We read the Bible. We listen to sermons that are practical and relevant. We enjoy each other’s company and love to meet new people. On your way out, be sure to visit our Connection Point to learn more about our upcoming events.

Community Groups

While our gathering is powerful and enjoyable, life change happens best in small groups where you can be known and loved. Our Community Groups are the primary place where this happens at Trailhead Church. Our community groups meet weekly on different nights of the week at various homes across our region. We also have Connect Groups for people who want to find out more about who we are and what we believe while you are getting connected to others in our church. Many who go through our Connect Groups end up joining one of our Community Groups. For more information, go to the Community Groups page.

Elders, Deacons, and Members

Trailhead is an elder-led, member-engaged church. Elders serve by leading. In the Bible, every local church is led by elders, men who are qualified, mature, and called to lead the local church. The elders are not just a decision-making board, though. They are called first to be pastors (another word for shepherds). Our Lead Pastor is Steve Mizel and he serves with an elder team who manage the care, growth, and direction of the church. Deacons (a word that means “servant”) lead by serving. Trailhead’s deacons lead a team or a team of teams who serve our church in vital ways. Elders and Deacons are part of a greater group who are members at Trailhead Church. Members are the people of Trailhead who have entered into a covenant relationship with each other to love one another, hold each other accountable, and help each other grow. Trailhead has membership classes twice a year for people who are investigating or are ready to enter into membership.

Church Planting

Trailhead is a church-planting church. We believe there is no better way to impact a local community for good than by planting Jesus-loving, gospel-preaching churches in those communities that will love and serve their neighbors. Starting new churches is part of our DNA. We were planted by The Journey, our parent church in St. Louis, and have helped around a half-dozen churches plant in our first four years, including sending out our first daughter church, Heights Church, in the spring of 2014. Trailhead serves as the regional Church Planting Center for Missouri and Southern Illinios for Converge MidAmerica and are an active part of Acts 29 Network.