Another church in Kingstowne/Franconia?
Aren’t there already plenty of churches there? Yes, there are and plenty of good faith communities at that! Recently, any number of folks have asked me about our choice of location for Saint James-Kingstowne. Wasn’t Franconia Road in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most churches on a street? I believe the answer to that question may be “yes” as well. My answer to questions like that tends to go something like, “We are not replacing any other church, we are adding to the variety of options available for connecting with Jesus.” I’ve always thought (maybe more truthfully, in the last couple of years I have begun to think) that connecting to Jesus could at times be a very elusive adventure and that no two of us make that connection exactly the same. It is not quite the same thing as re-inventing the wheel every time someone connects with Jesus, but since all of us are unique, we are unique in our relating as well.
Saint James as a whole (both Alexandria and Kingstowne campuses) respects that each of us finds Jesus along the way in different fashions. Saint James tries to offer an open space in which to connect and carry that connection into everyday living. We are not about easy answers; we believe life is messy and that sometimes there simply are no easy answers (maybe more than sometimes). We hope to offer another way of connecting with each other, with God, and with the world God created.
So, yes, there will be another church in the Kingstowne/Franconia area and it will be us, Saint James-Kingstowne. Another choice, another opportunity, another perspective amid many. We are looking forward to it…
