Welcome to Abiding Presence in Burke, Virginia. We are an active, family-friendly faith community where people connect with God and one another. Together we worship, grow in faith, serve those in need and make Christ known in the world. Wherever you are on your faith journey, you are welcome here.
Regular Worship Schedule
9:00 a.m. Contemporary Worship Service (In-Person & Online)
10:05-10:50 a.m. Sunday School for All Ages
11:00 a.m. Traditional Worship Service (In-Person & Online)
Livestream worship services are archived on our YouTube channel.
Latest News
We are offering 9-weeks of summer day camp for ages preschool through 12th grade. Click here to check out the schedule.
Abiding Fellows is our faith formation, leadership development and vocational discernment ministry for 10th-12th graders. This fall, we have 24 high school youth participating. It is a year-around stipend program. In other words, students get paid. As a church, we think investing in young people as leaders and followers of Jesus is one of the best uses of our resources.
Abiding Stories
If you had asked me what I wanted to do with my life in June of 2020, I would have had no clue.
Truthfully, at times it felt like there was no “stable” future to look forward to. Everything was uncertain; I’d just deferred my college acceptance by a year in favor of staying home during the pandemic. At this point, I didn’t know what I wanted to do next week, let alone in ten years.
My Mom had suggested I reach out to Pastor Meredith to see if there was something I could do at church during my gap year. Within days, Pastor Meredith had dreamed up the Abiding Presence College Internship program and had tapped me to work as the Food Ministry intern.
Carly and Mike grew up going to church and when they had their first child, they took time to assess what is important to their family and what kind of church they wanted to attend. During their search for a church home, Carly’s good friend suggested Abiding Presence. In August 2023 they came to a worship service with their 8 month old. “Pastor Kelsey welcomed us first and it was great to find a church where kids were welcomed to be kids,” Carly shared. “Ms. Michaela sought us out right away and we had such a great sense of the whole community wanting us to be there,” she recalled.
Peyton began worshipping at Abiding Presence in Elementary School with her family and has memories of singing in the children’s choir, being in Sunday School, and having fun with her friends. Then their family moved across the country for a military assignment. Years later, when Peyton was beginning 8th grade, her family moved back to Burke and returned to Abiding Presence. “It made things ten times easier for me to come back to my friends and adults like Ms. Lori who directed the children’s choir,” Peyton recalled. “Having those familiar faces definitely made a difference in my middle school years and it made me feel so good,” she shared.
When Oliver was in high school, he and his family were looking for a church that was accepting of all. “After a visit to worship at Abiding Presence we decided yep, we’re definitely coming here,” Oliver recalled. Pastor Meredith setup a coffee meeting with him and he recalled, “I didn’t show up with a great attitude but Pastor Meredith said, ‘Great! I’ll see you next week!’” He shared, “It was weird for a pastor to take that stance but it was good regardless of what I was showing up with.” Oliver grew to enjoy hanging out with other teens and liked the messages that were open-minded and that people should help each other. “At Abiding Presence we acknowledge the negative things in the world and that we have to live in that world but regardless of what it’s like we should do our best to improve it,” he shared.