The "Redeeming" in Redeeming Church

"Redeeming Church" might strike you as a strange name for a congregation. But choosing to name our church with a verb instead a group of nouns (First Baptist Church) is an intentional statement about our hope for the work of our congregation. Primarily, it means two things to us:

First, it speaks to the fact that Jesus is always redeeming us and always redeeming the church. Every day, God is exchanging the brokenness of our lives and communities for the mercy and healing of grace. God never gives up on us, and we believe that one day God will make all manner of things good, right, just, and whole again.

Second, "Redeeming Church" speaks to the reality that the church has been a place of condemnation instead of love for too many people, a place of rejection instead of welcome, a place of disappointment instead of hope. And while we don't have any illusions about the fact that we will fail and we will disappoint, we hope to be humble and transparent enough about those failures that even our brokenness is an opportunity for a healing expression of Christ's mercy.

We will be a church of faith, living in steadfast commitment to the reality of Christ's love and salvation, even when we can't see how it will all work out.

We will be a church of hope, announcing and working for the coming kingdom of God, even as we recognize the kingdom of God which is already among us.

We will, most of all, be a church of love, endeavoring to love in the unlimited, unconditional, life-changing and world-changing way that God loves us.

Christ is redeeming us, and we labor with Christ for the redeeming of the world.