Our Story

Our Story

Our Story

God wants His Kingdom to grow on the earth, and the apostles in the book of Acts accomplished this by preaching the gospel and planting new churches wherever people believed in Jesus.

First meeting of Abundant Grace Church, 2000.

With this vision in mind, Abundant Grace Church was started in the year 2000 with 35 adults and lots of kids.  Our heart was to love and care for each other and be a community of believers who lived out the teachings of Jesus as we sought to make Him known to the people in our lives.

The vision for church planting began way back in 1981 at the Dartmouth Area Christian Fellowship, a church that grew out of the Evangelical Jesus Movement awakening in the 1970’s.  Dave and Ingrid Hill met at this church while attending college at Dartmouth where many students and townspeople were being saved and added to the church—so much that it filled the college chapel to overflowing.  In 1981 the Hills helped lead a church planting team to Amherst, Massachusetts.  

One of the students attending the church went to Boston for her graduate degree and suggested to Dave that they start a church nearby.  During a prayer meeting at the student’s apartment, the Holy Spirit spoke to Dave the words “I have a place for you here.”  The Hills responded in faith and led a team to Boston to start a church in 1989.  Dave connected with a group of pastors who began praying every week for two hours for a spiritual awakening in the city of Boston.  At times as many as two dozen pastors and prayer leaders would gather, and the group organized many prayer gatherings and Marches for Jesus in the city.

Ed and Pat were ordained as elders, 2003.

Dave and another pastor joined their churches together for eight years pursuing revival in Boston.  In 2000 the Hills ventured out on their own and planted Abundant Grace Church in Brighton (where they owned a home and were well known in the community).  Sensing a need for being part of a larger group of churches, Dave connected with the Newfrontiers family of churches where he found like-minded leaders who believed in both the power of the Holy Spirit and the supremacy of God’s Word.  This movement has a heart for evangelism, church planting, and helping the poor.  Abundant Grace joined Newfrontiers officially in 2003.

Fenway church plant team, 2008.

The church grew and the Hill’s oldest son, David W., and his wife, Betsy, got a vision for reaching the Fenway area of the city. They launched Fenway Church in 2008 with a dynamic group of young adults from Abundant Grace. Fenway Church grew while famously meeting in a club called “Church” in the Fenway. They have more recently moved their Sunday worship to Allston and renamed themselves City Church.

God’s kingdom continues to grow in our city, and we continue to pray for a greater spiritual breakthrough.  Our goal is to help people find their way back to God by meeting Jesus Christ the Lord!  We aim to honor Him and continue to serve our local community through our ministry, will you join us?

Click here to learn more about what God is doing in the Boston area.