Our Good News! Episode 3

Our third episode of Our Good News is available now! Regan was excited to talk about the Great Commission with kids from our missionary families.

You can find the episode on our Redeemer Kids YouTube channel.

A Note on the Capitol Unrest

Redeemer Church Family,

Yesterday, if you watched the news from our nation's capital and you were horrified at the ugliness unfolding, you were not alone. 

What took place at the Capitol was wicked. The gleeful destruction of property, the violence against law enforcement, and the shameless disregard for civility was a demonstration of anger and hate. And when we as Christians witness such hatred, we must react.

But how?

First, we long for Jesus. The answers we need will not come from a political party or a politician. We feel like we've had to say that so many times of late. But it is still the truth, and it still needs to be said. 

Seeing brokenness in our world should drive us to long for Christ's Kingdom - His perfect justice and mercy.

Second, we recognize and confess our own sin. We cannot focus on the sins of others and brush off how we disobeyed Jesus yesterday. The blatant sins of others should make us pause to examine our hearts before the Lord. The sins of others remind us of the offensiveness of all sin - including our own. 

Seeing the ugliness of sin in our world should provoke us to consider our own sin and lead us to repentance.

Third, we must live out the righteousness of Christ in our homes, neighborhoods, and cities. We must seek the good of the place where God has us. We should not be pulled into political partisanship to the extent it seeks to divide and dismiss our brothers and sisters in Christ or otherwise condones sin. We must seek unity with one another, pray for our civil leaders, and elect representatives that will work for the common good.

Seeing disunity and hatred in our world should move us to live all the more in the blood-bought unity we have in Christ Jesus.

Fourth, we acknowledge our many emotions, and we hold them before the Lord. Seeing just how volatile our world is and has been brings about many emotions. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus never dismissed a person for their fear, doubt, anger, or sorrow, and He also never left them in those emotions. All of our emotions are welcome before the Lord. Ask Him to speak to your feelings and concerns. Ask Him to show you what to hold on to and what to let go of as you seek to trust Him more and more. In Christ, we are invited to a hope and a joy that stretch beyond our emotions and our circumstances and carry us into eternity. Ask that His peace would reign in your heart above all else.

Just as in any other moment or day that so clearly displays the terror of sin, we hope you longed for Jesus yesterday.

And it is our prayer that you will long for Him all the more today.

Blessings,

The Senior Pastor Team

Joel Brooks
Lead Pastor

Josh Hausen
Executive Pastor

Jeff Heine
Shepherding Pastor

Philippians Reading & Study Guide

This Sunday, we begin a new sermon series on the book of Philippians! A few of our team members put together a reading and study plan with some helpful tools designed to equip you to glean more from your study of God’s Word. It is our earnest hope that the Lord uses this study to deepen your understanding of God’s Word and your heart’s affections for Christ in the months ahead.

You can download it here.

Advent Sessions Are Live!

Our fourth and final Advent Session is live! You can watch the video on our YouTube channel!

Also, remember that our Advent Sessions EP is now available! You can find it on all major music platforms, such as Apple Music or Spotify!

Session #1 - Prepare Him Room

Session #2 - O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Session #3 - In A Cave

Session #4 - Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

Advent Sessions EP Available Now!

You can find it on all major music platforms, such as Apple Music or Spotify!

This Christmas, it will be over nine months since our church family last gathered in our church for worship. Our sanctuary, so often filled with the joyful sound of worship, has been left quiet. That’s why each Advent Session was recorded live, distanced and with minimal support, in our sanctuary. We look forward to the day when we will come together again and sing joyfully to our living Savior in our Avondale home.

Have you missed our previous albums? Throughout the years, we’ve released a variety of albums, EPs, and singles. You can find them all on Apple Music or Spotify.

Avondale Property Update

Redeemer Church Family,

This past Sunday, we gathered at the parking deck for the seventeenth time. It's odd how worshipping in a parking deck away from our Avondale home has become routine. With beautiful fall weather upon us, in some senses, meeting at the deck is preferable. Certainly, it is a blessing to be able to meet at all.

If you were at Sunday's service, you probably heard Joel share a brief update on how we are planning for Redeemer's future. Earlier this month, we finalized the purchase of a few properties surrounding our Avondale facility. We saw these properties as a way to continue planting roots in Avondale, and how we might use them is still being thought and prayed through. The Lord is working in Avondale and the surrounding community, and our elders and pastors want to respect our calling to that area by keeping options open.

Right now, we ask for your prayer that the Lord would guide our decisions as we look to make long term facility decisions. More specifically, we ask that God show us how we can seek the city's welfare and find Redeemer's flourishing in Birmingham's flourishing.

Let's not lose sight of God's provision now or forget to give thanks. We started the year worried, not knowing how to solve our space problems as services kept filling up. But, the Lord, in His wisdom, blessed us with a parking garage to use during a pandemic. His provision often looks different than what we would expect. Praise God that He is in charge and not us.

Blessings,

The Senior Pastor Team

Joel Brooks
Lead Pastor

Josh Hausen
Executive Pastor

Jeff Heine
Shepherding Pastor

COVID Update

Redeemer Church Family,

This past Sunday marked the tenth worship service in the parking deck and the twenty-second since quarantine began. 

While we long for the day when we will meet together again in our Avondale sanctuary, we're blessed to have the ability to worship corporately, even in a space as unusual as a parking deck. As we have said before, we believe that the physical gathering of our church body is incredibly significant in our member's lives, and if any options are available to us that are deemed safe and wise, we should do it.

That said, we wanted to update everyone on our current plans, especially in light of the recent surge of COVID cases in our area. 

First, we are actively monitoring the situation in Jefferson County and our local community. The number of COVID cases has grown exponentially since quarantine began, and our staff has been diligently following along as local conditions change. 

Second, we have been listening to our local health officials' guidance and the wisdom of our own Medical Advisory Group. We are willing and prepared to move back to only live-streaming services if we are encouraged to do so by these experts. Currently, we believe that the parking deck services are still the safest way for our church family to meet, and we have no plans to move back to our Avondale sanctuary at this time.

Third, we are always looking for better ways to prevent the spread of COVID among attendees to our services. As local regulations stipulate, we will continue to require the use of face masks and social distancing at the parking deck. We have also proactively modified our event management procedures to better protect our attendees, volunteers, and staff. If you have comments or suggestions on how we could do things better, please let us know.

Lastly, if you or another Redeemer member is experiencing health issues or other significant hardships due to COVID-19, we would love to know how we can help. The church has set aside funds and has a team in place to help as needs are identified. Please send a message to our COVID Care Team to let us know.

In all of this, we encourage you to maintain or restart the regular rhythms of Sabbath worship. While many of you cannot attend the parking deck services due to a variety of reasons, we encourage you to set aside the 10 AM live-stream as a regular time to worship, pray, and be filled by the Word.

Blessings,

The Senior Pastor Team

Joel Brooks
Lead Pastor

Josh Hausen
Executive Pastor

Jeff Heine
Shepherding Pastor

New Staff Members

Redeemer Church Family,

At the start of the year, we announced the search for two new positions on Redeemer's staff. The first was a Care Ministry Director who would coordinate care for our covenant members, especially during times of crisis. The second was a Communications Director who would address new and existing communications challenges as our church family continues to grow.

Little did we know that we would be conducting our interviews and welcoming new staff members during a global health crisis.

Though recent events made the process different than what we had expected, we are thrilled to announce that both roles have been filled, and we're excited to introduce them to you today.

---

Michael Coggin, Care Ministry Director
Michael, his wife Sherry, and their four kids will be joining us from Hendersonville, North Carolina, where Michael has been serving on the pastoral staff at Grace Blue Ridge Church since 2015. Additionally, Michael and Sherry have helped start church-based counseling centers in St. Louis and Hendersonville. 

Michael has been working in pastoral care and counseling since 1995. He earned his Master of Counseling in 2000 and his Master of Divinity in 2002 from Covenant Theological Seminary. Sherry has been counseling since 1998 and also earned a Master of Counseling degree from Covenant Theological Seminary in 2000.

As a pastor and counselor, Michael has worked with a wide range of issues, including marriage, family, anxiety, depression, conflict resolution, emotional, sexual and physical abuse, and sexual addiction. 

Please join the staff and elders in praising God for His guidance in this hiring process, and for bringing Michael and his family to Redeemer. Also, we ask that you be in prayer for the Coggin family as they adjust to life in Birmingham.

To learn more about Redeemer's Care Ministry, you can listen to the audio from our November 2019 gathering with Julie Sparkman, a local counselor, here.

---

Jonathan Haas, Communications Director
Jonathan, his wife Stephanie, and their two kids have been members at Redeemer since 2014. Even if you don't know them, you have probably been recipients of their ministry to the church, since Jonathan and Stephanie have been the deacons over Common Meal for the last 5 years. In 2017, they began leading a Home Group from their home in Crestwood.

After graduating from Samford University in 2010, Jonathan directed the marketing and communications efforts for a local architecture firm. Stephanie currently works as a nurse practitioner at Christ Health Center in Woodlawn. 

As with Michael, please join the staff and elders in praising God for His guidance in this hiring process. 

---

May the Lord give you a deep and abiding hope in Him, and may He cultivate in each of us compassionate hearts to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Blessings,

The Senior Pastor Team

Joel Brooks
Lead Pastor

Josh Hausen
Executive Pastor

Jeff Heine
Shepherding Pastor

Revival Prayer Service with Urban Hope Community Church

Redeemer is partnering with Urban Hope Community Church as they gather on July 11th in the heart of Fairfield to pray for revival in our city and our nation. Alton Hardy, Urban Hope's Senior Pastor, met with Joel at their future facility this week to discuss the upcoming gathering. If you missed the video, you can find it here.

Saturday, July 11th
9:00 – 11:00 AM
Urban Hope Community Church
4708 Gary Avenue, Fairfield, AL 35064

If you hope to attend, please RSVP.

Gathering Update

Redeemer Church Family, 

As you are likely aware, there are have been some new guidelines issued on both the federal and state levels regarding current COVID-19 restrictions. At this time, none of those updates permit us to make changes to our suspended weekly church gatherings. 

While all of the pastors and staff are eager to resume our Sunday services and Home Groups, the recommendations from health officials do not make that possible. For the foreseeable future, we will continue offering connecting points via streaming and online meetings.

Although this is not the preference of Redeemer leadership, our highest priorities must always be our love for God and love for our neighbor. More often than not, loving our neighbors requires sacrifice. During this global pandemic, loving our neighbors means looking out for the vulnerable among us, and thinking beyond ourselves and our preferences. 

Our church family has not been untouched by this pandemic. Not only are there many in our community hurting economically and relationally, but we have also had Redeemer members battling the COVID-19 virus throughout the past eight weeks. We thank God that those members are either fully recovered or on their way to full recovery.

While there are many unknowns at this time, here are two things we can say about the coming months. 

First, we will likely be resuming our church gatherings (Sunday services, Home Groups, bible studies, etc.) in phases. Probably smaller groups first and then phasing into larger crowds as it is reasonable and advisable to do so. 

Secondly, we know that no timeline will be satisfying. God created us for community -- a community ransomed and redeemed in Christ, our Lord. Our contact with one another during these times is both limited and found wanting. 

In closing, I want to turn our attention to a scripture that has recently been on my mind, 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2. Here, the Apostle Paul writes to a congregation of new Christians whom he has been forced to leave behind, saying in verse 17, 

But since we were torn away from you, brothers and sisters, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face...

While we, too, with great desire, long to see one another face to face again, we must remember that we are separated, "in person not in heart."  Let us not forget that we are united in Christ by the present and ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. Because we are bound to Christ, we are inseparably bound to one another. We are torn away in person, but not in heart. For the Lord has given us one heart, and a new spirit He has put within us. (Ezekiel 11:19).

We will continue to keep you updated as new information is announced and new guidelines are developed. May the Lord use this time for our sanctification in Christ. And may we grow in Him in both His patience and His peace. 

Blessings,

Jeff Heine, on behalf of the Senior Pastor Team