At 1794 Richmond Road in Troy, Virginia, Beaver Dam Baptist Church is known for a come-as-you-are welcome, Bible-centered worship shaped by more than two centuries of Baptist life in the community, and practical service to neighbors. Rooted in Upper Beaver Dam Meeting House and established around 1831, the church meets on Richmond Road at Route 600, also known as Paynes Mill Road, along State Route 250. Its Sunday rhythm combines worship, hospitality, study for every age, and outreach that continues through the week.
Love God. Love People. Learn Jesus.
Beaver Dam describes itself as “a people of God committed to passionate worship, building community, making disciples, and impacting the world.” Its motto puts the same mission in memorable terms: “Love God. Love People. Learn Jesus. Do something!” The church frames Christian life as a journey and works intentionally to create a culture of authenticity and acceptance. People are encouraged to acknowledge their lives honestly, including what they call their “junk,” because the church sees growth beginning with that honesty rather than with pretending to have arrived.
That approach includes room for uncertainty. Beaver Dam says doubt is okay and even welcome as part of a life with God, and it points to Alfred Lord Tennyson's line, “There lives more faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds.” At the same time, the church emphasizes that God is good, loves people, and wants the best for them. The welcome is both compassionate and intentional: people are accepted as they are while being encouraged toward the people God has created them to be.
First-time visitors are addressed directly. Beaver Dam acknowledges that attending a church can bring questions about acceptance, Bible knowledge, or whether God is real, and says a warm welcome awaits anyone who gives the church a chance. A greeter meets people at the entrance and directs them to the sanctuary. The emphasis is not on having perfect people or a perfect church, but on finding a place to grow.
A Sunday Built Around Welcome
Sunday worship begins at 9:00 a.m. The service generally lasts about an hour and includes singing and music, announcements, occasional special music, an offering for those already part of the Beaver Dam family, and teaching from the Bible focused on Jesus' life and how to live life to the fullest. Some services also use video clips and other media. The 9:00 gathering is livestreamed, so people can participate from home.
- 9:00 a.m.: Worship and nursery care.
- 10:00 a.m.: Meet and Greet fellowship with a quick snack.
- 10:15 a.m.: Bible study and small groups for all ages.
Nursery care is available during worship for children age four and younger, with a volunteer watching the children. Children older than four are invited to sit with their parents during the service. At 10:15, a Children's Sunday School class serves kindergarten through fourth grade, while a separate youth class meets during the same hour. A greeter can direct children and families to the appropriate rooms.
Dress is deliberately relaxed: “Come as you are. Be who you are.” Shorts and flip-flops, jeans and T-shirts, business casual clothes, jackets, and ties may all be seen. Small groups meet at 10:15 on Sunday, and the church also offers mid-week Bible studies periodically through the year. The church keeps messages available through its sermon archive, including material that can be watched or heard, while the Sunday livestream remains available on YouTube.
From Upper Beaver Dam Meeting House
In early Baptist life in Troy, the church was both the people and the place where they met. It was commonly called “The Meeting House.” Three influential Virginia Baptists helped establish Upper Beaver Dam Meeting House in the early 1800s: William Hyter of Stafford County, John Goss of Buckingham, and James Fife, who came from Scotland and lived in Richmond. Their community ties, faithfulness to family, and willingness to preach and minister with little support were central to the effort.
A deed dated October 29, 1831, records William and Nancy Biggers giving one acre of land. Trustees Robert Lindsay, William Allegree, John H. Wheeler, Stephen Gooch, John M. Harlowe, John Omohundro, and William S. Sadler were charged with responsibility to “erect and build a House or a place of Worship...for use of the members of the Baptist Denomination under their care and control.” Attendance soon grew enough to require additional benches.
In September 1856, the congregation voted to build a new house of worship a quarter mile south of the original meeting house, at the church's present location. Bricks were made from clay found there, and the sanctuary was designed with a three-sided balcony. The old Upper Beaver Dam Meeting House was sold for $60 and moved in 1858 for use as a school building; the land and stove were sold for $10 each. The first pastor's ministry ran from 1831 to 1856. He died in 1870 and was buried at Kents Store, Virginia.
Early church records show a wide range of ministry: weddings, births, baptisms, funerals, the addition of African Americans to the congregation, the creation of Sunday School, and a library said to have been one of two in the area. The church eventually took the name Beaver Dam Baptist Church and has counted twenty pastors through the years. A portico was added in 1971. In 2000, a 2,500-square-foot fellowship hall with classrooms and a kitchen expanded the church's gathering space, alongside other additions. Throughout its history, Beaver Dam has emphasized forgiveness and goodness, held onto traditions, encouraged evangelism, and supported missions close to home and around the world.
Training Disciples at Every Age
Children's ministry is built around weekly Sunday classes for each age group, with activities throughout the year. Easter Celebration, Vacation Bible School, and the Fall Festival are recurring highlights for the church family. The youth ministry is led by parents and volunteers; young people meet for study at 10:15 on Sunday, join periodic adventures, and take part in summer mission trips that combine service with time together. These ministries make room for both teaching and shared experience.
Adult study has several forms. The women's Bible study meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at 9:30 a.m. for fellowship and study. Sunday small groups are organized for every age range and interest, and the church offers additional mid-week studies periodically. GriefShare provides a Biblically based 13-week format for grief support, with each session combining a video, discussion, and an opportunity to share personal experiences.
The Beaver Dam worship team is a collaboration of staff and volunteers responsible for music, care of the church's spaces, communion, and baptism preparation. Worship Leader Nick Lauterbach also teaches English at The Covenant School. Pastor Greg Wissinger joined the church in 2009 after more than 15 years as a youth pastor in Indiana. He earned a Master of Divinity from Southern Seminary in Louisville and also holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology. The church's pastoral and worship leadership therefore combines Bible teaching, music, and practical preparation for its congregational life.
The Busy Beavers Put Faith into Action
The local missions team is called the “Busy Beavers,” a name that reflects the variety of practical work undertaken by church families. The team operates the food pantry every Wednesday from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. and asks visitors for a valid picture ID. Beyond the pantry, Busy Beavers cut firewood for neighbors, tackle small home repairs for elderly members of the congregation and their neighbors, and build wheelchair ramps when needed. Volunteers also support the Central Virginia Baptist Association's clothing center by helping keep it stocked and staffed.
Service reaches the wider community through partnerships as well as direct work. Beaver Dam has supported Habitat for Humanity of Fluvanna County, including volunteer projects connected to homes built in the county, and church families have joined large meal-packing efforts organized with partners. The youth and adults have also worked alongside the association's clothing ministry. These projects reflect a practical expression of the church's “Salt and Light” conviction: believers are called to aid people who are needy, promote truth, justice, and peace, and preserve human dignity.
Care, Welcome, and Service Led by Volunteers
Several volunteer-led teams extend the church's Sunday life into practical care. Helping Hands provides meals to families in crisis and coordinates food for fellowship meals at the church. Tender Hearts focuses on prayer, hospital and nursing-home visits, and a homebound ministry. Encouragers share words of encouragement through calls, emails, and notes. The Welcome Team includes greeters and visitor ministers who introduce newcomers, answer questions, and help people find their place in the Beaver Dam family.
The FunTimers are the church's senior adults. They stay active through periodic trips around Virginia and provide leadership for mission projects. The Communications Team keeps the church connected through Facebook and YouTube, publishes updates, and manages the audio-visual booth for Sunday worship. These ministries allow adults to serve according to their abilities while strengthening the practical relationships that carry through the week.
Partners Across Virginia and Beyond
Beaver Dam works with a wide network rather than treating mission as a single local effort. The Baptist General Association of Virginia is a cooperative missions and ministry organization of more than 1,400 autonomous churches in Virginia and around the world. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is a Christian network of individuals and churches working together to spread hope, while CBF Virginia focuses on healthy congregations, mission engagement at home and abroad, and partnership within the church's Baptist heritage. The Central Virginia Baptist Association connects 43 churches for mission in central Virginia.
International and campus connections include SIGA, an ecumenical Christian ministry of encouragement in Latin America led by Ruth Clowater, and Master's Hand Ministries in the Philippines, led by William and Ronafe Clowater. Seek Christian Community at Virginia Tech is led by Daniel and Sarah Patiño and seeks to help students experience Christ's love and grow in faith.
Local and regional partners address specific forms of need. The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank provides food that sustains life, restores options, and offers hope. Habitat for Humanity of Fluvanna County works to eliminate substandard housing through construction, rehabilitation, and preservation of homes. LifeSpring Pregnancy Centers supports women and families facing crisis pregnancies, while Life Christian Counseling Network brings trained counselors into a process of healing and growth. Grace Inside provides chaplains to Virginia's state prisons. The Alyssa House offers free housing and care to families whose children receive extensive medical treatment at University of Virginia Children's Hospital. The John Leland Center for Theological Studies makes accredited theological education accessible to Virginia's pastors and lay leaders.
What Beaver Dam Believes
Beaver Dam uses the 1963 edition of The Baptist Faith and Message as a guide for church practice and daily living. Its statement begins with the Bible as the inspired word of God and the basis for statements of faith. Beaver Dam believes in one God eternally existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Salvation is described as God's grace given to all who believe in Jesus Christ, received through repentance and faith, resulting in forgiveness and a new relationship of peace with God.
The church's beliefs about humanity begin with creation in God's image and likeness. The statement recognizes humanity's fall into sin and affirms that people cannot remedy their lost condition on their own. Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, symbolizing identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The Lord's Supper is a continuing memorial of Christ's broken body and shed blood, uniting believers and proclaiming his death until he returns.
Beaver Dam also affirms Christ's return, the resurrection of the dead, judgment, and the final separation of the righteous and unrighteous. Its “Salt and Light” teaching places Christians in society, calling them to oppose greed, selfishness, and vice, promote truth, justice, and peace, aid the needy, and preserve the dignity of people of every race and condition. The church affirms the family as society's basic unit and holds that marriage is between one man and one woman.
The statement understands the church both universally and locally: the church of Jesus Christ is a living body with Christ at its head, while the local church gathers believers for worship, work, and fellowship. Beaver Dam affirms religious liberty, holds that government and church have distinct responsibilities, and expresses its Baptist conviction with the maxim that churches should have unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials, and charity in all matters of belief.
Membership as a Sacred Partnership
Membership at Beaver Dam begins with a pledge to place Christ and loyalty to him above all other loyalties and to seek to love him above all else. Members promise to participate faithfully in worship, church business, and education; to represent Christ in daily conduct; to study stewardship; and to pursue prayer, Bible study, reconciliation, and forgiveness. The covenant also calls members to be active and useful within the limits of health, ability, and personal obligation, and to leave neither hastily nor in anger. The church says it never asks members to do more than the Bible clearly teaches.
Beaver Dam 101, “Discovering a Sacred Partnership with Beaver Dam Baptist Church,” is offered twice a year for those considering membership. Membership can come through a profession of faith and candidacy for baptism by immersion, a letter of recommendation from another Christian church that affirms the Trinity, or restoration after a statement of prior conversion experience and baptism in a Christian church that affirms the Trinity. The church's language of “spiritual democracy” includes respecting others' right to hold different opinions while seeking understanding and preserving ties of Christian love.
Giving is treated as part of Christian discipleship. Beaver Dam describes generosity as joyful, sacrificial, and regular, and presents the tithe as a helpful guide rather than a law under the new covenant. Members can give through Realm, schedule a payment through a bank's bill-pay service, place tithes and offerings in giving baskets, or mail a check to the church. Online giving also makes it possible to designate a gift for a particular date and maintain regular contributions while away. Each method is accounted for in the church's contribution statements.
Finding Beaver Dam in Troy
Beaver Dam stands at 1794 Richmond Road in Troy, Virginia 22974, on State Route 250 at Route 600, also known as Paynes Mill Road. The office is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and the church's regular telephone number is 434-295-0277. Sunday worship begins at 9:00 in the sanctuary, with the Meet and Greet hour and all-age Bible study following at 10:00 and 10:15. For those who cannot attend in person, worship remains available through the church's YouTube livestream.
At Beaver Dam, a first Sunday can begin with a nursery for children age four and younger, a greeter at the door, an hour of singing and biblical teaching, a shared snack, and classes that place children, youth, and adults in study together. The same church whose records begin with an 1831 deed continues to connect worship with hospitality, discipleship, practical care, and mission in Troy and beyond.