Ravensworth Baptist Church sits on Ravensworth Road in Annandale, a few miles inside the Capital Beltway and roughly twelve miles from Washington, DC. For more than sixty years it has been a progressive Baptist presence in Northern Virginia, a congregation that calls itself welcoming and affirming, that ordains women, that joined the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists in 2006, and that has made social justice a central part of its identity rather than an add-on. Its self-description - "Sharing Love, Doing Justice, Building Community" - is stitched into the church's logo, printed in its bulletin headers, and lived out in a steady schedule of Sunday worship, intergenerational formation, and outward-facing partnerships in Annandale and well beyond.
From a 1959 Mission to an Open Sanctuary
Ravensworth grew out of the First Baptist Church of Annandale, which sent it as a mission to the growing North Springfield community. On March 15, 1959, fifty-four people accepted an invitation to organize that mission into a church, dedicating themselves to "enacting the love of Christ in our community and around the world." The congregation took its place quickly in the social movements of the region. During the civil rights era, Ravensworth joined other local churches in pledging support for fair housing. When the Poor People's Campaign came through the capital in the late 1960s, the church hosted travelers, even converting the baptistry into a temporary shower with the conviction that "God's people are more sacred, still." From the start, women served as lay leaders, deacons, and pastors of the church, and the congregation voted in 2006 to become an officially welcoming and affirming community through AWAB. The denominational home since then has been with the Alliance of Baptists, a progressive Baptist body that shares this congregation's emphasis on inclusion and justice.
A circle of inclusion is the central mark of the church's logo, affirmed in December 2021. The design shows the sanctuary's stained glass windows, the colored panes offset to suggest the Holy Spirit breaking through created barriers, with a cross at the center. The same words - sharing love, doing justice, building community - form the church's motto.
The Covenant and What Ravensworth Believes
The church's working document is its Covenant and Guiding Principles, grounded in the prophet Micah's call: "Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God." Members covenant together to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, love all of God's children, do justice, practice stewardship, worship and study regularly, care for their community, and equip one another for a life of prayer and service.
Ravensworth reads Jesus in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets and takes seriously his teaching about noncooperation with evil, compassion for the sick and wounded, inclusion of outcasts, nonviolence, love for friend and enemy alike, and forgiveness for sinners. The congregation believes in a God who "wants us all to experience life in abundance" and who calls the church to push back against hunger, war, extreme poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forces that limit access to abundant life. The phrase they return to is "the reign of God" - present now in scattered pockets like blinking stars in a sea of darkness, destined to come in fullness. Justice, the church teaches, is intersectional; it names four concerns that sit close to its heart: the THRIVE Racial Justice Initiative through the Alliance of Baptists, support for the LGBTQ community, justice for Palestine and Israel, and religious liberty for all people.
Sunday Worship on Ravensworth Road
Sunday morning is the center of the week. Worship is held in the Sanctuary at 11:00 AM from September through June, and shifts to 10:00 AM in July and August. The service is also livestreamed on Vimeo, so anyone who cannot be in the room can still participate.
The order of worship draws on the liturgical calendar, with prayer, congregational singing, music from the choir, and preaching from the pastor, Rev. Dr. Leah Davis, and guest preachers. The congregation describes its worship as "a mix of the new and the old, of contemplation and of joyful expression," warm, intellectually challenging, and reverent. Children are woven into the service rather than separated from it. First through fifth graders generally stay in worship with their families, while infants through kindergarten are cared for in a nursery that opens at 9:30 AM, well before the service begins. The four Sundays of the month each have their own rhythm for the children: on the first and fifth Sundays, a Time for All Ages interrupts the service for a short story and prayer; on the second Sunday, Faithful Families gives children and youth the chance to lead the entire congregation; on the third Sunday, the kids slip out to the Library for story time with a member of the library committee and the chance to check out books; on the fourth Sunday, Music for Kids gathers them in Room 125 to play instruments, sing, and learn with the preschool caregivers.
An Intergenerational Sunday School
Sunday School at Ravensworth runs from September through June and resumes each year in mid-September, and the classes are built for the way adults and older students actually live. The Moore Class meets on Sunday mornings from 9:45 to 10:45 in person and on Zoom, with rotating leadership among its members; it works through serious biblical scholarship in a setting that is honest about doubt and faith. The Genesis Class, a mix of married couples and singles from their late twenties to their sixties, meets at the same time, in person and on Zoom, and follows the sermon series with curiosity and openness. The Friendship Class is a community of women who gather for Bible study, spiritual development, and fellowship, and who lead in the church's missions work. The Philippians Class meets on Sunday evenings at 6:45 PM on Zoom for lively, biblically based conversation and has been working through books such as Peter Enns's Curveball.
For the youngest members, Preschool and Kindergarten gathers in Room 15 on the first and third Sundays from 11:00 to 11:15 for a focused twenty minutes of Bible-based lessons, crafts, and stories. RBC Kids: 1st - 5th Grade gives elementary students age-appropriate activities that teach them to read the Bible for themselves and to think of church as a community of friends. RBC Youth, for grades 6 through 12, meets at 9:45 AM on Sundays and combines study with the kind of open questions teenagers actually ask, with the goal of taking the love of the church into the wider world.
Beyond Sunday, the church offers a Tuesday morning Bible Study on the first and third Tuesdays at 10:30 AM on Zoom, and Aging with Spirit, a contemplative gathering for older adults, on the second and fourth Fridays at 11:00 AM in the Fellowship Room.
Music and the Choir
Music is central to worship at Ravensworth. Libby Wiebel directs the program, drawing on a career that began in the cherub choir when she was eight. She is a singer, pianist, organist, director, and composer who has led choirs large and small at other area churches, produced a social-justice-themed benefit concert, collaborated with other choirs on major works, and rung and directed handbell ensembles. The Choir rehearses most Sunday mornings at 10:40 in the choir room, then leads congregational singing from the choir loft during worship. The choir prepares special music for Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, and the program reaches beyond the choir loft: vocal soloists, handbell ringers, community musicians, and skilled professionals are folded in to serve the diverse congregation.
Children and Youth: Safety, Wonder, and Service
The church takes its work with children seriously. Every volunteer who works with kids is fully vaccinated and goes through a background check, and Sunday School teachers and the preschool and children's committee keep in touch with families between Sundays through deliveries, calls, and visits. The goal, as the children's ministry puts it, is to encourage children to think for themselves about God, to grow a dynamic faith, and to see that faith as life-encompassing.
Youth ministry in grades 6 through 12 is built on the conviction that young people thrive when they can ask hard questions without fear of judgment. As members of the church community, the youth are encouraged to discover and use their gifts: they have worked on construction projects with Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together, walked in the CROP Walk, and taken part in other service projects alongside the adults.
Doing Justice, in Annandale and Around the World
Justice is not a sidebar at Ravensworth. The church enthusiastically supports the Annandale Christian Community for Action (ACCA), Habitat for Humanity, Rebuilding Together, and, in recent years, the Shepherd's Center of Annandale/Springfield. Every year the congregation walks in the Church World Service CROP Walk and collects offerings for a wide variety of mission endeavors.
Its partnerships stretch well beyond Northern Virginia. Ravensworth has formed lasting relationships with people, congregations, and organizations in Bethlehem, Cuba, South Sudan, Mississippi, and Malawi. The church is engaged in the Alliance of Baptists' THRIVE Racial Justice Initiative, supports the LGBTQ+ community through AWAB, has sent teams to Palestine to learn about peacemaking firsthand, and participates in interfaith dialogue so that people who believe differently can come to know each other. Religious liberty for all people is a recurring theme. Locally, the congregation works to combat hunger and homelessness through its ACCA partnership and its seasonal giving.
The Staff and the People at the Center
Pastor Leah Davis began at Ravensworth in September 2017 in a model of shared pastoral ministry and became full-time solo pastor in November 2019. She holds a Doctor of Ministry from Emory University's Candler School of Theology and a Master of Divinity from Baylor's Truett Seminary, and she completed her undergraduate work at Baylor. She lives in Prince William County with her husband John and their two daughters. Her love for the church is wide-ranging, and she is especially drawn to finding new ways to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
Kari Kitts Macdonald, Director of Communication, grew up in East Tennessee and has lived in the DC area for fifteen years. She came to Ravensworth out of a background in children's ministry and drama, and she is also the Artistic Director for a virtual theatre company. April Pavis-Shroeder, Director of Administration, is a northern Virginia transplant whose life of service has included work as a young adult librarian, volunteer management at nonprofits, and leading a youth group. Libby Wiebel, Director of Music, brings a long career in church music and a personal passion for choirs and handbells to Ravensworth, where she lives in Fairfax with her wife Karen and their baby daughter Leah. Gina Scapellato and Tracy Ton serve as preschool caregivers, watching over the youngest members of the church on Sunday mornings and creating a space where children feel comfortable and free to express themselves.
A Building That Serves the Neighborhood
The Ravensworth building is meant to be a community hub. The sanctuary holds 246, the Fellowship Room holds 91 standing or 60 seated around a fireplace with a kitchen nearby, and several classrooms - including a choir room with music stands and a piano - are available for small meetings, rehearsals, and classes. A childcare area can be rented with staffing. Audio and visual equipment and staff support are available for an additional cost. Building hours run 7 AM to 11 PM on weekdays and 9 AM to 11 PM on weekends. The office itself is staffed Tuesday through Thursday from 9:30 AM to 2:00 PM, and the church can be reached at 703-941-4113 or at rbc@ravensworthbaptist.org.
For more than six decades, Ravensworth Baptist Church has tried to take its founding charge seriously. The church invites anyone who is looking for a community of faith in the Annandale area to come as they are, join the covenant, and find a place to share love, do justice, and build community - on Ravensworth Road and far beyond it.