Some church history lives in buildings and business meetings. Some of it lives in nicknames.
In the 1970s, Trinity Baptist Church had a church activity bus affectionately called “the White Goose.”
The anniversary book records that the pastor reported the first Church Activity Bus had been secured and was awaiting overhaul. That bus had been donated to the church by Joe Herndon.
By June 12, 1974, the Deacons recommended that the church purchase a new activity bus. The old bus, known as the White Goose, had “seen its best days.” A committee was appointed to recommend and purchase the bus following the church’s approval.
It is a brief entry, but it gives us a glimpse into the active life of the congregation.
A church activity bus meant people were going places together. Students, adults, choirs, mission groups, and fellowship groups all need transportation when ministry moves beyond the church parking lot. The bus was a practical tool, but it also became part of the church’s memory.
The fact that it had a nickname tells us something, too. People do not usually nickname things that do not matter to them. “The White Goose” sounds like the kind of name that came from use, affection, and probably a few stories that would be better told around a fellowship table than written in official minutes.
The book does not give us all those stories. It simply records that the bus had served the church, that it had worn out, and that the church made plans to replace it.
Even so, the entry belongs in Trinity’s larger story. In the 1970s, the church was growing in activity, fellowship, youth ministry, and long-range planning. Buildings mattered, but ministry was not confined to buildings. Sometimes making room for ministry meant classrooms and fellowship halls. Sometimes it meant transportation.
The White Goose reminds us that church life is made up of both major milestones and ordinary tools used faithfully.
A bus may not seem like much compared to a sanctuary or education building. But for the people who rode it, drove it, loaded it, waited for it, laughed on it, and traveled together because of it, the White Goose was part of the journey.
Read More in 70 Years at Trinity
This story was drawn from 70 Years at Trinity: February 5, 1956 – May 3, 2026, prepared in celebration of the seventieth anniversary of Trinity Baptist Church.
For more about Trinity’s first Church Activity Bus and “the White Goose,” see page 25 of the anniversary book.
