Toledo First Seventh-day Adventist Church stands on West Sylvania Avenue in a quiet stretch of west Toledo, its doors turned toward a courtyard where visitors walk in from a generous parking lot. Founded in 1888, the congregation describes itself as a multi-ethnic family that gathers on Saturdays to worship, study, and serve the neighborhoods around it. Its campus is a working village of ministries: a sanctuary up front, Toledo Junior Academy and the James Meade Learning Center attached to the church building, and weekly food and clothing ministries that open the same campus to anyone in the community who walks through the door.
What sets the church apart from most others in northwest Ohio is RingFest, an annual handbell festival held in the sanctuary each fall that the congregation calls one of the largest in the Adventist world. Hundreds of student ringers from Adventist schools across the country arrive for a long weekend of rehearsals and a Friday night concert that is livestreamed to viewers around the globe. The rest of the year, the building functions as a Sabbath-keeping hub for the western suburbs of Toledo, with a regular Saturday rhythm of singing, study, and an 11:00 AM worship service that is also streamed online.
A Saturday at Toledo First
Adventists keep the Sabbath from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, and the church's calendar is built around that rhythm. On Saturday mornings, members and guests begin arriving before 9:30 AM for Singspiration, a half-hour of congregational singing and prayer that opens the day. Free bread and pastries are usually set out at 10:00 AM for anyone who wants them. Sabbath School follows, with adults gathering in the sanctuary to discuss the weekly lesson from the Sabbath School Quarterly while children and youth break into age-appropriate classrooms. Sabbath School begins at 10:00 AM.
The main worship service begins at 11:00 AM in the sanctuary. The format is hymn-singing, congregational praise, special music, and a sermon from the pastor or a guest preacher. The current lead pastor is Quentin Purvis, who can be reached through the church office. Recent months have featured a sermon series on the Holy Spirit by Pastor Kojo Twumasi, and the older archive is filled with long-running teaching series by previous senior pastor Mike Fortune, who preached through books of the Bible, parables, and recurring themes such as the "Ways to Praise" study and "Dare to Be a Daniel." Elder Cavin Atkins, chaplain Steve Cozzens, and visiting preachers regularly round out the pulpit.
For those who cannot attend in person, the 11:00 AM service is livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel, ToledoFirstSDAChurchTV, and on its Vimeo channel. A weekly program PDF accompanies the live stream each Sabbath, and recorded sermons from past weeks and years are gathered in a sermon archive that goes back to 2007.
What to Expect When You Visit
The church has published a five-step guide for first-time guests. Step one is to read up on the church, its calendar, and its ministries. Step two is to know the place: the address is 4909 W Sylvania Avenue, Toledo, OH 43623-3355. Visitors are invited to enter the main driveway, drive under the canopy, and park anywhere in the lot, including visitor spaces. The main entrance opens off the courtyard.
Step three is to know the times. Singspiration starts at 9:30 AM, Sabbath School is next, and the worship service runs from 11:00 AM onward. Step four answers the most common questions: there is no formal dress code, so guests are encouraged to come in comfortable clothing; nothing in particular needs to be brought beyond an open mind and an open heart. Children are welcome both in Sabbath School classes and in the sanctuary during worship. A monthly potluck brings the congregation together to share a meal.
Step five is to help the church get to know you. Guests can fill in a visitor card during the service or submit a digital welcome form. Online forms also let newcomers request a prayer, ask for a Bible study, ask for a visit, or simply ask to learn more about the church.
RingFest: Hundreds of Hands, Hundreds of Bells
RingFest is the signature event of the year. Held each October, it gathers approximately 330 student ringers in 18 handbell ensembles drawn from Seventh-day Adventist schools across the eastern United States and a few from west of the Mississippi. Students arrive on Wednesday night to set up tables, foam pads, and instruments, then rehearse Thursday and Friday between workshops with world-renowned clinicians. Friday night is the public concert, around an hour and a half long, where every choir performs and then joins the massed-ring finale of six pieces ringing together as one group.
A RingFest chaplain, a former principal and director, delivers short worship thoughts between pieces to keep the focus on the religious nature of the music. The mission of the festival is twofold: to advance handbell ringing skills within the Adventist education system, and to promote handbell musicianship as a ministry. It is run as an independent, non-conference event, with no formal backing from any union, conference, or college, and it admits both denominational and self-supporting Adventist schools equally.
The Friday night concert is livestreamed and typically watched by viewers in about a dozen countries. The church no longer produces DVDs or CDs of the music; instead, nearly every past RingFest concert is freely available in the RingFest audio and video archive online.
Schools in the Building
Christian education has been part of the church's identity since 1919, when a group of members began what would eventually become Toledo Junior Academy. The school passed through several names, including the Goff Memorial School and Toledo Memorial Elementary, before opening as TJA on Independence Avenue. In 2004 it relocated into the new school wing attached to the newly built Toledo First Adventist Church. The original design accommodated about 60 students; recent expansions have added new classrooms and a gym, and the school now serves as a K-8 Adventist elementary school.
Next to it sits the James Meade Learning Center, a daycare that was established in 2003 and named for the late Pastor James Meade. The center focuses on child development and quality care for children from six weeks old through pre-kindergarten. Together, the school and daycare mean a single campus serves a wide span of ages, from infants through eighth graders, alongside the adult congregation.
Feeding the Neighborhood
Three weekly ministries open the church to the wider community on Wednesdays. God's Food Pantry runs from 12:00 to 2:30 PM, providing groceries and food items to anyone who stops by. King's Closet, named for the King of Kings, opens at the same time and offers personal items and clothing. The Free Bread ministry, which runs most Saturdays starting around 10:00 AM, hands out a selection of breads and pastries to guests and neighbors. Together these programs run nearly every week of the year and are open to anyone in the community who needs support.
Other community-facing efforts include a Care Sabbath program, a Child Impact International event with morning and afternoon sessions for families, and a Friendship Dinner that follows the worship service on selected Sabbaths. The church also raises free-will offerings throughout the year that benefit local non-profit organizations.
Children, Youth, and Adults at Every Stage
The children and youth ministries are organized around the church's small size and Sabbath-keeping calendar. Cradle Roll through teen Sabbath School classes teach the Bible in age-appropriate ways, and the Pathfinders program serves young people ages 8 to 14 with a mix of outdoor activities, honors, and spiritual growth in the Adventist tradition. The Adventurer counterpart serves younger children.
Men's and Women's ministry teams host fellowship events, including nature walks and dinners, while a sports ministry organizes basketball and pickleball for the athletically inclined. The church also welcomes musical visitors to jam sessions and hosts concerts like Elle Rhee's Valentines for Toledo and the Campanas Cristalis handbell choir from time to time.
For adults who want a smaller circle, Six Weeks Groups meet in homes and at the church throughout the year. Each group is made up of neighbors and friends along with church members who study and pray together for outreach and discipleship, in the spirit of Acts 2:42. The groups typically culminate in weeks of evangelistic meetings, both online and in person.
What Seventh-day Adventists Believe
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a mainstream Protestant denomination with roughly 19 million members worldwide and more than a million in North America. Members affirm a Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as one God, and hold that salvation was made possible when Jesus, the Son, came to earth as a baby in Bethlehem, lived a sinless life in accordance with the Father's will, was crucified for the sins of the world, and rose again on the third day.
Adventists look forward to the Second Coming of Jesus and believe He left the Holy Spirit to serve as Comforter and Counselor after His return to heaven. They teach that God cares about every part of human life: how people live, eat, speak, think, treat one another, and care for the world around them. Families, children, work, talents, money, and time are all part of His plan.
A Long Archive of Teaching
Toledo First maintains a remarkably deep sermon archive. Audio and video recordings go back to 2007 and have been organized year by year, with annual series built around themes such as "The Grace Based Church," "Wonder Women," "Twelve," "The Twelve," "Ways to Praise," "How to Win Friends for Jesus," "Dare to Be a Daniel," and "What the Bible Says About..." Preachers include pastors, chaplains, elders, and visiting guests. Topics have ranged from Sabbath observance and the Second Coming to Alzheimer's prevention, mental health, grief, evangelism, parenting, finances, and the character of God.
The archive also captures the church's special weekends: Perfect Grace Seminar weekends, Pathfinder Sabbaths, TJA Sabbaths, International Days, RingFest Sabbaths, and youth-led services. Memorial services for long-standing members are recorded as well, preserving the congregation's history in its own voice.
Staying Connected
The church keeps in touch with members and friends in several ways. The 11:00 AM Saturday service is livestreamed on YouTube and Vimeo, recorded for later viewing, and archived alongside the program PDF for each week. An events calendar, which can be subscribed to in Google Calendar, Outlook, or as an .ics file, lists everything from weekly prayer times to the larger community events. A weekly bulletin and sermon program are posted alongside the live stream.
Visitors and members can request a prayer, submit a praise report, sign up for a Bible study, or ask for a pastoral visit through online forms. Online giving is handled through Adventist Giving, a service of the denomination. Office Manager Suzy and AV director Steven Bills keep the church running during the week and can be reached through the office line at 419-882-6200 or the office email. The church's online presence is supported by the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists and Adventist Connect.
From its 1888 beginnings to its Saturday Sabbath services and the sound of hundreds of bells each October, Toledo First Seventh-day Adventist Church remains a teaching, serving, and singing congregation on West Sylvania Avenue, open to anyone who wants to learn what it means to keep the Sabbath in the company of friends.