Belmont Baptist Church stands at 830 Monticello Avenue in Charlottesville's historic Belmont neighborhood. Founded in 1949, the Cooperative Baptist congregation is known for traditional Sunday worship shaped by an adult choir and hand bells, and for ministries that turn belief into practical care close to home. From free laundry and monthly groceries to Bible study for children, teens, and adults, Belmont organizes its life around worship, discipleship, service, and fellowship.
Rooted in Belmont Since 1949
Belmont Baptist's mission is stated simply: To Share Christ and Serve Others. From its beginning, the church has worked out what it means to live out the gospel in Belmont and beyond the neighborhood. The congregation describes itself as a loving church with a family feel, a place that seeks to welcome people while helping the family grow. It values its Baptist heritage, holds to the priesthood of all believers, and says men and women serve equally in positions of leadership.
In 1993 Belmont aligned with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a national network of churches. Its listed partners also include Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia and Central Virginia Baptist Association. Belmont says it is a work in progress, attentive to changes in its community and world while holding to what it calls the unchanging good news of God's love for all people. Adaptation and inheritance sit together here: tradition matters, but the church also seeks ways to respond faithfully in changing circumstances.
That balance appears in what the church says it provides: worship in varied forms, personal and spiritual growth, acceptance, opportunities to serve and care for others, support during times of need, friendship and fellowship, discipleship through leadership and instruction, and meaningful contact with one another. It is a concise description of a church whose identity is expressed as much through relationships and service as through the Sunday gathering.
Sunday Begins with Learning, Then Worship
Sunday's pattern is straightforward. Sunday School and Bible Study begin at 9:30 a.m. and continue until 10:30, with classes for nursery children, children, youth and teens, two adult groups, and senior adults. Morning Worship begins at 11:00 a.m. in the sanctuary. The service is described as traditional in nature, with an emphasis on engaging both the community and the individual. It is live-streamed through YouTube, and a recorded version is shared through YouTube and Facebook as it becomes available. The previous Sunday's service is rebroadcast on Charlottesville Public Access Television, Comcast Channel 13, each Sunday at 7:00 p.m., generally delayed by one week.
Visitors who need transportation for Sunday morning worship activities can call the church office at 434-296-7111. For those joining in person, the sanctuary is the setting for worship at 11:00, while the learning rooms are spread through the fellowship hall, chapel, and areas behind the piano and organ sides of the sanctuary.
Traditional Worship, Music and Communion
Music is central to Belmont's worship. Each Sunday, music is meant to draw the congregation closer to God through the gifts of the choirs and accompanist. The church has an adult choir and a hand-bell ensemble called The Belmont Bells. Children participate with the adult choir on certain occasions, and The Belmont Bells rehearse on Sunday morning before Sunday School. Pianist and organist Ann Haney has served in that musical role since October 2012, after earlier years as a substitute. Her work sits alongside the adult choir and hand bells in a service that Belmont explicitly calls traditional.
Communion has a defined place in the month. Belmont observes it on the first Sunday of each month. The invitation is wide: members and nonmembers are welcome, as are people from every denomination who have professed faith in Jesus Christ. That openness matches the church's stated emphasis on acceptance while preserving the central place of the faith it names.
Belmont also treats worship as the foundation of the rest of church life. Discipleship, service, and fellowship all grow from worship, and the stated aim is not merely to preserve a form but to engage community and touch individual life. The church holds special worship services for Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, and Easter Sunrise, supplementing its regular Sunday pattern.
Learning Together for Children, Teens and Adults
Sunday School is designed to welcome all ages, and its groups reflect how Belmont organizes learning. The nursery and children's classes meet in the fellowship hall. Youth and teens meet in a classroom in the chapel. Adult 1 gathers in the room behind the piano side of the sanctuary for a loosely structured, seminar-style class built around conversation, give-and-take, freely expressed opinions, love, and good-natured humor. Adult 2 meets in the sanctuary, while senior adults meet in the classroom behind the organ side.
During worship, infants and toddlers have nursery care. Preschoolers through fifth graders begin with the congregation, are invited forward for a children's moment with the pastor, and then move to the education wing for age-appropriate Bible stories, music, and activities with prepared adults. The children and family emphasis continues through seasonal opportunities designed for children and families together.
Teens in grades 6 through 12 have a Sunday School class, Bible study, fellowship outings, and mission projects. Summer camp and a youth evangelism conference have also been highlights in the youth group's life. This mix places teenagers in the same learning and service pattern as the rest of the church: they study, spend time together, and participate in work directed beyond their own classroom.
Tuesday Morning Bible Study meets at 9:30 a.m. in the fellowship hall of the main building. Janet Shiflett, a retired school teacher who also teaches the senior adult Sunday School class, leads a verse-by-verse study of specific biblical books, with time for fellowship around the study.
Wednesday evening carries a similar small-group rhythm. At 6:30 p.m., Crossroads combines prayer, Bible study, and fellowship in the fellowship hall, with Zoom participation available. Pastor Greg Anderson leads the gathering, which focuses on biblical truths and their application in daily life. The emphasis is not only on information but on learning about one another and learning how to share Christ and serve others together.
Between the Sunday classes and the two weekday studies, Belmont offers three regular opportunities for adults and age groups to engage Scripture: Sunday School at 9:30, Tuesday Morning Bible Study at 9:30, and Crossroads on Wednesday at 6:30. The first and third gather in the same 9:30 window on different days, while Crossroads makes a weekly evening study possible for those who cannot be in the church building.
Loads of Love: Laundry With a Purpose
Loads of Love is the most distinctive of Belmont's neighborhood ministries. It began when church members wanted a creative way to help neighbors in need. After looking at existing community resources, they chose to establish a laundry ministry in a church building that had housed a clothing ministry. A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship grant paid for renovation of the basement and installation of five industrial high-efficiency washers and dryers.
Families and individuals enter the program by referral from agencies that work with people in need. Church volunteers are matched with each referred household, and families come weekly or every other week for an appointed time. The church supplies detergent and all other laundry needs at no charge. While clothes are washing, visitors can have drinks and snacks and can choose games or videos for entertainment.
The ministry reports thousands of loads processed and says the savings are significant, at least $25 per visit compared with using a commercial laundromat and buying supplies. More important to its description is the relationship built alongside the laundry. Volunteers can become familiar with the pressures a family is carrying and offer support when another need appears, without reducing assistance to a transaction. A steady core of volunteers keeps the ministry running and helps make the church's mission practical in a very basic way.
Care That Reaches Beyond the Church Building
Food, Clothing and a Place to Stay
Food is at the center of several forms of care. Belmont's food closet is stocked by congregational donations of nonperishable items, and eligible families may receive a grocery bag once a month. The goal is to provide enough food for two days. The church's Caring Ministry also helps Belmont-area households with utility bills, while its food operation is supported by both food and monetary gifts and participation in Food Lion's Shop and Share program. Bags are prepared for different household sizes, and the ministry works to keep staples ready for distribution.
The church provides space for the Bolling Avenue Clothing Closet, which offers free and reduced-cost clothing to families in need. It partners with People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry, or PACEM, to house women experiencing homelessness during cold winter months and works with other churches to provide meals and comfort during that season.
Recovery group meetings are hosted at Belmont every day of the week. The church also supports AIM, a nonprofit that helps families in crisis with rent and utilities, and it partners with Love, Inc. on the referral system for Loads of Love. Clark Elementary School provides a concrete connection with families as well: Belmont supplies snacks for children who cannot bring one from home.
Meals, Visits and Transportation
Meal support reaches beyond the neighborhood. Feed My Sheep prepares food for church members and families who are hospitalized, recovering from illness, or unable to prepare meals for themselves. The Bereavement and Celebration team supports people through grief and helps with kitchen work after funerals. Homebound and Nursing Home Visitation reaches people unable to attend services or activities because of health. Hospital Visitation offers support to members, families, and friends in the hospital, while the Outreach and Old/New Member team builds community with people who do not know Belmont and reconnects with inactive members.
The Small Jobs and Transportation team fills two practical roles. It helps people get to church and activities, doctor visits, and other important places, and it lends a hand with jobs such as changing a light bulb, raking leaves, removing debris, shoveling a sidewalk, repairing a broken chair, or taking a walk. The team is guided by a simple idea: meet a need and help fill it.
Partnerships Across Charlottesville
Other long-running partnerships extend that practical care. Belmont offers grocery and shopping assistance to visually impaired members and friends. Groups decorate the Ronald McDonald House affiliated with UVA Medical Center, prepare meals for its guests, and collect requested items. The church supports Habitat for Humanity and visits residents of assisted-living communities; once a month, Pastor Greg Anderson leads worship at Morningside Assisted Living. A group also prepares and shares dinner with residents connected to Bridgeline, a nonprofit serving people with acquired brain injuries. Belmont has packaged thousands of meals for worldwide distribution through Stop Hunger Now, including meals for people facing hunger and emergency needs.
Financial and material support are woven into this work. Congregational donations of food, clothing, yarn, snacks, detergent, and other supplies support specific ministries, while monetary gifts assist with needs ranging from utility bills to food. Giving can also be made through Zelle using main@belmontbaptistcville.org.
These ministries are varied, but their design is consistent: remove a practical barrier, build an ongoing relationship, and keep the person or family at the center. Food, clothing, laundry, transportation, meals, visits, and home repairs are not presented as peripheral projects. They are direct expressions of the church's mission to share Christ and serve others.
Prayer Shawls, Women's Mission Work and Music Camp
Prayer Shawl Ministry is another expression of care that extends far beyond a Sunday morning. Volunteers knit and crochet shawls, also called comfort, peace, or mantle shawls, for people who are sick or in crisis. Shawls are blessed on the fourth Sunday of each month when one is available and an urgent need does not require immediate delivery. People can support the work through prayer, money for yarn, or the purchase of yarn itself. Red, white, and blue yarn is especially welcome for shawls made for families of fallen service members.
The ministry has delivered shawls through an Air Force chaplain at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Those deliveries connect Belmont's craft with military families in grief, and church members have also knitted and crocheted prayer shawls specifically for fallen soldiers' families. The ministry's premise is simple: the finished shawl carries the prayer of the people who made it into the hands of someone in need.
The Women's Missionary Union brings Christian women together monthly to study missions and missionaries at home and abroad. Members use the example of Jesus in Matthew 25 to guide their service, support missionaries through prayer and gifts, and join local projects with their own hands. Their work supports the prayer shawl ministry, Meals on Wheels, the Shriners, and donations to church-related and local charitable organizations. Annual Women's Day worship and community cook-offs are also part of the ministry's rhythm.
Music reaches children through a five-day summer music camp that culminates in a Friday-night performance. The camp is described as a setting where children's talent is cultivated and love of God is at work through leaders and young people. For Belmont, music is not confined to the sanctuary or the choir room. It becomes part of learning, belonging, and a shared performance for families and neighbors.
Tables, Outings and Neighboring Relationships
Fellowship at Belmont often takes shape around a table. Each quarter, a potluck dinner follows worship and precedes the church's quarterly business meeting. The meal is an extension of a church that describes itself as full of capable cooks and as serious about bearing one another's burdens as celebrating life's joys. Worship, study, mission, and shared food are not separate strands at Belmont; they reinforce one another.
The congregation also builds fellowship through community outings and local gatherings. Its stated activities have included baseball outings, picnics, and trips to see the Flying Squirrels play in Richmond, along with participation in the community-wide Belmont Bash at Belmont Park. These activities place the church among neighbors rather than at a distance from the life of Belmont.
Children and families have seasonal opportunities of their own, while the prayer shawl ministry, recovery groups, and neighborhood service teams give regular connections for people at different stages of life. Whether the setting is a Sunday School room, the fellowship hall, a laundry center, an assisted-living residence, or a table shared after worship, the underlying pattern is welcome, participation, and care.
Greg Anderson, Ann Haney and the Music of Worship
Pastor Greg Anderson has led Belmont since October 2005. Before moving to Charlottesville, he was pastor of First Baptist Church in Spring Hope, North Carolina, and associate pastor of Lyndale Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia. He is a graduate of Appalachian State University and the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and received a Doctor of Ministry degree from Northern Seminary. His leadership connects the congregation's Cooperative Baptist life with its commitments to Scripture, shared leadership, and service in the Belmont community.
Ann Haney has been Belmont's pianist and organist since October 2012, following several years as a substitute in that role. A Haverford College graduate who also earned a law degree from Boston College Law School, she continues organ study with Barbara Taylor Moore, organist at University Baptist Church of Charlottesville and teacher of organ and piano. The traditional Sunday worship is therefore carried by a working combination of organ, piano, adult choir, hand bells, and pastoral leadership.
Janet Shiflett leads Tuesday Morning Bible Study and teaches the senior adult Sunday School class. Her approach is verse by verse, and her dual role connects the midweek gathering with one of the church's Sunday learning groups. These music and teaching ministries are practical expressions of the church's wider claim that people grow through worship, instruction, contact, and shared responsibility.
A Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall at the Center of Belmont's Life
The sanctuary and fellowship hall serve both worship and community life. Both are available for rental for special gatherings, and the sanctuary's wide center aisle makes it a fitting setting for weddings. The sanctuary is described as ideal for the ceremony and its meaning as a service of worship and commitment. Belmont also opens its recovery-group space to gatherings throughout the week and provides room for the clothing center operated through the Central Virginia Baptist Association.
The building therefore reflects the congregation's character. The sanctuary supports formal worship and music, the fellowship hall holds Bible study, prayer, business meetings, and shared meals, and the lower level contains the practical work of Loads of Love. The same building holds studies for every age, hand-bell music, food support, and free laundry because Belmont understands worship and service as parts of one Christian life.
Founded in 1949 and rooted in the historic Belmont neighborhood, Belmont Baptist Church remains a Cooperative Baptist congregation whose identity is carried through its family feel, equal participation in leadership, traditional music-centered worship, open communion, regular Bible study, and steady neighborhood service. Its mission, To Share Christ and Serve Others, is visible not only in Sunday morning at 11:00 but throughout the week and throughout the community.