November 3 will be our first Sunday worship service in our renewed home at 600 Forest Avenue.

8:15, 9:30, and 11:00 a.m. Sunday School will be offered during the 9:30 a.m. service hour, and childcare for kindergarten and younger will be available all morning. 

Our Sanctuary can seat between 350–375 people. 

Our average attendance has been around 750–800 per Sunday, which is the same size we were pre-pandemic. If the numbers are spread relatively evenly (as we did before 2020), we will fit and have some room to grow. Think about coming to the 8:15 a.m. service! If a service is tight though, the Fellowship Hall is also available (more below). 

Anticipating the need for more seating to accommodate popular service times and hospitable space for those who experience constraints in our sanctuary, we will offer flexible space in the Fellowship Hall during the 9:30 and 11:00 worship services. The room will be outfitted with chairs, seating in round tables, and some couches, and you can participate in worship via the stream on the large screen. A small hospitality team will welcome worshipers to this flexible worship space, and coffee will be available! 

The prayerful decision to deprioritize increased seating in the Sanctuary was partly for financial reasons (the cost of expanding the sanctuary was prohibitive), but was also a strategic choice that aligns with our vision. We are not seeking to become a bigger and bigger congregation, but rather a multiplying congregation, sending people out to start new churches and missional communities. That being said we did gain ~30 seats by moving the sound booth from the balcony to the back of the sanctuary, and removing the platformed cameras around the space. 

A team has been meeting this year to plan for a “renewed” ADA-compliant playground that will foster community and be a welcoming place for our neighbors. We will retain the beloved natural beauty of the play space, while updating equipment and accessibility for children of various ages. This will be a several months-long process with the hope that it will be complete in the spring. In preparation for our November re-entry to the building, we’ll host a workday in September to clean up the area and make it ready for play. Further work is being planned for the winter. 

While attendance is high (praise God!), we will have room at 600 to accommodate our children. Just as we have done over the last ten years, we will flex and adjust to meet the needs of class sizes so that all children are safe and comfortable while in our care. Plus we now have more flexible spaces to accommodate all of our children!

Though outside of the initial Renew scope, a team is making improvements to the kitchen that will be ready for use on our first Sunday back. We have removed a small wall to open up the space, and will have a new stove and oven, a new central counter, and a new table for coffee service. We hope these changes will greatly improve the flow and function of this very important room! 

We are grateful for the tremendous blessing that Regency has been to us and our community as we’ve been away from our home. As our leadership considered the strategic direction for Third, we had no current purpose for continuing to rent the Regency space. Our lease will end December 31, 2024.

We still have multiple parking lots that service our buildings on Forest Avenue. The parking lot behind our building (accessed from Silverspring) will still be the best option for handicapped and visitor parking. Otherwise, we have our Fellowship Hall lot, our office building lot (at 500 Forest), and the middle lot (inbetween our office and church buildings). Additionally, we can park at the elementary school across the street.