TRINITY Family Church broke the norm of worshiping in the conventional church setting when it held a worship night event which took place at the Bluff Showgrounds on December 14.

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The outdoor gathering brought together families, youth and worshippers from diverse backgrounds in one act of reverence. Pastor Malcolm Nair, a pastor at Trinity Family Church, said the worship night showed that there was a longing to create an environment that facilitates connection with one another in a worshipping setting.

The inspiration

Nair said the vision to conduct outdoor worship was a very personal journey that originated out of his experiences as a pastor and a musician.

“I am pastor child, so I was exposed to music from a young age as a way to serve. As the years passed, that passion grew, and eventually, I started leading the music team for our church. For me, music has always been more than just an ability, it has become the means by which worship, service and unity happen,” explained Nair.

The idea for the outdoor night came from a trip to Cape Town, when they had advertised for something called “forest worship”.

“It was not the setting that hit me, but the diversity of the crowd, especially the youth. It hit me that the youth were largely in attendance. For someone who has a burning passion for oneness, that particular instance ignited something in me. I immediately felt that that was something that we needed to share with the people of Durban,” he said.

This vision rapidly took off. The church’s initial outdoor worship service drew nearly 300 people, showing the hunger in the community for events like this.

He added that is hopefully the start of a long-term dream of establishing unity within the community. “Although there we met all the goals for this day, there is a much broader, progressive, and continuous vision,” he said.

Nair also thanked those people involved in making this happen.

“I would like to extend a special thank you to the team of people who got behind this project and put in countless man-hours of hard work, as well as to our community for answering the call to worship through song. We all knew that this project had never been about us; rather, and only about God,” he explained.

The community can hopefully expect more events like this in the future.

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