Church of the Redeemer

 

This sentence is more than a motto or "tag line."  It is a statement that sums up who we hope to be as a community.  Let's unpack it a bit.

 

Christ.  Our community exists because of and for Jesus Christ.  He is our redeemer, deliverer, teacher, mediator, champion, and friend.  It is through God made human in Christ that we know who God is.  It is through his sacrifice on the cross that we are forgiven and set right.  It is through his resurrection, ascension, sending of the Holy Spirit, and eventual return that we have hope for ourselves and for the world. 

 

Love.  God is Love.  Love is the essence of the Maker of the Universe.  It is also the chief message of Christ's good news.  God loves us, and we in turn can love God and others.

 

Redeeming.  Christ did not come to pat us on the head and tell us that some distant god has affection for us.  He came to rescue us from our selfish rebellion, from our addictions and dependencies, from oppression and evil, from the lies of world and the devil.  He came to forgive us our sins, to restore us, and raise us up as the children of God. 

 

We.  Christ came for each one of us.  And he came to bring us into a new family.  The Christian life does not exist apart from community, because it is in community that Jesus loves and transforms us.

 

Live.  The good news of Christ's redeeming love is meant to be lived out.  Christianity is much more than a series of ideas that you have to believe in order to go to heaven.  It is a way of life, a transformational experience that effects every area of our being.

 

Proclaim.  This good news must be shared with others.  In Christ, all people everywhere may find salvation, joy, and hope (for this life, and for the life to come).  And so we tell the story of Christ, both in our words and in our deeds. 

 

The Call

            The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
                        because he has anointed me                                           
                        to preach good news to the poor.  
            He has sent me to proclaim                                              
                        freedom for the prisoners                                              
                        and recovery of sight for the blind,
            To release the oppressed,                                             
                        to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.                                   
                                                                                    (Jesus Christ, Luke 4:18-19)

History

In the year 563, a priest and monk named Columcille (later called St. Columba) and 12 companions left the comfort of Christian Ireland and set off for northern Britain.  Their purpose: to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the Picts.  The Picts were a people in bondage.  Not necessarily economic or political bondage, but spiritual bondage.  They had heard of Christianity, but they were awash in a despairing pagan darkness.  Even those among them who thought of themselves as Christian were bound to cultural legalisms and fundamental misunderstandings of the Gospel.

On their way to Britain, a storm arose suddenly and blew their tiny boat ashore on  a small island, called Iona.  Taking this unexpected event as a sign from God, they chose to base their evangelism from this unusual place and founded an abbey.  The abbey was, literally, an island of safety where the community could fast, pray, worship, and be discipled.  It was also a place where they could bring both the converted and the searching in order to show them what the beloved family of God looked like when gathered.

But Iona was not just a place of retreat.  Far from it.  It was primarily a staging ground for the assault of the Kingdom of God against the kingdoms of darkness.  From this base, Columcille and the members of his growing community went forth into the lands of the Picts.  After a while, they began to establish new daughter communities on the mainland.  They also sent their missionaries far and wide, even into the impenetrable darkness of Germany.  All the while, the community maintained its connection to the Church in Ireland, submitting to the leadership of the broader Body of Christ.  As the years progressed, Iona became a place of major influence in Northern England and Scotland, the center of Christianity for generations.

 

Celtic Christianity

Celtic Christianity is the form of our faith practiced by Columcille, and it is the historical basis of the Christianity of England, and of Anglicanism.  It is marked by a variety of traits, some of which are:
* Evangelistic fervor—they were devoted to freeing those in spiritual darkness.
* Orthodox faith—they were true to the Scriptures and the traditional faith.
* Outwardly focused—they laid their lives down for those beyond their borders.  
* Personal relationship—they were personal disciples of Jesus Christ.
* Experience with God—they were people of prayer and vision who encountered God.
* Repentant hearts—while believing in the goodness of their remade hearts, they also sought repentance and amendment of life in their sinfulness.
* Communal life—they were devoted to one another, and welcomed and incorporated the newcomer and new believer.
* Liturgical worship—they worshiped God in holiness.
* Charismatic power—they called on the Lord and saw Him move.
* Flexible wills—they were willing to change and grow as the Lord moved them.
* Creative spirits—they respected God’s creation, and generated arts and music which brought Him glory.
* Balanced existence—they sought a life of freedom through balance.
* Christ as King—above all else, they adored Jesus as their Lord.

In other words, they represented the very best of the Christian life in their age, and in ours.  And they call us forward, as part of the “great cloud of witnesses”, to a faith in God which is both ancient in its roots and progressive in its implementation.

Redemption

We can not, and should not, seek to literally duplicate the Scottish Iona. However, I
believe God’s call has come afresh to us in this Iona Vision.  This is the vision of a Christian community which finds a kinship with the Celts, and seeks to pattern its life after Jesus Christ as he expressed Himself in them and in us.

Therefore, I believe God has called us forward to a new place I will call “ Iona.” Iona
is not the name of a church, but a name given to a movement of His Holy Spirit.  Church of the Redeemer has formed under the power of the Holy Spirit as an Iona community. This is not some sort of unusual move of God, rather it is the Holy Spirit renewing His ancient purpose. The purpose of Church of the Redeemer is nothing less than the fulfillment of Luke 4:18-19.  In a word, this purpose is Redemption.

Redemption is the gracious, loving power of the Almighty Father God found in the
person of Jesus Christ and released through His Holy Spirit to liberate people from bondage, to recreate them from the inside out, to give them a loving relationship with Himself, to center them in Christian community, and to send them forth to proclaim liberation to others.

The redeeming work of Christ, expressed in the Scriptures and Creeds, is seen foundationally in his creation of the world, his messianic life, his atoning death, his glorious resurrection, his triumphal ascension, his generous sending of the Holy Spirit, and his climactic return.  It is this Christ the Redeemer we worship as King.

Many of the people of the Nashville area, and of the world, are in bondage.  It is the
desire of Jesus Christ to redeem them through his Body, specifically through Redeemer. These people are in bondage to hopeless lives without Christ, false religion, works-righteousness, addictions, depression, anxiety, and selfishness.  They are in bondage to sin, sickness, and the devil.  Jesus wants them, and us, to be free.

What Redeemer Seeks To Be (In the spirit of Iona)

Church of the Redeemer seeks to be a community of the Body of Christ whose purpose is to live and proclaim Redemption.  As such, we are called by God and pray to be empowered by him to develop the following characteristics:

* Evangelistic fervor—we are devoted to the redemption of the lost, so we seek them out in order to love, serve, and disciple them in the power of God’s Spirit.
* Orthodox faith—we are rooted in the Bible and in biblical faith.
* Outwardly focused—we are committed to reaching out beyond ourselves in order to serve the economically and spiritually poor.
* Personal relationship—we are personal disciples of Jesus Christ.
* Experience with God—we seek God and know Him intimately.
* Repentant hearts—we are quick to repent, to God and to one another; and we are gracious with each other, and with ourselves.
* Communal life—we are devoted to one another, and we purposefully welcome, incorporate and disciple the newcomer.
* Liturgical worship—we worship according to the Anglican tradition.
* Charismatic power—we call upon the Lord and see Him move.
* Flexible wills—we are willing to change and grow as the Lord acts.
* Creative spirits—we respect God’s creation and seek to use our creative powers (in all areas of our lives) to bring Him glory.
* Balanced existence—we seek a liberated balance in our lives.
* Christ as King—above all else, we adore Jesus Christ as Lord.

Methods

Further, Redeemer seeks to mirror its spiritual predecessor through:

* The Abbey—we have a facility which serves as a center for worship and discipleship, while also serving as the staging ground for outreach, evangelism, and mission.
* Mission—we have developed, and are now ministering out of a concentrated and Spirit-empowered strategy of mission.  This strategy directs our prayers, money, time, and energy in order to maximize our evangelism and outreach to both the spiritually and economically poor.  
* Planting—in the spirit of the New Testament Church, and of Iona, we choose to plant daughter congregations rather than grow to a very large size.  It is our belief that the Kingdom of God advances through the planting of new churches.
* Community—building kingdom community among its participants through shared love and shared lives.  We do this by providing all possible opportunity and space for authentic community.
* Formation—discipling both young and old through biblical and relational means.  Our discipleship should result in both transformed lives and believers equipped to spread the message of redemption.
* Releasing—we will release members into ministry.  We will do this by recognizing both gifting and calling, affirming and blessing these ministers, and supporting the ministries of our people in accordance with the rest of our vision.
* Leadership—Redeemer is led by a team of Elders whose purpose is to serve our people and our mission.  The team is chosen through the Spirit’s guidance and in accordance with the members’ Spirit-given gifts.  The team itself is led and served by our Pastor.
* Connectivity—Redeemer is a mission church of the Anglican Province of Rwanda, through the Anglican Mission in the Americas.  Further, we share communion and relationship with all Christ-centered fellowships in Nashville, and throughout the world.

First Steps

Church of the Redeemer is now nearly three years old.  We have begun to walk into this vision.  In some areas, we have made great strides.  In others, we are still beginning.  

This vision is coming to pass.  However, it will take time.  There will be small steps, huge leaps, modest blunders, and spectacular failures.  We are not building a house of cards, but a temple of gold.  Therefore, it will take time, effort, forgiveness, patience, and compassion.  As more people are involved, and as the prayers of the saints go up and the words to the prophets come down, this vision will grow.  It has already changed in small ways since it was first written in April of 2004.  After all, this document is not the Scripture.   It is a vision, a preferred future that God has given us.  We believe this vision will mature and come to pass.