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Pastor’s Welcome

Welcome to the Reston Presbyterian Church website. We are a community of believers who desire to please God in worship and reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ. Our mission statement is summed up in the simple yet powerful statement “Reaching People for Christ.” Reston Presbyterian Church is a member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC). Our style of worship leans more toward what people would classify as “contemporary,” although we still sing some of the great hymns of the church. Last year we averaged about 125 worshippers.

We would love to have you come and visit with us on Sunday morning. We hope you meet Jesus, grow in your faith, and sense Him living among His people. Please know you are welcome to come and join us in worship.

- Pastor Tom Dages

Our Purpose

Reaching People for Christ with a Gospel-saturated, Spirit-empowered community, built upon God’s eternal purposes.

Our History

In early 1976, a few families from nearby McLean Presbyterian Church began planning for a mission church to be planted in the Reston, Virginia area. The Session of McLean Presbyterian shared their vision and provided encouragement and financial support. In May of that year, William Brindley arrived from Westminster Seminary to serve as the organizing pastor of the budding Reston Presbyterian Church. The church’s first gatherings were held in the Brindleys’ home.

The young church went through a lot of changes in the next several years. In 1979, Reston Presbyterian Church dropped its mission church status and God provided a property which would eventually become our present home. Although the church continued to meet in a variety of locations including a shopping center, a community center, and local elementary schools (some wondered if RPC stood for “Reston Portable Church”), the church body continued to grow and mature. Finally, in 1984, the church was able to move into a permanent home on the corner of Sunset Hills and Hunter Mill Roads.

RPC’s first Senior Pastor, William Brindley, resigned in 1983 and Reverend Stephen Baldwin, an Associate Pastor at McLean Presbyterian Church, became our second Senior Pastor. While serving the body of RPC, he helped grow the church’s commitment to missions work until he and his wife were themselves called to serve as missionaries in Ireland with World Harvest Missions. Stephen founded Faith Church in Dublin, and Reston Presbyterian Church sent them off with prayers and financial support. Following Stephen’s departure, Lt. John Stringer, CHC, USN, transitioned from his service as U.S. Navy Chaplain at the Bethesda Naval Hospital to become the third Senior Pastor in RPC’s history. John faithfully served here for over a decade, and church life continued to develop, especially in the areas of worship, teaching, and small group fellowship. Along with the other church elders, John guided the church through a time of transition, during which Reston Presbyterian Church moved from being part of the Presbyterian Church in America to joining the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) denomination. In 2003, Reverend Thomas Dages answered the call to become the Senior Pastor of Reston Presbyterian Church. Since that time, Tom has faithfully served RPC and has continued to teach and deepen the desire within the body to reach people for Christ and to serve one another.