This Is Redeemer

Our Focus

At the end of the day our focus is Jesus. His Work. His Word. His Example. His Mission. His People. His World. His Glory. 

Our Work

 There are lots of ways to talk about what we do but we find the phrase “Make Disciple, Plant Churches” to be a good summary. Just about everything we do as a church can fit in those two statements. We want to see people meet Jesus, know Jesus, and be changed to look more like Jesus. And we want to see more churches planted so the whole world can meet Jesus, know Jesus, and be changed to look more like Jesus.

Our Strategy

If we were going to pick one overarching strategic principle for our church it would be: make disciple THAT make disciples. Plant churches THAT plant churches. It may not seem like this phrase provides much strategic direction but the word "THAT" changes a lot. For example, we don't want to see a church planted. We want to see healthy, gospel loving, Jesus exalting churches planted THAT plant churches. Everything we do in our church we run through our strategic principle.

 

Our Identity

At Redeemer we use four terms to help us get a handle on who we are as Jesus followers. Worshiper, Family, Disciple, and Missionary.

Worshiper (Upward)

Everyone is a worshiper. All of life is worship (1 Cor. 10:31). The question is not will we bow down to something but what will we bow down to? The truth is there is freedom in directing our hearts and our lives in worship to Jesus. God designed us to enjoy and flourish as we worship Him through His Son. Instead of turning good things into god things, which make them bad things, we strive to worship Jesus and enjoy all of life out of a posture of worship to Him. Ultimately, only the grace of God can continually captivate our hearts and lead us to worship Jesus. All of life flows out of the upward reality of worship to Jesus. In short:

  • Joyful God oriented worship
  • Jesus centered affections
  • Spirit Empowered Lives
  • Love for the BIble
  • Prayer as fellowship and dependence
  • Generosity with resources for the family and the mission
  • The desire to see more people worship Jesus

Family (Inward) 

We are children of God who belong to each other. We are His sons and daughters, predestined for adoption, heirs to God and fellow heirs with Christ. We are devoted to one another as family because Jesus devoted Himself to us. We share all things with each other because Jesus gave Himself. We are exiles here until we are home with God, and we wait patiently to be with Him in the perfect city that He is building. (Galatians 3.23-4.7; Romans 12.3-8; Ephesians 1.3-6; Romans 8.14-17; Acts 2.38-47; Hebrews 11.9-16; John 14.1-3; Revelation 21-22) In short:

  • We do life together
  • We meet together often
  • Embrace accountability, responsibility and commitment
  • Practice the 'one anothers' 
  • We pursue mission together

Disciple (Forward)

As disciples of Jesus, we are deeply committed to obeying our Lord in every single sphere of our lives. We take ownership of our spiritual lives and make every effort to grow in godliness, obedience, and the knowledge of God through the Bible. We strive and toil for spiritual growth. We do this not to earn God’s love, but because we have it already, along with the Holy Spirit and a new nature that desires godly obedience. We are about moving forward in our love, obedience, and affections for our King and Savior. In short:

  • Commitment to a Biblical worldview
  • Deepening Gospel fluency
  • Increasingly prayerful
  • Development  and use of spiritual gifts
  • Cultivation of the fruit of the Spirit
  • A life of service
  • A life of mission

Ambassadors (Outward)

God’s people have a mission. It’s a mission that includes Sunday mornings but extends beyond that window of time and influences all spheres of our ordinary lives. In this mission, we are called ambassadors, and our mission is to spread the gospel and make disciples so that more and more people can know and worship Jesus for their joy and for God’s glory. This means that every person in our church is vital to this mission. There are no bench players. Every believer is called to care, individually and corporately, for those around us by having an outward, missionary focus in our lives (Matt. 28:18-20). In short:

  • Display the Gospel to our world
  • Share the Gospel with our world
  • Serve our world
  • We plant churches
  • We fund the mission joyfully, regularly and generously

Our Culture

The two words that best define what we want for our culture is Safety and Time. You will hear this phrase at Redeemer often. We believe the Gospel provides Safety and Time in our relationships, in our struggle with sin, in our own journey, and in about every other way we can think of. Jesus has done all the obeying we need. Jesus has conquered death. Jesus saves sinners while they are sinners. These, and so many other truths, mean God treats us according to what Jesus deserves. We don't have to fear failing. We don't have to hurry up and change. No doubt, we want to change, but Jesus purchased safety and time for us to try and fail and try and grow a little and try and fail again. We don't just want the Gospel to be proclaimed at Redeemer, we want it to shape our culture, our marriages, our families, our friendships.