Centreville Presbyterian Church

Today we worshiped at Centreville Presbyterian Church, 15450 Lee Highway, Centreville, VA 20120, www.centrevillepres.com.

Bob’s thoughts:

With joy we found ourselves back at Centreville and were able to worship at the 11 a.m. traditional service. We were in Virginia to welcome our latest granddaughter and pleased to be able to come and thank God.

The Sanctuary was filled to about 1/3 capacity, but spread out so it seemed fuller. Centreville has some truly great Christian banners and for a worship service conducted in their Fellowship Hall, there is a good church feel.

There were accordion doors behind the choir risers and folding curtains on stage, I assume to conceal the praise band equipment. Perhaps it was just to bring focus back to the large cross.

The room has no ceiling fans, which are a waste with high ceiling space anyway.

We were blessed with an offering from the bell choir and truly blessed to be present to witness a baptism with a large family presence.

There is a large choir, about 25 people, and the music was great, especially the offering piece. However I saw no joy or passion on the faces of any of the choir members, so I felt it was more a good performance. Perhaps a reminder that they are making a worship offering would relight their passion.

The sermon was delivered by the Associate Pastor, Neil, and was presented with an outline in the bulletin.

I have always felt stewardship should be an easy topic to preach on and Neil did a very good job with generous living. I believe it is an easy subject to preach on but a hard concept for congregations to embrace. There was a survey page provided for the congregation to respond with that was well done. To feel ownership in the church people must be given the opportunity to participate. I remember a woman who was unable to attend for years but her valuable contribution was she prayed for members and staff. She had ownership. When I hear a good stewardship message I’m always tempted to send the pastor some of my writings on my stewardship walk; perhaps that is God’s nudging.

I have always felt that the Pastor/Associate relationship was exceptional at Centreville and believe there will be little change to the church’s focus with the Associate’s departure.
Jan’s thoughts:

Our family has been blessed yet again with a new granddaughter! Ashton Jade Brown was born February 17, and mom and AJ are both in excellent health! Consequently we’ve returned to northern Virginia for a few days to meet her and see the rest of our family, and so on Sunday returned to Centreville Presbyterian Church. I always look forward to worshiping there, because I know my way around, it’s very pleasing to the eye, I’m in tune with their theology, and the pastors and members are very friendly. At one point I encountered the Senior Pastor, Rob, who shook my hand enthusiastically and said, “Welcome home!” To be honest, I suppose Centreville is about as close to a home church as we have at the moment since Jill and Scott are members and Amber did her internship here for her mission/youth ministry degree, so at least some of the folks here know our family. On our way in one woman stopped us to ask about Amber’s wedding plans and Brandy’s baby. I’m not sure who she was, but she knew us.

This visit we decided to attend the 11:00 traditional service, which we’d only attended once before. Attendance was sparse at our previous visit to this service (unlike the usual packed house at the 8:30 contemporary service), but attendance was much better this time. Part of the reason could be that just last week the Associate Pastor, Neil, had announced his departure. I’m happy to know that he’s leaving to be closer to family and not due to any conflict at the church. In fact, from what I know, this pastoral relationship has been one of the best I’ve seen. I’m sorry to see him go, but as I told him, I’m certain God has something wonderful in mind for him and for Centreville.

The bulletin contains an easy-to-read Order of Worship on a folded 8.5 x 11 sheet, and announcements, updates, and calendars on yellow inserts. This week there was also another folded 8.5x11 folded sheet for sermon notes titled “The Challenge of Generosity.” Centreville is in the midst of a long-term study of giving. The sermon insert contains a memory verse (Acts 20:35 – “It is more blessed to give than to receive”), and the sermon contained ideas such as, in the end our lives will be defined by either greed or generosity, and that closed-handed, greedy living is life-draining while open-handed, generous living is life-giving. He pointed out that generous living means being generous with my time, talents, and treasure as well as (here’s the one I don’t believe I’ve heard before) with my testimony. He included the importance of telling others about what God has done in our lives, and the back page of the insert was given to a few pointers on preparing our personal testimony. That was an interesting point that spoke to me personally.

The music was well-done – I was pleasantly surprised to find they have a bell choir, and I enjoyed the presentations of the choir, which we almost never see.

There was also a “Time, Talent, and Gift” survey for each person, which gives a good indication of how much is really going on at Centreville – a lot!

It’s a good church, full of life and love for the Lord. I’ll be praying that God will lead someone exciting there to work with Senior Pastor Rob so they can keep the momentum going and that He’ll bless the members with insight in using their spiritual gifts to serve Him through this church.