12.20.08 | Morning Changes
December 21st and 28th we will not be having our 9:30 children's hour or adult classes. Regular services will begin at 10:30 AM.

Merry Christmas!!

08.29.08 | New Location, New Events
On September 7 we will begin meeting at the Blacksburg Community Center on Patrick Henry Drive across from Blacksburg High School.

On that day we will begin children's church and adult's classes at 9:30.
Our current class series will be "Theology from a bunch of dead guys." And we will begin with Pastor Doug taking us on a walk through John Owen's classic work "Communion with God"- a book named by many theologians and pastors as being one of the most important Christian works ever written. Our hope is that a mediation on this work will lead you into a deeper appreciation for and relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The second Sunday of every month, immediately following the services, we will have a picnic/block party at the community center and have great fellowship and fun.

The first and third Sundays of the month, we will engage in community service in our immediate area and, on the fourth Sunday of the month, we will continue serving the homeless in Roanoke.

Those who are interested can join us for a walk through the book of Proverbs during lunch time midweek on campus (time to be decided).

More to come!!!

08.06.08 | Possible New Location Announcement Coming Soon
We have been diligently working at securing a new location for ekklesia and an announcement may be forthcoming. Return for updates!

07.21.08 | Backyard Bible Clubs - Part 2
Tonight marked the first night of our Backyard Bible Clubs in Blacksburg Estates. We will be here through Thursday of this week, meeting at 6:30 in the field across from the office. Please come out and have fun with us!

You will also see us throughout the week downtown doing various acts of service- stop by and say "Hi!" we would love to meet you!

06.30.08 | Backyard Bible Clubs- Part One
Our first Backyard Bible Club for this summer season starts Monday June 30th and goes through Wed. July 2nd.

We will be meeting at 318 Cedar Hill Drive at 6:30 in the evening and going until about 8. We'll likely utilize the park just 3 doors down for games.

Please come, bring your children and your friends and enjoy fellowship with your neighbors while your children learn about 3 miracles of Jesus and what they mean for them today.

There will be water games, snacks, and crafts.

06.05.08 | Upcoming Events
June 8- Lantern Ridge Block Party - 4-6 PM Kickball, water balloon fights, watermelon and Bible lesson. Meet at the apartment's office.

June 14- Supporting All Nations Metro Church's skateboard outreach in Roanoke.

June 20-21 Men's Camping Trip

June 22- Friendship House- serve the homeless

June 30-July 3 Backyard Bible Clubs with North Main Baptist

July 13- Lantern Ridge Block Party

July 19 Community Outreach (Potential Backyard Bible Clubs)

05.13.08 | News Updates on What Has Been Going On
We apologize that it has been a while since we have updated our news section because a lot has been going on.

The Lantern Ridge afterschool program has been rolling and has been a great experience. See the pictures in our gallery. Drew has been using his experience of story telling in Costa Rica to walk the kids through the story of the Bible, starting with creation and going from there. Activities and crafts have kept the kids excited and we are having a blast too. Our desire is to multiply this effort and spread it throughout the town of Blacksburg in various locations. We also are offering to bus the kids in to our Sunday morning services.

We continue to work with the Friendship House in Roanoke to serve the poor/homeless. This has been a very moving experience for us as conversations have been had with those who visit and we begin to hear their stories. Adam sat down with a homeless gentleman for a while sharing the good news of Christ with him. The gentleman then asked if Adam knew anyone who would like to buy his shoes for 75 cents so that he could take the bus somewhere. Adam gave the gentleman the 75 cents and, in return for his kindness, the gentleman gave Adam his stripes from his service in Vietnam. As you can imagine, Adam was deeply moved by this as we were as we heard him relate the story.

Pastor Doug continues to preach through the Gospel of Mark and teach a class on "The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit" Sunday mornings at 9:30.

Ekklesia completed its first membership class with 12 people signing on as the freshman class! We will now get to work establishing our governing documents.

There are many things that are in the works and we will update you to them as we go. Thanks for your prayers!

04.23.08 | Lantern Ridge Afterschool Program set to start Wed. 4/23
Ekklesia will be serving the Lantern Ridge apartments with an afterschool program Wednesdays from 4-5pm (or as soon as the kids get off the bus). We will be doing homework help, snacks, fun and games and a Bible story.

If you have any questions concerning it, contact us via the contact page. We hope to see your children there!

03.17.08 | Upcoming Holy Week Events: Updated Wed. Night
UPDATE: For Maundy Thursday and Good Friday we will be at Hand in Hand Park off of Patrick Henry Road- enter the last entrance in front of the community/aquatic center. Park in the parking lot on the right and go to the picnic area.

Maundy Thursday, 6:30 PM , we will celebrate a Seder Meal, taking note at how the feast celebrated by Jews actually points to Jesus Christ as the Savior of mankind.

Good Friday, 6:30 PM, After a short devotional on the work of Christ on the cross, we will have a special opportunity to engage in a private exercise of prayer and reflection which is intended to help you to understand what Christ accomplished and how your sins were, indeed, forgiven and that you have no need to continue to carry the feelings of guilt that so many of us live with.

Easter Sunday, we will have services as usual and any of our students who are here at school for the holiday are invited to come to the Short's home for an Easter Dinner.

03.15.08 | God stops rain for Egg Hunt! (or how I got sunburn on a "rainy day")
What a blessing! Thank you to everyone who came out and allowed us to serve you- we hope that you and your children had a wonderful time. We have a few pictures in the gallery for you to enjoy.

We will do this again next year- tell your friends!

As you know, the weather man was calling for rain Friday through Saturday, with the worst of it scheduled to start at around 11 AM- the time the hunt was scheduled to begin. We had people calling, asking if the hunt was still on and many friends apologizing for these bad turn of events, knowing how much work we had put into this. But we didn't give up hope. We prayed.

I checked weather.com almost hourly on Friday. At around 5 PM it seemed to only be getting worse. I prayed "God, you are the God who stills storms- surely you can stop the rain for us." I checked weather.com around 7 PM and it now said that the rain would stop at midnight and not start again until the afternoon.

We woke up to no rain. As we began to set up, the skies started to turn blue, and by time the crowds began to gather, the sun was shining down upon us. It was beautiful, sunny, warm weather the entire Egg Hunt.

After the crowds left and we finished cleaning up, we said a prayer of thanks to God and headed home. About half an hour later, the clouds rolled back in and the rain began to fall.

Don't believe in the power of prayer? God cares. Cast your cares upon Him.

Pastor Doug

03.14.08 | Easter Egg Hunt!
Ekklesia will be hosting its first annual Easter Egg Hunt! We will start at 11 AM at Beeks Elementary and will have moon bounces, popcorn, and much more! The children will be divided by age to avoid anyone getting hurt or left out. This is a free event with no donations taken- we simply want to serve our community! Please come join us for the fun! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us.

See the flier on our gallery page.

03.14.08 | Easter Egg Hunt Will Go On Rain or Shine
We've been getting calls about the Easter Egg Hunt and whether it will continue or not with the current forecast calling for rain. Our prayer (and you can join in us in this!) is that the break that they are calling for in the rain will perfectly align with the Easter Egg Hunt. They are now saying rain through the night, then a break, then it will pick up again in the afternoon. So lets pray for God to hold back the rain for time enough for the kids to have some fun!

No matter what, we will be there and the eggs will be ready for the pickin'. The only questions will concern the use of the moon bounces, etc. and we'll play all that by ear.

Hope to see you!!

02.24.08 | Ekklesia serves homeless
Pictures on our gallery page (we did not take pictures of those we served to protect their privacy).

Once again, the folks of Ekklesia had the pleasure of spending the afternoon serving the homeless at the Friendship House in Roanoke. Sunday, February 24, about 15 of us provided hot meals and good fellowship to about 32 individuals and sent them home with a bag of food. Drew shared the message of Jesus with the group before the meal and we would ask that you pray for them- some listed their "home" as "in the woods." May God be their comfort and their peace. We will now be volunteering at the Friendship House every fourth Sunday, if you'd like to join us you are more than welcome.

02.04.08 | A "Corny" Act of Service
Simply wanting to simply serve, groups handed out microwave popcorn on both Saturday morning and Sunday evening just in time for the Super Bowl celebrations. The popcorn had a simple message and information about the church on it and we just wanted to communicate that we are a new church that cares and desires to serve the community it is in. If this is your first visit to our website and it has come as a result of the popcorn- welcome! We hope that you will give us a chance to serve you again in the future- if there is any way that we can be of service, let us know!

01.28.08 | Friendship House An Eye Opening Success
The Short and Ierardi families spent Sunday afternoon volunteering at the Friendship House in Roanoke (sponsored by our friends and fellow church plant All Nations Metro Church) serving the area's poor.

Pastor Doug preached a short Gospel message before praying over the free hot meal that the close to 30 people received. After they ate, each person was permitted to fill a bag with free food to take home with them. It was a wonderful experience to not only serve these people in the name of Christ, but to have our children do so as well. 7 year old Benjamin was right there in the middle of it, alongside his 13 year old brother, handing out food to these people who needed it so desperately while their older sister was in the kitchen cooking it up. What a blessing!

One of the stories that touched our heart was that of a man who looked to be in his 40's named Mitchell who shared that he has been sleeping in a garage at night. He said that a few nights ago when it was only 15 degrees that he was so cold that he couldn't move and that the next night he didn't sleep hardly at all because he had to keep walking around in order to try and stay warm. Pastor Matthew made arrangements to provide this gentleman with blankets that night. Please pray for him and all the others who were there who need for ministries like to this to continue and to see the hands and feet of Christ serving them in such a way.

I had heard from a good number of Ekklesia folk who wanted to come, but couldn't but promised to be there next time. That is so encouraging and I pray that this will only give us a bigger vision for what we will one day be able to do here in Blacksburg!

01.27.08 | Volunteering at the Friendship House
On January 27, Ekklesia will be volunteering at the Friendship House in Roanoke from 3PM until about 6PM. We will be preparing and serving food for those in need and distributing food for them to take home to their families. The message of Christ will be shared and we are delighted to be able to support a sister church of ours, All Nations Metro Church, in their efforts to be be a demonstration of the love of Christ in Roanoke.

01.23.08 | New tabs on site
Make sure you check out the new tabs on our site!

In the "About" section, we now have:

1) A membership section explaining why you should consider membership at Ekklesia (or any other church for that matter).

2) A prayer focus section which highlights an international prayer focus that we, as a church, will focus on each week during our services and then during the week in personal prayer.

01.20.08 | Ekklesia now accepting debit card donations/offerings
We are now enabled to accept offerings using your debit or credit cards (though we caution you against using credit cards). We will be looking into finding the means by which you can do this online (unfortunately our web server does not have that capability) but, in the mean time, you can simply contact us with your information or slips will be available on Sunday mornings.

01.19.08 | Missions Update
See our new "Missions" link in our "About" section to read out about our missions work locally and abroad.

01.12.08 | Morning Services resume the 20th
Sunday morning services will be resuming January 20th at 10:30 at the YMCA Thrift Store Conference Room. Hope to see you there!

12.30.07 | No services Dec 23 or Dec 30
Since most of our group is traveling for the Christmas season, we will not be having Sunday morning services on Dec. 23 or Dec. 30. Please check back about when services will resume in January.

12.19.07 | Initial approval for internships granted
We are excited to announce that we have received the initial approval (and expect full approval soon) for two of our Tech students to serve as semester interns for the spring semester. Martha is excited about the prospects of helping us to kick our community service projects into gear and Erica will be helping us to navigate through a variety of projects that will be on our plate as well. Please pray for them as they serve!

11.16.07 | Mission: Uruguay
Just announced: A missions trip to Uruguay is in the works for the end of February 2008. We are going to be working with another church in Danville to assist a church plant in Uruguay which has lost its pastor and building. Please pray for us and consider joining us for this adventure! Details to follow.

Update: Danville is going to Uruguay in February to set the stage for the partnership and we are looking toward this Fall to make the trip ourselves.

11.16.07 | No services Nov. 18th or the 25th
Most of our fellowship will be traveling for the holidays, so we will not be holding morning services on the 18th or th 25th.

10.10.07 | Ravi Zacharias Event
"Finding Answers Among Life's Greatest Losses."

Tuesday, October 9th at 7:30 for V Tech students and staff.

Wednesday, October 10th at 7:30 open to everyone.

Very few have the ability to communicate answers to questions dealing with the concepts of suffering, existence, meaning of life, etc. like Ravi Zacharias. This is a rare opportunity that no one should miss so please make every effort to go.

Click on the link for more information.

09.25.07 | Ekklesia sponsors Zacharias event
Ekklesia is happy to be able to partner with other local ministries to sponsor the Ravi Zacharias event. Through the generosity of our folks, we were able to financially support this event. We praise God for the opportunity and encourage you to attend!

09.02.07 | Informal (not official) first Sunday Services to begin
We will begin meeting on Sunday mornings for worship at 10:45 at the YMCA building on North Main Street. We'd love to see you there!

Our Sunday evening studies (an overview of the Old Testament and how it prepares us for the New) will continue at 6:30 at the Short's home.

08.22.07 | Trailer Donation Received
Heartland Community Church in Chester donated a 14 1/2 foot long trailer to Ekklesia which was filled with children's supplies, a sound system, and other goodies. We are thrilled to have been the recipient of such generosity and gladdened by another evidence of God's faithfulness to us!

07.08.07 | College Care Kits for Virginia Tech
Last year the SBCV began a mission opportunity called College Students Care Kits. It was designed to give out packets of encouragement to high school students going into college. This year, all of the project care kits will be given out at Virginia Tech to aid the healing effort for the students who need the strong connection to God. It is a great way we can say to the students that we still care and haven’t forgotten.

Follow the link to sign up and get involved!

07.05.07 | Article from SBCV Proclaimer- May/June 2007
What a Way to Start for an SBCV Church Planter

You probably know of the stress and strain
of moving. Well, that’s what brand new
SBCV church planter, Doug Short, was doing
on April 16th with his wife and three kids.
They had been praying for months that
God would lead them quickly to Blacksburg
and the campus of Virginia Tech to start a
new church. They had been through the entire
process of forms, interviews, and
field trips. But Short was waiting on his
house to sell. He had been asking
God why there had been delay after
delay when his heart desperately
wanted to be on the
ground, ministering
to students and the residents
around Blacksburg.
The call came on
Monday morning, April 16th.
As Short and his wife were
doing the final pack for
their trip on Tuesday from
Deleware, His mind reeled
as he heard the news from Tech: Shots fired…
students dead… total panic and desperation.
God was starting to show the Short’s about
the timing of this move and their mission at
Virginia Tech. The day they finally arrived on
campus, before they even unpacked their car,
they stood just down the sidewalk from where
the worst school shooting occurred just 34
hours before. The entire Short family jumped
in and began working with SBCV Disaster
Relief teams handing out meals and drinks…
ministering to hurting hearts and lives.
“When we got the call of the tragedy at
Virginia Tech, it just didn’t quite sink in. But on
the drive down, I realized that God had called
us here for such a time as this. Friends called
right away and told me that God’s got you
down there. He’s got a mission,” said Short.
Short is already meeting with area
pastors to pray, plan and strategize the
best ways to reach out to people who need
hope. Part of that is what he’s already doing,
meeting physical needs while sharing the
hope found in Jesus Christ.
“God tells us in his Word that He will
do with us more than we can ask or imagine.
He’s now thrusting us… propelling us… to
that land of ‘beyond what I can imagine.’“