I announced a few weeks ago that beginning on January 22, 2023, we will begin meeting for weekly worship at Prince of Peace Lutheran School (8306 Old Keene Mill Rd, Springfield, VA 22152). I want to share a bit more detail about how we (me and the building team) came to find our new space, what I am excited about in this new space, a timeline for the move, and how you have the opportunity to help us get there.

The Search Process

Back in September 2021, when we decided to begin worshiping in the Chapel at the Springfield UMC, the former building team and I decided that if we began averaging a particular number of attendees, then we had to begin looking for a new space. In May 2022 we started averaging the number of attendees agreed upon to begin looking for a new space.

In anticipation of our attendance increasing and programs continuing to grow, we began the process of looking for a new space to worship on Sundays. The first step was to assemble a team. Our team met with me almost every other week between May and October. This team joined in prayer to discern the needs of the congregation, consider different spaces, and evaluate the best match for us. The first order of business was to create a survey that we sent out to the congregation. There were really important common themes that came from these surveys. They are illustrated in the following graphic:

To summarize, we needed to find a place where we could worship in the morning, with one service, that had two classrooms, a student ministry room, was handicap accessible, and had a great playground. It also needed to be located in the greater Franconia or Springfield area.  That is a tall order! The building team and I made a scorecard based on these desires that we used to evaluate different spaces.

There are not many churches in the Franconia or Springfield area with large chapels that are free on Sunday morning, so we looked at all kinds of spaces. We looked at hotels. These would allow for Sunday morning use, but didn't have the classrooms or playgrounds we wanted. Also, they were incredibly expensive and to rent these on Sunday mornings would have been beyond our budget. We looked at recreational centers, but discovered that these facilities do not do long-term leases. There was a private center in North Springfield, but it would have been very expensive for a congregation our size. 

We looked at private schools with their own property, but none worked out.

We considered public schools. Elementary schools were in our budget, but we were not allowed to use the kitchen, we would have a lot of setup and teardown each week, and we would have had to purchase a large cargo van to haul everything for the Sunday service each week. This might have been doable, but it was a very expensive and labor-intensive option. 

We even looked into office and warehouse spaces, which would have given us a Sunday morning option without setup or teardown, but in these options parking was a problem and we would have had to build out classrooms. The cost of building is prohibitive and the rent was really high. We needed to find something sustainable for a church our size. Where would we find a Sunday morning slot where we could have one service together and was in our budget?!?!?

While sitting at a coffee shop one morning I was thinking and praying about types of spaces and I'd wondered if there were any churches that had separate building structures for private schools that rented from them. After exploring several options that would not work I remembered that a local Lutheran church had a school. It felt like a long shot, but I called them up to see if they had a multi-purpose room and some classrooms we could use on a Sunday morning. I met their administrator who showed me around the building and I was very impressed with what I saw. The church felt very hospitable and welcoming of our church plant from the first meeting. I held my enthusiasm until I could get the building team to look at it. After a walk-through, the team unanimously said yes to this opportunity. It met all the requirements on our team's scorecard.

The Advantages of Meeting at Prince of Peace

Theological Alignment: Prince of Peace is what is part of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), and there is probably no other church that is more closely aligned to our movement (ACNA) than the LCMS. The ACNA has an ongoing dialogue with the LCMS, you can find the report here. There are differences between our churches, of course, but there is great potential for shared ministry opportunities with this church.

Space, Price, and Time: The room we will worship in is about 100 sq ft larger than the chapel and there are no pews, no chancel, and no sound booth, so we can configure the room to maximize the number of people in it. I estimate that we can fit about 80+ people and still have side aisles. The rental rate is within our budget. Even if we were to outgrow the space in a year's time, we would still be saving money so that we might find something more permanent later. We get to have an 11am service! They have Sunday school in the classrooms until about 10:20am, so we cannot move the service time earlier, but there is no rush to be out by a certain time when our service is done.

Location: Prince of Peace Lutheran Church is located three miles down the street from where we currently meet for our worship service. For some of our congregation, it is even closer to where they live! For most of the congregation, the new location is still within a 15-minute drive. Being so close to our current location means that it still serves the same geographical population that we now serve.

Storage: We will have on-site storage for our sanctuary items. They will allow us to keep a big foldable cabinet on-site for our CGS items. This would not have been true at any public school or hotel. There will be setup and tear down of the sanctuary and atrium each week, but we are working on ways to streamline this process and having on-site storage really helps.

Wow Factor: We have seen places where we looked at the classrooms that had what I've heard described as an "oh no!" factor. The multipurpose room and classrooms at Prince of Peace are bright, beautiful and clean. The bathrooms are clean. When you walk in, they have a "wow factor". It is the kind of place that visitors with children will feel safe leaving their children in the classrooms. When visitors come, we can be proud of bringing them to a beautiful space.

Space for fellowship: As we've discovered, the post-service time of eating together is very important. The new location has several great playgrounds that are gated so that kids cannot run into the street. We can brew coffee in the student room and there are several nooks with nice seating for people to sit and talk after the service. There is no rush to be out of the space by a certain time. No one else is using the spaces that we are renting after us on a Sunday. Across from the parking lot (walkable) is a huge shopping center with lots of great lunch options. There is also a coffee shop nearby if we want to have pre-service fellowship nearby.

Opportunities to help

Some of you have asked me how you can help. My staff and I created a moving plan and discovered that there are many ways for people with different skills (not just physical strength) to help us pack, organize, move, and unpack between November and January. The office and administrative-related materials will be packed in November. Materials for CGS will be packed and moved by early January. Items from the sanctuary will be packed and moved on January 15th after our last worship service at Springfield UMC. We will set up the new sanctuary followed by a dress rehearsal of sorts on Saturday January 21st.  If you are interested in helping with the moving process, please click the button below and provide your name and email.

Please pray for the move. It is a lot to move a church amidst the many other tasks of church planting. I'm grateful for such a wonderful and flexible community who is willing to undertake this process for the good of the church and for the growth of God's kingdom. Pray for wisdom as having a new service time will inevitably change some of the other rhythms we have around Formation Groups, new members courses, and confirmation classes. Pray for our last 2.5 months at Springfield UMC to be a blessing both to SUMC, to us, and to the neighborhood around where we worship.

Remember, beginning January 22, we will be worshiping at our new location: Prince of Peace Lutheran School (8306 Old Keene Mill Rd, Springfield, VA 22152) at 11am.

If you have questions, please don't hesitate to email me.

In Christ,
Morgan+