What next for Redeemer?

A Pastoral Letter from David Armstrong & the Senior Leadership Team

Redeemer Family,

I hope this finds you well and enjoying some of this better June weather.

I’d like to talk to you about what is next for us in Redeemer Central. The year 2020 marked a decade for our community since we started in living rooms and music venues around 2010. Much has happened in those 10 years and we give thanks to God for what he has done and how he has helped establish this church in the heart of a new and emerging Belfast.

We have and continue to see many wonderful opportunities to love and serve our city as we form a community that practices the way of Jesus. It has not all been plain sailing of course and 2020 in particular brought about one of our biggest challenges. COVID-19 and the resulting lockdowns in Northern Ireland caused us— along with virtually every other community group — to be scattered and disconnected from one another which has not been easy.

“Though the seasons change, your love remains”

However, in a strange and difficult way this year has perhaps helped us by what it has revealed to us. It has slowed us down to take stock of life and pay attention. It has revealed to many of us what is really important in life… our hopes and fears, our values, our priorities and commitments. This is also true of church life. The past year has given us leaders a moment to catch our breath and reflect. This time has revealed things in church life that demand our attention if we are to move forward healthy and strong together.

What has been revealed by this year of pandemic and what can we learn?
How has the 10 years of Redeemer been so far? What can we learn?
What patterns, habits and observations about Redeemer’s culture should we pay attention to?
Are there ways we need to change in order to build better?
What is God saying to us about the future of Redeemer?
What does Redeemer look like in 10 years from now?
How does the Christ-story inform our next steps?

There are lots of other questions — both conceptual and practical — and I know many of you have been thinking on these kinds of questions too. This is why I am writing to you today. As I and our Senior Leadership Team have reflected we have felt strongly that we need to invite you all, the whole church family, into this important conversation so that we can listen and learn.

Church as Family

The New Testament uses the image of family (Eph 2:18-22, Heb 2:11-12) to describe the essence of church community. It is a rich, beautiful metaphor. Families aren’t perfect, but they work best when they are committed in love and in hoping for the best for one another.

We, Redeemer, are a family and yet at times we don’t always communicate like a family. Families don’t tend to share important family news by email. Families sit down and talk and listen and have conversation. A value in Redeemer that we still hold is acknowledging and allowing the people God has entrusted to lead a community forward. We’ve held this value throughout our 10 years as faithfully as we could and this is a really good thing. But in those 10 years we’ve never really gathered the church family together for church conversation. We’ve all been doing church but never had the forum to take a step back and discuss how we are doing church and if it is serving us well. We think that needs to change. And now is an ideal time to do that. As we come out of lockdown we need a reset before we restart church life again. We think there is a way to build better and healthier and over the next number of months we want to begin opening up conversation and inviting feedback from our whole church family so we listen, learn and hopefully build better going forward into a new season and set ourselves up for the next 10 years as a church.

So, how are we going to do this? The next steps are at the end of this email. Before that, however, there are a number of updates that need to be shared now and I trust you receive these in a spirit of grace, openness and transparency.

Leadership & Staff

The first updates relate to our leadership and staff teams. As I have said already, the past year has given us leaders space to reflect on the Redeemer journey so far and discern what God might be saying to us. This has been a helpful time for us and it has led to a few changes that are important to communicate.

Firstly, during recent months Ryan Hawthorne has felt it time to take a step back from church leadership for the next season of church life. Ryan has served faithfully as an elder since 2012 and been a constant presence on our Senior Leadership Team, as well as serving as a Director/Trustee and two spells on our Staff Team. He has contributed massively to the life of Redeemer in this time, and yet we recognise it is wise and good practice for those in church leadership to take time periodically to rest. Both myself and David Wylie have benefitted greatly from periods like this in recent years and we are so glad that Ryan will get time for this in the months ahead.

Ryan, Jude and the Hawthorne family are looking forward to enjoying a time of space and rest from the business of church life but hope to be around some Redeemer gatherings in the summer months. We are so thankful for the Hawthorne family and their contribution to Redeemer life. Please do remember them and be praying for them during this time; that it serves them well, that they enjoy rest and time to pray and discern what follows in the next season as a family.

Secondly, both Daniel Saunders and Stephanie Wilson have joined our staff team.

Daniel Saunders joins part time (8hrs/wk) to assist me in general leadership while also giving time to oversee our justice (garden) initiatives. This includes Farmbox — which continues to serve 14 families every week with fresh food — as well as Open Cinema and Lesser Heard. He is also looking for new opportunities that we might serve and love our city in these days post COVID and encouragingly there are some opportunities that have already sprung up.

One in particular is the opportunity to practice hospitality and welcome by hiring our venue to Anaka Women’s Collective — a group of women who use their collective skills to educate, support, advocate, and celebrate one other. Anaka is based in Belfast and is led, predominantly, by women who have direct experience of the asylum system. They aim to empower each other and foster community through a wide range of activities, such as community garden projects, weekly english classes, afro hairstyling workshops, a yoga group, online schooling, training in food production, cooking classes, peer-led advice and support, and a campaign for childcare provision during asylum interviews. Having looked for an easy, accessible, and safe space in the city, we are delighted to be able to host them at 101 weekly starting June 2021.

Dan is helping facilitate this relationship and — having worked in recent years for the Simon Community — his heart and passion for people on the margins of our society fuels a desire to see the church activated into mission and service on behalf of those in need.

Stephanie Wilson is joining as a part-time voluntary staff member (4hrs/wk) overseeing pastoral care in our community. Having recently retired from her career in the NHS, Stephanie has felt a strong desire to serve our community in this way. She cares deeply about people experiencing the love of God and the church stepping into it's calling as a place of true belonging and healing. In addition to this new staff commitment with pastoral care, Steph continues to serve the church through preaching and teaching at our Sunday Gatherings.

I am sure you, like me, will be delighted in welcoming Dan and Steph to these roles. They have already begun working alongside me and Megan Joyce and I know they will serve our community well.

Thirdly, I would like to take the opportunity now to honour and thank Megan Joyce. Last May, Megan joined me on staff in a part-time role as our Office & Venue Manager. In what has been a difficult and challenging year — and in addition to the weekly administrative responsibilities — Megan has served tirelessly during the week and on Sundays behind the scenes. As well as facilitating the filming of our livestreams, she has managed the return of safe and comfortable gatherings to our building. We are pleased our 101 venue has seen things pick up a lot since easter with various events and groups using the space weekly including the Anaka group (mentioned before), Springboard, and other private hires. Megan has great experience in the events industry and hopes to see 101 regularly used as a welcome and open venue for people in the city to use. She continues to manage and facilitate all of these events alongside the Redeemer focussed elements of her role. In short, we would have been lost without her and I want to express a massive thanks to her for all she has done over the past year.

I’m delighted she is continuing in the role and alongside Dan and Steph we look forward to serving our church community as best we can.

The Teams & Roles: Summary

In speaking about leadership and staff roles it feels right to share a summary of our teams and the roles within them. I know some of you have asked for clarity on this so, although brief, I hope this brings some clarity.

In summary we see our three teams like this;

Our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) lead the church spiritually
Our Directors Team govern/protect the church legally/financially
Our Staff Team run the church practically

The three teams are made up as follows:

Senior Leadership Team

David Armstrong (Elder)
Ryan Hawthorne (Elder) (sabbatical)
Daniel Saunders
Gillian Stewart
Stephanie Wilson
David Wylie (Elder)

Staff Team

David Armstrong (Team Leader) | Responsible for leading the SLT/Staff Teams, overseeing Preaching & Worship (FT)
Daniel Saunders - Responsible for overseeing Justice & Mission (PT)
Stephanie Wilson - Responsible for overseeing Pastoral Care (PT)
Megan Joyce - Office & Venue Manager (PT)

Directors

David Armstrong
Ryan Hawthorne
Ian Wasson
David Wylie

I am very thankful for all these men and women. They are some of the best people I know and faithfully serve and make sacrifices for the sake of the wider Redeemer community. They love Jesus and are passionate for the church to be a vibrant kingdom community that shares and brings the good news of the very good gospel to our city.

There is more to say about leadership and leadership culture in Redeemer and this will be a part of the family conversation going forward. It does not escape us that the same names appear in each of the three teams above. In some ways this is normal for a church or organisation our size. But it’s not ideal and perhaps not the strongest or healthiest. There are many others in our community who lead in various areas of church life alongside the teams we have mentioned. These wider leaders serve and lead in so many ways and are vital to our church functioning well. Our hope is that the three teams above might expand and grow as the church grows and we that we see people added and released to serve the church in their callings and gifting. This will form a part of our conversation together as we reflect upon ways we might lead better, and commit ourselves to being a family where everyone plays they part. We desire to see everyone in our church family mobilised to give, serve, lead, pray and play their important part in the body of Christ that we call Redeemer Central.

Re-emerging from Lockdown

What about church life in the next few months?

In general, we are steadily returning back to a ‘new normal’ post lockdown and as we do we’re all realising that this return is not a quick one-time thing, but a slower process of easing back in.

Between now and September — as we navigate our return — we see our task as simply regathering the community, creating safe environments and spaces where we can be together socially — enjoying each others presence — and, indeed, the presence of God with us. We continue to do this with Sunday Gatherings (and the summer teaching series The Very Good Gospel) and we are working to add more social components and gatherings over summer. We’ll share more on this over the next few weeks.

We hope that from September onwards we might be in a position to resume a fuller rhythm of church life again but we are committed to doing this in a safe and considered way. Please be praying for us as we consider the path forward that we would be steered not by our own inclinations or desires but by the guiding, active presence of God’s Spirit.

Serving our young people and families

In addition, briefly at this point, I feel it is important to mention how burdened we are about how we might serve our children, youth and families better going forward. The past few years have seen constant change in this area of church life and we acknowledge this isn’t ideal for our young people or the kind of church we would like to be for families. We’re exploring ways that we might do better in this area and hope this can feature as an important part of our family conversations going forward.

Opening the conversation

I hope this email has helped to provide some recent updates but we now want to begin a process of opening up conversation. We are beginning in the following two ways:

1) Family Conversation Night

We are hosting an evening of conversation for the whole church to come and listen, speak, share, pray, discern, ask questions and hear from our leaders. It’ll feel a bit like a town hall meeting or a church members meeting and will allow us to speak to some of these things and more. In fact, we would hope to host several of these evenings each year going forward.
We don’t have a formal membership in Redeemer so you might be wondering who this evening is for. It’s for everyone… if you consider Redeemer your church family, your community you are welcome to come along and participate in the family conversation.

The first of these will take place in August on one of these dates:

Wednesday 11th August 2021
Thursday 12th August 2021
Tuesday 17th August 2021
Wednesday 18th August 2021
Thursday 19th August 2021

In order to get a sense of the best date for the majority of the community for this first conversation evening we have created a poll. Please let us know what date(s) suit you best and we will endeavour to host on an evening that works for the majority:

POLL: What dates work for you?

2) Share your questions in advance

We’d like to hear your questions and reflections before the conversation night. Share these with one of our SLT leaders directly or, if you prefer, email them to slt@redeemercentral.com.
We welcome your thoughts and feedback on the things that sit with you and we hope these two forums will help make space for those to be heard and begin the family conversation that will ultimately allow us to move forward together.

This is just a start and these are small but significant steps to open up more dialogue, open communication and foster a broader sense of family. There will be more communicating, organising, discussing and sharing to do in the months ahead as navigate our return post-COVID. In it all we trust God. As the people of God, I believe there is an invitation again to rediscover the leading of the Spirit, living by faith, letting go of the past and moving forward into newness. This is, after all, the very project of the Gospel. Newness. Eugene Peterson calls it 'practicing resurrection.' As followers of Jesus we are reminded that our story is one of new beginnings, life from death, restoration and renewal. This story contains all we need to navigate days like these, and not only cope with the change but wholeheartedly embrace the future that awaits us. We should not fear but lean into the unknown with a ruthless trust that dares to believe in a God who brings life and whose whole project is making all things new. Let this truly good news fill us with hope today and allow the Christ-story to continue to unfold in and through us.

I finish with this prayer from the Apostle Paul to the church at Ephesus, found in Ephesians 4: 14-21:

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Our collective prayer as leaders is that we would be ‘rooted and established in love’ and that we make room for the spirit of God to come and do ‘immeasurably more’ in our midst than we can imagine.

Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy but important letter. If there are parts that are unclear please do get in touch with me or any of the Senior Leadership Team or email us. And we hope to see you on Sundays throughout the summer (In-Person or Online) and at our first family conversation night in August.

I love you all in the Redeemer family and I love the team I lead alongside. We are committed to growing and leading as best we can equipped by God’s strength. Our hope is for a loving and gracious community of disciples, formed in the way of Jesus, faithful to the ancient faith, animated by the power of the gospel and the power of the Spirits work within us, and sent out to bring justice and mercy to our city.

I hope together we can move into a new chapter of Redeemer’s story by God’s grace.

In love, grace & peace,