Oak Grove United Methodist Church stands on North Battlefield Boulevard in Chesapeake, Virginia, just across from the historic Great Bridge that gives this corner of the city its name. The congregation traces its story back to 1770, when Daniel Cutherell opened his home so that friends and relatives could "meet in the Methodist manner for singing and praying," and it has worshipped within a mile of that original site ever since. Today the church gathers hundreds of people each Sunday for a blend of traditional and contemporary worship, runs an early-childhood school on site, and sends volunteers and meals into the Chesapeake community every week of the year.

A Meeting House That Has Stood Since 1808

Few congregations can point to a continuous record that reaches back to the Revolutionary era, but Oak Grove keeps a careful year-by-year history on its own walls. The Cutherell home meeting of 1770 grew into a society that Joseph Pilmore, a Methodist preacher dispatched by John Wesley, visited in 1772 and again in 1773. By 1804, Bennett and Jinny Armstrong had sold a half-acre lot for five dollars "that they erect and build or cause to be built there a House or Place of Worship for the use of the Methodist," and in 1808 the Cutherell Meeting House was dedicated on that land.

In 1842 the meeting house was rolled by mule team on log rollers about a mile to the present Oak Grove site, with members of the Tatem, Etheredge, Foreman, Old, and Randolph families gathering to help. A larger building replaced it in 1852, and because it stood in a grove of oak trees the congregation voted to change the name from Cutherell's Meeting House to "Oak Grove Church." That 1852 sanctuary is still in use today and is the church's Historic Sanctuary, with its original two front doors - one for women, one for men - preserved from the period when the sexes sat apart.

Civil War occupation left visible scars on the building. From 1862 until the end of the war, Federal troops were stationed at Oak Grove, destroyed the interior, and burned the grove of oaks for firewood. A square firebox was built inside the sanctuary with a hole cut through the ceiling and roof for a draft, and the outline of that hole can still be seen in the wood overhead. Members of the nearby Foreman family hid the communion silver, the carpet, and the church Bible in their home through the occupation. After the war the U.S. government eventually reimbursed the congregation $150 for damage to the building and $500 for the lost trees.

The twentieth century brought steady expansion. A church school addition rose in 1935, a fellowship hall in 1950, a new parsonage in 1956. As membership pushed past 660, Oak Grove helped plant two daughter churches: Community Methodist Church in Virginia Beach in 1952 and Messiah United Methodist Church on Dominion Boulevard in 1988. Adult mission teams were sent to Panama in 1983 and to Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Brazil in 1989. Stephen Ministry began in 2001, a $1.25 million pledge campaign launched the new Oak Grove Hall in 2003, and a debt-reduction drive in 2011 retired the mortgage with $676,765 in matched gifts.

Two Sunday Services, One Congregation

Oak Grove offers two distinct Sunday morning services and streams a third online, giving first-time visitors a clear choice about the kind of worship they want to encounter. A greeter meets each person at the entrance regardless of which service they attend.

The 8:30 a.m. traditional service takes place in the Historic Sanctuary and uses hymns, a printed liturgy, and pews. It is the service where the building's history is most visible, and it remains the setting the choir leads each week. At 11:00 a.m., the contemporary service moves into Whitehurst Hall, where a worship band plays, seating includes tables for those who prefer a more casual setting, and the atmosphere is intentionally relaxed. Coffee and tea are served between the services in Whitehurst Hall, and visitors are encouraged to stop in and meet members of the adult Sunday School classes that meet on the same campus.

Both services are also offered online. The 11:00 a.m. contemporary service is broadcast live on Facebook, and a full archive of recent sermons sits on the Oak Grove YouTube channel. Recent teaching series there include "Elephant in the Room," a summer 2026 walk through topics people hesitate to discuss in church (politics, mental health, addiction, money, heaven and hell); "bzz wrds," an unpacking of theological vocabulary like atonement, baptism, and sanctification; "Good Enough," a Lent and Easter series on the parables of Luke; "Binge Reading the Bible," a survey of the biblical canon; and the current fall 2026 series "Creative Intelligence," which explores faith and artificial intelligence.

Arrival is informal: most people come about fifteen minutes before the service begins, and dress ranges from dress shirts to t-shirts. Parking lots are reached from either North Battlefield Boulevard or Great Bridge Boulevard, and the campus has multiple handicapped parking spaces, ramps at every entryway, and an elevator to the upper floors.

The Next Generation at Oak Grove

Children and youth are woven through the whole life of the church rather than tucked away in a basement classroom. The Children's Ministry Team leads weekly nursery care during worship, Sunday School for infants through fifth grade, and "Acorn Grove," a children's church space that meets in Whitehurst Hall after the children's moment at the 8:30 traditional service. Special events through the year include the Blessing of the Backpacks each August, Vacation Bible School, and an annual Stay & Play summer program with outdoor games, water balloons, and rainbow bubbles. A children's consignment sale held each spring is a community tradition that fills the building with families looking for affordable clothing and gear for kids.

Middle schoolers meet for Sunday School in the Ignite class, high schoolers in their own class, and both groups come back together on Sunday evenings for a youth small group that currently works through a series on stress and anxiety. Director of Youth Roger Petersen leads the program with Chad Miller. Mission is built into the calendar: the youth serve as a CAST crew during the church's winter shelter week, run waffle church fundraisers, hold an annual consignment sale, and travel each summer to places such as Altoona, Pennsylvania. Retreats at a lake and at Journey round out the year.

Oak Grove School is the church's own early-childhood program, licensed for children from age two through second grade, with a vision to add third grade. Director Michele Bright oversees the school, which uses a dedicated classroom wing and shares the church's facilities with Sunday morning programming. VBS, Christmas programs, Easter egg hunts, church camps, Bible retreats, and Scouting all fall under the children's ministry umbrella. The safe-sanctuary policy applies to every paid and volunteer worker who serves children or youth, on campus or off, and includes background checks and a published code of conduct.

Adults Growing Together

Sunday mornings for adults begin with Sunday School between the two services. Oak Grove runs several long-standing classes that meet in different rooms around the education building: BASIC (Brothers And Sisters in Christ), the Journey Class, the Wesleyan Class, YANSY (Young And Not So Young), the LEW (Ludie E. Williamson) Class, and the Builder's Fellowship Class. Each class chooses its own study - recent picks include Adam Hamilton's "Simon Peter," Amy-Jill Levine's "The Bible with and without Jesus," Max Lucado's "Fearless," and a slow walk through all 150 Psalms using Dane Ortlund's "In the Lord I Take Refuge." The O.G.'s class for post-high-school through forty-year-olds meets Sunday mornings and serves as a feeder into the young-adult small group of the same name.

Small groups gather on weeknights across the campus. A women's small group meets Wednesday mornings at 9:30 in Room 236; a Thursday morning group for early risers meets at 7:00 a.m. in the Conference Room; the men's Bible study meets Monday nights at 6:30 in Room 225. The O.G.'s young-adult group meets on the second and fourth Tuesday evenings at 6:30 in The Lounge, with snacks, a connecting activity, and discussion around a short video. Golden Oaks is a monthly gathering for older adults that meets in "the Bridge" fellowship space. thirty/forty somethings hosts events for adults in that life stage, and women's and men's ministries each meet once a month - women on the first Monday, men on the last Tuesday at 6:30 in Whitehurst Hall. A Women's Craft Night gathers on the third Monday, and Women's Ministry hosts an annual fall retreat plus seasonal events like a Christmas potluck and a tea.

The church also runs the Book Grove, a lending library of devotionals, Bible studies, and DVDs that is open Sunday mornings, and subscribes to Amplify Media so small groups and Sunday School classes can pull in video companions to the sermon series.

Feeding Chesapeake Every Week of the Year

Service to neighbors is the most visible expression of Oak Grove's "Connect, Grow, Serve" identity, and the church runs four feeding and shelter ministries that touch thousands of people each year.

The Community Dinner serves a hot meal every Wednesday from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the south entrance, drive-thru style, and is open to anyone who pulls up. The menu rotates weekly - lasagna and salad, baked chicken with mac and cheese and corn, Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes and gravy, spaghetti, shepherd's pie - and a Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin dessert is served the week before the holiday. In 2025 the church reported serving more than 8,000 hot meals across the year.

The Share the Love Food Pantry operates in partnership with the Foodbank's Rescue Relief program, receiving donations from local grocery stores. Donations of shelf-stable food can be dropped in bins in the Atrium, in the former Bridge fellowship space, and outside on the south side under the covered portico. Volunteers sort and bag food on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings, and distribution happens through the same Wednesday drive-thru lane as the community dinner. In 2025 the pantry supplied groceries for more than 2,600 neighbors.

CAST, the Chesapeake Area Shelter Team, is an ecumenical network of churches that rotate as hosts of an emergency overnight winter shelter for people experiencing homelessness in Chesapeake. Oak Grove serves as a host church for one full week each season and provides volunteers for other weeks. Meals on Wheels routes are delivered on the third Friday of every month: volunteers meet behind Chesapeake Regional Hospital at 10:30 a.m. and run sixteen Chesapeake routes in pairs, finishing in 60 to 90 minutes.

The Angel Tree Ministry provides Christmas for foster children served by United Methodist Family Services. Each December the church aims to provide three wrapped gifts - clothing, fun, and spiritual - for at least twenty-five children in the local UMFS system, with a $30 cap per gift. Adult and youth mission teams have traveled to destinations that have included Panama, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Brazil, and locations within the United States.

Beliefs, Mission, and Leadership

Oak Grove's mission statement is short enough to print on a banner: "We will be the body of Christ in our community by Connecting with God, Growing in Discipleship, and Serving the World." The congregation describes itself as a place of acceptance, peace, and joy, with people of different ages and backgrounds coming together to worship and serve, and it follows the United Methodist Church's Book of Discipline as its governing document.

Worship is led by Lead Pastor Rev. Amanda Webber, who is also a Gallup Certified Strengths coach and a registered nurse. She has served as Oak Grove's pastor through the current season of building and is the primary voice on the Oak Grove YouTube channel and the live-streamed Sunday service. The staff team supporting her includes Tom Monteil (Director of Church Life, who also oversees the O.G.'s young-adult ministry), Tammy Ennis (Office Manager and Financial Secretary), Michele Bright (Director of Preschool), Roger Petersen (Director of Youth), Rob Coxwell (Director of Worship Arts and Technology), Natalie O'Bar-Cook (Director of Next Generation Ministry), Nancy Petersen (Director of Music Ministry), and Worship Leader Aggie Miller.

Music is split between the Oak Grove Choir, which leads the 8:30 traditional service and rehearses on Thursday evenings, and the contemporary worship team, which leads the 11:00 service and rehearses Sunday mornings. A separate Media Ministry under Ben handles cameras, sound, lighting, computers, and the live-stream feed. Behind all of it sits the church office, open Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and by appointment on Friday, ready to answer questions, hand out a Prayer Request, or help a visitor plan a first Sunday at Oak Grove.