National Community Church (NCC) is a is a

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

multi-site church A multi-site church is a specific church congregation which holds services at multiple geographical locations, either within a specific metropolitan area or, increasingly, several such areas. Characteristic Within the multi-site approach, both the ...

located in the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

area, pastored by

Mark Batterson Mark Batterson (born November 5, 1969, in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American pastor and author. Batterson serves as lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C. NCC was recognized as one of the Most Innovative and Most Influent ...

. It is affiliated with the

Assemblies of God USA The Assemblies of God USA (AG), officially the General Council of the Assemblies of God, is a Pentecostal Christian denomination in the United States founded in 1914 during a meeting of white Pentecostal ministers at Hot Springs, Arkansas (with e ...

. Weekly sermons are also available online as audio and video

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

s and on-demand webcasts.

History

National Community Church held its first Sunday service on January 7, 1996. During the first nine months of 1996, average attendance at Sunday services was between 20-25 people. At the time, all meetings were at the Joshua R. Giddings school in southeast Washington, DC, but the school was closed due to fire code violations. NCC found a new home in the

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (d/b/a AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC and known in some countries as AMC Cinemas or AMC Multi-Cinemas) is an American movie theater chain fou ...

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

, holding its first services there on November 17, 1996. A second Sunday service was added in February 2001 when the church grew to 275 weekly attendees. In an August 2001 article in the ''Washington Post,'' the congregation was described as "young" and "casually dressed," and Batterson remarked that the church was "right in the middle of the marketplace." In 2002, NCC purchased an abandoned building located one block from Union Station, which had been a one-story diner in the early twentieth century. In March 2006, after investing a few million dollars for renovation, NCC opened Ebenezers, a coffeehouse serving fair trade and organic coffee, with church offices located on the top floor and an event space in the basement. The basement of Ebenezer's became the regular venue for a Saturday worship service and the live taping of weekly sermons. In July 2008, Ebenezers was named the best coffeehouse in the

Washington metropolitan area The Washington metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the National Capital Region, is the metropolitan area centered on Washington, D.C. The metropolitan area includes all of Washington, D.C. and parts of the states of Maryland, Virgi ...

by AOL's City Guide. In 2005, NCC began making its sermons available online via podcast. The church expanded to movie theaters in Georgetown and Kingstowne, Virginia, and Sunday services were held at Ebenezer's when the movie theater at Union Station abruptly closed in October 2009. In 2010, NCC began a Sunday evening service at the

GALA Hispanic Theatre GALA (Grupo de Artistas LatinoAmericanos) Hispanic Theatre is a theater located at 3333 14th St NW in Washington, D.C. It hosts plays in Spanish and English, as well as dance, music, poetry, spoken word, art and films. History The GALA Hispani ...

in Columbia Heights, Washington, D.C. and a regular Sunday service in

Potomac Yard Potomac Yard is a neighborhood in Northern Virginia that straddles southeastern Arlington County and northeastern Alexandria, Virginia, located principally in the area between U.S. Route 1 and the Washington Metro Blue Line / Yellow Line trac ...

in Virginia. In 2011, NCC purchased a century-old theater on

Barracks Row Barracks Row is a commercial strip along 8th Street SE that connects the Navy Yard and Capitol Hill neighborhoods in the Southeast Quadrant of Washington, D.C. south of Eastern Market between M St. SE and Pennsylvania Ave. SE. The area takes ...

in Capitol Hill, which was originally known as Meader’s Theater and had been home to the People's Church since 1962. In March 2011, NCC's congregation totaled around 2,000, and the theater became the NCC's central site, hosting multiple Sunday services and the Saturday afternoon taping of the sermon distributed to the other six locations and online. Over the next several years, the theater was renovated and in May 2016 it opened to the public as a movie theater and performance venue, named the "Miracle Theatre." After being featured in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' in 2012, the congregation at Union Station grew to over 500. NCC launched its second location in the

Regal Entertainment Group Regal Cinemas (also Regal Entertainment Group) is an American movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. A division of Cineworld, Regal operates the second-largest theater circuit in the United States, with over 7,200 screens i ...

theaters at Ballston Common Mall in

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county ...

in 2003, using a pre-recorded video to present sermons in both locations on Sundays. In 2012, NCC entered into a partnership with a community organization, the Southeast White House, to buy an abandoned apartment building in the Hillcrest neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The building was renovated into a community center with a dance studio, basketball court, art center, computer lab, and recording studio, opening in 2017 as the "DC Dream Center." In 2014, NCC celebrated

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

with 800 congregants at the historic Lincoln Theatre on U Street in Washington, D.C. where the church established a new weekly Sunday service. In April 2014, NCC had over 3,000 congregants attending services in seven locations. In 2014, NCC purchased the Navy Yard Car Barn, several blocks south of the Miracle Theatre on Barracks Row.

Affiliations

National Community Church is affiliated with the

and the

Willow Creek Association Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise List of Salix species, around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

National Community ChurchMark BattersonEbenezers CoffeehouseThe Miracle TheaterDC Dream Center
Assemblies of God churches Pentecostal churches in Washington, D.C. Christian organizations established in 1996 1996 establishments in the United States