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Spotlight: The Doris Building

The historic and beautiful Doris Building is home not only to the Redemption Church family, but also serves as a bridge to the local community as an event facility that the public can access for their special occasions. We don’t just want to be an empty storefront during the week with a presence in the vibrant downtown Augusta community on Sunday mornings. While utilizing our space as a rental facility provides additional income that helps to cover the expenses of owning a building, the primary focus of using our building in this manner is to be a good neighbor to other businesses by bringing more people downtown to events.

The process to reserve a date at the building starts digitally, with a visit to thedorisbuilding.com.
There, interested parties can find pricing, event rules, available dates and a form to fill out to schedule a building tour.

After a prospective client tours the building, a rental agreement (or contract) is drafted and a deposit is paid to hold the date. So far, the Doris Building has been host to over 20 events, including spoken word poetry slams, fundraisers, birthday parties and fashion shows. We have also partnered with Augusta Sports Council and Arts in the Heart for some of their events.

We look forward to a busy spring schedule, with four community events already booked for March and the Augusta Handmade Fair coming the first weekend in May. Visit the Doris Building website or email info@thedorisbuilding.com for more information about our facility.

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Spotlight: Downtown Augusta

It is not by accident that Redemption Church is located on Broad Street. Since our beginning we have had a heart to spread the gospel to those who live, work, and play in downtown Augusta. That is why we jumped at the opportunity to have a permanent location in The Doris Building a couple of years ago. We love it here, and we want to be a blessing to this neighborhood very intentionally and in very tangible ways.

There have been a lot of really great developments lately toward continuing to make downtown a fun destination for locals and out of town guests. So this week I thought it would be helpful to share a few ways to stay connected to what is happening, support the businesses and organizations that are making it all happen, and to show up to bless our city.

 

5 Downtown Augusta Resources:

 

Downtown Development Authority

Visit the DDA website for a video that highlights some the great places and things that downtown has to offer. While you are there look around the site to become more informed about the direction we are headed.

Support Downtown Augusta

Claire Riche, my wife, operates these Facebook and Instagram accounts that are geared toward encouraging locals to spend time and money downtown. There are a lot of businesses that have planted in downtown because they want to see it thrive, and they hope to serve toward that end. They could use our support. Support Downtown Augusta highlights special events, restaurants, shops, art galleries and much more throughout the week. Follow them for great date ideas, gift ideas, or to even to connect with service opportunities.

Operation Clean City

After a weekend of nightlife there is often a good bit of trash blown through the streets that leaves the area looking less than desirable. Operation Clean City meets regularly, often on Sunday mornings before church services begin, to clean up the mess. This is a great way to meet people in the area and serve the city and our neighbors in a very tangible way. Follow them on Facebook and on Twitter

Downtown Lowdown

This Facebook group allows downtown businesses and stakeholders to post their events and news to the page. It is a great way to hear about all the new developments and events that are taking place.

Westobou

Westobou is an excellent addition to the downtown scene. They are terrific neighbors and advocates for making our city a truly great place to live and visit. The festival that they put together every year brings amazing talent to our area, but they also have a home office and gallery on Broad Street that you can usually visit during the day to check out their featured artists. Visit their website for more information on the festival and upcoming galleries. They also put together a monthly list of 10 things to do each month that they publish on their Facebook page and Twitter feed.

 

This is by no means an exhaustive list of resources. However, I am sure that many of these will lead you to connect to other great resources.  If you know of something that is worth taking a look at feel free to leave a comment. Downtown is really a fun place with a wide variety of people. Get out, get involved, get to know people and find a way that you can support and bless downtown Augusta.

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Spotlight: Reflections on 2016 and into 2017

I am thankful for 2016. I’m not sure I’ve said that enough, but a lot of truly great things happened around Redemption Church last year. There have been salvations, baptisms, new members, new missional communities, new ministries, and new leaders who have stepped forward. We sent a team to Sojourn Uganda on a mission trip, and we’ve had two successful fundraisers to help support their ministry. The Doris Building has hosted several events which is opening doors for us bless and engage more with the downtown community. Certainly, a very lengthy post about all that we have been able to celebrate this year could be written, but the most remarkable parts of 2016 at Redemption Church are best highlighted by the prayers that we prayed together.

Over the course of the year we paused during our Sunday services to pray together that God would use us to see the gospel advance in Augusta, GA. We prayed some specific prayers about how we would like to see God work in us and through us.

We prayed:

  • That God would bring salvation to 100 people through our ministry
  • That God would lead us into diversity
  • That God would raise up leaders
  • That God would use our missional communities as a place for discipleship
  • That God would replicate our missional communities to create opportunities to lead people to Jesus who lead people to Jesus

In 2016 we saw salvation, we became a little more diverse, we saw new leaders step up, we saw missional communities press into discipleship and replicate. God has answered our prayers tangibly. Although almost none of it looked like we would have expected, I am more convinced than ever that we can ask our Father for anything our hearts desire, and the good news is that He will use our request to shape us for His glory and our joy.

Honestly, some of those prayers were hard to pray at first. It felt really odd to ask God to reach 100 people through our church of about the same number. In the back of my mind there was always a measure of unbelief. As we pushed forward, each time I prayed for 100 people to be saved I had to begin wrapping a prayer around it for my heart’s unbelief. Eventually, as we were faithful to pray together week in and week out, we saw people come to know Jesus. We didn’t reach 100 people, but as we’ve prayed I’ve seen the heart of Redemption Church grow more eager to spread the gospel.

As we prayed to be used by God to see His kingdom advance in our city, and as we have been making our way through the Gospel of Matthew, we have started talking a lot more about what it means to be a disciple. We defined disciple as “one who is increasingly submitting all of life to the empowering presence and Lordship of Jesus Christ.” We started talking more about what it means to submit “all of life” to Jesus in this way. How do we submit our singleness or marriage to Christ? How do we submit our work to Christ? How do we submit our homes to Christ? How do we submit our finances to Christ?

As we have been praying those prayers and asking those questions together on Sundays, in missional communities, and in DNA’s, there is evidence that God is shaping our hearts to follow hard after Jesus and to lead others to Him. Because of that, I’ve never started a year at Redemption Church with the excitement that I have as we begin 2017. I hope you’re excited too and will engage with us in three challenges.

3 things for 2017:

  1. We must continue to pray together. We must pray for salvation, diversity, leaders, missional communities, and DNA’s. As we pray this year, I believe, our hands will get a little dirtier as we devote ourselves to the gospel, community, and mission.  See, I’ve come to realize that there is no way around messy in the ministry of reconciliation to which we have been called; it was this ministry that took Jesus to the cross. It’s messy, but is a indescribably beautiful.
  2. We must radically dedicate ourselves to “increasingly submitting all of life to the empowering presence and Lordship of Jesus Christ.” This can be a dirty work because we all have mess that needs dealing with, and it isn’t always fun to let others help bring the gospel to bear in our lives; it can hurt. However, it’s a good work because as we learn by God’s grace to lean into the mess of each other’s brokenness with the gospel we will experience the beauty of redemption.
  3. We must radically dedicate ourselves to identifying and reaching outsiders with the love of Jesus. Truly, to take the gospel to people that nobody else is reaching we have to go to people that nobody else is going to. We have to be a church that goes to the would-be outsiders and brings the gospel to bear on the brokenness and injustices of this world; it’s a work that can get messy. This too may put us at odds with each other, but I remain convinced that when we lean into the tension, the conflict, the mess, and look to Jesus, we will see the beauty of redemption at work and see the gospel advance in ways we haven’t imagined.

 

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Spotlight: Redemption Women Gears Up for Another Year

One of the most exciting new developments in the life of Redemption Church last year was the launch of our women’s ministry, Redemption Women.

Redemption Women hosts monthly gatherings—usually each third Thursday at the Doris Building—to offer ladies an opportunity for deeper church-wide fellowship and discipleship.

“Women need each other. I believe God wired us to need all kinds of relationships, and female friendships are one of them,” said Holly Love, founder and co-leader. “There’s a feeling you get when you’ve had fellowship with others that’s hard to explain. It’s like a little bit of your soul got filled up.”

When you ask today’s busy, tired, and overworked women the one area of life they wish they could improve, the most common answer is their involvement at church. Research by Barna Group indicates that a majority of Christian women crave deeper relationships and more emotional support among their congregations.

“It’s really important for Christian women of all ages and stages of life to be able to come together and be encouraged by one another,” said Claire Riche, who also co-leads the ministry alongside Holly, Tiffany Snow, and Kelly Skelley. “I have loved seeing this group of women as diverse as we are come together as one unified body.”

Holly felt God calling her to launch the ministry not long after moving from San Antonio to Augusta. Interest from fellow women and her co-leaders led her to begin planning meetings over the summer and official gatherings starting in September.

Each Redemption Women gathering includes a meal or snack, a short presentation or discussion, and an activity. The group has brainstormed ideas to highlight and serve the range of interests among them, and so far has swapped recipes for favorite soups, tried their hands at seasonal crafts, and started an inaugural Christmas Tea.

This month’s event, scheduled for January 19 at 7 p.m., will be a pajama party and coloring night. (Women at Redemption can chat with one of the leaders or click to join our Facebook Group for updates on all Redemption Women happenings.)

The co-leaders recognize the stereotypical downfalls of women’s ministry—that it could turn cliquish or exclusive—and are actively working to infuse a sense of openness and togetherness. In an earlier blog post, Holly introduced the four major principles guiding Redemption Women: inclusiveness, fellowship, teaching, and outreach.

Titus 2 encourages women to raise up one other in the Lord. “They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women” (Titus 2:3-4).

“My biggest hope for Redemption Women is that it provides a safe and welcoming place for women of all ages, backgrounds, and experiences to come together and experience the warmth of each other’s company and the love of God,” said Holly.

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Spotlight: Redemption Women

Redemption Women is just a couple of months up and running, and it has already been a lot of fun. Just this week we hosted a Christmas Tea that was an excellent time of fun and fellowship. While there will be many future events and activities, lets take a moment to highlight the goals behind Redemption Women.

As a ministry of Redemption Church, our ultimate hope for Redemption Women is that it will be an avenue for leading women to Jesus who lead others to Jesus. Missional Communities, DNA’s, serving, and worshiping together are mutually beneficial and important for our whole community. With that in mind, we also feel that there is value in creating space for women to minister to and with each other as we continue to participate in the body of Christ. That is the space Redemption Women hopes to fill. 

Four Values of Redemption Women:

  1. Inclusiveness – Everyone wants to feel included, welcomed, and like they belong somewhere. Therefore, we want to create an atmosphere of acceptance and inclusiveness; a place where everyone is important and known. We endeavor to accomplish this by looking at each woman who attends Redemption Women as Jesus does; Seeing them as special, unique, and worthy.
  2. Fellowship – Our fellowship helps shape us, and that makes it a significant part of our lives as Christians. So we want to help facilitate friendships that invite and incite joint participation in each other’s lives as we grow and learn together.  God uses Christian fellowship to make us more like Him.
  3. Teaching – We want to be intentional about bringing the gospel to bear in the lives of women. To that end, we will have speakers and teachers share periodically who can help shine a light on how Jesus impacts women and uses women to spread His fame.
  4. Outreach – There are two ways in which Redemption Women hopes to reach out to the community. First of all, we hope to create an environment where women feel comfortable inviting their friends, neighbors, and family members. Secondly, we desire to touch the lives of women downtown and in our area through mission projects and opportunities.

Want to get involved, learn more, or know what’s coming up? Contact women@redemptionchurchga.com for more information.