Justin and Jessica Chapman are Every Nation leaders planting a church in Providence, Rhode Island, walking distance of Brown University. Brown is consistently recognized as one of the most liberal colleges in the Ivy League—not a small challenge for evangelicals intent on establishing a church-based campus ministry. But the Chapmans could not have been better prepared for the task.
Justin and Jessica did a year-long internship with an Every Nation pastor, Adam Mabry, who in 2013 planted Aletheia Church in Boston, Massachusetts—less than a mile from Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Aletheia (the Greek word for “truth revealed”) Boston has made deep inroads into the Cambridge academic community.
The Chapmans are in the early stages of planting those same kinds of seeds in the Brown University community.
Aletheia Providence is just over a year old, with Easter Sunday marking the anniversary of our launch date. This past year has gone by quickly and with many victories—people who were far away from God have walked through the doors, found community, and committed their lives to Jesus. Now, they’re being discipled, sharing their faith on campus, and are on the way to becoming leaders in the church.
It’s amazing to have front-row seats, watching the gospel so radically transform lives. But these are usually not the cheap seats, and they don’t come without their own challenges. One of the most pressing needs when planting a new church is, of course, finding a place to meet. We launched Aletheia Providence in the yoga room in the YMCA, quickly outgrew that space, and moved to a bigger classroom. However, it wasn’t that much bigger. We needed a space we could grow into.
I spent a lot of time driving around, making calls, and hearing “no” after “no” from people regarding potential meeting facilities. One day, I took a different route to church and noticed a building with huge windows on one side. Typically big windows mean a big space on the other side. I did a little research and found out it was the Groden Center, a school for children with autism.
Since it’s harder to say “no” to someone face-to-face, I decided to pay them a visit. I was able to set up a meeting with the program director, Robin, and although the meeting was amiable, she didn’t seem very motivated to move forward.
A couple weeks later on a Sunday morning, a man stood outside our meeting asking to speak with me. He was interviewing different nonprofits around town and just happened to be the property manager for the Groden Center. He asked if I was the pastor who had spoken to Robin a couple weeks before and wanted to hear more about what we were doing in Providence and at Brown University. He caught the vision for how we could help each other, and we moved into the new venue a few weeks later. It’s been an incredible blessing to our church, and we’ll have plenty of room as we continue to grow.
Please continue to pray for the city of Providence and particularly for the students at Brown University. I also want to thank all the North American Initiative partners for the initial funding that has enabled Aletheia Providence and other Every Nation churches to get firmly planted on their respective campuses and in the communities.