The Redemption Blog

 "Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!"

-1 Chronicles 16:34 (ESV)

With the Thanksgiving holiday upon us, it is a great time to stop and recognize the evidence of God's grace in our lives. Here are 8 things I'm thankful for right now:

1. The Gospel

I'm thankful Jesus gave His perfect life in my place.

2. My Wife

I'm thankful God has blessed me with Tami who fills my life with joy and makes me a better Christian, husband, daddy and pastor.

3. My Kids

I'm thankful for how Ava has blessed and stretched us and ultimately taught me far more about God. I also can't wait to meet my new baby in May!

4. RBC Leaders

I'm thankful I get to serve in the mission of Jesus with some of my closest friends and so many people who make my job a joy.

5. Growth at Redemption

We have seen tremendous growth in both health and numbers at Redemption and I continue to be amazed at God's work here.

6. Gospel Transformation

It seems that each week I have a front row seat from which to watch the Gospel drop in people's hearts

7. Acts 29

This network has served us well and been a source of great brotherhood, encouragement and challenge.

8. RBC Volunteers

We have an amazing group of people who serve faithfully each week in various ways and we couldn't do this without them.

My list could go on and on, but I would really like to hear what your thankful for.  Where do you see evidence of God's grace in your life?

Click here to join the conversation...

A Note from Ryan...

Each week I tell you guys what's going on at Redemption and how things are going, but this week I want to let you read what someone else is saying about Redemption. The following post is from a blog called "Theologically Blonde" authored by Sarah Cathey.  Sarah is working on her Masters of Divinity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity school in Deerfield and has been attending RBC for the past 3 weeks.

What follows is her post following her first visit to Redemption. 

church, Church, body, bride...

I’m starting to fall in love.

Sorry for those of you who just got excited for some juicy romantic gossip, I’m about to disappoint you by telling you it’s with a church. In a previous post I mentioned the elusive Acts 29 church plant*. Well, it does, in fact, exist. And it’s awesome.

For the first few weeks here at school I sat in pews of new churches and felt empty, lost. When you leave an amazing church, and you’re trying to find a new one that compares, it’s like thinking back on a past lover: you forget all the bad things and feel overwhelmingly nostalgic about the good. And going on first dates with new churches can be like bad first dates in real life. You’re 5 minutes in and you know you aren’t meant to be together, but you have to stick it out.

I went to Redemption Bible sort of by accident. Every Sunday I had in my mind that I was going to visit some other church, but circumstances led me to tag along with some guys to this “new Acts 29 church plant”, whatever that was.

Honestly, I didn’t think I’d like it let alone ever go back. But as I sat in the dim light of the an old theater, I heard the GOSPEL preached, and all I could think about was how I’d love to invite my non-christian friends to this church… and I knew this whacky rockbandplayinghymnsandpastorwearingjeansandchucks church was the one.

At first I thought it was good because it wasn’t about ME or my agenda. I threw out the nitpicky checklist of things that make a good church. It was what it was. And I would love to go out and invite people who needed Jesus to come and check it out.

Then after spending time eating with and fellowshipping (is that even a word?) with the people there, and being stalked by those same people on twitter, facebook and email, and having coffee with the pastor, and being invited to community group… I realized that yes, it was about me. It was about something I can be a part of: a body. We are all one body and to be able not just to meet on Sunday mornings and worship together, but to “break bread” together, share a meal, incessantly @reply on twitter, etc… that is what counts. I can be loved on and love back. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

It was that sense of community and love for one another that made me fall in love with this particular church, and reignited my romance with THE Church. Yes, I love the Church, because Paul tells us the Christ loved the Church as His bride, and “gave Himself up for her”. THIS IS HUGE. I don’t even know the depth of this analogy, given I am outside of a marriage relationship, but I know to feel this love for something so dear to Christ Himself is to bring glory to the Son of God.

And just like I won’t find the perfect man, I won’t find the perfect church… but I will find the perfect church (and hopefully someday the perfect man) for me.

And if you find the perfect church, please let me know so I can stay far, far away.

I was humbled to say the least when I read this post. To all of you involved with Redemption at any level, let this serve as a blessing and a reminder that Jesus is at work in our church.  Thanks to Sarah for her gracious words and for joining our family.

Find Sarah's blog here...
Follow Sarah on twitter here...
Friend Sarah on facebook here...

Reflection...

We have so much to be thankful for as a church family.  I wanted to share a couple things I'm celebrating after our first vision gathering at Cutting Hall yesterday.

1.  The Gospel
The gospel is the central factor in all else I'm thankful for.  I'm thankful to see the gospel at work in my life, in your lives, in our community, in our preaching, and in our music.  I'm thankful that we serve a King who gave His life in our place and for our sin, so that we could be restored, set free, healed, redeemed, and commissioned.

2.  Our Team
I'm constantly humbled by the people God has surrounded me with.  We have the most amazing group and I'm in awe of how hard everyone works and how much everyone desires to grow and glorify God. God has greatly gifted our team and I can't wait to see what He has planned.

3.  The Invites
I had been praying all week that we would have 50 people gather with us yesterday and we had 51!!  So many people brought friends and I'm thankful to you for that.

4.  Answer to Prayer
I had friends that gathered with us yesterday that I have been praying for and I continue to be in awe of how God truly answers prayer.  He can turn the hardest heart and use the most broken of vessels.

5.  Our Guests
I love the fact that we had lots of people yesterday that don't really know what they believe about God.  We had lost people that gathered with us and clearly heard about sin, grace, redemption, and Jesus vision for their lives and ours.

6. Our Venue
I love Cutting Hall!  God has so blessed us with not only a functional space, but a sweet space!  Plus, it's called Cutting Hall and how tough does that sound?  It sounds like we should hold cage matches there after our services.  Maybe we should think about that...

God has great things for Redemption and I am thankful to be along for the ride!

What are you thankful for?

Posted by Ryan Huguley
Lead Pastor for Preaching and Vision

Attitude

Spending a week away from my wife with a bunch of Jr High kids did not sound very appealing to me. In fact, I was not looking forward to it. But God showed me again how he is soverign and how he can change anyones heart. I spent this past week in Michigan leading worship and being a councelor at a Jr High summer camp. I started the week with a poor attitude and a desire for the week to end quickly. Thankfully, in spite of me, God changed my heart and my attitude. I was able to encourage and teach a group of boys to make Jesus their cheif affection and to endure their whole lives despite the suffering they will encounter. What I thought would be a painful week with smelly Jr Highers turned out to be an encouraging lesson in always playing your role well, even if your role us not glamorous. I'm continued to be graciously humbled by God and shown how much I need him!

On the Cusp...

It seems I can’t help but see evidence of God’s grace everywhere I turn these days.

Yesterday I had another such moment.

We had our first sound check at Cutting Hall and we were all nervous to say the least.  The big test was whether or not their system could handle the God-glorifying, face-melting, cross-centered, gospel-saturated music Scott and the boys will bring each week.

The good news is that it definetly will!  

If there had been issues with it, it would have cost us thousands of dollars to rethink how we would launch. But, praise God it sounded amazing!!

Each time I go and stand in the balcony of Cutting Hall I have this moment where I catch a vivid glimpse of hundreds of people coming face to face with the God who loves them.  With one heart, one mind, and one voice, they praise the God who gave His life, in their place and for their sin.

Friends, this is what we stand on the cusp of.

Gospel transformation...

Gospel community...

Gospel mission...

Next Sunday, July 19 from 9:45-11:15 we have our first of two vision gatherings at Cutting Hall and you need to be there.  Cancel plans, postpone trips, do whatever it takes to gather with us.  I want you to get a glimpse of what I see.  I want you to hear about what God wants to do through the small group of misfits He has chosen to plant Redemption.

I can’t wait for you to see what I see!

iPhone pics from the sound check

Cutting Hall Directions

Posted by Ryan Huguley
Lead Pastor for Preaching and Vision

Milestones

Milestone
def : a significant point in development

I have this tendency to get sucked in to what ever is happening right in front of me, to the point that I miss all God has done up until that point.  When I do this I lose perspective and fail to put my current circumstances into the context of God's larger plan.  Maybe you can relate...

When we lose perspective we lose hope.  When we lose perspective we lose faith.  When we lose perspective we doubt God.

This is what makes milestones so important. 

When we remember milestones we remain hopeful.  When we remember milestones we remain motivated. When we remember milestones we are identifying evidence of God's grace in our lives.

I was thinking of some milestones we have already experienced at Redemption.

• Redemption was established as a legal entity
• Redemption website, blog, twitter and facebook launched
• Redemption began core group gatherings
• Redemption was approved for the Acts 29 network
• Redemption has seen over $40,000.00 in giving in 2009
• Redemption's core group continues to grow and experience favor
• Redemption has identified a facility to launch in beginning in September

This is just a few of the things we are seeing God do and He is working in your life just like He is working in the life of our church family.

Where are the milestones in your relationship with Jesus, your marriage, your family, or your vocation?

Pray God would help you grow in the discipline of identifying the evidences of His grace.  Pray God would help you remember the milestones He has led you through, so you maintain hope for all He will lead you through in the future.

Posted by Ryan Huguley
Lead Pastor for Preaching and Vision

A Pastor Who Loves...

It is a rare opportunity to spend time with a guy who planted a church over 20 years ago and has seen Jesus grow it well over 10,000 people over four campuses with a fifth on the way.  By God’s grace, I have been blessed with this opportunity in spending time with Pastor James MacDonald of Harvest Bible Chapel and I wanted to share what I have seen of him:

1.  A Pastor who loves God’s Word
I have heard the Harvest staff say time again that no other Pastor works harder in study and sermon preparation.  He never phones it in and after 20 years is taking a sabbatical primarily to study apart from sermon prep.

2.  A Pastor who loves his people
Last Saturday as I sat with Pastor James during the service he pointed out person after person and preceded to tell me the story of how Jesus saved them and brought them to Harvest. To live with the level of complexity he does and still be so engaged in the lives of the people at Harvest is inspiring and challenging.

3.  A Pastor who loves excellence
Nothing is done halfway and nothing is done if it cannot be done well.  Perfection is not the value, but offering God our best because He is worthy of it, is. 

4.  A Pastor who loves to invest in his people
I have been blessed since my days at Northwest Family Church, to have guys who were willing to pour their own lives into mine, and Pastor James has done the same.  He invests time, energy, and prayer into his staff and congregation. 

I want to thank Pastor James for his encouragement, example and wisdom.  My prayer is that the investment he has made would run deep and that I would be able to follow his example, by God’s grace, and give the next 40 years of my life to Redemption.  For the glory of God and the good of our city...

Posted by Ryan Huguley
Lead Pastor for Preaching and Vision

Can You?

It is testifying to us.

    Can you hear it?

It is everywhere we look.

    Can you see it?

It is all around us.

    Can you feel it?

It is the evidence of God's grace.

Do you ever find yourself questioning the goodness of God, or maybe wondering if He's really there and really cares? I have had those days. I have had those days where you wonder if God will really come through and really provide.  I was having one of those days yesterday.

Tami and I went and met with the mortgage broker yesterday to finish up a few things with our new home loan and were faced with the reality of how overwhelming and expensive it truly is to buy a house.  We both had that feeling of "How in the world will we pay for this?" "Is God going to provide for us?"

In the midst of these feelings of doubt and worry I received a call from a friend asking me to stop by and see him at work. When I arrived at his office he handed me a check made out to Redemption for over $2,000! This is evidence of God's grace. In this act God was reminding me that He was in control and that our only responsibility was to trust him.

I don't know where you are today and what your going through? I don't know in what areas you are struggling to trust God, but know that God is good and He will provide. Ask that He would open your ears to hear, your eyes to see and your heart to receive the evidence of His grace that is all around us.

Philippians 4:19 (ESV)
"And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

True Evidence of God's Grace

It was a sad day in the Huguley house when my coffee maker broke last week, but once again God has provided!! Thank God for Birthday money because now I'm blessed to pour coffee from this beautiful work of God each day...all at the push of a button!

It was a long week last week, but now all is well! 

Thank You...

By far, the clearest evidence of God's grace in my life is the fact that He saw fit to bless me with the wife that He did.  When God looked at Adam in Genesis 2:18 He said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."  All men everywhere should answer with a hearty "AMEN" to this verse. 

Tami has been and is my closest friend, greatest support, amazing wife and also an incredible helper to me.  One of the things that I love in Tami is how she knows just how to speak into my life.  Whether it be encouragement or to challenge me and tell me to "man up", God gives her the the discernment to know how and when to speak into my life. 

We had a conversation recently where she very lovingly and respectfully told me that I need to do a better job at following through with things I commit to.  My brain goes a mile a minute and I'm tend to say "yes" to and commit to more things than I can remember to do.  It is not the first time I have been told this, but there is something different about hearing it from her.  God spoke through her and challenged me in that moment.

What I appreciate about Tami is HOW she goes about helping me with this stuff:

1.  Her goal is to help me become a better Christian, husband, father and pastor

2.  Her tone is always sincere and respectful (1 Peter 3:1-2)

3.  Her timing tends to be God's timing

Because of this approach Tami helps me in these areas.  I feel increasingly blessed when I'm out and about and observe the wives other men have.  In defense of the wives, I firmly believe that there are a lot of disengaged and deadbeat husbands and also on the other end of the spectrum there are domineering and disrespectful husbands in our culture and in our churches.  Unfortunately, this causes many wives to react in one of three ways:

1.  They say nothing to their husbands about anything because they do not think their husbands listen, probably because they often do not  (which is wrong and is not loving on behalf of us as husbands)

2.  They say nothing to their husbands about anything because their husbands are so domineering they are not given a voice (which is also wrong and sin on behalf of us as husbands)

3.  They say things in a way that comes off as disrespectful or nagging (which is wrong because God has called on wives to be respectful and to help their husbands be more like Jesus)

What I appreciate about Tami and where I see evidence of God's grace in her life is that if I'm being an idiot, as my helper she finds a way to help me see that without being nagging or disrespectful.  This is no small task and I've had a front row seat in watching God work this transformation in her life more and more.  Because of this God has continued to grow me through her in so many ways.

In short, thank you God for giving me an amazing wife and thank you Tam for obeying God and helping me be more like Him!