The Living Room is now Jubilé • Jubilee Montréal

Our Story

An “Accidental” Church Plant

It all started with a university student, a few young professionals and a couple of families, who believed that Jesus’ life and message was relevant to the struggles and questions people face every day and had the power to transform their lives and relationships. For one week in 2006, that group, joined by a team from Vancouver and Calgary, were invited to do a series of seminars about Love, Sex and Relationships at Concordia University which welcomed more than 200 students from many different walks of life.  The aftermath of this event was a group of young people looking for a space to talk and ask big questions about “real life” issues, so we started discussion groups which gathered in coffee shops around the city.  A group of twelve who wanted to dig deeper in exploring faith started gathering on Sunday evenings in the living room of pastors Michael and Michele Jones to eat, worship, read scripture, and discover how the gospel message had the power to transform their lives, their relationships and their communities.

The Living Room

People began to see this grassroots gathering as their church, and the name “The Living Room” stuck. On Easter of 2007, The Living Room launched a Sunday gathering in Downtown Montreal at the Concordia University campus bar. We continued to meet on Sundays downtown, and started ‘missional communities’ in various neighbourhoods which sought to live as Jesus lived by loving the city and partnering with existing initiatives to contribute to social change in Montreal.

In 2014 Michael and Michele Jones sensed a profound shift. They felt that their time in Montreal was coming to an end and God was calling them back to the USA to care for parents and on to the next steps in their journey. By late summer 2014, with their recommendation and the support of the church, Michael and Angelica Touchton, along with Allaina van Reeuwyk, accepted the call to lead The Living Room into her future.

Our Next Page

This started a process of ‘transition’ in The Living Room where we prayed about what the next page in our story was to be. In this process, we decided to replant and relaunch the church in 2016. This meant going back through our story to remember who were were while adding parts that God was calling us to add--and then moving on to living it all out! This process included choosing a new name that would speak to our growing community and vision, clarifying our mission and putting practical pieces in place to support growth through the rest of our story for years to come.

We’ve now turned to the next page in our story. We are Jubilee Montréal. You can continue to get to know us here.