“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” – Ephesians 4:11–12
One of our distinctives at Redemption City Church is not to be program-driven, but people-filled-by-the-Spirit-driven. That means that we don't decide which ministry programs we are going to have and then fill them with volunteers. We don't shove square-peg servants into round-hole ministries. We don't hold onto a program long after it loses its effectiveness or nobody feels called to support it.
Instead we choose to empower all of God's people for the type of ministry God has called them to. All who believe in Jesus have his Spirit dwelling in them giving them unique abilities and guiding them to special circumstances for serving others to grow his church in size and holiness. So we ask every single member how God has shaped them through circumstances, desires, and relationships to give their lives in service to God's mission.
Then our ministry structure simply takes on the form of the spiritual gifts and callings of the people we have in our body. If someone sees a need for a ministry that would align with our values, we will do what we can to train and equip him or her to put that desire to work. Many people will shop for a church looking for a set of ministries that will serve their families. But we have turned that on its head. Come to Redemption City Church so that your family can serve where we are lacking ministry.
Community Groups
We do not believe being a Christian is simply a "personal relationship with Jesus" but also a corporate relationship with him. We are in this together. We are his body. We are his temple. We are his family. The primary emphasis of our ministry outside of Sunday worship and training is simply being together in community, caring for each other, playing together, studying the word and praying together. This happens organically flowing out of the regular gathering of Community Groups who share meals, pray, and dig into God's unsearchable riches.
Sunday School
God calls pastors not to do the work of the ministry, but to train others for the work of the ministry. This training happens through deliberate feeding of the sheep the bread of life (Christ through the Word). Our Sunday gatherings are not intended to be an invitation to seekers, but at that time we worship together as a blood-bought family and receive training as servants being sent out into the world. Through children's and adult Sunday School classes we aim to model and teach the saints how to understand and handle the word to faithfully apply it to their own witness in the world.
Music
Our worship in music on Sundays is again driven by the gifts in the people that God brings us. We do not strive to assemble a perfect band that will attract a certain type of people, but embrace the talents that God has assembled so that in the diversity of gifts and styles our unity in Christ might be displayed. The leaders work to emphasize the voices of the congregation and the content of the lyrics we sing together.
Women
Women played a key role in the ministry of our Savior Jesus Christ. They followed him, provided great examples of his mercy on display, supported his ministry, were essential in his arrival and primary witnesses in his resurrection. Though we believe the role of pastor/elder is to be held by uniquely qualified men, we desire to elevate the value of women in ministry (i.e. service) as we together display and proclaim the gospel to a dying world.
Men
Where are all the good men? What is the role of a man in the church?
God made men to be confident leaders who provide for and protect the people in their lives. So many men have lost that vision and purpose and are trapped in a cycle of addictions, self-loathing, and passivity. We desire to train up men to courageously face the world with confidence in their coming resurrection in Christ who are eager to clear a path for their church and families to follow toward those heavenly shores.
Our men meet periodically for breakfast and a conversation to grow in our knowledge of truth and masculinity then apply it in the world during skill-sharing events where we teach each other skills to lead, provide, and protect. A group of men gather weekly for sexual purity accountability. We meet yearly for a men’s retreat to give extra attention to each other’s hearts and call each other to bold faith. And we invite our sons to a yearly campout to explore God’s creation together getting our hands dirty with the raw materials of his creation.
Teens
Throughout history teenagers were seen as new adults. They had responsibility to work, to participate in community life, to learn, and to care for their families. We see the teen years as vital for equipping young people for adult life as faithful Christians.
With this vision we do not have a traditional “Youth Group” but intentionally strive to incorporate teens into the adult life of the church with strategic inputs to engage them uniquely as individuals on their own journey toward faithful representation of King Jesus to be able to be spiritually fruitful and multiply gospel fruit in their lives.
We aim to do this through a blend of incorporating teens into our adult Sunday School programs and Community Groups while supplementing this with focused efforts toward them in milestone celebrations, monthly youth nights, and strategic discipleship with a well-matched mentor.
Prayer Meetings
We desire to be a people who express our dependence upon God in prayer as regularly as possible. This means being prayerful in all things and specifically planning times to be gathered for group prayer on behalf of the church. The pastors pray regularly together for the flock and also lead corporate prayer efforts before Sunday worship and during the week. Contact the pastors to learn how you can pray with us.
Future Leaders
This endeavor is not about affirming the pastors in their ministry but exalting Christ through all the gifts of the people. We want Christ to be the focus through a diversity of leadership and we want this to continue long after we are gone. So we deliberately engage future potential leaders in one-on-one discipleship as well as dedicated theological and practical training through our School of Theology in order to raise up leaders to join us, replace us, and be sent out from us.
Mission and Church Planting
Our call to be fruitful and multiply image bearers in the world was given extra power and focused direction when Christ died, rose from the grave, and said to his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” The reason we do all of these other ministries is to train people up and send them out on mission to multiply redeemed image bearing throughout the earth.
We do this by equipping our own members personally to engage their neighbors with the gospel. We do this corporately by sending out teams of faithful members to plant new churches in the region. And we send and support full-time missionaries around the world to multiply the manifold wisdom of God (Eph. 3:10) in churches planted among peoples who don’t have a faithful witness of Christ’s reign over all the earth.