James & Abigail Payne

James and Abby both grew up on the mission field. James in Hungary and Abby in Cyprus. They both have been apart of Calvary Chapel since early age. 

While Abby loved her life on the missions with her amazing parents and sweet sisters, she often found herself void of deep friendships in her childhood/early teen years. That’s where Jesus found her. Alone on her bed on an Easter Sunday, the gospel became more real than ever and loneliness evaporated as Jesus became everything to her, and He continues to be until this day. 

James grew up as the son of a worship leader, having similar musical talent, he felt the natural weight of expectation on him from the local body. From 14 years old he was involved heavily in ministry, and learned over time that his identity doesn’t come from what he did for Christ but from what Christ did for him! James has been apart of A Jesus Mission since 2019 and apart of Music ministry, fronting the missional rock band Final Greetings, and has transitioned out of the Ukraine response team where he served for a year.

Here is our mission:

Now, James and Abby are hosting a little house church/bible study/community night geared towards ballet dancers and artists who are not able to attend regular church services due to their work schedule. Ballet dancers live in very niche life styles, often with 6 day work weeks and hard work that takes up a lot of mental, emotional, and physical energy. With very few Christians in the field and with very restricted time to connect with the local body it can feel very isolating, as Abby well knows. Their heart is to provide these artists with a space to study the Word, talk, ask all the hard questions, as well as have fun, and enjoy some food and fellowship with games or movies. James also works at a missional coffee shop called COLAB, the goal is to cultivate christlike community through coffee!