about us
Shawmut Springs Church is a community of people seeking to grow in and live out the teachings of Jesus Christ.
We are a community of students, young professionals, and families in the Boston area that desire to journey together through life encouraging and challenging one another to live out the purposes that God has for our lives both individually and together.
Right now we meet in two homes in the Mission Hill area. This is how we want to grow, not allowing the size of our location to determine our growth, but as God leads and guides we move. Someday we hope to be meeting in a multitude of homes, dorms, and coffeehouses.
Regardless of where you are on your journey, we invite you to come and learn and grow with us.
See times and locations and what we are doing for ways to connect.
Why “Shawmut Springs Church”?
As we considered what to call ourselves, we wanted to have a name that both emphasized our love for our city and expressed both historical significance as well as spiritual significance.
Very few people realize that Boston hasn’t always been “Boston.” The land on which the city is currently located was once occupied by the Algonquin Indians. They named the village and land in which they lived “Shawmut.” This word is Algonquin for “living waters” or as sometimes translated “fountains of bubbling springs.” Named this because of the land’s freshwater spring from which they drank and fed their animals and crops. This spring still currently feeds the famous “Swan Ponds” in Boston’s Public Garden.
As we all know, the history of the Native Americans is quite bleak. They invited the English to share their “spring water” and several things transpired and they renamed the village “Boston” after a town in Lincolnshire, England (which happens to have the highest obesity rate of all towns in the United Kingdom- not so true here in Massachusetts).
So, as a church, our heart’s desire is that we would be a “spring” of living water to our campuses, workplaces, communities, city, and the world. We also believe that in order to be fresh water to those around us, we must first receive this symbol of sustenance and life from Jesus Christ- the source of living water….As He once said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
See our beliefs page for more about what we value and desire.