About Us

Whether you’re new to church, have been a Christian for many years, or are looking for a fresh start, you’re welcome here. Our hope is to give you a place where you experience a fresh, enjoyable connection to God and a community of people.

Lives Changed

Each week, we continue to find ourselves in awe of the testimonies of healing, salvation, and breakthrough happening in the lives of our church family. Attendance continues to climb, our children’s ministry is thriving, and our volunteer base is expanding. The commission to be a cross-generational, cross-cultural, and cross-relational church is coming to pass.

Our Story

In 2010, it became clear that a new season was upon Pastors Eric and Melissa. After much prayer and fasting, they received further prophetic words of what God would do in New England, specifically Connecticut. There were many incredible and undeniable confirmations: the vision they had long carried had become a “now” season.

In early 2014, Eric, Melissa, and their children Moriah, Lauren, and Christian stepped out in faith to plant Legacy Church. The Lord directed their steps to the greater Farmington area, home to the world headquarters of several large corporations, the UConn Health Center, and strategically located just minutes from the state capital of Hartford.

After months of behind-the-scenes preparation we held our “pre-launch” service in May 2014 at the Hartford Marriott Farmington hotel. The service was attended by over 100 people and was an important step in establishing our Sunday experience. Each week thereafter, our volunteer teams continued to work in excellence to hone our Sunday morning setup routine. Every detail was covered: staging, worship team equipment, Legacy Kids rooms, welcome areas, signage, and more.

In September 2014 we held our inauguration service. Friends and Kingdom family from all over the world came to celebrate the official launch of Legacy Church. The room was filled with a sense of purpose and expectation for what God would do in Connecticut.

Our Lead Pastors

Eric and Melissa Peoples are the Lead Pastors of Legacy Church. In 2014, the Peoples set out in faith to plant Legacy Church to serve the Farmington and West Hartford region with a vibrant, Spirit-filled church. Their vision is the same now as then. That Legacy Church would be a cross-cultural, cross-generational community that loves Jesus, embraces the Holy Spirit, and empowers people to make a Godly impact in every sphere of life.

Prior to launching Legacy Church, Eric joined the pastoral staff at Church of the Living God in Manchester, CT in 1995 where he and Melissa launched one of New England’s first generation ministries, reaching youth and young adults ages 12-24.

Over a 19-year tenure, Eric branched out into additional roles as a worship leader and senior associate pastor and pioneered the church’s overseas missions programs. To date, he has led hundreds of people on international trips to affect social change and provide humanitarian aid in over forty countries.

Melissa studied at Elim Bible Institute & College in Lima, NY. She is a Certified Life Coach and spearheads Legacy’s small groups, women’s ministry, and administration. She has also taken an active interest in local government, seeking ways to further serve the Farmington and West Hartford community.

Eric received his Doctorate in Ministry and studied organizational leadership at Western Theological Seminary. He earned his Bachelors of Science in Biblical Leadership and Master of Arts in Executive Leadership at Regent University and Southwestern University. Like Melissa, Eric studied at Elim Bible Institute & College. He is a Certified Life Coach and lifelong learner. Before entering the ministry, Eric was one of the nation’s top corporate reps for Xerox. This experience has helped expand his influence into the business sector, where he advises several high-impact organizations.

Eric and Melissa have been married for over 30 years and it has been a faith-filled life of ministry, adventure, and miracles. They love traveling, sampling good coffee, reading books, and spending time with their three amazing adult children.

Meet the Team

Dan Burgess

Worship Pastor

Dan is our Worship Pastor and Olivia serves on the Legacy Nursery Team.

Daniel & Sally Park

Associate Pastor & Care Pastors

Daniel is our Associate Pastor and oversees outreach and missions. Daniel and Sally also lead the Care Ministry.

Dave Waite

Family Life Pastor

Dave is our Family Life Pastor overseeing Legacy Kids and Legacy Youth. Katelyn serves on the Legacy Nursery Team.

Lauren Wood

Executive Ministry Director

Lauren is the Executive Ministry Director overseeing various areas of ministry and administration at Legacy Church.

Our Vision

To see the fame & deeds of God renewed & known in our time.

Who we seek to be and all we desire to do is in response to Jesus’ announcement that the kingdom is at hand and the declaration that our Creator God is making all things new. As the Holy Spirit gives hearing and response at Jesus’ announcement we ourselves enter the process of being made new. Discipleship is the word we use for this process of renewal and formation. And discipleship is the primary way Jesus has invited us to participate in the kingdom.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:18-20

Our Mission

Practicing the
way of Jesus.

Our mission can best be capsulized in four key pursuits. We will seek to uphold these pursuits as we dwell together in unity.

Know God: God wants to know us personally. More than just practicing religion, He wants a relationship with us.
Find Freedom: Jesus came to earth so that we could have more and better life than we ever dreamed of. (John 10:10 MSG) We walk in true freedom when we embrace the truth of God’s Word as it relates to our past, our sin, our personal value to God, and our purpose in His Kingdom.
Discover Our Purpose: We’re all an important part of God’s plan, and our life will never make sense until we discover our purpose.
Make a Difference: This is God’s ultimate plan for our life – to make a difference in the lives of others. When we do, the Bible tells us we will experience joy.

What We Believe

Legacy Church is a nondenominational church that believes in the authority of the Christian Scriptures for our life and practice. Three documents—the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Evangelical Statement of Faith—embody the tenants upon which Legacy Church is founded.

The Father

The first person of the Trinity orders and directs all things according to His purpose and pleasure. He has created humanity to bring Him glory and honor, through His grace. While He is transcendent, He is also actively involved in His creation—offering an eternal relationship with us through His Son, Jesus Christ. (Matthew 6:9; John 5:19-24; Ephesians 1:3-6; 2:1-10)

The Son

Jesus Christ is both the eternal Son of God and virgin-born Son of man. Fully God, fully man, He surrendered nothing of His deity during His earthly life. His sinless, sacrificial offering on the cross satisfied the Father’s justice, offering atonement for all of humanity’s sins for all time. We believe in His bodily resurrection, His physical ascension, and His visible return back to earth to establish His earthly kingdom. (John 1:14-18; Colossians 1:15-20)

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit executes the will of God in this world through humanity by leading, guiding, filling, teaching, and convicting. The Holy Spirit is not merely an impersonal force, but is a person, displaying the qualities of personhood (intellect, emotions, and will). The Holy Spirit equips believers upon conversion by giving them gifts to be used for the building up of the church and by bearing fruit through their yielded lives. (John 16:7-11; Ephesians 2:10; Ephesians 1:13-14; Galatians 5:22-25)

Humanity

We are created in the image of God, destined to enjoy an intimate relationship with Him and one another, fulfilling His will here on earth. Through Adam and Eve’s willful sin in the garden, sin entered the world and has infected all of humanity. Due to our inherent sinful nature received from our father Adam, we are separated from God, spiritually dead, and destined for physical death and an eternity removed from God. (Genesis 1-3; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 5:12-21; Ephesians 2:1-3)

Salvation

Jesus Christ died for our sins as the only sufficient sacrifice, offering atonement for the sin of all mankind through His death, burial, and resurrection. While salvation is available to all, it is only experienced by those who receive His gracious gift by faith, apart from works. As a result of our new relationship with God through His Son, Jesus, we are called to a life of submission to the Holy Spirit, manifesting spiritual fruit, and walking in good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to do. (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; John 1:12; Ephesians 1:7, 2:8-9; Hebrews 10:10-14; 1 John 5:11-13; Galatians 3:26; John 3:16)

Scriptures

We believe every word in the original writings is inspired by God and is without error. The Word of God reveals God’s nature and will for all of humanity and is to be the foundation of faith and practice. We affirm that while God’s Word is accurate in all matters, it is not given as an end in and of itself, but rather a means to a relationship with God. (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Hebrews 4:12; John 17:17)

The Church

All who place their faith in God through His Son, Jesus Christ, are a part of the universal body of believers known as the Church. The purpose of the local church is to lead people to Christ and bring them to maturity in Him. Members of the local church are to live lives in humble submission to other Spirit-led believers and to the God-appointed leaders of the church. Legacy Church is an autonomous local assembly led by Jesus Christ, who directs as the head of this body through a team of appointed elders. (Hebrews 10:24-25; Acts 2:41- 47; 1 Corinthians 12-14; Matthew 28:18-20; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)

The Kingdom

At the end of all things, God promises to make all things new. He invites us, His followers, to join Him in this work of renewal on earth. The signs of His kingdom coming are salvation, joy, peace, justice, God’s presence, belonging, and healing. (Revelation 21:5)

Nonessentials

We affirm that the doctrines of the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection, the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and salvation by grace through faith make up the essential, distinctive nature of Christianity. We acknowledge that there are peripheral, nonessential doctrines that are important to fellow believers but may not be critical to salvation. While Legacy Church may hold positions on these nonessentials, we will not allow these doctrines to cause division within the church. We will accept into our body those who have differing views on the nonessential doctrines but will not allow those of a different opinion to fracture the church.

The Christian Life

The faithful Christian life bears witness to the Kingdom of God, offering an alternative expression for how human beings flourish. Christian faithfulness is encouraged in the central themes of Jesus’ 14 teachings in the Sermon on the Mount and as affirmed throughout the whole of Scripture, that the Jesus follower has a countercultural approach to the carnal temptations surrounding money, sex, and power.

In regards to Money, Christians are Generous
In regards to Sex, Christians are Faithful
In regards to Power, Christians Serve Others

Generous with time and money

God is a generous God who gives generously to all without finding fault. God demonstrates generosity in not sparing the Son, but freely giving him to us (Rom. 8). Paul says of Christ, “He who was rich became poor that by his poverty we might become rich.” Generosity is at the heart of who God is and it is at the heart of the kind of people he invites us to become. Generosity is about more than money. It is about time and abilities as well. We are stewards, meant to see life as a gift that is stewarded for the glory of God. In the bible, this fundamentally means we take on a vision of abundance over scarcity.

Faithful practice of God's design for sex

We believe scripture reveals and affirms God’s design in creation that sex is designed to be enjoyed between one man and one woman inside a covenant marriage, all else are to remain single or celibate. For those who are unmarried, our church desires to be a place to find intimacy of relationship through the broader household of faith. For those who struggle with sexual addictions or sexual desire outside of God’s boundaries, our church desires to be a place to pursue self-denial in obedience to Christ.

Leverage our power to serve others

In our corruption by sin, power is often exercised to abuse and exploit others. We exalt ourselves, claiming superiority of gender, race, or social status. Paul counters all these marks of power abuse with his requirement that those who are filled by God’s Spirit should submit to one another for Christ’s sake. Such mutual submission and reciprocal love is to be expressed in marriage, family, and socio-economic relations. Jesus teaching on power is crucial here. There arose a reasoning among the disciples, which would be the greatest. Jesus rebuked this mentality calling them to humble service. He said of himself, “The Son of man has not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” This is the pattern of Jesus for power and he invites us to use any power of status, money or influence for the benefit of others, not ourselves.

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About Us

Our Story

Our Lead Pastors