Leading Jesus Centered Lives Together
Connection at Redemption.
The following is an adaption of what was shared with our community in our after Church gathering on Sunday June 30th. It is a bit lengthy, but I want to encourage anyone who calls Redemption home, or who is considering calling Redemption home to take the time to read it in full.
We are a radically inclusive community of hope. Our work is to lead Jesus centered lives that embody the hope of Jesus to a weary world. Connection at Redemption Church then is about leading Jesus centered lives together, as a community, creating space for us to know and be known by each other, to explore theological ideas that impact how we believe and live, to pursue spiritual life, and to serve alongside one another. And we remain committed to embodying the hope of Jesus through life with others. We are also committed to embodying this hope to those who have yet to find it and share in it with us.
Jesus is at work in our community, knitting us together in unity and peace by His Spirit, joining us in communion. We do not create that work, we enter into it, orient ourselves to it, lean into it. Our togetherness is a divine gift on offer to all of us. And so if we are to lead Jesus centered lives, it will mean enjoying the communion God gifts us with, life with God and with one another. Our life together is not about our programs, but about what God is doing in us and in the people who have yet to join us.
This fall our small group structure known as "HUBs" will evolve into a more inclusive model we are calling "Groups." The goal of this change is to expand participation and belonging within our community by creating more opportunities to form meaningful connections. This innovation in how we gather in small groups will allow us to lean in to our commitment of embodying the hope of Jesus through life with others, a core value deeply embedded in what we believe God is up to in our church and in our world.
Groups will be easy going, relationally driven opportunities to form deeper connections and lasting friendships. These are regularly occurring spaces for belonging and conversation, aimed at cultivating organic friendships and deeper connections that will enable us to lead Jesus centered lives together.
History of HUBs.
In 2014, Zack McCoy and Todd Parish founded a church plant called Redemption Church of Houston with the mission of Christ in me, Christ in you, the hope of glory. “We are people of Christ, both individually and corporately, united to Him in His death and resurrection. And our work is to spur Christ in one another and share Christ with our world, as we await the glory of His return and our resurrection.”
The means to achieving this mission of Christ in all was through acknowledging the reality that we were made for communion, and the God was building a community, the church. Redemption small groups were central to that mission. They were the HUB, the center, of all things Redemption Church.
We were a church where Christ in me and Christ in you was the hope of the world. We embodied that in connection to God and connection to one another on a weekly basis in these small groups.
More recently HUBs have become more and more difficult for people to wholly participate in. Leaders are being stretched thin and experiencing commitment levels that are I believe are un-tenable. On top of this we are in a post pandemic world where it seems harder than ever for people to find belonging in a HUB group.
In short, HUBs as a tool seem to no longer hold the central place they once did in the life of our community. There are a number of people who call Redemption home who are no longer actively engaged in a HUB group for a variety of valid reasons. But perhaps more concerning to me as your pastor are the number of people who are lonely and looking for connection who have not been able to find it within a HUB.
Success of HUBs.
Though the current challenges make involvement in HUBs more difficult, its important to acknowledge the success of HUBs as a program. The idea of a small group that was a prayer group, social group, activist group, and theological discussion all rolled into one was an ambitious undertaking and was widely successful for a significant part of our church’s life. Even today many of you have life long friendships and a growing faith in large part because of your involvement in HUBs.
But I also want to point out that it is not the program that you love, that you have found community with, that has been redemptive for you, it is the people and it is God’s Spirit at work among you. The unique grace of a group of people who are seeking to lead Jesus centered lives together is the thing you love, not a program. And a all of the things that made HUBs worth doing are still worth doing. We will just do them differently.
Connection at Redemption
Our goal for connection at Redemption is to lead Jesus centered lives together. And Redemption remains committed to embodying the hope of Jesus through life with others.
What Jesus is doing among us is knitting us together in communion. We were created for love, we were separated from love at the fall, we’ve been restored to love by Christ, empowered to love by the Spirit. These are essential theological realities that mean our togetherness is divine.
Jesus saves us into community, Jesus kingdom is a communal one, community is not just a part of what we do. It is central to our work in leading a Jesus centered life that embodies hope. We cannot do it alone.
We should also state the obvious and making it clear that HUBs are not the work of God, but merely a vehicle, a container for God’s work. And this container has proven to be a barrier for many among us, and who explore us who are looking for more. People who are created for the same communion you and I were, but who are not able to find their place in a HUB because they have kids, or church hurt, or irregular schedules.
HUBs are now Groups.
So, in an effort to foster a culture of inclusivity and create opportunities for wider participation, Redemption HUBs are now Redemption Groups.
We are decentralizing HUBs, centering our weekly worship together as the centerpiece of communion with God and one another in our community. Sunday worship is both the primary model and avenue for Christ centered connection as it is the space where Christ is most clearly centered and where we most clearly and accurately embody His community. And this has been the pattern of the church from the beginning. Sunday morning worship, through gathering, listening, responding, feasting, and being sent back out has been the central pattern and gathering for Jesus’ community for 2,000 years across a variety of cultures, places, and time periods.
But beyond this we want to take the best parts of what HUBs allowed us to engage in (belonging, theological exploration, spiritual life, and service) and offer them in a broader more inclusive way. Doing this will allow us to emphasize relationships across our entire congregation while creating opportunities for people to engage in meaningful connection in ways that fit better into their current rhythms of life and current faith journey.
Our goal is to foster a culture of inclusivity and wider participation for absolutely anyone. Spreading belonging, theological exploration, spiritual life, and service out among various groups creates more opportunities for real diversity and inclusion, while creating greater opportunity and interest in participation.
At the heart of all of this will be finding and building meaningful friendships, to lead Jesus centered lives together.
Groups.
Groups are easy going, relationally driven opportunities to form deeper connections and form lasting friendships. These are regularly occurring spaces for belonging and conversation.
While each group will broadly seek to achieve Belonging, Theological Exploration, Spiritual Life, or Serving, no group will only ever serve one sole purpose. Serving groups will foster belonging. Belonging groups will cultivate and hold space for theological exploration. Theological exploration will draw us into spiritual life. Spiritual life will move us to service. And at the heart of them all will be relationships.
Tables.
Redemption tables provide predictable, ongoing space for connection and belonging. Meeting at regular intervals around a meal, Tables will be places where you can know and be known over the long haul.
Youth.
Redemption Youth is an opportunity for teens at Redemption to gain a sense of their own belonging. We will create a space for theological exploration participation in their own faith journey alongside a cohort of peers and mentors in an environment free from certainty, shame, and legalism. The objective is that every teen know that they are made for love, beloved, beautiful, and sacred just the way that they are.
Kids.
Redemption Kids provides a safe and age appropriate environment to explore the foundational truth revealed in Jesus together, that they are loved by a good and generous God.
Classes & Cohorts.
Redemption classes and cohorts are opportunities for theological exploration or spiritual life in a cohort of other fellow travelers. While each class and cohort will be uniquely its own, they will each be highly relation and open to doubt, curiosity, and diversity of thought, exploring Christian theology while never insisting on or expecting agreement.
Teams.
Redemption teams embody the hope of Jesus by serving and loving others in their own particular ways. Together they acknowledge the reality that every person is sacred, whether they are a part of Redemption or not, and that Jesus is at work in the world, inviting us to participate in that work.
Partnerships.
Redemption partnerships are opportunities to embody our hope to a weary world together by serving together. These partnerships will be with our neighbors and organizations already at work in our city allowing us to contribute alongside of them in their good and redemptive work. Being a part of one of these groups is a commitment to the good of our city and to join the ongoing work of Jesus.
In addition to groups we will have regular church wide hangouts…
Hangouts.
Hangouts are carved out times to be together as a community and hangout with one another. These semi-regular meet-ups are excuses to socialize and enjoy one another. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.
Easter Party
Happy Hours
Park Dates
Game Nights
Cook Outs
Pickle Ball Tournaments
Check out our events page for upcoming hangouts.
Finally we will be centering our worship together as our primary gathering together…
Sunday Morning.
At the center of our community will be our Sunday morning worship. On Sunday’s there are no cliques, no insiders and outsiders, we pursue theological exploration, belonging, spiritual life and have opportunities to serve others. But it is on Sunday’s that we are all joined at Jesus table as one by Jesus.
Together we each are personally caught up into a collective, being shaped and formed by what God is doing among us. We are oriented, encountered, changed, before being sent out to embody the hope we’ve encountered to the world outside of our gathering.
We have made substantial efforts to do Sunday’s well and are continuing to invest greater time and attention towards that.
Because it matters. I believe it is the most important thing we will do all week. And so I want to treat it with the gravity and care it deserves.
I want us to continue to be a warm and open community that gets here early and hangs out, sticks around after service, invites new faces to lunch and seeks to actually embody inclusivity rather than merely talking about it.
Each Group will value and embody…
Invitation, not expectation.
Because Jesus always invites but never demands, we are committed to doing as Jesus did, proposing rather than imposing.
Meaningful, not obligatory.
All we do outside of Sunday mornings is an invitation to our work as a community to embody the hope of Jesus. Therefore groups are committed to being meaningful, joy filled, and life giving. These are not duties or jobs, they are opportunities for anyone who wants them.
Jesus centered, not Redemption centered.
Our work is to lead Jesus centered lives, not Redemption centered lives. In his important work on Christian Community Dietrich Bonhoeffer states “Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this…We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ.” We will not find love, healing, belonging, or wholeness in and among Redemption Church if we are not finding it in Christ.
People, not programs.
Each group is committed to being deeply relational with programming only serving as a container for relational possibilities. For this reason we will always feel like an under programmed church.
