The Full Story
About
Pastor Adam & Suzanne, Jacob, Charis, Katie & Jonah.
On their drive across Canada enroute to Regent College, Adam and Suzanne began dreaming about what church might look like if every Christian considered themselves to be a missionary and where they gathered to worship to be their “mission field”. Rather than driving to a foreign neighbourhood for a particular worship ‘experience’, Suzanne and Adam began to prayerfully consider a question that was once put to them “if your church left it’s neighbourhood would anyone notice? Would they even care?” From that point forward, Adam and Suzanne began praying into the possibility of planting a church that would take seriously making disciples of all peoples – those in our neighbourhoods, places of work, and recreation.
This dream was realized in 2011 when The Lord provided the opportunity for the Greeley’s to buy a house in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Following the Lord’s lead, they moved to Dartmouth with a vision to plant a “parish model church” in their neighborhood. After spending intentional time investing in their neighbourhood, the Greeley’s, with a number of other couples, began gathering weekly for worship in their house; they called it ‘The Well’.
Adam and Suzanne have been married for eight years with four children – Jacob, Charis, Katie, and Jonah. As a family, they have a passion to see a discipleship movement happen in HRM (Halifax Regional Municipality). They believe that the Gospel is meant to go ‘viral’ – transforming and renewing people, neighbourhoods, cities, provinces, countries and the world!
Mission
To join God in drawing people to new life in Christ, and apprenticing them to make disciplemakers through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit (John 20:31; Matthew 28:16-20).
A working definition of ‘Disciple’:
One who is committed to following Jesus with others - relying on His saving grace, and continually giving Him authority over every area of life - and teaching others to do the same.
Vision
Grace
​
We see a new reality for the church where people are coming to know the good news of God’s grace through Christians that daily live into the gospel and are known as people of grace (Luke 7:47). We see many people in our culture who have been hurt by ‘Religiosity’ coming to see Christians as gracious, hospitable, loving, and merciful rather than ‘judgmental’, ‘arrogant’, ‘argumentative’, and ‘closed minded’.
​
We see a movement of Christians who rediscover grace actualized through the discipline of confession. We see Christians set free from their sin and shame - free to surrender their lives to Jesus. We see the fruit of this being infectious integrity, humility, and compassion. We see the unchurched being compelled and and captivated by God’s grace on display in and through His people. (Luke 4:18-19; 1 John 1:8-10; James 5:16)
Kingdom
We see a church culture that refocuses her energies on prioritizing faithfulness to Jesus and His kingdom - trusting in Him to bring forth the fruit of transformation and renewal of people, communities, and the city. (John 15:4)
We see the church seeking the welfare, praying into the systemic challenges, and joining Jesus in serving accordingly (Jeremiah 29:7). We see a church that continues to do justice, to love kindness, and walk humbly with our Lord (Micah 6:8). We see Micro Churches being the primary vehicle to which this is lived out together. Thus, we see a watching world, knowing the heart and posture of God through His body seeking first the kingdom and it’s righteousness.
We see a new reality for neighbourhoods wherever Micro Churches are gathered - that people are not living out of the fear of differences (socio-economic, racial, ethnic) but come to know Jesus resulting in new identity, transformed lives, and a new orienientation around King Jesus (John 4:1-42). We see a kingdom community emerging where new unity, compassion, and service to the other is the new norm. We see a church motivated by the radical love of Jesus to use the good gifts God has blessed them with to serve and empower neighbours
We see church community being a place of radical hospitality where people know that they are loved and honoured irrespective of their belief and worldview.
Commitment
We see a new reality where each and every Christian sees themselves as missionaries where they live, work, play, and worship. We see this setting a new standard for what it means to be ‘Christian’ in a post-religious culture.
We see Christians continually moving from making life decisions based on their desire for convenience, consumerism, and self-fulfillment to lives marked by their commitment to Jesus and His good news. We see Christians choosing where they live, where they work, where they recreate, where they worship - based on faithfulness to Jesus first and foremost. We see a watching world confounded and compelled by radical faithfulness.
We see a church that is committed to the local, national, and global mission of Jesus in His work of renewal (Colossians 3:10). We see this reflected through partnerships with specific churches in specific areas that have alignment around vision, values and mission. We see this network continuing to multiply as churches, being committed to following Jesus, will be drawn to commit to support His mission in areas outside of their direct influence.
Equipping
​
We see a new reality of the church, where every follower of Jesus is empowered to faithfully evangelize the people that God has called them into relationship with - where they live, work, play, and worship. We see a movement away from the dependence on bringing their unchristian friends to a service where a paid professional can lead them to Jesus to those who are empowered, equipped, and encouraged with others to share the good news with their neighbours in word, deed, and power (1 Thessalonians 1:5; 1 Corinthians 2:4).
We see a church that stewards her resources to continue to equip and deploy her people towards loving God more, loving people more, and loving more people. We see a movement of the church from spending 90% of her resources on the ‘worship gathering’ to redistributing energies and efforts to helping people to continue to fall in love with Jesus and help others to come to new life in Him.
Hearing and Responding
We see a new reality for the church where followers of Jesus prioritize the voice of Jesus in the context of community.
We see discipleship shifting from being ‘knowledge acquisition’ to ‘obedience’ through hearing what Jesus is saying through His word and doing as much.
We see a biblically illiterate generation becoming increasingly hungry to encounter God through His word, community, prayer, and revelation.
We see a shift in our posture as Christians: moving from performing ‘for’ God and others to performing ‘with’ God with others.
We see a shift from fierce independence to radical interdependence expressing itself through families of faith
(Romans 12:1-2).
What We Believe
We believe that God became human in Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to restore the world because humans have rejected God in disobedience.
Jesus taught and modeled the way of God’s kingdom. He died on the cross, making it possible for us to accept a renewed relationship with God. He rose from the dead, broke the power of sin and death, and frees us to live in obedience to God’s will.
We believe that God the Holy Spirit invites all people to be reconciled with God and to join the global family of faith.
Believers confess their faith, are baptized, and join in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit and guided by the Bible, members of the church seek to live as followers of Christ and invite others to experience this new life.
As Christians, we look forward to the day when God will once again send Jesus to bring all things under God’s eternal rule.