Stony Point Church sits on five acres of Buford Road in Bon Air, the western neighborhood of Richmond where the city begins to soften into Chesterfield County. From a single worship service in a Stony Point schoolhouse in 1969, the congregation has grown into a multi-generational Presbyterian Church in America body that holds two Sunday morning services, runs a Tuesday food pantry out of Room 101, hosts Wednesday evening programs, and supports missionaries on nearly every continent. The church declares that its aim is to "liberate Greater Richmond by the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, beginning with us," and the long arc of its history reads like a working-out of that sentence.
A New Church in Bon Air in 1969
The first worship service of what would become Stony Point Church was held on June 1, 1969, at Stony Point School, with forty adults and six nursery-aged children present. A picnic had been held the day before at Forest Hill Park so the founders could meet David and Madge Fleece, the prospective minister and his wife. The group that gathered that Sunday came from Methodist, Baptist, Christian Reformed, and Presbyterian backgrounds, drawn together by a deeply felt desire to worship in a church that took the inerrancy of Scripture seriously.
The seeds had been planted three years earlier, in the fall of 1966, when a small group met in the home of Bill and Beth York to explore the possibility of a new church in Richmond. After unproductive contacts with several denominations, the effort seemed to stall. In August 1968 several of those same believers met with Donald J. MacNair, Executive Director of the National Presbyterian Missions of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, and their hopes were revived. By April 1969 Sunday evening Bible study and prayer meetings had begun, and a few weeks later the church was worshiping.
The very first budget contained a $27 line for missions. In September 1969, just three months after the first service, SPC began supporting David and Barbara Cross, who went on to plant churches first in Australia and then in England. Over the next two decades additional missionaries were added - Audrey and George Omerley in Peru in 1972, Steve and Sarah Young in Japan in 1978, John and Barbara Crane in Chile in 1981, Gindy Miley with Operation Mobilization in 1982, and Will and Judy Traub in Germany and Chip and Sharon Copper in Uganda, both in 1988. By the congregation's fiftieth anniversary in 2019, the annual missions budget had grown to nearly $200,000 supporting twenty-six local, regional, and international partners. The name "Stony Point Reformed Presbyterian Church" was settled on November 23, 1969, settling months of debate over whether to be called Grace, Immanuel, Dayspring, or Open Door.
Pastors Who Shaped the Congregation
Dominic A. Aquila was called as the church's first full-time pastor in 1972 and during his six years conducted thirty-four marriage ceremonies, twenty-six baptisms - the first being his own son, Andy - and gave the young congregation dynamic leadership in its formative years. He left in 1978 to pastor a church in California.
In June 1979 Frank Crane was called, and he faithfully shepherded the church for thirty years. Born in the United States but raised in Chile, where his parents were missionaries, Crane came to Stony Point when it was transitioning from a small body of middle-aged families into a growing congregation of young families with young children. Frank Crane was called home to be with the Lord on July 22, 2020.
Steve Constable, born and raised in England, became a Christian in his early teens and arrived in the United States in the mid-1980s to pursue graduate work in Shakespeare and his future wife, Barb. Four years into graduate school and after a season of helping with InterVarsity, Steve and Barb concluded that God was calling them to seminary, and he graduated from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1992. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America that same year, served as an associate pastor in suburban Chicago, returned to England to pastor the International Presbyterian Church in London, then served a PCA church in rural upstate New York before being called to Stony Point in 2004. He and Barb have four children: Ben, Chrissy, Johnny, and Emma.
Associate Pastor Curt Kenney, who joined the staff in 2019, grew up in Yorktown, studied finance and international business at James Madison University, worked in micro-finance in Chicago, Charlottesville, and Kenya, and completed an M.Div. at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Associate Pastor Zac Collins, a Richmonder who sensed a call to ministry on a high school mission trip to Costa Rica, came on staff in 2008 as Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries and now oversees Student Ministries; he and his wife Bethany have two boys and a household that fills with outdoor projects, woodworking, gardening, chickens, honey bees, and soccer.
From Mission Church to PCA
Stony Point began as a mission church of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod. In May 1981 the Synod of the RPCES took up an invitation to join the Presbyterian Church in America, with SPC elder Dr. Richard Chewning presiding as moderator. On June 12, 1982, the RPCES voted overwhelmingly to enter the PCA, and soon afterward Stony Point became a congregation of the PCA.
SPC has been a planting church three times over. In 1984, with Howard Griffith as organizing pastor, fifty adult members of SPC held the first worship service of All Saints Reformed Presbyterian Church on Grove Avenue near the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. In October 1993 Steve Shelby, SPC's Associate Pastor for Christian Education, was called to organize a second daughter church, and West End Presbyterian Church held its first service in the chorus room of Byrd Middle School before eventually growing to more than six hundred worshipers on Sundays. In the fall of 2006, under Steve Constable's leadership, SPC planted a third daughter, City Church of Richmond, which held its first services in a downtown synagogue and continues to focus on feeding the poor and presenting the message of rescue in Christ to the people of Richmond.
Sundays at Stony Point
Two Sunday morning worship services are held at 8:30 and 11:00, and a third gathering - the Spanish-language service and fellowship time - meets at 5:00 p.m. on the second Sunday of each month. Between the morning services, classes for all ages meet at 9:45; nursery care runs from 8:30 to noon. The 11:00 service is livestreamed.
Worship at SPC follows a steady rhythm. Services typically begin with a word of welcome and a Call to Worship, a Bible passage read in unison, followed by congregational singing that ranges across styles, prayer, the weekly giving of tithes and offerings, scripture reading, and a sermon that explains a Bible passage and focuses on the gospel of Jesus Christ. On the second Sunday of each month the congregation observes the Lord's Supper, with bread symbolizing the body broken for us and wine symbolizing the blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins.
Children are welcomed into the service. Children's Bulletins and crayons are available in the back of the sanctuary, and before the sermon children ages three through six are invited to the front for a brief Children's Sermon before being taken to a separate Children's Worship room; parents who wish may accompany them. Communion is offered to baptized Christians, and guests are not expected or required to give when the offering plates are passed.
Wednesday Nights Around the Table
Wednesday evening programming at Stony Point is centered on families with children. The fellowship hall opens at 5:30 for an inexpensive, kid-friendly dinner served until 6:15 (children in the Cat Club Choir eat with their leaders at 6:30). Reservations are requested by Tuesday at 2:00, and guests often bring a nut-free treat to share on the dessert table. The format lets a working family show up once and find both a meal and age-appropriate activities for the rest of the evening.
Sunday evenings add a second touchpoint. Sunday Prayer meets from 6:00 to 7:00 in Room 102, the Spanish-language community group meets Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8:00, Women's Prayer gathers on the second and fourth Wednesdays from 2:00 to 3:30 in Room 106, and the Missions Prayer gathering known as Guard the Gap meets the fourth Thursday of each month from 7:00 to 8:30 in the Library.
The Emergency Food Pantry
The Emergency Food Pantry, run out of Room 101, has been a Tuesday ministry since 2008. It opens on the first and third Tuesdays of each month from 1:00 to 2:30 in the afternoon, and on the second, fourth, and fifth Tuesdays from 6:30 to 8:00 in the evening. Volunteers pick up and stock groceries from the Richmond Food Bank and nearby supermarkets during the week, then pack and hand out bags while talking and praying with the guests who arrive. Because evening demand is high, the pantry is only able to serve guests living in zip codes 23225, 23234, 23235, and 23236 during the Tuesday night hours; proof of residency in the form of a driver's license or piece of mail is requested.
Life Together: Community Groups, Classes, and Counsel
SPC encourages everyone who calls the church home to connect with others outside of Sunday morning worship, and Community Groups are the primary vehicle. Groups of roughly six to twelve people meet in homes and other venues throughout the week in Bon Air, the Fan, the West End, and beyond. Adults who want to study Scripture in a larger setting can join Sunday morning classes, where current offerings cover the range from topical Bible studies to more in-depth expository work.
Lay Counseling offers one-on-one sessions in a non-clinical setting, with volunteer leaders trained in the principles of biblical counseling. A network of support groups covers topics like grief, marriage, and other heart issues in a confidential, small-group environment. Men's Ministry focuses on growing men in their understanding of God's word, their embrace of the gospel, and their care for one another; Women's Ministry provides year-round Bible study resources and fellowship events, including seasonal gatherings.
Children, Students, and 18-22
Children's Ministry - under Jennie Ray, Zac Collins, and teams of adults and teens - gives itself to laying a firm foundation for faith in Jesus, with safety, relational trust, and eternal truth as guiding priorities. In addition to the nursery and Children's Worship offered during each Sunday service, children participate in seasonal programs including Vacation Bible School-style events. The Cat Club Choir is one of several midweek options for younger kids, often tied into Wednesday evenings.
Student Ministries, directed by Zac Collins, walks alongside middle and high schoolers through MSYF and HSYF fellowship groups on Sunday mornings and a calendar of youth events throughout the year. The Awakening, a night of evangelistic worship, encouragement, and fellowship for students from all over Richmond, was first held at SPC in October 2009.
Young Adult Ministry is intentionally geared to adults in their twenties and early thirties, with meaningful relationships in Community Groups, transformational study of Scripture, connection to the broader congregation, and acts of service in the city. 18-22 SPC is a parallel ministry for young adults in the college years, meeting for Sunday school on Sunday mornings and Bible study, dinner, and fellowship on Sunday evenings.
Stony Point en Español
Stony Point en Español is the congregation's Spanish-language ministry. A Spanish worship service and fellowship time is held at 5:00 p.m. on the second Sunday of each month, and a community group in Spanish meets on Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8:00. The Spanish ministry is overseen by Frank Matthews, and the point of contact for those wanting to connect is Rey, reachable at (804) 614-7970 or spcespanol@stonypointchurch.org. English-language Sunday worship is offered at 8:30 and 11:00 with Children's Worship and nursery available, and Sunday School for all ages at 9:45.
Missions in Richmond and Around the World
SPC supports mission partners financially, in prayer, and through short-term service trips - locally in Richmond, regionally in surrounding states, and globally on nearly every continent. Mission partners visit the church from time to time, and SPC sends teams and individuals to serve alongside partners in the field.
On the local level, SPC members have been involved in founding and supporting a wide network of Richmond ministries: the Pregnancy Resource Center, Young Life, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Needle's Eye Ministries, Cross-Over Ministry, Church Hill Academy, CHAT, the Center for Christian Counseling, STEP, the Reformed University Fellowship of the PCA, the Richmond Center for Christian Study, and Elijah House Academy.
The TRANSFORM Building Project
By 2010 it was clear that the Buford Road campus, which had been added to in 1979 and again in 1988 and 1993, needed more gathering space if SPC was going to be a church that comfortably welcomed its neighbors. The TRANSFORM campaign set out to build a new five-hundred-seat sanctuary, create a welcoming main entrance and gathering spaces, convert the existing sanctuary into a fellowship hall and kitchen, update restrooms, install an elevator for better access to the education wing, and reconfigure administrative offices. The "Old House" - the original house that had come with the 1977 property purchase - was torn down in 2014, ground was broken between services on July 20, 2014, and on December 6, 2015, the first worship service was held in the new sanctuary. The day brought together "the labors and donations of many, and architectural and design talents both within and outside the church," in the congregation's own telling, and the response was one of gratitude: "Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever."
What We Believe
Stony Point describes itself as a gospel-centered church. The starting point is the confession that "we are sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope without His mercy," and that the gospel is the good news that God has rescued sinners through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The church walks that confession out through five commitments. Empowered Worship centers every service on the worth and beauty of God expressed through prayer and expository preaching that brings every text to Christ and his work of salvation. Evangelistic Effectiveness seeks a church that welcomes skeptics, doubters, critics, and searchers and finds in its midst people who are exploring and trying to understand Christianity. Doing Justice and Mercy rests on the conviction that indifference to the poor and disadvantaged means there has not been a true grasp of salvation by sheer grace, and that generosity is a response to a generosity already received. The Integration of Faith and Work means that Christians glorify God not only through worship but also through vocations of agriculture, art, business, government, and scholarship. Counter-Cultural Community is the practice of being a community so changed by the gospel that people who could never get along outside the church learn to serve and submit to one another within it - across the lines of race, culture, class, generation, family structure, and political conviction.
Leadership
The pastoral team is led by Senior Pastor Steve Constable and includes Associate Pastors Curt Kenney (Community Life) and Zac Collins (Student Ministries). Virginia Casanova serves as Director of Church Operations, Lynn Liles as Facilities Manager, and Soo Pepper as Office Manager. Part-time ministry directors include Michael Bryant (Missions), George Cruz (Music), Fran Holdsworth (Lay Counseling and Support Groups), Jen Hopkins (Website and Media), Frank Matthews (Young Adult Ministry, 18-22 SPC, and Stony Point en Español), Jennie Ray (Children's Ministries), and Alyssa White (Women's Ministries).
Getting Connected
Sunday services are held at 8:30 and 11:00 a.m. at 2330 Buford Road, with a nursery from 8:30 to noon, Children's Worship during both morning services for ages three through six, and Sunday School for all ages at 9:45. The 11:00 service is livestreamed on YouTube. Newcomers are invited to a coffee in the gallery immediately after either service, where leaders are on hand to answer questions and help with next steps. Giving is accepted in the offering plate, by mail to the church office, through a bank's online bill-pay system, online through Church Center, or by stock transfer. The sermon archive reaches back through series on the Psalms of Ascent, Colossians, and Generosity, with audio available on a podcast feed and the church's Spotify channel.