Who we are:
Forest Alliance Church is a part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance and we are located on Thomas Jefferson Road across from the fire department in Forest, Virginia. We are much more than labels, but if you’re curious about what to expect, we are:
- evangelical
- affirm the fundamentals of the faith (not to be confused with fundamentalism)
- male-elder-led
- non-cessationist
- low to moderate charismatic
- pre-millennial
- four-fold Gospel
- family church
We are in search of a full-time pastor as our previous pastor, Rev. David Blackburn, retired after leading us for over 16 years and being in ministry for over 40 years. You can find more information about our denomination itself at cmalliance.org/who-we-are/what-we-believe.
Our local church history:
Forest Alliance Church began as a Bible study group in the home of Dr. Ruth Chamberlin, former C&MA missionary to Vietnam and professor at Liberty University. After a first attempt from Sept. 29, 1986-Dec, 1987 with Rev. James Snyder as pastor, the group took off under the leadership of Mr. James Lee, the former Director of Business Affairs for the C&MA, beginning Oct. 23, 1988. Mr. Lee served as a Lay Pastor from then until the first full time pastor, Rev. Thomas Veale, was appointed by the District in Feb. 1990. The church group moved from the home to the Greenstone Building in Forest until moving into its new Church facility in Oct. 1993.
The Forest suburb of Lynchburg was early focused on as the target area for this new church. The vision was to establish an Alliance church in the Lynchburg area for the glory of God. Through Mr. Lee's leadership, 7.77 acres of prime land was purchased in April 1992 at the present location at 1562 Thomas Jefferson Road. With almost all volunteer labor, including 106 people, the church facilities were completed by Oct. of 1993. On Apr. 17, 1994 Forest Alliance Church became a fully organized church with the C&MA with 52 charter members.
Dr. Kramer served as pastor from Oct. 1992-Sept. 29, 2002. Rev. David Blackburn was called to be the new senior pastor of FAC on Sept. 10, 2003. Pastor Dave served as pastor for over 16 years and concluded his ministry upon retirement Feb. 2, 2020.