Year End Celebration 2022: Pastor's Address

As I reflect upon the last year, and look toward the next, I am struck by the growth in love that I have seen. I have seen you all grow in your depth of love for one another. I have also seen you grow in your breadth of love for one another, as we welcome new visitors, new members, and new children. And most of all, I have seen you grow in your love of Jesus. And as we move into our second year of ministry, I would like to challenge you all to continue to love our growing family.

Love We have seen a lot of growth in our first year in Lawrenceville - and we’ll talk about that quite a bit tonight. But I anticipate, and we are planning for even more growth in year two. But I know that with growth comes change. We’ll have new people, new events, new rhythms, and even a new worship space! And with all the change, we may be tempted to become self protective, and close ourselves off from new people and new avenues of ministry. Redeemer has been an intimate church community for a number of years now - but even still, when I talk to folks after they visit, everyone always talks about how warm and welcoming this community is. And so my challenge to you is to keep it up, even as we grow and change. The call of the Christian, and the command of Christ is to love one another. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34—35). The best way to witness to the world is by our love for one another. The best way to walk in faithfulness to the commands of Jesus, is to love one another. The best way to strengthen the culture of Redeemer Church, is to love one another. So, as we welcome new faces into our community this next year, make every effort to Learn people’s names. Invest your time in them. Share meals with them. Open your hearts to their needs, and show them the love of Jesus.

Growth Nobody can deny that our church is growing. More and more we are seeing new people walk through our doors, and they join us in proclaiming the glories of Jesus Christ. It’s exciting! Many here tonight are new this year! But let’s remember to grow well. Growth in and of itself is not a benefit to the kingdom of God. We must grow well. So I’m calling on you all to join me in praying for our growing church - that each of us would commit to growing this year in our love for one another, and our love for Christ. We want to grow in depth of faith - not just in numbers. And what that is going to take is keeping our eye on the prize, which is Christ himself. What that is going to take is living into our vision of being a community where the gospel grounds who we are and where the gospel directs what we do.

God has answered many of my prayers already in this first year. One of those prayers was to see leaders raised up within our ranks to take on the mantle of ministry. And in response, we celebrated as Kenneth Medina pursued formal instruction to be a catechist in our church - helping us develop and deliver our first round of catechesis just a few weeks ago. God raised up Brian Davidson and Brandon Garrett to form alongside me a preaching team. I know you all just love hearing my voice week in and week out, but the truth is that God has bestowed his grace and wisdom and gift of teaching to others besides myself! And we are and will continue to be blessed by their study and proclamation of Scripture.

It has been exciting to see the growth and progress that the Lord has blessed us with over this past year. But as we continue into the next year, join me in my prayer that we would grow this church well.

Family Finally, my prayer is that we would continue to grow as the family of God. Ephesians 2:19 says So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. When someone joins our church; whether that’s an adult who just moved to town, or a baby born into our covenantal community, we recognize that they are our brothers and sisters. They are an important part of our lives, and they are people that we will spend eternity with. Here’s the challenge: Put on the eyes of Jesus every time you come to church. See the person across the room from you as worthy of love, and in need of care. See each new person who arrives, as a gift that God is giving you, like the gift of a new sibling. One of the great strengths of this community is our deep familial love, and my prayer is that we would continue to grow in this gift and invite others into the loving family God has started at Redeemer.

These are my hopes and prayers as we head into year 2.

I love you all dearly, I am honored to be your pastor, and I look forward to another year with you.