Church of the Advent, founded in 2007 as a mission of the Church of the Resurrection, was born of a desire to bring renewal to our city.

Life in Washington, DC, while fast-paced and at times exhilarating, can soon give way to disillusionment. For the “elites” and idealists who come hoping to change the world, government bureaucracy or encounters with self-interested leaders often breed cynicism. Meanwhile, the poor and marginalized may feel acute alienation in a city that cares about the world but not for them. Put plainly, the Washington ideals—education and ambition, wealth and power—promise but do not deliver; Jesus Christ offers the only real hope for our city. Yet most people here still have not met him, and what they have perceived of the Church is often so distorted as to be unrecognizable.

Psalm 68:6 says that God sets the lonely in families. We desire to be such a family for the people of DC: to welcome the lonely; care for the broken-hearted; share our struggles, doubts, and fears; and together proclaim and experience the life-changing love of God. We see the church not as a building or a social club, but as a growing family meant to embody all that God is doing in the world.

Church of the Advent began as a living room gathering in an apartment on Newton Street, NW. As the church has grown since 2007, we have relocated seven times. We have worshiped in four different churches in the Columbia Heights neighborhood and two separate schools in the Brookland neighborhood. We now meet at Takoma Park Seventh Day Adventist Church. While we’ve been grateful for each of our hosts, we have also experienced incredible space insecurity and accompanying disruption with each move. Yet our sense of calling to the city has only grown.

In 2022 we formally launched a capital campaign called the Home Campaign to raise funds to purchase a building in the city. In summer 2023 a beautiful historic building, formerly Third Baptist Church, located in DC’s Shaw neighborhood, came on the market. We purchased Third Baptist Church in January 2024 and began seeking permits and fundraising to make the renovations required to occupy this space. We hope to move into our new home in fall 2025. Read the latest updates here and please pray with us we will reach our goal of raising $2 million to make this possible.

Advent’s story is still unfolding.We long to serve the city of Washington, DC, with humility and faithfulness, and to see our city renewed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that all people might come to know the beauty and goodness of God.