OPPORTUNITY PROFILE
Redeemer is one of the most vibrant churches in the Lubbock area. The church is well known throughout West Texas and beyond for reaching West Texans, church planting, and internationalmissions sending. Redeemer is a member of the Acts 29 Network and was commissioned from Southcrest Baptist Church in 2008. From the very beginning, Redeemer set its vision upon being a Gospel-Centered Missional Family, first in Lubbock and going out to the nations. A year after initially launching services at the Lubbock Civic Center with around 300 in attendance, Redeemer moved into a building of its own, which has undergone several iterations of remodeling and new building additions to support the continued growth. There is over 32,000 square feet of space in the current facility that includes a Worship Center & lobby, children s classroom area, a large multi-purpose gathering room, and staff offices. Thus far in the 2017-2018 academic calendar, Redeemer s Sunday morning gathering attendance has ranged from 1550 to almost 1900. The church has 600 covenant members and 657 adults engaged in some sort of small group (called Gospel Communities). So far, Redeemer has celebrated 34 baptisms in 2017. There are currently 11 full-time staff members, 5 part-time staffers, 10 ministry residents, and 7 elders (3 of which are non-staffed). Presently, there are 9 domestic church plants and 27 international missionaries working at 7 different locations around the globe. Approximately 120 people have gone through the Missionary Training Program (Now called Launch Communities) in the last four years. The Redeemer congregation is made up of families with children of all ages, single professionals, empty nesters, budding retirees, and college students from Texas Tech University, Lubbock Christian University, South Plains College, and Wayland Baptist University. To God s glory, what began as a congregation primarily made up of college-age students, has developed into a church of diverse ages and races. The Redeemer leadership is actively praying for even more diversity as we reach those in our city who may be unchurched or who are actively seeking a church home.
I am a Christian who has been saved from my sins by the grace of Jesus Christ through faith. I have accepted His gift of salvation, bought by His death on the cross, as He endured the punishment for my sins, and His resurrection, by which I am assured of eternal life (John 3:16 18; Romans 3:23 26). In obedience to Scripture, I have been baptized after I became a believer in Jesus Christ as evidence and testimony of my commitment to be His disciple (Colossians 2:12; I Peter 3:21). I have read and understood the Redeemer doctrinal statement, and I agree whole-heartedly with its teaching. In addition, I commit to not be divisive on any items in Redeemer s Elder Statement or other secondary issues, but to purposefully seek unity in the body. I also understand the importance of submission to church leadership, and I will be diligent to preserve unity and peace and prevent gossip and relational discord (Ephesians 4:1 3; Hebrews 13:7, 17). With the guiding help of the Holy Spirit, I, the undersigned, publicly proclaim the following: As an individual and family unit (if applicable), I will seek to maintain a close relationship with the Lord Jesus. This will be accomplished through study of the Scripture, prayer, practice of other spiritual disciplines, and family worship (Psalm 119:97, Ephesians 6:4). As I walk with the Lord, I will strive to grow in holiness and reflect Christ-likeness in all areas of my life, my character, and my actions. I will attend Redeemer worship services regularly and maintain regular participation in a Gospel Community or its equivalent (Psalm 105:1 2; Acts 2:42 47; Hebrews 10:23 25, Ephesians 5:19-21). I will give money cheerfully, voluntarily, and generously to Redeemer as we seek to expand the kingdom of God together (2 Corinthians 8 9, James 2:14-17). I will share my life and faith with those around me and participate in God s global purposes (Matthew 9:37-38, Matthew 28:18-20, Romans 10:11-15, Philemon 6). I will volunteer my time to help Redeemer execute worship services and/or its ministries (Ephesians 5:21, Mark 10:45, Philippians 2:5-7). I will follow the biblical procedures of church discipline regarding my brothers and sisters in Christ, and to submit myself to church discipline if the need should ever arise (Matthew 18:15 17; I Corinthians 5:1 5; II Corinthians 2:5 8). I want to join with the other members of Redeemer and I commit my life, abilities and resources to help with the purpose of Redeemer Church. I will consider my commitment to this Membership Covenant on a yearly basis via the recovenant process. My responsibility will be to notify the Redeemer leadership if, at any time, I can no longer commit to this covenant or if I have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding Redeemer Church.
With the help of the Holy Spirit, the church leadership covenants the following: We covenant to lovingly care for you and seek your growth in Christ (Hebrews 13:17; I Thessalonians 5:12). We covenant to provide teaching and counsel from the Scriptures (Galatians 6:6; I Timothy 5:17 18). We covenant that this teaching will span the whole counsel of God s Word (Acts 20:27 28). We covenant to help you in times of need (Acts 2:42 47, 4:32 35; James 2:14 17). We covenant that your elders and deacons will meet the criteria assigned to them in the Scriptures (I Timothy 3:1 13; 5:17 22; Titus 1:5 9; I Peter 5:1 4). We covenant to pray for you regularly, particularly when you are sick (James 5:14). We covenant to be on guard against false teachers (Acts 20:28 31). We covenant to exercise church discipline when necessary (Matthew 18:15 20; I Corinthians 5; Galatians 6:1). We covenant to help you become equipped to serve Christ (Ephesians 4:11 13). We covenant to seek God s will for our church community to the best of our ability as we study the Scriptures and follow the Spirit (Acts 20:28; I Peter 5:1 5). We covenant to set an example and join you in fulfilling the duties of church members (I Corinthians 11:1; Philippians 3:17; I Timothy 4:12). We covenant to be good stewards and managers of the resources of this church (Acts 11:29-30; II Thessalonians 3:10-12).
We are all relational beings with a desire to know and be known by others and our Creator. This Creator of the universe has revealed Himself to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Fully knowing the depth of our sin, He still chose to fully pursue and love us through His life, death, and resurrection. Jesus not only rescued and redeemed a people for His glory, but also adopted them into His family and invited them into the joy of knowing Him and making Him known. The way we reflect those realities here at Redeemer Church is by being a Gospel-Centered, Missional Family. We desire to center our lives on the the good news of the person and work of Jesus Christ and know how this reality transforms our hearts, motives, and everyday life rhythms. The New Testament paints a picture of the church as a people, not just an event. Therefore, we feel it is vitally important to center our lives on Jesus and allow Him to form us into a community a family of people on mission. We are a very simple church, and we do not want to overload the calendars of our members with church activities. But we do want to help them worship and enjoy God in all they do. As we gather on Sundays, gather in our Gospel Communities and scatter in our normal life rhythms, we want to help them go deeper in applying the gospel and living missionally in everyday life. In fancier words, we do not want to be an attractional church where the professionals are the only ones capable of ministry, but as ambassadors of Christ, we want to be incarnational and embody in flesh this good news to our neighbors and show how it changes everything. Jesus is worthy of praise from all peoples. We want the joy of participating in His mission. Whether it is our children or our oldest adults, we want them to get joyfully caught up in something bigger than their own kingdom. A unique vision we have at Redeemer is to actively model this by seeking to plant other churches. By the grace of God, we are on track to plant 20 churches domestically and send out 20 long-term international teams by the year 2020. Through this strategy of churches planting churches, we seek to reproduce and be faithful to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) by expanding His Kingdom to the ends of the earth. We currently have church planting teams in Texas, Oklahoma, Salt Lake City, and in the 10/40 Window (the most unreached places in the world).
THE SCRIPTURES We accept the Bible, including the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament, as the written Word of God. The Bible is the only essential and infallible record of God s self-disclosure to mankind. It leads us to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Being given by God, the Scriptures are both fully and verbally inspired by God. Therefore, as originally given, the Bible is free of error in all it teaches. Each book is to be interpreted according to its context and purpose and in reverent obedience to the Lord who speaks through it in living power. All believers are exhorted to study the Scriptures and diligently apply them to their lives. The Scriptures are the authoritative and normative rule and guide of all Christian life, practice, and doctrine. They are totally sufficient and must not be added to, superseded, or changed by later tradition, extra-biblical revelation, or worldly wisdom. Every doctrinal formulation, whether of creed, confession, or theology must be put to the test of the full counsel of God in Holy Scripture. GOD IS TRIUNE There is one God: infinite, eternal, almighty, and perfect in holiness, truth, and love. In the unity of the godhead there are three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, co-existent, co-equal, co-eternal. The Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Holy Spirit, yet each is truly Deity. One GodFather, Son and Holy Spiritis the foundation of Christian faith and life. GOD THE FATHER God the Father is the Creator of heaven and earth. By His word and for His glory, He freely and supernaturally created the world from nothing. Through the same Word He daily sustains all His creatures. He rules over all and is the only Sovereign. His plans and purposes cannot be thwarted. He is faithful to every promise, works all things together for good to those who love him, and in His unfathomable grace gave His Son, Jesus Christ, for mankind s redemption. He made man for fellowship with himself, and intended that all creation should live to the praise of His glory. *ADAPTED FROM THE VILLAGE CHURCH
JESUS CHRIST Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, was the eternal Word made flesh, supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. He was perfect in nature, teaching, and obedience. He is fully God and fully man. He was always with God and is God. Through Him all things came into being and were created. He was before all things and in Him all things hold together by the word of His power. He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation, and in Him dwells the fullness of the godhead bodily. He is the only Savior for the sins of the world, having shed His blood and died a vicarious death on Calvary s cross. By His death in our place, He revealed the divine love and upheld divine justice, removing our guilt and reconciling us to God. Having redeemed us from sin, the third day He rose bodily from the grave, victorious over death and the powers of darkness and for a period of 40 days appeared to more than 500 witnesses, performing many convincing proofs of His resurrection. He ascended into heaven where, at God s right hand, He intercedes for His people and rules as Lord over all. He is the Head of His body, the Church, and should be adored, loved, served, and obeyed by all. THE HOLY SPIRIT The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Through the proclamation of the Gospel He persuades men to repent of their sins and confess Jesus as Lord. By the same Spirit a person is led to trust in divine mercy. The Holy Spirit unites believers to Jesus Christ in faith, brings about the new birth, and dwells within the regenerate. The Holy Spirit has come to glorify the Son, who in turn came to glorify the Father. He will lead the Church into a right understanding and rich application of the truth of God s Word. He is to be respected, honored, and worshiped as God the Third Person of the Trinity. MAN God made manmale and femalein His own image, as the crown of creation, that man might have fellowship with him. Tempted by Satan, man rebelled against God. Being estranged from His Maker, yet responsible to him, he became subject to divine wrath, inwardly depraved and, apart from a special work of grace, utterly incapable of returning to God. This depravity is radical and pervasive. It extends to his mind, will, and affections. Unregenerate man lives under the dominion of sin and Satan. He is at enmity with God, hostile toward God, and hateful of God. Fallen, sinful people, whatever their character or attainments, are lost and without hope apart from salvation in Christ. THE GOSPEL Jesus Christ is the Gospel. The good news is revealed in His birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Christ s crucifixion is the heart of the Gospel, His resurrection is the power of the Gospel, and His ascension is the glory of the Gospel. Christ s death is a substitutionary and propitiatory sacrifice to God for our sins. It satisfies the demands of God s holy justice and appeases His holy wrath. It also demonstrates His mysterious love and reveals His amazing grace. Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man. There is no other name by which men must be saved. At the heart of all sound doctrine is the cross of Jesus Christ and the infinite privilege that redeemed sinners have of glorifying God because of what He has accomplished. Therefore, we want all that takes place in our hearts, churches, and ministries to proceed from and be related to the cross
MAN S RESPONSE TO THE GOSPEL The message of the Gospel is only effectual to those who genuinely repent of their sins and, by God s grace, put saving faith in Christ. This Gospel of grace is to be sincerely preached to all men in all nations. Biblical repentance is characterized by a changed life, and saving faith is evidenced by kingdom service or works. While neither repentance nor works save, unless a person is willing to deny himself, pick up His cross, and follow Christ, he cannot become His disciple. MAN S INHERITANCE THROUGH THE GOSPEL Salvation, the free gift of God, is provided by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, for the glory of God alone. Anyone turning from sin in repentance and looking to Christ and His substitutionary death receives the gift of eternal life and is declared righteous by God as a free gift. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to him. He is justified and fully accepted by God. Through Christ s atonement for sin an individual is reconciled to God as Father and becomes His child. The believer is forgiven the debt of his sin and, via the miracle of regeneration, liberated from the law of sin and death into the freedom of God s Spirit. SANCTIFICATION The Holy Spirit is the active agent in our sanctification and seeks to produce His fruit in us as our minds are renewed and we are conformed to the image of Christ. Though indwelling sin remains a reality, as we are led by the Spirit we grow in the knowledge of the Lord, freely keeping His commandments and endeavoring to so live in the world that all people may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. All believers are exhorted to persevere in the faith, knowing they will have to give an account to God for their every thought, word, and deed. The spiritual disciplines, especially Bible study, prayer, worship and confession, are a vital means of grace in this regard. Nevertheless, just as we are not justified by our good works, our good works are not the foundation for our perseverance in the faith. The believer's ultimate confidence to persevere is based on the sure promise of God to preserve his people until the end. Despite believers ongoing struggles with sin in the process of sanctification, believers cannot fall away from the state of grace but are sealed in the Holy Spirit, such that God will certainly preserve and eternally save all believers, with none lost THE CHURCH God by His Word and Spirit creates the Church, calling sinful men out of the whole human race into the fellowship of Christ s Body. By the same Word and Spirit, He guides and preserves that new redeemed humanity. The Church is not a religious institution or denomination. Rather, the Church universal is made up of those who have become genuine followers of Jesus Christ and have personally appropriated the Gospel. The Church exists to worship and glorify God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It also exists to serve Him by faithfully doing His will in the earth. This involves a commitment to see the Gospel preached and churches planted in all the world for a testimony. The ultimate mission of the Church is the making of disciples through the preaching of the Gospel. When God transforms human nature, this then becomes the chief means of society s transformation. Upon conversion, newly redeemed men and women are added to a local church, in which they devote themselves to teaching, fellowship, the Lord s Supper, and prayer. All members of the Church universal are to be a vital and committed part of a local church. In this context they are called to walk out the New Covenant as the people of God, and demonstrate the reality of the kingdom of God. The ascended Christ has given gift ministries to the church (including apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) for the equipping of Christ s body that it might mature and grow. Through the gift ministries, all members of the Church are to be nurtured and equipped for the work of ministry..
SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH Water baptism is intended only for the individual who has received the saving benefits of Christ s atoning work and become His disciple. Therefore, in obedience to Christ s command and as a testimony to God, the Church, oneself, and the world, a believer should be immersed in water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Water baptism is a visual demonstration of a person s union with Christ in the likeness of His death and resurrection. It signifies that his former way of life has been put to death, and vividly depicts a person s release from the mastery of sin. As with water baptism, the Lord s Supper is to be observed only by those who have become genuine followers of Christ. This ordinance symbolizes the breaking of Christ s body and the shedding of His blood on our behalf, and is to be observed repeatedly throughout the Christian life as a sign of continued participation in the atoning benefits of Christ s death. As we partake of the Lord s Supper with an attitude of faith and self-examination, we remember and proclaim the death of Christ, receive spiritual nourishment for our souls, and signify our unity with other members of Christ s body. THE CONSUMMATION The Consummation of all things includes the visible, personal and glorious return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead and the translation of those alive in Christ, the judgment of the just and the unjust, and the fulfillment of Christ s kingdom in the new heavens and the new earth. In the Consummation, Satan with his hosts and all those outside Christ are finally separated from the benevolent presence of God, enduring eternal punishment, but the righteous, in glorious bodies, shall live and reign with Him forever. Married to Christ as His Bride, the Church will be in the presence of God forever, serving Him and giving Him unending praise and glory. Then shall the eager expectation of creation be fulfilled and the whole earth shall proclaim the glory of God who makes all things new.
RHYTHM 1: GATHERINGS There are three layers to our gatherings as a church. Sunday gatherings, gospel communities and fight clubs. Although each of these gatherings are different, they are all equally important for one s growth in Christ, community, and mission. RHYTHM 2: HOUSEHOLD We believe that your household can be the most intimate form of church life there is if Jesus is at the center of our families. We want to work to redeem our households by encouraging our members to be intentional with the gospel in their homes. Our desire is to see dads pastoring their homes, families worshiping and praying together regularly, and even college students or singles praying with and for their roommates. RHYTHM 3: MEALS The average person eats around 21 meals a week. What if we thought to use these meals for the sake of community and mission. Inviting neighbors over for dinner, having lunch with people in your gospel community, or meeting a co-worker for breakfast are all ways that we can use our meals for the glory of God. In fact, it was Jesus who was accused because he spent so much time eating and drinking with sinners. RHYTHM 4: REST AND RECREATION Life is fast, we all work hard, and we all need down time. But down time isn t a free pass to eject from following Jesus. We can use our times of rest and our hobbies for community and mission. Taking a vacation with people in your gospel community, playing a round of golf with a co-worker, or hitting the gym with a neighbor are all ways we can live out this rhythm. RHYTHM 5: WORK As a Christian our identity is rooted in Christ as a son or daughter of God. This should change the way we work. We shouldn t work to prove ourself or make a name for ourself because Jesus has already done this for us through his work on the cross. Instead we work to bring glory and honor to God and to bring the hope of the gospel to our co-workers. RHYTHM 6: CELEBRATION AND MOURNING Life is full of both ups and downs. Birthdays, weddings, promotions, funerals, sickness, babies being born, and friends moving away are just a few examples of the times in life that we celebrate and mourn. As people who have been made right with God through Jesus we have more to celebrate than anyone on the planet and we also should have more hope in times of hardship. Times of celebration and mourning are on ramps into people s lives and a great way to bring the good news of Jesus to people as well.
Redeemer holds three Sunday morning gatherings at 8:30am, 10:00am, and 11:30am, with classes offered for children ages birth - 5th grade at each service. Children are welcome in any service at Redeemer if parents and guardians should choose to keep their children with them. Redeemer strives to be a safe place to worship, ask the hard questions, and find it is okay to not be okay. In fact, what you will hear every Sunday is we are not as awesome as we would like to think and are more sinful than we would like to admit, but it is the reason we desperately need grace and our Savior so much. Members and visitors alike are invited to come as they are. Most of our members and attendees dress very casually. We want to get to know the people who come through the doors on Sunday mornings, whether member or visitor. Ultimately, we desire to equip them to live a life of mission in community. We do this by striving to make much of Christ in everything we do. So what you can expect from a Sunday service is worshipping God through music, prayer, teaching, communion, and fellowship.
FAQS ON REDEEMER S CHURCH PLANTING STRATEGY What kind of domestic church planters do you support? A domestic church planter requires a unique gifting. Typically, this involves years of development, in which both pastoral gifts and entrepreneurial abilities have been demonstrated. Redeemer supports church planters that will go through the Acts 29 assessment process. Internal candidates at Redeemer have established themselves as gifted leaders and self-starters in their ministry here. External candidates will often participate in Redeemer s 1-2 year residency program, although some circumstances might not involve this step. What kind of international church planters do you support? Redeemer differentiates between sending missionaries and providing networking support. Missionaries that are officially sent by Redeemer must: 1) be a Redeemer or partnering church member; 2) complete Redeemer s required missionary training and be approved and endorsed by leadership; 3) be sent by an agency or partnering business; 4) serve among an Unreached People Group; and 5) be involved in the process of church planting (defined as: entry, gospel proclamation, discipleship and gathering, church formation, and long-term leadership development and multiplication). Missionaries who do not meet these criteria may have the opportunity to network with Redeemer members but will not be official Redeemer missionaries. We support and endorse missionaries who are spiritually mature, have been well trained for success, and have the support of a respected agency and church. What about campus based ministries like Campus Crusade for Christ? We support these ministries, and we think your work will be a general strengthening of church planting movements in your country. This will not be an official Redeemer mission team, though. We will help you in terms of training and raising support. These organizations are para-church ministries, and while excellent at supplementing the work of the local church, they are not church planting organizations or churches. Our goal as a church is to plant disciple-making churches that reproduce themselves. Isn t this a little (lot) ambitious? Well, yes, but not naively so. A church in Waco (similar town to Lubbock) has sent more teams than this in less than a decade and everything in their organization is geared for this. With as many college students and young post-college age people as we have, there is no reason why we can t get it done. We are praying that God will raise up an army of young laborers who will work inside of their careers or as vocational church planters and missionaries to spread the Gospel to lots of people in the most strategic way possible.
GOVERNING FOR THE GOSPEL S GROWTH IN THE CHURCH One of the most important questions of church life is, Who runs the church? To be clear, we believe that Jesus runs the church; He is Redeemer s Senior Pastor! But, we all realize that God has appointed people to lead the church on a practical level by living-out the Gospel in its specific context. We are an independent church, but voluntarily associate ourselves with the larger body of Christ both locally and nationally. Our two strongest associations, for the purpose of missions, are the Acts 29 Global Network and the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention, which funds the International and North American Mission Boards. Why have leaders and covenant membership? This is a pressing question. The short answer is that, in addition to the fact that the Bible commands us to live out our faith together in community, we firmly believe that we can be more fruitful and happy together than we would be on our own. The reasons for membership are exactly the same as the reasons for getting married. Courtship is good, and necessary in both cases. However, regardless of the respective levels of commitment during the courtship process, there is an entirely new level of trust and accountability when vows are exchanged in a marriage ceremony. In the church, entering into a covenant membership means pledging one s life to the other members for our fruitfulness and joy and the kingdom s expansion. Covenantal membership makes sense and is Biblical. Many have a negative reaction to spiritual authority. Leadership and covenant membership go hand in hand. If you are not a member, you are not accountable to a leader, and you do not agree to follow their spiritual leadership. If you are a member, but don t have leadership, you are not held accountable or led well. Is it possible that the reason we move from church to church and have adopted more organic models of church life is because we are anti-authority and don t want to be held accountable or led by other people? It is difficult to argue that this isn t the case. In fact, it is the most probable reason that membership has evolved into something that doesn t mean much for most churches and Christians. Christians need leadership and care, and church leaders fill that need. Churches need members who are committed to one another. Leaders need accountability from the people they serve to maximize their fruitfulness. We need each other in a binding, obligating, covenantal sense.
What do elders do? We should start with the qualifications in I Timothy 3. The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. The office of overseer is synonymous with that of pastor or elder. This text gives us big clues into what kind of person should lead the church, but the rest of the New Testament shows what kinds of things are done. Here is a good list from Gene Getz in his excellent book Elders and Leaders. Teaching Biblical truth (Galatians 6:6; I Timothy 5:17; Titus 1:9) Modeling Christ-like behavior (I Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6; I Thessalonians 2:10-12) Maintaining doctrinal purity (Acts 20:29-30; Titus 1:9) Disciplining unruly believers (Galatians 6:1-2) Overseeing financial matters (Acts 11:29-30; II Thessalonians 3:10-12) Praying for those who are ill (James 5:13-15) In short, elders are the primary leaders of Redeemer. These men have proven in their homes and in their responsibilities in the church that they are capable leaders and managers, and they are able to teach. Additionally, we believe in plurality of leadership, where all votes are equal. It is our conviction that the New Testament did not imagine a modern American CEO model of corporate leadership in the church, but a place rightly governed by qualified men who share the pastoral burden. One of the biggest problems with the way most churches govern themselves is that enormous burdens are placed on the senior pastor. He is expected to be an excellent preacher, an innovative leader, a skillful counselor, a personable confidant, an effective manager, a thoughtful theologian, and a compassionate caregiver in times of crisis. No senior pastor could fulfill these expectations. We hope that a plurality of gifted leaders will meet needs where they exist and provide effective leadership. Between our pastors and pastoral assistants (deacons), we can grow in community together without burning out our top level leadership. As our elder board expands, they will hold one another accountable, both pastorally and as Christians. Given the widespread failures of many pastors, it is easy to notice a common trend: most of these men were the primary leader of their congregation with very little internal accountability, support, correction, or encouragement. While moral failures can t be absolutely eliminated, a loving elder body can go a long way to protect our leaders from immorality.
What do deacons (Pastoral Assistants) do? The word deacon literally means servant. Again, let s read the definitive text on this issue (I Timothy 3:8-13): Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must [or Women, likewise, must ] be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. This list is surprisingly like the list for elders, except for the fact that deacons are not required to be effective teachers. The job description is a little different for deacons because the Bible gives less definition to their role. The short version seems to be pastoral assistant. Deacons lead operational level ministry, and they are the hands and feet that make the ministry happen. One more important issue: it is the conviction of Redeemer that the office of elder is male only, but the office of deacon is open to men or women. We affirm that God has created men and women equally, but he has gifted them uniquely and differently (complementarianism). Practically speaking, we maintain that elders/pastors are the primary teachers and preachers within the church. This does not, however, prohibit women from exercising their leadership gifts and communication skills in other areas of ministry (bible studies, Gospel Communities, coaching and training, etc.). Again, we find our reason for this in the text. The office of elder is clearly presented in the text, but the office of deacon can be read one of two ways. First, it can be read the way most modern translations take it, that deacons wives are given qualifications. The other way to look at it (see the [note] above, and a footnote in most translations) is that we are talking about female deacons. We favor the second interpretation. Why? First, there are other references to female deacons (literally servants ), such as in Romans 16:1. Second, it doesn t make a lot of sense to have a higher standard for the secondary office of deacon than for the primary office of elder. Elders do not necessarily have requirements for their wives. Instead, the context in this passage (along with the broader New Testament references) seems to allow both male and female deacons.
CHILDREN RedeemerKids are included in the Gospel-Centered, Missional Family at every opportunity. Our goal is that they will learn, believe, and live out the gospel alongside their family and other members of Redeemer. We believe that parents are the first and most effective communicators of the gospel to their children. Therefore, we focus on equipping and training parents to guide their children toward the gospel by word, actions, and intercession. In our Sunday Morning Classes and Children s Small Groups, we will support and supplement what is being taught and practiced at home. RedeemerKids averages 221 children ages birth through 5th grade at the Sunday morning gatherings each week. For families that choose to keep their children with them during the worship service, age-appropriate kids bulletins are provided to aid children in understanding each step of the worship service. YOUTH Redeemer Youth desires to partner with families that have 6th through 12th grade students by leading them to be a gospel-centered, missional family. Just like RedeemerKids, Redeemer Youth believes that parents are the primary spiritual influence in their kids lives, which drives every gathering on the calendar. Throughout the school year, Redeemer Youth meet each Sunday night from 5:00-7:00pm at the church for worship, teaching, prayer, discussion, and community-building. Twice per semester, youth and their families are invited to share a meal and participate in the weekly gathering. In order to further equip parents to be the primary spiritual influence in the lives of their student(s), Redeemer Youth also offers parent seminars on topics that relate to the lives of youth-aged children. The most recent parent session was entitled Teens and Technology, which offered a Gospel-centered teaching time on the topic, a panel discussion, and Q & A session.
REDEEMER COLLEGE MINISTRY (RCM) Redeemer College Ministry (RCM) seeks to connect, equip, and mobilize students to be on mission for Jesus Christ. Staff and leaders of RCM value equipping students to be disciples of Jesus through regular attendance in Redeemer s Sunday gatherings, involvement in a Gospel Community, monthly College Gathering, Fall Retreat, Life After College class, Spring Break stateside trips, summer internships, and various equipping courses. Attendance at the monthly College Gatherings averages 325 students with 340-360 students involved in 15 different Gospel Communities. Many Redeemer college students give generously of their time in order to serve Redeemer in various capacities throughout the church. RESIDENCY PROGRAM The Redeemer Residency Program is a church based leadership development program designed to train and equip the head, heart, and hands of the saints. We desire to send Residents out across the United States and the world equipped to be leaders in their homes, churches, and cities. The Redeemer Residency Program is for those who believe God is calling them into ministry and/or church-planting, as well as those who believe that they will be involved in some form of vocational Christian work in the future. Residents commit to serving in this capacity for two years, which allows the Resident time to, not only observe, but also do meaningful ministry.