A culture of safety and time means relationships are characterized by building up and speaking the truth in love. Building up requires seeing yourself as God’s appointed chief encourager. When you see one degree of change in someone, you build them up with encouragement: “Look at God’s work in you!” If we didn’t believe in the safety and time of the Gospel, we might see that same change, in that same person, and say under our breath: “About time!” Instead of silent expectations of behavioral change, we rest in the grace of the gospel: it’s O.K. to not be O.K. because Christ is our righteousness—and He’s not finished with us.

At the same time, this house rule requires “speaking the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15). To speak the truth in love is to apply the truth of Scripture and the Gospel to one another when our lives are not aligned with Christ. To speak the truth without love is to be like a hammer. To be all love with no truth is nothing but fluff. 

But transformation happens when we speak the truth in love. Here’s what this looks like Truth + Tone + Timing. Gospel culture people want all three. 

The right tone without truth just endorses what needs to change and leave us stuck in habits and patterns that damage us and dishonor God.

Truth without the right tone may give us what we need to hear but in a way that we don’t want to listen. 

Truth with the right tone at the wrong time may be more detrimental than helpful because timing matters. You don’t lovingly rebuke your friend at the wedding reception or correct the pattern of sin in your spouse during the six-minute car ride to Trader Joe’s.

Truth with the right tone at an appropriate time best leads to transformation as the truth needed goes forward in love to be heard in the spirit intended.

1 Cor. 13:6; Eph. 4:15; Col. 3:16

Grace isn’t opposed to effort; grace is opposed to earning. This means, in the Christian life, grace and grit—strenuous, never-giving-up effort—are best friends. In fact, God’s grace empowers our grit. Because of God’s grace, we grind and labor in our day-by-day sanctification. While grit may seem like an odd way to describe our posture toward growth, grit captures the biblical reality that spiritual growth requires hard labor. When Scripture calls us to “work out our salvation”—God is talking about spiritual manual labor. He’s calling us to discipline, to watch our lives, to sweat, to grit and grind toward growth. And yet, our grind is fueled by grace: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13). Because God is graciously at work in us, we are empowered by grace to grind toward growth.

The Apostle Paul, in describing his life’s ministry, once more highlights the inseparable friendship between grace and grit well: “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Cor 15:10–11). Grace empowers our grit. Christian growth is about grace-fueled grit because growth requires diligent work. Yet, the power to change and grow is empowered by the grace of God. It’s O.K. to not be O.K., but we we don’t want to stay that way. So under the banner of the Gospel and empowered by the Spirit, we grind by grace.

I think a gospel culture radiates grace. It should be a place where we get excited about the gospel and the transforming work God wants to do in us, but where there is no pressure, no deadline, no feeling like a failure when you mess up, only grace.

—Lindsay, Member of Redeemer

Rom 6:6ff; Rom 8:12-14; Titus 2:11-14

If we only celebrated big moments of change we’d celebrate next to nothing and we’d miss the millions of ways God is at work in our church. Scripture teaches us change is slow and our spiritual growth develops like a muscle: over time, not overnight (Phil. 2:12-13). This means that minuscule change is majorly significant. You went from reading Scripture once a week to three times a week? Praise God! Your outbursts of anger at your children have decreased from regular to irregular? Look at God answering that prayer! Because real transformation comes from Jesus, we celebrate any and all degrees of change He works in us.

1 Thess. 5:11; Heb. 3:13; 10:24-25

Redeemer has taught my family and I “one degree of change is still change and worth celebrating”. There were times in the past where there was fear visiting new churches due to the overwhelming pressure to perform as opposed to just allowing Jesus to work through you. Redeemer has been a place of comfort as well as a place for healing. The one degree of change lived out and displayed is a lot larger than it sounds. For example, seeing my wife smile and willingly want to serve at Redeemer after coming from a place of hurt, makes the one degree visually look like 180 degrees. One degree is a big deal.

— Paul, Member of Redeemer

What kind of church family do you want to be part of when you sin? How would you like someone to treat you when you confess your sin to them? What would be good news to you in that moment? When someone is already under the weight of their sin and confessing it, we don’t flinch or give them a shameful glance. Instead, we celebrate and comfort them with the Gospel! The Gospel makes it clear we are all sinners, so a confession of sin doesn’t surprise us—it excites us because it means God is turning that person toward Christ and change. 

We don’t rebuke strugglers; we encourage them with grace and truth! Rebukes are only needed when we are hard-headed and obstinate in our sin. Most of the time, most of us are not obstinate in sin; we are simply struggling toward obedience. Confession is not something to rebuke, but to encourage because Christ’s yoke and burden is easy and light (Matt. 11:28-30) and the Gospel is true.

Luke 15; Gal. 6:1ff; Jas. 5:16

Even as we solve problems in our church, family, marriage, or relationships, we constantly go back to God’s grace in those areas by remembering the evidences of grace while working on areas of growth. This perspective keeps us from being myopic and despondent. The reality is no matter how big of a problem we are facing, there is always an evidence of God’s grace to remember while working toward change. This outlook isn’t naive positivity—this is biblical reality: God’s grace is greater than our sin, so we want our church culture to live under that truth.

As we fight sin and seek to grow in Christian character, we remember that we do so under the banner of “no condemnation” (Rom. 8:1). In this way, starting with what’s right actually helps us grow as we work on what’s wrong. To fight sin and pursue Christian growth while not living under the banner of “no condemnation” is like trying to trying to build a house with nothing but your will power and a hammer. There will be a lot of effort expended, very little progress, and lots of discouragement. On the contrary, remembering what’s right—all that God is for us in Christ—is our comfort, our power, our security, and our strength as we work out our salvation. Starting with what’s right doesn’t just encourage us—it also helps grow, by God’s grace.

Rom. 6:13-14; 8:31-35; 2 Pet. 1:3

The Bible starts not with sin, but with God’s goodness and humanity made in His image. We follow suit by starting with what is right, by God’s grace. This is important because it means there is always something to recognize, celebrate, and commend. This house rule stops us from exclusively fixating on our sin and brokenness. and points us to see the glimpses of God’s grace in our character, church, and relationships.

This house rule means we give lots of attention, stage-time, encouragement, and celebration to all the good things Jesus is doing in our church, in someone’s marriage, in our GC, in our spiritual growth, and in our parenting. This is the path to feeling Christ’s encouragement in our ordinary

lives. This outlook isn’t naive positivity—this is biblical reality: God’s grace is greater than our sin, so we want our church culture to live under that truth.

Here are few things that are always right if we are Christians.

• We are forgiven

• No condemnation

• Heirs to God and co-heirs with Christ

• We are justified

• We are adopted

• We are redeemed

• We have the Spirit

• We are never alone nor forsaken

• We are guaranteed glorification

Rom. 5:1; 8:1; 8:17; 8:37-89; Gal. 4:4-7; 2 Cor. 5:16-17