Centreville Presbyterian Church

Today we worshiped at Centreville Presbyterian Church, 15450 Lee Highway, Centreville, VA 20120, 703.830.0098, www.centrevillepres.com, Rev. J. Robin Bromhead, Senior Pastor.


Bob’s thoughts:

We were in the area so we revisited Centreville. I realized that we knew this church before they built this building, so our response was not as a first time visitor, and what I noticed today was the lack of directional signage. There is a portable signpost in the Narthex and signs could be added there for the restrooms and nursery.

The multi-purpose room they are using for worship has a massive-looking wood cross, which makes a great focal point. The keyboard was playing while the Associate Pastor was speaking and made her words hard to hear/understand.

A major positive change since we visited last was the Praise Team. Seemed to be thrice as many people with good female and youth participation. Two of the girls had a great duet during the Offertory.

The sermon was delivered well and the bulletin included an outline sheet. The core thought of “How do we achieve godliness?” was presented to make us delve deeper into developing godliness ourselves.

Jan’s thoughts:

We had a fantastic visit with our children and grandchildren in Virginia this weekend. J

Centreville is a terrific church. We’ve been there many times over the years and are always very warmly welcomed. There are always exciting things going on at this church.

We knew they had instituted a second contemporary service, giving them 8:30 and 9:45 contemporary services and an 11:15 traditional, and the Session has recently made the decision to forego the traditional service altogether and go back to two services, both contemporary. I’ve not seen this done before, so I’m interested to watch how they do it, albeit from a distance. From what I heard today, they have a plan to listen to the congregation and they are working to honor the past as well as look to the future. This church is so vital and active, reaching out in countless ways, locally, nationally, and internationally, it truly is one of the most exciting churches I know.

A pastor from Nepal spoke briefly about how Centreville’s support is helping spread the Good News in his country. They are doing impressive work, and I was moved to see photos of people being baptized there.

The music was stirring…the praise band has about quadrupled in size and they sounded just awesome.

The message was based on I Timothy 4:7-16, and is part of the “Doing Church God’s Way” series entitled “Lead by Example.” Rob is a terrific preacher, full of enthusiasm and passion. He spoke about godliness, it doesn’t just happen (1 Timothy 4:7, Ephesians 4:17, Hebrews 5:11-14, Colossians 2:6-7), its definition (“having the character and attitude of God”), and how God’s character is reflected through our speech, the way we love, the way we trust in Him, and how we show His purity (I Timothy 4:12). He pointed out that godliness is the only thing that lasts, it will cost you something, and it starts with a daily decision. The bottom line is that to be godly one must practice godliness. To live a godly life one must be godly in the small, everyday moments. One must practice, practice, practice, moment by moment, day by day.

Not easy, but more than worth the effort…just to hear God say those words we all long to hear from Him: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Centreville Presbyterian Church

Today we worshiped at Centreville Presbyterian Church, 15450 Lee Highway, Centreville, VA 20120, 703.830.0098, www.centrevillepres.com, Rev. J. Robin Bromhead, Senior Pastor.


Bob’s thoughts:

We always enjoy visiting Centreville in Virginia, and I will admit up front being distracted by my children and grandchildren.

The sermon was well presented; it was based on the parable of the tares growing among the wheat planted by the farmer. I have realized there is another thing lacking in not having an Order of Worship – no record of the Scripture that was used.

A major improvement in the praise worship was some younger female voices. I found with the additional worship service fewer people realized we were visitors, or they have seen us enough to think we were members. I was surprised that Jan and I were about the only ones wearing red to celebrate Pentecost.

I was very pleased to learn from the newsletter that the pastor will be taking a sabbatical after 30 years of ordained ministry.


Jan’s thoughts:

We often have visited Centreville since we began traveling to Manassas to see our daughter and son-in-law, Jill and Scott, seven years ago, so we’ve been privileged to watch from a distance, so to speak, as this church evolved over that period. We got to know the Senior Pastor, Rob, and the Associate Pastor, Neil, who has since moved on. Our entire family worshiped here with our late son Dan on our way back from Parris Island just over four years ago, another daughter did her internship here, and now all three of Jill and Scott’s children have been baptized here.

Centreville has grown a great deal and recently established a third worship service. Yesterday we arrived early for the middle (9:45) service, and a woman approached me to chat. In the course of the conversation she explained that her way of making sure she sees her friends from all three services is to attend the middle service so she can see her friends who attend the first service on her way in and their way out and see her friends from the third service on her way out and their way in. I couldn’t help admiring her thought process and her commitment to not allowing change to cause distance between her and her friends.

Obviously, with this sort of history, I can’t comment on Centreville as a first-time visitor. However, I can comment as a long-term repeat visitor, and I like this church very much. It has a lot going for it in terms of the people who worship there, their local, national, and international mission outreach efforts, and their pastor.

Pastor Rob’s sermon was entitled “Future Realities of the Kingdom” and it is part of a series on “The Kingdom of God.” (By the way, you can listen to this or many other sermons on the church website or, like me, subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.) Rob is an enthusiastic, passionate preacher. Usually I focus more on the theology of a sermon than on any stories that are told, but this time what I heard most loudly was a story which was credited to Rev. Bruce Thielemann, who served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh.

The story (to the best of my recollection) centered around a grub that lived on the ocean floor, who noticed that some of his friends would climb a leaf to the surface, but they never returned. So he and his other friends made a pact that if one of them climbed the leaf, they would return and tell the others all about where it led. Soon it came time for this grub to climb the leaf, and when he emerged from the water he morphed into a beautiful dragonfly (an oxymoron, in my opinion). He briefly considered going back to honor his pact, but knew that in this new form his friends would not recognize him, and besides it was so beautiful in this new world, and he could now fly, so he decided to wait for his friends to join him.

Although I still don’t love dragonflies, I do love this story. It depicts the transition as such an easy thing, and somehow visualizing the difference between a grub and a dragonfly is easier than visualizing the difference between my son as I knew him in this world and as he is now. It’s a story of hope, and sometimes that’s the best thing there is.

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.

Centreville Presbyterian Church

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


Bob’s thoughts:

We were welcomed by greeters when we entered and by worshipers during the passing of the peace. There were a lot of comments on my T-shirt (“My baby is having a baby”).

We attended a contemporary worship service with probably around 400 (since there were very few empty seats). There was a healthy mix of age groups and ethnic diversity.

The worship services are conducted in the social/fellowship hall, which has surprisingly good acoustics for block walls. Some of the wall area is sculpted and there is a high dropped ceiling. The seating is very comfortable, and with projection on two screens it’s easy to see. The stage/chancel has a large cross in the center with great banners on each side.

All the workings of the church were built with plans to build the Sanctuary next. They have some of the very best sound deadening dividers I have ever seen (heard?).

The praise group is all male which, although very good, loses something with no female and only one youth. The message was right on theologically and well delivered with one exception: when the pastor emphasized a point, the volume of his voice dropped and I couldn’t hear (we were near the rear). A point I particularly liked: many Christians confuse being a witness with being a judge. The offering was taken in response to the Word.

It’s always an enjoyable experience to worship at Centreville. I perceive a genuine friendliness among the congregation.


Jan’s thoughts:

This has been a special weekend for our family because today, January 11, would have been Dan’s 26th birthday. So yesterday our family traveled to the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico to see the brick we donated in Dan’s memory. It was a moving experience, and it’s hard to believe he’s been gone for 2½ years. It was a wonderful visit though, a great opportunity to see the grandchildren (Luke, 3, and Leah, 1) and see how big Brandy’s getting, as she’s due to give birth in the next month or so.

Whenever we’re in northern Virginia (2-4 times per year) we worship at Jill & Scott’s church, Centreville Presbyterian. Both the church and the building are fairly large, and in spite of not knowing many people, it feels smaller. I was ruminating on this following the service as I observed the people chatting and visiting with each other, and noticed how comfortable everyone seemed. Some people spoke with us but I’ve come to realize that part of the feeling one has as a visitor at a church involves the comfort level among the members. If the atmosphere is filled with stress, there is a negative ambiance. Strangely, I’ve only come to realize this consciously after so much visiting, but I now believe that if a church wants to attract new members, it should make sure it is providing growth and fellowship opportunities to the current members.

The building is new, clean, well laid out, and welcoming. The people are friendly and warm. Upon entering the building, there’s someone to greet you immediately, as well as someone at the welcome desk. Today there were approximately 400 people from small children to much older than I attending an 8:30 a.m. contemporary service.

The music is well done, the sermons are God-honoring, and the pastors, who have a definite chemistry, are concerned with mission and Biblical teaching. There’s a genuine feeling of love and caring.

The building is about 5 years old, and the congregation has been growing. Pastor Rob’s sermons always leave me with something important to think about and I enjoy the emotion he exhibits while preaching. He’s very real and very enthusiastic.

This year Centreville is also focusing on creating small groups, which is a great idea in a church this size. They have 13 hosts lined up for the “Growth Groups” and will meet once a week for 8 week periods with 3 “semesters” per year for fellowship and Bible study.

I did chuckle when Pastor Rob announced that next week the Rev. Don Dawson from Pittsburgh Presbytery would be preaching. Unfortunately we’ll miss Don, but Jill & Scott plan to attend.