Our History

History of Gainesville Presbyterian Church

Seven families began meeting together in a Bible study in 1978. One of the members of the Bible study (the late Jerry Botkin) gently and persuasively steered the group toward the Reformed faith and the PCA. They contacted the local PCA presbytery, which sent out Ron Bossom, pastor of the Harvester PCA in Springfield, VA to begin teaching the Bible Study at the Kines Motel. The presbytery also put the group in contact with a young pastor named Phil Douglass who was interested in planting a church in northern Virginia for the PCA. The group trekked out to Fairlington Presbyterian Church to hear him preach and liked what they heard. Soon Phil was called by Delmarva Presbytery to begin a mission church in Gainesville.

The group began meeting for worship at Gainesville Elementary School on Rt. 55 just outside of Haymarket in the spring of 1979. In May of 1980, Gainesville Presbyterian Church became an official church of the PCA, pastored by Phil Douglass. The church met for 3 years in the school gymnasium under the basketball hoops, with no AC, using the hall as a nursery.

In June of 1980, Jack Lash was called to intern for summer, with wife Mary Ann and baby Timmy in tow. When Jack graduated from Seminary in August of 1982 he was then called to return to Gainesville as a full time intern. That fall he was called by the congregation as Associate Pastor and ordained in March 1983.

In the meantime the congregation had begun looking for land, so that the church might have a more permanent location. In the end, they bought their present lot from Early Griffith, the man who opened Gainesville Elementary each Sunday. The building was designed and constructed in August of 1983.

While pastoring the church from 1980 through 1985, Phil Douglass’ heart was in church planting right from the beginning. He was instrumental in the planting of many other PCA churches in northern Virginia. Phil left to continue to plant churches, and Jack began to lead the Gainesville congregation. In October of 1986 Jack was elected the new senior pastor of Gainesville Presbyterian Church.

Over the next 38 years, God continued to bless our church under the leadership of Jack Lash. His faithful ministry has been instrumental in the lives of many individuals. In 2021, Jack announced that he was preparing to retire in 2024. The church formed a search committee that began to pray and search for the pastor that God would bring to take on the role of senior pastor.

In 2024, God brought Stephen and Katherine Baran and their seven children to Virgina, and Stephen was installed as the new senior pastor in the fall of 2024. God has continued to bring us men, women, and children who want to worship Him and learn of Him, people dearly loved by the Lord Himself. Each person He has called to be with us has an important role to play. Each has been given a gift the rest of us need.

From the very beginning God’s blessing has rested upon this congregation. There has always been a sense of Christian community and closeness, a desire to put Christ first in everything, a commitment to do everything according to the Bible. There have been sad times and hard times, but very few compared to the pleasant and precious times we have enjoyed as a fellowship of the Lord’s people. We have much to be grateful for. As with all churches, our story is a story of God’s grace overcoming our sinfulness. He is the One building our church, for ultimately this is His church, not our church. He is building it out of discarded materials, turning the rocks themselves into living stones, which He is fashioning into a beautiful temple where He dwells. It’s Him. It’s not the pastor, it’s not the leaders, it’s not the church. Our story is a story of what He has done. We are so privileged to have been a part of what our great God has been doing here in this corner of His big, beautiful earth.

And our story is not over. We pray that God has even greater things in store for us in the future. And yet the sweetest thing of all will be to join with all of those from GPC – past, present, and future – and with all our sister churches to sing praises to our blessed Redeemer in the heavenly places. It is His grace that has led us safe thus far, and His grace will lead us home.