ABOUT

The Well is a gospel-centered, Bible-based resource; pointing lost and hurting people to Jesus Christ.

It contains video salvation stories from all around the world of people who've trusted in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

The salvation stories are grouped together by life topic, so people can quickly view stories that relate to them.

The Well is regularly updated with new salvation stories that meet the inclusion criteria.

The Well also contains a Church Finder section to help people get connected to Bible-believing churches near them.

The name of The Well is taken from the story of the Samaritan woman who met Jesus while collecting water at her town’s well (John 4:5-42). Her life was radically transformed as a result of meeting and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is humanity’s Spiritual Well of salvation. He offers abundant life and eternal life to anyone who will receive Him. Jesus says, ^“but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).

The people on The Well show that humanity’s biggest problem is our spiritual impoverishment and just condemnation and separation from God (Ephesians 2:1-3, Romans 2:5, Colossians 1:21, Romans 6:23).
We each personally need to repent of our sinful ways and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone can reconcile us to God and bring about the regeneration and healing each of us need. (Isaiah 55:7, Mark 1:14-15, Acts 3:19, John 3: 16-17, John 3:36, John 5: 24, John 6:40, Ezekiel 36:26-27, John 3:3, 2 Corinthians 5:17).
Each person on The Well has had this life-transforming encounter with Jesus Christ (we use a story checklist to guide our understanding if the person’s video includes a clear time when they received Christ).
Each person describes the help that Christ has given them with their life struggles and life questions.
Some people describe the challenges and trials that have occurred since becoming Christians, and the ways in which God has sustained them and worked all things out for good.

The Well was created by a gospel-loving group of young Christians who attend Saylorville Church in Des Moines Iowa. View Saylorville’s Statement of Faith.
God gave Gemma Sandberg (now curator for The Well) the burden to initiate the project. Read more about how God led Gemma.
Core project members who created the website: Fredrik Sandberg (Co-founder), Gemma Sandberg (Co-founder, Information Scientist), Patrick Watertor (Creative Designer), John Nemmers (Researcher & Presenter).
Acknowledgments: Nelly Watertor (Graphic Designer & Reviewer), Tanner Archer (Videographer & Reviewer), Lindsey Holan (Reviewer), Lori Taschner (Reviewer), Pastor Pat Nemmers (Advisor & Reviewer), Pastor Chuck De Cleene (Advisor & Reviewer), Pastor Curt de Graaff (Advisor & Reviewer).
We released The Well in November 2019. Internet searches are regularly conducted and updated by Gemma to identify more stories for inclusion.
Find out more about our methods for adding stories or go to our contact page to message Gemma.

To testify to the existence of God and to glorify His name by declaring His Greatness (Isaiah 43:10, Psalm 107:1-3, Psalm 145:3-4, 1 Timothy 1:17).
To serve as a formidable witness for Christ and to validate His gospel (John 1:6, 1 John 5:11-12, John 4:42, 1 Timothy 1:16, Romans 16: 25-27).
To equip the Body of Christ with a tool to help spread the gospel through testimony (Matthew 28:18-20, Romans 10:14, John 1:7, John 4:39).
To ‘upcycle’ high-quality salvation story videos made by the local Church, so that they can be utilized in evangelism and biblical counselling at a national and international level.
To signpost people to gospel partners, so that they can move from online interactions to offline interactions with the local Church.
To show people their spiritual condition and need for Christ.
To show people how they can be reconciled to God.
To show people that God can drastically change lives, which must begin with true heart change.
To help saturate the internet with more truth and hope.
To use the internet for the glory of God.
To harness the power of the internet to serve the Great Commission.

We do not produce the stories for The Well, it is made up of aggregated and curated content.
We include salvation stories produced by gospel-centered churches and gospel-centered ministries only.
We apply criteria from our story checklist to all producers of videos to ensure they are true gospel partners.
We identify producers of salvation stories through internet searches, personal networks and word of mouth.
We trust that the producer who has made the video will have obtained permission from the individual to make their story publicly available online (and therefore the stories are reusable).
We contact producers of salvation stories to ask for their permission to include their videos on The Well.
For each story, we provide information regarding the source for that story.
If you are a gospel-centered church or ministry who produce video salvation stories, contact us to see if your stories match what we’re looking for. Help us glorify God by growing The Well!
View our list of story sources.

We ask the Lord to help guide us in our understanding of each person’s story.
We are intentional about having a respectful attitude towards the people whose stories we listen to.
We listen to each story twice (by the same person or another person) to help with our accuracy of selecting and indexing each story.
We use our story checklist to determine if the person’s story should be included on The Well.
We apply an absolute maximum of 4 main topics/categories to each story.
We apply as many topic tags as are relevant to the story.
We assign Editor’s picks.

We indicate how much gospel content is part of each person’s salvation story as presented in their video (i.e we are signalling how much each story could be used to teach the gospel).
We use a simple three-category system:
a story where there is a statement indicating that the person received Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.

a story where there is a statement indicating that the person received Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, along with some detail relating to the Person or Work of Christ, or the individual’s repentance.

a story where there is a statement indicating that the person received Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, along with more detail relating to the Person or Work of Christ, or the individual’s repentance.
Please note, the category system is there to give a general idea of gospel content in the video. We’re not making a statement about the person’s theological knowledge or the reliability of their testimony.
We make every effort to use the category system consistently, but if you are concerned that we have not accurately represented how much gospel content is in someone’s video testimony, please contact us.

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