Who We Are
In 1878, the Commonwealth of Virginia was recovering from the tragedy of Civil War and the pain of Reconstruction. During what appeared to be the most unpromising of times, Ridge Baptist Church was founded. Thus began a legacy of Christian service and witness that continues to this day.
The earliest beginnings of the church date to the year 1850, when just a few residents of the area erected a “slab shed” and began to hold worship services on Sunday afternoons. Their numbers increased, and by 1851 a more adequate structure, Ridge Meeting House, was built at the present-day location. Church services were held at least monthly until the outbreak of the Civil War. During the war years, meetings became irregular. Soon the Meeting House was being used as a hospital for wounded soldiers. Regular meetings resumed after the war, and Ridge Church was reorganized as Ridge Baptist Church in 1878.
Ridge remains strategically located in the Three Chopt District of Henrico County, Virginia, just ten miles west of downtown Richmond. As we approach our Sesquicentennial, we seek a new minister to lead us in continuing faithfulness. Following the long and productive ministry of our previous pastor, we engaged the Center for Healthy churches to assist us in a time of transition. We have been engaged in self-study and focused thinking about our future. We want to continue the rich legacy of those who’ve gone before us.
Historically a Southern Baptist church, Ridge continues to maintain formal affiliations with the Baptist General Association of Virginia and the Dover Baptist Association. We are best characterized as a broadminded fellowship in the Virginia Baptist tradition, and we affirm the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message Statement as indicative of our core beliefs.
Ridge Baptist Church has long supported both men and women in pastoral leadership roles and deacon ministry. The church’s recent choice (2024) to sever ties with the Southern Baptist Convention reflects the strength of this conviction. The congregation supports local and world missions through contributions to the Cooperative Budget of the Baptist General Association of Virginia. Our members also contribute to a variety of special mission offerings throughout the year – these are distributed according to member preference.
Recent conversations during our transition time have revealed four primary values of the church: Worship, Relationships, Community, and Mission. These values shape us as we look toward the future.
Worship
Sunday worship is the guiding force for all we do. It’s the singular experience that binds us together in the Body of Christ. It renews us as a people who serve. We value music in worship and enjoy a variety of instruments and styles that complement the preaching of the gospel. We are scripture-focused in every aspect of worship, even as we welcome creative expressions of faith. Laypersons lead Sunday services alongside the pastor. Children are also included. As a diverse people, we treasure worship as the means by which God makes us one.
Relationships
People are a priority for us. We value the rich personal connections and sense of mutual care that come through the family of faith. Persons new to Ridge often tell us this is the most attractive feature of the church, and those of us who’ve been here much longer would agree. We practice a hospitality that welcomes persons as they are. As one of our people has said, “You don’t need to jump through hoops to belong here.”
Ridge today is a mid-size congregation that’s larger than some and smaller than others. We’ve been described as a church “with a small-size feel in a larger building.” Most of us think of ourselves as “right-sized” to foster personal connection and spiritual support. We want to enlarge our outreach, without developing a “corporate” or impersonal feel that would erode in-depth relationships.
Community
Even as we cherish close relationships, we want to be an outward-facing people. Some of our best experiences have come through events that connect us with our nearby community. We delight in meeting new neighbors and helping them form connections.
We enjoy a strategic location and a long history in our area. This gives us visibility and influence we can use to introduce people to one another. We’re a mixed group composed of persons who’ve lived here a long time, along with others who’ve arrived more recently. We’re keenly aware of the changing demographics around us and especially want to support our newest neighbors.
Two non-English language congregations make their home in our church. The church hosts the Promise Care Child Development Center, with its very diverse community of families and staff. Each year, the people of Ridge schedule special gatherings that draw community interest. Our annual Ridge Day event connects neighbors with community resources, as well as with each other. The summer Bible school introduces us to families outside the church. We offer meeting space for various groups whenever we can. We want to build bridges and overcome differences, and we’re continually looking for creative ways to do so.
Mission
Ridge Baptist Church has maintained a sharp mission focus throughout its history. Some of our members have served as missionaries or administrative personnel with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. This rich heritage has given us a global vision of mission. We continue to cooperate with other Christians in order to share the gospel with people groups throughout the world.
Our Women’s Missionary Union leads the way in many mission efforts, keeping us connected with service opportunities near and far. Across the years, some of our people have traveled to locations in the United States and beyond to assist with strategic, short-term mission endeavors. Our members have worked in Native American communities, international mission partnerships, and Virginia mission projects.
We recognize that mission begins where we are, and to that end, we find ways to serve locally. We provide support for nearby schools as they engage in community service ventures. We have volunteers who work in a local food ministry, and the church contributes to that work. Our people lead fellowship events and other gatherings in a variety of residential spaces. The Dover Baptist Association and the Baptist General Association of Virginia sponsor numerous mission endeavors in our area and beyond, and Ridge members are involved in those efforts. We place great value on what we’ve learned and celebrated in our mission experiences.
Where We’ve Been
Steady growth characterized Ridge during the first seventy-five years of its history, and the original building was enlarged three times. In the decade of the 1950’s, the church began a period of explosive growth, mirroring the experience of most American congregations. A new sanctuary, constructed in 1952, quickly proved inadequate for the needs of the congregation. Ridge dedicated the present sanctuary in 1968, having previously completed additional buildings for Christian education and youth ministry. The church also added the ministry of an Associate Pastor during these years.
Ridge developed and maintained a close connection with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. The church’s pastor served a term as a Board Trustee, and the church hosted a Missionary Appointment service. Members at Ridge generously supported world missions through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, and persons with strong ties to the Mission Board became valued members of the congregation. Relationships with the Dover Baptist Association and the Baptist General Association of Virginia were maintained, as well.
The church’s affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention became more difficult as the years went by. The 1984 Southern Baptist Convention resolution opposing women’s ordination was painful to the congregation, as was the Convention’s continuing departure from principles of cooperative ministry and local church autonomy. Despite these tensions, Ridge persisted in its support of Southern Baptist Mission work. The church remained hopeful that the Convention would return to its roots and to historic forms of Baptist cooperation and polity. The Convention’s continuing opposition to women in ministry resulted in the church’s disaffiliation from the Convention in 2024. Our members remain free to support SBC mission work through special offerings and designated gifts.
In 1982, the church began to host an Arabic language congregation. The Arabic Baptist Church at Ridge continues to meet here. In 1997, the church opened the Promise Care Child Development Center, a preschool that is housed in the church facility. ECHO Church, an East African congregation, was founded in recent years and continues to call Ridge home.
Ridge no longer enjoys the level of participation that characterized American churches from the 1950’s through the late 1970’s. Social change, declining birthrates, and the loss of longtime members has lowered attendance and involvement. Some of the sharpest declines have occurred recently, following the Covid pandemic of 2020. Nevertheless, the vitality of the church and its commitment to mission remains strong. We continue to seek God’s leading as we adapt to present and future opportunities.
Where We Are Headed
Ridge enters a new season of ministry reaffirming its core values of Worship, Relationships, Community and Mission. These are the things that energize us and give us the greatest joy in serving God. They are the values that reflect our distinct gifts and calling as a church.
We want to build creatively upon the resources of our heritage. We hope to employ our existing assets in fresh ways. Our future appears different than the past, but we’ve identified some new and yet unexplored opportunities ministry.
Looking ahead, we’d like the church to better mirror the surrounding community. The existing diversity of the congregation has failed to keep pace with the changing demographics around us. We’ve seen this in our self-study and wish to become more effective in reaching new constituencies. We have a good foundation from which to begin. The church today is a mix of persons who’ve lived here a long time, alongside others new to the area. There’s a varied range of ages in the church, with the largest cohort made up of senior and middle adults. Like many churches, young adults, their children, and persons born outside the United States are underrepresented. We continue searching for ways to better connect with people like these.
Our self-study conversations have focused upon several possibilities for ministry. With the growing diversity around us, we’d like to give more attention to forming connections with persons new to the community. This might call for more creative forms of outreach, or the simple reinvention of things that have worked before. We find that community-facing events continue to introduce us to new persons, and we’d like to strengthen that dimension of our ministry. We acknowledge that volunteer limits make these kinds of events more of a challenge than before.
We’re located adjacent to a local high school, with some of the students using the church lot for parking. The Ridge WMU has assisted high school students in community service projects. In past years we’ve also sponsored successful events such as “Trunk or Treat” and a Teacher Breakfast at the start of the school year. Recent conversations are focused on expanding connections with middle and elementary schools, as well.
The church has previously prioritized connections with local businesses. Through a model called “Ridge Connections,” church volunteers served as liaisons and enlisted the help of local establishments in providing resources for the community Ridge Day event. Church volunteers also offered a ministry of prayer for nearby people who became known through school and business connections.
We presently sense an opportunity to connect more closely with the two international congregations housed in the church. We feel that we’ve not yet maximized the full potential of this relationship. In a community with a growing global presence, we have an excellent opportunity to make visible the worldwide nature of the Body of Christ. We would value experience and leadership in this area as we look ahead.
The Promise Care Child Development Center is housed at Ridge and links us with younger families. It would be good to strengthen those connections if we can. Some of the families are affiliated with other churches or live at a distance from us. Moreover, Promise Care is a weekday ministry, which limits interaction with the church at large. In recent years, our Pastor and others have served as guest readers for the children there. We’d like to discover fresh ways to provide more spiritual support and nurture to Promise Care families. Someone with experience or affinity for this dimension of ministry would be especially welcome at Ridge.
During our self-study, several other things were identified and are being addressed during the transition time. We are working to create a more collaborative balance between pastoral and congregational leadership. The Deacons are working to renew their ministry in line with the present needs of the church. Our people have also expressed hope that we might better employ technology and media in our efforts to connect with the community. We’ve begun to make improvements in this area, but much remains to be done. Administrative policies and procedures, databases, and church records continue to be updated. We hope to have much of this work completed at the time we call our next pastor.
With a variety of unexplored options for ministry, we recognize the need for focused effort with limited and specific priorities. We anticipate our new minister will help us refine that focus and lead us to follow the Spirit’s call and direction.