The Cedar Ridge Property

Nestled between the metro areas surrounding D.C. and Baltimore, our sixty-three acre parcel property at 2410 Spencerville Road in Montgomery County, Maryland was purchased by Cedar Ridge Community Church in 1996. We constructed a church building and opened our doors in 1998. Since then, the clay dirt surrounding the church and the invasive plant-filled fields have slowly developed into a beautiful property full of flowers, wildlife and opportunity. We value our property, the creation throughout it, and the environment that sustains it. It is intentional that we have a native pollinator garden, bird boxes along our fences, ‘no-mow’ meadows, and a community solar farm. We have a prayer walk that runs throughout our land that offers tranquility and peace in an otherwise busy metropolitan corridor. Much life can be found among the vegetation: we’ve spotted fox, rabbits, deer and groundhogs, and an endless variety of birds. We host honey bees and enjoy a variety of bugs and butterflies. There are even four geocaches on our property. If you enjoy the outdoors, you are invited to enjoy this land with us!

Explore the Space

Prayer Walk

The Cedar Ridge Prayer Walk gives you an opportunity to integrate prayer and reflection with a forty to fifty-minute walk around the 63 acre property. You can do the prayer in silence, or you can do it conversationally with a friend or two or three. A prayer walk guide is sitting in a mailbox at the gazebo adjacent to the barn where prayer station #1 is located. Take the guide with you along the path.

Labyrinth

Located along the prayer walk on 63 acres of pastoral meadows and woods, the labyrinth at Cedar Ridge is a sacred place of beauty and peace where people come to draw closer to God. All are welcome to walk the winding path of the labyrinth –an ancient spiritual practice dating back thousands of years.

Barn

This 1910 wood structure was renovated in 2001 and again adding more structural security in 2008. The Historic Structure was built when the land was owned by William Spencer. It is a 2-story structure that was used as a dairy barn- stalls on the first floor, hay storage on the second. Since those farming days, the barn now functions as meeting space for the Cedar Ridge community. Youth activities are held there on Sundays.

Farmhouse

This farmhouse was originally constructed around 1855, and is a rare surviving example of a once common Georgian Revival type, locally known as the “Spencerville style.” The building houses Cedar Ridge’s Racial Justice Reading Room, and provides storage space for our community farm.

Solar Farm

The solar farm at Cedar Ridge is a community solar project that provides renewable energy for up to 350 families in our area, including those who live on low to moderate income. Dedicating some of our land to solar energy production is one way we are seeking to live out our vision to treasure the Earth.

Farm

Our farm is a little over a half-acre of vegetable and fruit crops, tended by the Cedar Ridge community. Each year we grow well over a ton of organic food, which is given to local groups that serve the hungry and homeless. Although Maryland is the wealthiest state in the US as measured by median household income (and Montgomery County is the second wealthiest county in Maryland) poverty and hunger are widespread and growing problems.

Beekeeping

Ten years ago, we installed honeybee hives at Cedar Ridge as part of our commitment to manage our resources well, and from a desire to contribute to the environmental wellbeing of the broader community. Our honeybees not only pollinate the plants on our property, but also pollinate other plants, typically within a two-mile radius. By avoiding use of any chemical treatments, we promote healthy bee colonies by allowing nature to choose genetically stronger bees.

Native Pollinator Garden

Established in partnership with the University of Maryland Pollinator Meadow Initiative, this garden is planted with a mix of wildflowers and grasses that attract a wide variety of endangered, native pollinators including many different species of butterflies, bees, moths, beetles, flies and birds.

Land Acknowledgement

Although there appears to be no evidence of indigenous settlements in this immediate area, the Piscataway People settled in various parts of what are now Montgomery, Prince George’s, Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties. Their ancestors arrived in Maryland more than 10,000 years ago, and no doubt people passed through this area for many generations prior to the arrival of European settlers in the 17th century. Beginning in 1666, these settlers signed a series of treaties to acquire lands from the Piscataway. All of these treaties were broken, forcing the Piscataway off their ancestral lands. We encourage our community members to learn more about the Piscataway People, their culture, and history.

A search of historical records suggest it is unlikely enslaved people worked on this land. But on farms and plantations throughout Maryland, enslaved Africans and their descendants were forced to labor for White settlers. Here in Montgomery County, of the approximately 18,000 residents in 1860, over 5,400 were enslaved. Read more about our county’s history of racism here, and check out the nearby Underground Railroad Experience Trail.

Explore the Cedar Ridge property with Geocaching!

A great way to enjoy nature and explore … especially with kids!

What is Geocaching? Geocaching is the recreational activity of hunting for and finding a hidden object using coordinates or waypoints.
How do you Geocache? Start by going to geocaching.com to find caches near you. Use their app or GPS to zero in on a cache, and log your find.

There are now FOUR geocaches on Cedar Ridge property.

Happy Hunting!

Property Workdays

Cedar Ridge Workdays are Saturdays that we invite all of you to join us on the property to work on property projects. We meet every other Saturday (from March to November) and work together from 8 AM until noon. This is a fun way to meet some new faces, share your talents of tools or landscaping…and really get the church in good shape.

Our History

One Sunday morning in April, 1982, Brian McLaren, along with 10 friends, mostly in their twenties, gathered in a living room in a little house not far from the University of Maryland. The group consisted of men and women from nearly eleven Christian backgrounds—Catholic, Protestant, non-charismatic, charismatic, denominational, nondenominational. They shared a common desire—to become an exciting, effective church that would welcome and embrace spiritual seekers of all kinds—Christians from many traditions and also those who had no-prior experience or knowledge of Christianity.

Several weeks earlier, McLaren, a college English instructor, had called an old friend, Bill Duncan, to see if Bill had an interest in helping launch this new venture, and they, along with their spouses, Grace and Shobha, decided to call the new church “Community Church.” Soon there were twenty people, then thirty. Some families from those early days are still actively involved in the church today. Eventually Brian was asked to lead the church as its full-time pastor.

The church grew over the next 15 years, moving from place to place to accommodate its increasing size, until in 1996, after an outpouring of sacrificial giving, Cedar Ridge became owners of a beautiful 63-acre historic property in Burtonsville, Maryland.

At about the same time, Brian McLaren began writing books, and soon became an increasingly significant participant in networks of emerging leaders and churches around the world. Seeking to utilize his unique gifts as an influential thinker, writer and speaker, McLaren left pastoral ministry to respond to his call to the public arena full-time. After a prayerful and extensive search for a new Senior Pastor, the Cedar Ridge community appointed Matthew Dyer as Senior Pastor, to whom McLaren passed the baton of leadership in January 2006. Matthew had been a pastor in the Vineyard denomination of churches since 1995 in both the US and UK (his native country).

At the time of this transition of pastoral leadership, Cedar Ridge had grown to include several hundred people and was supporting many activities, ministries and programs that were difficult to sustain in terms of resources and staff, and there was an increasing recognition that a central, unifying focus was needed. Seeking greater clarity and purpose for the future, yet desiring at the same time to maintain its underlying values and beliefs, the people of Cedar Ridge engaged together in an intense year of “re-envisioning the church.” This time was both difficult and rewarding. It meant profound change as old systems and programs were released to make way for something new, and also provided opportunity for personal transformation as participants engaged in discernment, fasting, sacrifice and prayer.

Through this extensive process that included church-wide discussion and collaboration, a clear, comprehensive vision was formed and in September 2007 our church community embarked on its quest to serve God, one another and the world in a unique and focused way. Interestingly the vision process led us back to our roots and the earliest dreams for our community: to become a people simply devoted to following Jesus and loving people in his name.