Thomas Road Baptist launching church in Danville

Pastor Jonathan Falwell speaks to a crowd of about 100 at Stratford Inn Conference Center about the new Thomas Road Baptist Church-planted Dan River Church, which will be having services at George Washington High School starting in October.

By: Denice Thibodeau | GoDanRiver
Published: September 17, 2009

The Rev. Jonathan Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, announced Wednesday that a new church campus is being “planted” in Danville next month — Dan River Church.

Falwell said the church’s mission is not to draw people away from other churches, but to reach the 70 percent of Southside residents Falwell claimed are not now attending a church.

“A large majority of those don’t know Christ as their personal Savior,” Falwell said. “We have a responsibility to reach people.”

Falwell said Thomas Road Baptist Church has launched churches around the world, and has plans to “plant” more church around the country over the next couple of years.

“We’ve got a responsibility that comes straight from the heart of God,” he said.

Falwell stressed the church is not coming to compete with established area churches, but rather to partner with them. He said he has already met with a number of local pastors, and has garnered some support for his mission to reach “people not in the community of believers.”

Falwell introduced the Rev. Scott Randlett, who will lead the new church, to the crowd of about 100 people who met at the Stratford Conference Center to hear about the new congregation.

Randlett said the first church service will be held at 10 a.m. Oct. 4 in the auditorium at George Washington High School.

“God’s presence is going to be all over that place,” Randlett said.

A ministerial team has already been put together to handle the family, worship and outreach missions of Dan River Church, Randlett said, and students from Liberty University will also have an active part in worship services.

Randlett said the team will begin passing out information about the church in different communities on Sept. 26, and a block party is being planned for Oct. 3 to introduce the church to the community. Randlett said details about those events will follow.

For more information, contact Randlett at scottr@trbc.org or by calling Thomas Road Baptist Church at (434) 832-2062.