Gatherings
Welcome at The Well
We would love for you to join our Community Worship Gatherings!
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This is a special week!
20 years ago on the second Sunday in January, a small community of friends identifying by the name “The Well” met together for worship for the first time!
It was a birth!
And since then, one way or another, we have been a part of each others’ lives. With plenty of ups and downs, laughter and tears, sacrifices and blessings – on Sunday 12 January 2025, The Well enters its 20th year of life as an imperfect community of international friends learning to live and love like Jesus in Brussels and beyond.
Thank you Lord! For writing your story in and through our lives!
We want to celebrate on Sunday!
But only as the beginning of our 20th year. We want to walk through this year together, and celebrate at different times in different ways, trying to be attentive to what God is doing and saying, and how he wants to guide us into the future.
More info soon!
Here’s where you come in!
Join us this Sunday if you’re in Brussels! We will celebrate at the Chapel for Europe with a worship gathering at 10:30 followed by a community meal.
Bring something to share for the meal!
And something you can do wherever you are: would you write a prayer for The Well?
We want to collect many prayers throughout the year as a part of our community journey and will read some of them out this Sunday. Send your prayer to Carlton (carlton@thewell.be) or Simone (simone@thewell.be) sometime this week, if possible!
If you’re not sure where to start, you can pray into our community vision, then and now:
“We are The Well. We see thirsty people gathering at the well, finding life in Jesus. We see water from the well served to a thirsty city, and new wells springing up in Brussels and beyond.”
“To God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
(Ephesians 3:21)
See you at the Chapel!
12 January 2025
10:00 Prayer
10:30 – 12:30 Worship Gathering
Address: Rue Van Maerlant 22/24, 1040 Bruxelles
God bless you! He loves you!
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Small Groups
Mid-week opportunities to grow in faith, community and mission.
Roodebeek Home Group | Merode Home Group
Prayer & Intercession Gathering
Contact: simone@thewell.be
Forming faith, community and mission
in the lives of people who want to live like Jesus.
Forming Faith
We define faith as a personal relationship with God through Jesus.
Faith is like the living water (John 4:13-14) of the well.
Faith answers life’s big questions of identity with ‘I am in Christ.’
To form faith we believe.
Forming Community
We define community as loving relationships with each other.
Community is like living stones (1 Peter 2:5) of the well.
Community answers life’s big questions of belonging with ‘we are the body of Christ.’
To form community we love.
Forming Mission
We define mission as the relationship between the body of Christ and the world around us.
Mission is like living hope (1 Peter 1:3) of the well.
Mission answers life’s big questions of purpose with ‘we are sent by God to live out the life of Christ.’
To form mission we serve.
Our Vision
Why Come to The Well?
Many people in Europe have grown up with a strong traditional faith, nurtured by family and culture. For some this is still meaningful, but for others the church is no longer relevant, or worse. Still others may have abandoned their traditional faith practices, but in so doing have not intended to turn their back on God. The Well exists as a complement to the traditional church, providing seekers and sceptics alike the opportunity to develop a robust personal faith, experienced in community and expressed in mission.
What kind of church would best relate to people who don’t like church? If asked, most people would define church as a sacred building, a religious meeting, or a global institution. But none of those definitions bear much resemblance to the life that Jesus lived on earth. Jesus was real. Jesus was unafraid. Jesus loved the poor. Everyone saw Jesus as a teacher but no one called him religious. Jesus invested deeply in relationships. Why can’t church look more like Jesus?
The Well is far from perfect. But The Well is open. The Well is authentic. The Well is relational. The Well accepts you as you are and challenges you to live like Jesus. The Well believes that life at its best is lived with a personal faith in God, in loving community with others, and by joining the mission of God to redeem and renew our world.
The Well is an inter-confessional Christian church closely connected to other churches through A.Net, BESPA, and Christian Associates church networks. The Well founded Serve the City in 2005, now active or starting in 100 cities around the world.
History
In 2005, in a small café near Montgomery Circle, a group of friends shared a coffee. We were from different cultures and faith traditions, but interested in following Jesus together according to the Bible and the Holy Spirit. The walls of the café were filled with images of flying pigs, an image that gave hope for impossible things – a vibrant, creative, dynamic faith community in the heart of Post-Christian Europe.
Our common goal was to form faith in Jesus Christ through reproducing communities of Christian faith and mission in Brussels and beyond. That first year, we launched 5 expressions of our community in cafés, art studios, community centers, and homes. Once a month, we all gathered together for friendship, a meal, and to exalt Jesus as Lord. Through our gatherings, both large and small, we saw God confirm the vision He had set in our hearts.
Since then, The Well has grown to include 12 expressions that are forming faith, community and mission throughout Brussels. In 2006 we launched a non-profit organization, Serve the City, to help our community meet the needs of the under-resourced in the city. Serve the City has grown from 72 initial volunteers in 2006 to serving in over 72 international cities. In 2013, we expect STC will mobilize over 1000 unique volunteers in Brussels alone.
We invite you to be apart of God’s unfolding story of The Well, one He is writing on the hearts of men and women in Brussels and beyond.
The inspiration for our name
In first century Samaria, Jesus met a thirsty woman at Jacob’s well. She was an outcast in her village, passed around from man to man; alone. She came to the well for water, but instead met a man who told her everything she had ever done. He introduced Himself as the One who could offer her living water, no bucket required. The water He promised was, in fact, a well – an endless supply of life-giving water that would quench her real thirst forever. Jesus is the well. And today in Brussels, Jesus still loves to quench the real thirst of people He meets there.
Picture a well. What do you see? Ancient rounded stones of all shapes and sizes, fresh thirst-quenching water, and a big bucket with which to serve others. When we look at a well we see Jesus, and also the elements of church as Jesus intended – the living water of faith, the living stones of community, and a big bucket of mission to pour out the life of Jesus for a thirsty world. We see thirsty people gathering at The Well, becoming a community, finding life in Jesus. We see water from The Well served to a thirsty city and new Wells springing up in Brussels and beyond.
“Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14
Contact
Giving to The Well
Contributions to the Mission and Ministry of the Well can be made in two ways:
- In Euros through bank transfer to account BE78.001.5268274.86 or BIC: GEBA BE BB
- In US Dollars by check mailed to Christians Associates, 18940 Base Camp Road, Monument, CO 80132. Mark checks, Memo:Act#70260
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