Our journey was a long one. APC today is not the same as APC ten years ago. You might be tempted to think we’d earned some rest. You’d also understand if we chose differently.

We’re a different place, a different community from when we started this journey. APC today reverberates with the connections we’ve made with our community. We find ourselves with an ear toward the ground, listening for the Spirit’s movement.

Discernment is not a one and done exercise. Once you’ve engaged the Spirit in your ministry, it’s hard to step back again. The stories below are just the beginning for us. They’re about the moment we stepped back into our community space, and the moments we were called out of it again.

We do our best to listen and respond these days. We’re no longer willing to be bystanders in our own community. Energized by the Spirit we listen for where God’s heart breaks and we do our best to partner in finding solutions. The completion of Gilliam Place is nowhere near the end of our journey. We’ve merely turned the page in order to keep writing… 

chapter 5:

APC Today

An Unexpected Homecoming

An Unexpected Homecoming

As 2020 started, we looked forward to having a year together in our new space. We’d co-created several well-funded ministry initiatives to nurture relationships with our Gilliam Place neighbors. Garden concerts and volunteering to be intake interviewers for new...

The Evolution of Our Front Porch

The Evolution of Our Front Porch

We’d taken to calling the garden our front porch. A place to play, sit, rest, and just be. At least that is what we’d planned on it being. Our church website calls the garden an “evolving landscape. As it evolves, we listen for what’s invited to become in that space…...

The Sounds of South Arlington

The Sounds of South Arlington

Music lives deep in the DNA of APC. This extends into the community and to our partners at Gilliam Place. Between APC, APAH, Our Stomping Ground, and La Cocina we work together to support each other and the residents of Gilliam Place. This has been especially true...

Co-creating a New Money Story

Co-creating a New Money Story

If we’ve learned anything, it’s that discernment never stops. We’re in our space; we’re navigating the changing realities of COVID; we’re continuing to step into our communities and wondering what ministry looks like together. Our stories are constantly under...