Church of the Advent was known for a while as “the blankets church.” The new startup, founded in 2008, was renting worship space from a small Methodist church, but the off-and-on heat had members huddling in blankets while listening to sermons. The church’s rector, Thomas Hinson, looks back on that time fondly now. Hinson came to D.C. in 2007 to be near his girlfriend, now wife, and found himself called by God to minister in the nation’s capital. Church of the Advent, affiliated with the Anglican church in Rwanda, is part of a network of new, local Anglican churches called “Renew D.C.” and dedicated to transforming the world around them. It meets in Columbia Heights. Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?
Yes, a Christian. I most appreciate the kind of hope that it offers the world. It’s the story of God, at infinite cost to himself, redeeming and restoring a broken world into something beautiful and perfect.
Church of the Advent is a new church plant. Why does D.C. need another church?
Local churches have a life cycle. There is always going to be a need for new churches, whether that means revitalizing an existing church that’s dying or planting new churches. The more new churches you have in an area, the better. One of our hopes in planting this church is that it would be part of a movement of the gospel in D.C., in a very transformative way, where people are coming to know Jesus. We have no illusion that that’s going to happen through our church alone. One of our core values is “kingdom partnerships.” We see ourselves as one spoke in a wheel of churches working together throughout the city to seek gospel renewal.
You place much emphasis on “the gospel.” What do you mean by that? Why is it so important to you?
It’s the story that the Bible tells, which is our story, the story of the world — a world that was created good and beautiful, as it ought to have been — but a world that has fallen. We have rebelled and turned against God and brought about all kinds of brokenness. But the gospel says that through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection a kind of redemption is now possible. We’re able to be reconciled to God, to become a part of Jesus’ ministry of renewal in the world. When Jesus cures blindness, when Jesus cures paralysis, what he’s saying with every single one of those acts is, ‘What I represent is the hope that one day there will be no more blindness, one day there will be no more paralysis.’ There will be no more injustice or war or death. One day all things will be made new. Between the cross and the end of all things, what we are called to do as Christians is to follow after Jesus in that ministry of renewal.
How does being a church of renewal fit together with keeping old Anglican traditions?
I didn’t grow up Anglican. About 98 percent of the people in our church have never been to an Anglican church before. I’ve never been a strong proponent of one denomination being superior to another. I think the thing that really matters in a church is really what we talked about before — what is the role of the gospel and who do you believe Jesus to be?
But it’s an incredibly important thing when you’re planting new churches and seeking renewal to remember that we’re part of an ancient tradition. I think it’s a guard against potential arrogance, to realize that we’re standing on the shoulders of centuries of tradition.
The use of liturgy in our day and age is important, because sometimes we as Christians can treat people like they’re bobbleheads — that if we get enough information into their heads, that’s all that needed. But I think that along with informing people about the faith, the job of the church is to form people. And one way that formation happens is through practice and repetition and liturgy.
What’s your prayer for Columbia Heights?
Columbia Heights is a fascinating place, with luxury homes right next to subsidized housing. It’s everywhere in D.C., but I think the tension of gentrification is magnified in Columbia Heights.
In 1994, Rwanda experienced horrific genocide. Our church is affiliated with Rwanda, and what we’ve been seeing there is miraculous. We see people because of their faith extending forgiveness and seeking to be reconciled with those that killed their friends and family. So my prayer would be that we would see the same kind of reconciliation happen in Columbia Heights and D.C.
At your core, what is one of your defining beliefs?
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
– Liz Essley
