About Us

Greetings from Trinity, celebrating our 108th year of worship in 2022!

Trinity is one of the oldest churches in the valley and one of the oldest Lutheran churches in Southern California. Hemet's first Lutheran service was held December 8th 1904, when Mr. Neste gathered his family and neighbors for worship. Reverend Harstad officiated, having traveled from Los Angeles. For many years Trinity Lutheran was served by ministers who took the train in from Los Angeles to lead worship. They usually arrived at the Hemet train depot on Friday afternoon and left after the Sunday service. Church families took turns hosting the visiting pastors and members served as the Sunday School teachers. Because most farming families were quite large, church membership grew rapidly and Trinity's Roots deepened thanks to God's blessings.

At a Sunday school picnic on Thanksgiving Day 1913, the Hagan family announced their donation of an acre of land near Columbia and Florida Avenue. Trinity could now plan its first church building! Members performed much of the labor, work progressed steadily and before long the laborers began the final step - the tall pointed steeple. Trinity was accepted into the national Lutheran Church in 1914 and their first building was dedicated in November of that same year. Trinity Lutheran Church was born and clearly, it's steeple was the highest point in the entire Valley!

Hemet remained a small farming Community for decades, then during the 1960's and 1970's mobile home parks and other communities became a magnet for retirees. Blessed with insightful leadership over these years, Trinity grew as a traditional Lutheran church prompting a much larger Sanctuary to be built in 1966. In the 1980s a surge of young families were drawn to the area by attractive housing prices and prompted a major remodeling of Trinity's existing facility, parking area and construction of a separate building which currently houses the Community Pantry.

In 1995, Trinity gave birth to Hemet's only other ELCA Church; Spirit of Joy. Trinity continues to have a proud history of community involvement including monthly meals for Valley Restart, several outreach programs and meeting rooms for a variety of community organizations such as Al-Anon, TLC and DBSA.

Over the past century Trinity has seen a great many changes in staff and membership, but Trinity's Spirit remains strong as we are here to witness the unchanging grace and love of God!

We build on 2000 years of Christian community and 500 years of Lutheran Reformation tradition. 

We invite you to join us on Sunday for worship or during the week at one of our many learning or fellowship opportunities. We hope that we can be good neighbors to all and live a life of faithful discipleship. 

If you have any questions, please call our church office at (951) 658-5013 or email us at trinityhemet@verizon.net.