One Church in Cordova and Arlington
Advent Presbyterian Church meets in two locations on opposite sides of the Memphis suburbs - on North Germantown Parkway in Cordova and on Chester Street in Arlington - under one Session, one mission, and one set of elders. The church belongs to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and gathers around a simple motto: to cause God great joy by sharing His love as experienced in Jesus Christ. Both campuses share the same sermon series and a coordinated calendar of ministries, even as each location keeps a local pastor and its own personality.
The Cordova campus sits at 1879 N Germantown Parkway and has been the longer-standing of the two locations. Worship there takes place at 9:00 and 11:00 AM on Sunday mornings, with Sunday School for all ages filling the 10:00 AM hour in between. The 9:00 service features traditional hymns and longtime favorites, while the 11:00 service leans contemporary, with the 11:00 gathering also streamed live each week.
The Arlington campus at 6176 Chester Street serves the fast-growing town of Arlington with two morning services at 9:00 and 10:30 AM. Diana Shiflett serves as the Arlington Campus Pastor and, since September 2026, also as the church's Transitional Head of Staff during the season of searching for a new Lead Pastor. Sam Norfleet leads worship there, Jennifer Kennemore oversees kids, and Vicki Gibson coordinates events across both campuses.
What to Expect on a First Visit
Advent describes itself as a come-as-you-are church, where some attend in suits and others in shorts and flip-flops. There is no dress code beyond personal comfort. Greeters meet visitors at the doors, a welcome desk offers connect cards, and self check-in stations are available in the Kids Wing at Cordova.
Children are welcomed in the service but also have their own dedicated spaces. At Cordova, nursery care runs at 9:00, 10:00, and 11:00 AM for infants through age two, and Pre-K (ages three through five, potty trained) along with Elementary (kindergarten through fifth grade) meet at 10:00 and 11:00 AM. A nursing mothers' room with a live audio/video feed of the service is open from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM. At Arlington, children from birth through fifth grade can be checked into the preschool building at both services using a secure computerized system. Every volunteer who works with children has been background-checked, vetted, and trained.
Worship online is a regular part of the rhythm. The 11:00 AM Cordova service streams live on Facebook, YouTube, and the church's livestream page each Sunday morning, beginning about five minutes before the service starts.
What Advent Believes
Advent stands in the evangelical wing of the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition. The church holds to the inerrancy of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments as the supreme and final authority on matters of faith and life. Its statement of faith follows the Evangelical Presbyterian Church's Essentials and affirms belief in one God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - in the miraculous conception, virgin birth, atoning death, bodily resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit's work of convicting, regenerating, indwelling, gifting, and sealing believers.
Salvation, in Advent's understanding, rests wholly on God's free grace, credited to those who place their faith in Christ alone. The church teaches the visible unity of believers in local congregations where the Word is preached, the sacraments are administered, and discipline and fellowship are maintained. Advent looks for the personal, visible, and bodily return of Jesus to judge the living and the dead and to consummate history. Members are also called to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples of every nation as part of obedience to the Great Commission.
Four distinctives shape the Presbyterian flavor at Advent: a confidence in a sovereign God who chooses people before they choose Him, a conviction that the Bible is to be studied carefully rather than used for easy answers, governance by teams of elected elders rather than a single pastor, and a place within the wider Christian family through the ancient creeds.
Kids and Students
Children's ministry at Advent operates under the conviction that kids are not Jesus followers in waiting but the church right now. Leslee Graves leads the team as Children's Ministry Director, assisted by Cheri Wooster and Jennifer Kennemore. Beyond Sunday mornings, the Kids Ministry runs EPIC midweek programming and Vacation Bible School each summer, alongside special events like an annual Easter Egg Hunt and mission projects.
Advent Youth Ministry (AYM) gathers middle and high school students from both campuses through several weekly rhythms. Huddle meets Sundays from 5:00 to 7:30 PM during the fall, winter, and spring at Cordova, with a church bus picking up Arlington students at 4:30 PM and returning them by 8:00. MDWK happens every other Wednesday from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at Arlington and includes a free catered dinner. Connect Groups meet during the Sunday school hour at both campuses - 10:00 AM in Cordova and 9:00 AM in Arlington - and run year-round with teaching, discussion, and prayer. Once a month, AYM combines both campuses for an Invite Night with worship, games, and a free meal designed for bringing friends.
Students can apply for the AYM Student Leadership Team, a six- to ten-week commitment that prepares them to lead retreats, trips, and ministry projects while growing personally as a disciple. A summer internship and development program also pays college-age students to serve in youth, kids, production and design, worship, or recreation ministry for ten weeks.
Adults: Women, Men, Seniors, and Sunday School
Women's ministry, coordinated by Georgia Smith, runs a wide slate of Bible studies and small groups. Coffee and Conversations meets Wednesday mornings at 10:00 AM at a local Panera. Pebbles and Boulders gathers Monday mornings at 9:45 AM. Women of Worship, a Sunday school class, meets at 10:00 AM in Room 208. Dorcas Circle meets the first Tuesday of each month at 10:00 AM in the library. A Wednesday morning study during part of the year works through Kelly Minter's "What Is Love" study of 1, 2, and 3 John. Periodic retreats and luncheons, including a writing retreat at Heber Springs, Arkansas, round out the year.
Men's ministry focuses on Bible studies, Sunday School, and Ironman small groups, with a leadership point of contact in Earl Stephens.
Senior ADVENTurers meets once a month for a shared meal and fellowship, with transportation provided on church vans for outings away from the building. The group uses humor and Scripture to pursue aging without getting old, leaning on passages like II Corinthians 4:16 and Psalm 92:14.
Sunday School at Cordova runs at 10:00 AM across a range of co-ed classes: Barnabas (Room 201), Christianity 201 (Room 205), Faith Weavers (Room 203), Solid Foundations (Room 109) for twenty- and thirty-somethings, a men's class in Room 207, and Women of Worship in Room 208.
The Bridge and Cordova Outreach
Rickey Peterson, a former K-12 educator with a Master of Divinity from Moody Theological Seminary, serves as Pastor for Cordova Outreach and leads The Bridge, a ministry described as a bridge to Jesus, community, and purpose. The Bridge exists to span generational, cultural, and personal divides, and currently meets during the 10:00 AM hour in Cordova. The ministry is re-aligning to combine an equipping hour for participants with an equipping team that will help lead the whole church in reaching the Cordova community.
Care Ministry and Prayer
Gretchan Isern coordinates Care Ministry from the central office, supported by Jerry Stone as Pastoral Care Associate. The Care Team writes notes to those on the prayer list and delivers meals during difficult seasons. A Prayer Team gathers after services and during the week to pray over the church. Shepherd Care volunteers check in on members, while Care Pastors administer communion to homebound members and visit during hospital stays. Advent also hosts GriefShare, a thirteen-week video-based grief support program with discussion, personal workbooks, and group prayer. The group meets in the Cordova campus library.
Creative Arts and the Christian Life Center
David Shotsberger directs the Creative Arts Ministry, which engages musicians, vocalists, sound and video engineers, lighting designers, stage designers, dancers, painters, poets, and spoken-word artists across both campuses. Opportunities include contemporary and traditional solo and ensemble instrumentalists, choral vocalists, live sound and video engineering, studio video production, stage management, and worship environment aesthetics.
The Christian Life Center (CLC), led by Dan Eubanks, is a hub of community life with recreation and art activities for the whole family - from basketball to kayaking, from painting to stained glass. The CLC runs camps, leagues, and special events, with hours that vary by event.
Preschool and Parent's Day Out
Donna Wolfanger directs the Advent Preschool and Parent's Day Out (PDO) program, which operates at both campuses as part of the church's outreach mission. The Arlington preschool serves children fifteen months through five years old, Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 2:15 PM, following Arlington Community Schools' calendar. The Cordova preschool serves children twelve months through five years old on the same hours, following Bartlett City Schools' calendar.
The program uses the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TNELDS) and weaves in language, early literacy, math, science, music, art, and a weekly Chapel that introduces Bible stories, Christian songs, and prayer. Optional pull-out programs include a Junior STEM Lab and Building Blocks Soccer for students three and up. Monthly tuition ranges from $290 for two-day-a-week classes to $500 for four-day Pre-K, with a one-time non-refundable $100 registration fee.
Local and Global Missions
Local mission partners include the MidSouth Food Bank's Mobile Food Pantry, which sets up monthly in the church parking lot; the Career Support Network for people navigating job transitions; Riverwood Elementary School in Brinkley Heights; First Presbyterian Church's outreach ministries for the homeless; the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at local high schools; Middle College High School; and the Jon Shober Scholarship Fund for college-bound students of Advent and the Cordova community.
Internationally, Advent has worked in Honduras since 2009, partnering first with the village of Cebu and later a second village to provide clean water, build permanent housing, administer health care, and share the gospel. Teams travel regularly and support the work through donations and an annual 5K race.
The Adventure Building Campaign
Advent is in the middle of a capital effort called The Adventure, with active projects at both campuses. The Arlington campus is building a new multipurpose worship building scheduled for completion in summer 2027. At Cordova, the gathering space is being refreshed, with some phases already complete and work continuing on the sanctuary. Vision guides, renderings, floor plans, and pledge information are available for those who want to see the plans in detail.
Leadership and a Season of Transition
The church is governed by a Session of elders elected by the congregation to four-year terms. Elders at Cordova and Arlington share oversight of the whole church, while a board of Trustees handles fiduciary responsibilities. Class years stretch from 2027 through 2030 across both campuses.
Following the departure of Pastor Caz Minter at the end of August 2026, Advent is in a structured transition. Diana Shiflett is serving as Transitional Head of Staff while continuing to lead at Arlington. Mike Gatliff, an EPC-ordained pastor with decades of ministry experience and a Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Seminary, joined the team as Transitional Teaching Pastor to provide consistent preaching and serve as Moderator of the Session. A Lead Pastor Search Committee will be nominated by the Session and elected by the congregation, with a national search expected to take six to twelve months.
Throughout the transition, the preaching rotation continues across Diana, Rickey, Mike, and Dan Eubanks. Jerry Stone, Diana, Rickey, and Mike will officiate funerals, while elders and the preaching team will administer the sacraments of baptism and communion.
Joining the Mission
Visitors can fill out a Connect Card or online form, watch a livestream on Sunday morning, or stop by the welcome desk on either campus. The church invites participation in everything from greeting and teaching children to serving on a youth huddle team, joining a small group, singing in the choir, painting in the CLC, or traveling to Honduras. Central office hours run Monday through Thursday from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the Cordova campus.