Sessions are held each year in the Fall and Spring. In the weeks before the session begins, an announcement will be made alerting you to the commencement of the registration period of the upcoming season. Simply complete the form and you will be assigned to an available Village.

To create a church where everyone is connected in family, growing in their faith, and supported towards their future.

To offer an opportunity for every member of Alfred Street to move from crowd to community and get connected as they would in a small church. Village discussions will also help people apply sermons to their lives leading to spiritual growth and transformation. Our church will feel smaller and will eliminate feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Village is an experience offered to everyone in the ASBC community ages 21 and up. Village picks up the baton where our Kid’s Street, Crossover, and Higher Ground programs drop off.

All Villages meet online via Zoom video chat. Our church will continue to monitor CDC guidelines and will consider the return to meeting in homes in when it is deemed safe.

Most Villages gather at 7 pm with the exception of our daytime Villages geared towards our “seasoned saints.” You can choose the day of the week that works best for you as Villages are offered on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

Right now we don’t have Villages on Saturdays or Sundays, but we’re exploring new opportunities for community building in the future.

No, Villages are free to join!

Yes, we encourage spouses to join the same Village, but each couple has to sign up individually.

We use a live curriculum which means that each week you gather your Village will be discussing the sermon from the previous weekend. Participants receive the curriculum late Sunday evening. It includes a sermon summary, discussion questions, group activities, and an optional individual homework assignment. Village curriculum is created by a dedicated team of educators within ASBC who work with Pastor Wesley as he prepares and delivers weekly sermons.

Contact a member of the Village team and let us know. We are working to expand Village offerings across the DMV because every member of Alfred Street should be connected in family. We have a limited number of E-Villages and remote Villages for ASBC community members who live outside of the DMV.

A remote Village is any Village that meets in a physical location outside of the DC, Maryland, Virginia area. Currently we offer remote Villages in Philadelphia, PA, Saint Louis, MO, and Springfield, MA. If you would like to start a remote Village in your area please fill out the host or facilitator sign up form.

An E-Village meets online via Zoom Video software. Please pay careful attention to the time zone designation when registering for an E-Village. These Villages used to be offered exclusively for those who live outside of the DMV, but in light of the current pandemic all Villages will meet in an online format.

You can request to switch your Village during the first three weeks of the Village season.

Just hold tight, we’ll contact you as soon as a space opens in the Village you requested or in another nearby Village.

Village is an optional 10-week journey providing opportunities for intimate community building and spiritual growth in convenient settings (near the home, on a chosen day of the week). Every member of Alfred Street will remain in their DG group which serves as the nexus for pastoral care. Death, illness, financial crises are all still assisted by your assigned deacon. Your Village will supply an extra level of familial support, but DG groups are the church’s way of organizing how we provide care year round.

Villages consist of 8-14 participants, led by a pair of co-facilitators and one host. The Village steering committee consists of 14 deacons who run the daily operations of Village and also provide spiritual support to all of the facilitators. The steering committee currently has three auxiliary branches: an evaluation committee that gathers and organizes feedback, a marketing team which works to get every ASBC member in a Village, and a curriculum team that writes the sermon guides each weekend. Fredericka Sands, Assistant to the Pastor for Village, oversees the Village project while also helping facilitators connect Villagers with ASBC’s support ministries: Grief Share, AGAPE, Legal Resources, Divorce Care, Cancer Care, and Recovery Ministry.