Ministry Overview
DEMOGRAPHICS
Eastern Passage is a community unto itself; separated by approximately 5km from the rest of residential Dartmouth. Home to approximately 18,000 people, the community is expanding, building new homes and a new high school.
The Passage has a recently evolving demographic. Originally the area was primarily blue collar workers employed by the fishing industry, oil refineries, Shearwater airbase, and an auto import/export facility. Now the community is changing into a bedroom community with a diversity of new people. The building of the new, local high school will also encourage continued growth in this area.
Explore Church is the fruition of LifeBridge Community Church’s vision to see multiple churches developed in the Dartmouth area, working together for greater kingdom impact. Our belief is that Christ should be evident in and through our lives as we engage in the community around us, attracting people to him. Jesus deeply loves our neighbourhood, so do we!
As a missional church, we exist to encourage people to explore a relationship with Jesus Christ. We embrace celebratory worship, strategic and intentional discipleship (through our four-year Next Steps discipleship series) and personal, missional engagement through our Explore Groups. Until public services begin, these Explore Groups will be our main source of inviting the curious into our community.
MENTORING
Because we believe in mentoring people in all areas of ministry, Explore Church will also mentor people interested in pastoral ministry. Russell Wyse will be mentoring in this capacity from the outset of Explore Church. Russell became a Christ-follower through LifeBridge, went through the discipleship process, served on the Elder’s board, and is now ready to be equipped to pastor a church. The first few years Russell will work as a bi-vocational pastor-in-training. During this time he will be mentored through hands on experience and academic courses. Once the church is financially viable we will use the final year to hand all ministry responsibility over to him while providing ongoing support, supervision and feedback. This transition year will also be used to start formulating the next church plant.
This is a pattern we expect to see repeated constantly at Explore Church, LifeBridge, and future church plants. The pastors/staff of these churches will meet regularly for ongoing training, support and collective visioning for missions both local and global.
GLOBAL
MISSIONS
At Explore Church, we believe in taking the good news of Jesus, not just to our own community, but around the world. We have partnered with ministries in Tegucigalpa, Honduras to help strengthen the church there as they reach out to those in impoverished areas, prisons and the streets.
