Meet
Dr.Will Gravely
Pastor | planter | Lead Strategist
Hello New Friends and M.A.P. (Mableton, Austell, & Powder Springs) Community! My Name is Will and I have the honor to serve and care for our unique family at Refuge Community Church! Refuge was planted in January of 2018 as a solution for a dying church that no longer reflected her community. As a result of this collision of calling and the unique circumstance around our birth, Refuge is a true picture of God's grace, unity, the power of resurrection, and what it means to make the most of second chances. We look forward to seeing you and serving you soon!
Love Always,
Pastor Will
meet the founder
Dr. Will Gravely is the founder and lead pastor of Refuge Community Church, a multi-ethnic and cross-cultural church in Austell, GA and a visiting professor at Emory University. Will has been rooted in the Atlanta Metro area since attending and graduating from Morehouse College and completing both his Master of Divinity (Theology & The Arts) as well as his Doctor of Ministry (Church Leadership and Community Witness) at the renowned Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Upon graduating from Candler he received the prestigious Fellowship Seminarian Award for his contributions to cross-cultural worship arts as a Master’s student and The Director’s Award given to the top student in a given Doctoral scholarship track. He and his wife Veronica founded The Stained Glass Project in 2016, a community development organization driven to connect and reflect local communities through their model, The Community HUB. The Community HUB model connects neighborhoods around the core human needs of health, unity, and belonging in order to equip and empower neighbors to collaborate in transforming their own communities. Dr. Gravely serves as the lead strategist of the flagship Community HUB, a cultural arts center situated on 29.6 acres in Metro-Atlanta. As a gifted communicator, Dr. Will Gravely has traveled across the country sharing his message of strategic collaboration and sustainable community. Will and Veronica have 5 children and are leading a grass-roots movement to revitalize local communities by reframing the local church.
Refuge Community Church is a Christ-centered, Cross-Cultural, Community Driven,+ Creative faith family that serves the Mableton, Austell, and Powder Springs communities (affectionately known as The M.A.P.). By God’s grace, the church has experienced incredible health, growth, maturity, and community impact in just the first few years. To date, Refuge has served over 2,000 neighbors, given 13,000 of pounds of food and seen tremendous life transformation within the community and Refuge family alike.
The Community HUB will be a national model for this unique cross-cultural community work by reframing the local church. The HUB educates, equips, and empowers neighbors to cultivate their collective gifts in order to collaborate in community growth. We have created a safe space to experience God's love every day, and we want to plant this model across the country and, eventually, the world.
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