Holy Moly Ice Cream

Trinitas Church | Phoenix, AZ
Initiative: Resources to Build Out Ice Cream Trailer
2024 Grant: $25,000 & Mentoring

Using Dessert as a Ministry Tool

For three years, Jad Levi and his wife Jaime of Trinitas Church tried to plant a church in the Phoenix area—but every time they tried, they were met with failure. Finally, they started asking different questions about the best way to live out the gospel in his community. How could their church-planting team follow God’s leading to reach people in the urban context? What if, instead of going out and inviting people into a traditional worship space, they went out to meet people as they were?

In 2018, the answers to those questions led to Trinitas Church forming a growing network of Communities on Mission (COMs), or missional neighborhoods that developed where some of the needs were greatest. Representatives from Trinitas met at the local YMCA, a women’s center, an affordable housing center, and more. The COMs laid the groundwork for the innovation that would one day lead Jad and Jaime to the creation of an ice cream truck as a mission tool.

“We consider food to be kind of a ‘holy hook’ for relational engagement,” said Jad. “One of the most effective ways to gather people is through food. In the past year, we started thinking about how we could use that hook to be both missional and profitable—creating jobs, earning money, and even funneling some of that money back into the ministry. Year ago, I had thought about creating a ministry with ice cream. That idea came back to the surface when I was talking to one of our team members, Noah, and realized he had the same vision.”

Noah Balch and his wife got involved with Trinitas Church in 2022, looking for a safe space to heal from past experiences. When he connected with Jad, he found that Jad’s heart for missional communities matched his own desire for creative, entrepreneurial mission work. Together, they developed the idea for Holy Moly Ice Cream.

With the goal of creating a gateway to relational engagement, Trinitas Church developed the concept of a Holy Moly Ice Cream: an ice cream truck that could frequent low-income areas and offer free ice cream to underserved populations—whether that’s urban youth, refugees and immigrants, or people in transitional housing. Holy Moly Ice Cream received $25,000 through the Kingdom Advancing Grant, and funds will help build out the Holy Moly Ice Cream trailer and support the launch of the initiative.

In the long term, Trinitas Church also hopes to make the trailer self-sustainable by selling ice cream at market value at farmers’ markets, events, and more—while also maintaining their commitment to offering free treats to the underserved communities that will remain at the heart of their mission.

https://tcom.life/

The Kingdom Advancing Grant supports innovative church programs and initiatives that are unique in the way they bring people closer to Jesus, that can be sustained over time, and that can be replicated by other Christian churches. Learn more about the Kingdom Advancing Grant and the Brotherhood Mutual Foundation, including the application deadline and eligibility requirements.