About Us

Welcome to The Orchard! We are a new Christian community in Arlington & Falls Church Virginia that was publicly launched in 2005 after nearly two years of prayer, planning, and development. The result is a different approach to the common workings of “church”, and so we invite you to spend a few moments exploring this on-line introduction to The Orchard. As you do, you’ll notice that The Orchard does most of the same things that any other church might do, but is distinctive in that we place greater emphasis on some things more than others in order to provide a more effective Christian atmosphere of spiritual growth and community impact. The Orchard is an open community, and we warmly welcome all who are led here by God. What’s more, if you would like to talk further about The Orchard, please feel free to contact us to schedule a time to get together. Our Style The Orchard is a fairly informal group of people, very friendly and what most people would describe as "normal" families & professionals from Northern Virginia. Our times together are usually fun and relaxed, with frequent doses of humor. You won't hear a lot of church lingo around us, and we will make mistakes in our services. Still, we take our relationship with God and with one another very seriously.

Leadership & Organization
The Orchard is a spiritual organization, and so it might not be a surprise that our leadership is also spiritual. Christ is the head of The Orchard – in business terms, he is the CEO, COO, CFO, and CIO. All other leadership within The Orchard receives direction and guidance from His leadership. Thus, as you can imagine, we spend a lot of time in prayer.

Under this leadership of Christ, The Orchard is autonomous in its governance. In other words, there is no external organization that imposes rules or dictates operations. Within the Orchard, leadership is mostly distributed – thus, we don’t have a central point at which every detail, policy and procedure is determined. We have Elders who are responsible for spiritual health and oversight, and for discerning Christ’s general direction for The Orchard. The Elders support the Christian community and its missions/ministries in prayer and instruction. The Elders include all pastors of the church, and other lay persons who are called by God into that role. The Orchard also has leaders for each mission, ministry, or other area of the Church. The leaders are led by Christ, accountable to the Elders, and empowered to do ministry.

Associations & Credentials
We consider The Orchard to be one expression of God’s universal Church. Within the boundaries of the Bible, we neither encourage nor teach religious division where one denomination or church group is considered to be superior to another. In this sense, The Orchard is non-denominational.

The Orchard is associated with other churches. We understand from Scripture that the Church is larger than any particular congregation or any particular Christian denomination – therefore, we have a responsibility to associate with other churches and a desire to work with other local churches. We believe this association with other churches is important for accountability, counsel, and ministry partnerships.

We have chosen to be in association with the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana), a non-denominational movement and world-wide fellowship of over 7,000 Christian communities (there are over 30 churches and 60 ordained pastors in the Washington-Baltimore region that are part of this association). This affiliation provides both The Orchard and its pastors with credentials, it provides theological accountability, and it provides opportunities for joint ministry.