Anniversary Sunday (2010)

On the 19th anniversary of East Valley Bible Church, Tom Shrader announces a merger with Praxis Church to form Redemption Church, a multi-site church aimed at planting gospel-centered congregations across Arizona. The leadership team explains that the two churches share identical doctrine, philosophy of ministry, and relational chemistry, and that the merger is the result of five years of relationship and prayer rather than institutional need. The new church will rally around Gospel Coalition theology, prioritize expository preaching and small groups, and pursue both multi-site expansion and the planting of autonomous churches throughout the state.

“The story of God is a redemptive story, so we thought, what a better way than to just call ourselves Redemption Church, because that puts us right out front that that's what we're about.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: EVBC Anniversary Sunday - 2010

Recorded: 2010 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 59 min

Themes: church unity, vision, mission, gospel, church planting, leadership, community, growth, new to a church, pastor, church member navigating change, elder, long-time churchgoer, new believer, church leader, navigating transition

Scripture: Proverbs 16, Romans 1:16, Ezekiel (referenced 38 times, 'so they will know that I am God')

Theological Themes: ecclesiology, church structure, expository preaching, gospel-centered ministry, church planting, doctrinal unity, multi-site church, biblical authority

Full Transcript

Welcome and Anniversary Reflection

Good morning, and thanks for being here. If you're brand new to East Valley Bible Church, you're going to get a little bit of a history lesson today and some other information as well. For those who have been around, this should be a wonderful Sunday for you.

I do this every Anniversary Sunday — I ask how many of you were here on that very first Sunday, November 3, 1991. Not many. You have to give them a hand, because they're the ones who were there from the beginning. How many of you were ever part of our services when we were over on Dobson Road? A little bit larger group. And how many of you have been here two years or less? Well, we're glad you're here, too.

Here's what we do on Anniversary Sunday, and it varies year to year. Some years we take the whole Sunday. Some years we just make mention of it. Sometimes we've gotten together all in one place at one time. But today is a special day, and we like to look back.

I enjoy that. I remember those really early days, and I say this all the time — we did not know what we were doing. We didn't have anybody engaged at a leadership level who had been part of leadership in other churches. So we were figuring it out. We took the Bible and figured out, okay, here are the things God says to do, and then there are some areas of preference, so what do we want to do in those? And we just set out on this journey.

Viability was the first concern, really. Then after a period of time — maybe three or four years — it became pretty clear that God was not only blessing it, but that He had plans for it.

From Humble Beginnings to a Growing Church

I remember doing an exit interview with somebody who was leaving because the church had gotten too big. I talked with them for a while, and as I was leaving, they said, "Let me give you a tip. Everybody's waiting for you to lead and for us to find a place and build a church and to become" — their words, not mine — "a real church." It was literally two or three months after that conversation that, through the work of Mike Northam Sr., he identified this location. We secured it and moved in.

We built a phase one, which is this building we're in now, along with some of those interior classrooms you see when you walk into the courtyard. Within a very short period of time, we were just busting at the seams. We went from one service to two, to three, to four, to five, to six, to seven services. We built the additional buildings. And along the way, God just taught us so much.

Our Past as Foundation, Not Anchor

For me personally — and I think the other guys would echo this — one of the things that became clear really early was making sure that our past was a foundation for us, but not an anchor. I never wanted us to be one of those churches where, when you got together on Anniversary Sunday, the whole discussion was about remembering how it used to be. I love those discussions, by the way. Those are great. But they should be a foundation for what God is going to do in the future, not an anchor that pulls you into the past.

Justin Marshall tells the story of coming here ten or eleven years ago, and he said that first Sunday I was already talking about how do we transition, how do we move the church, how do we keep it fresh. He said he had no clue what he was walking into, and thought, boy, I'm walking into something that's going to change right away. This question of how we move forward has been on our minds for a long time.

I was talking to somebody the other day, and they said — and I think it's true — that the further east you go in the valley, the more you see it: large churches that were built to house 700, or 1,000, or 1,500 people, now sitting with just a few hundred. About a year ago I had a conversation with one of these churches and asked them to talk about their strengths. They said, "Our tradition. We have 50 years of tradition." And all I could think of was that phrase: your tradition has become an anchor, not a foundation.

A Major Announcement

That perspective is part of what shapes every Anniversary Sunday for us. This particular Anniversary Sunday will probably be the most significant one we've had to this point, because we want to make a major announcement today.

Effective today — though the name and everything that goes with it will take place in January — we are going to merge East Valley Bible Church with Praxis Church. This is not something we woke up last Tuesday and decided. We have been talking about this for a long time — not even that a merger was necessarily the solution, but simply asking, how do we move forward? How do we start our next season of ministry and make sure it's as fresh as that first year was?

Praxis is a church with two campuses, one in Tempe and one in Arcadia, and the lead pastor is a gentleman by the name of Justin Anderson. We have had internal meetings, and we met with our area shepherds last Sunday with Justin present, which was very helpful. Then on Thursday night, we held a meeting with about 400 of you who serve in some leadership capacity here at the church, across all sorts of ministries. In a moment, I'm going to invite Tim, Tyler, Neil, and Jerry to join me up here so we can take you through the thought process together.

Background and Context

Frontline, community and global, children's, students, small groups — all of them were represented in that room. We met, and Justin was with us, and we talked for about an hour and 45 minutes. The video of that is up on the homepage right now, and I encourage you to watch the whole thing. It was very good having Justin there, and that hour and 50 minutes allowed us to go more in-depth.

We want to give you a snapshot of that today. Justin couldn't be here, and our tech guys did a great job — I gave them about half a day's notice and said, when Justin's talking about Praxis, do the best you can to capture it so we can show it on Sunday. The clip is 7 minutes and 42 seconds, and it's Justin talking about Praxis. The vast majority of you said you don't really know Praxis, so this will help with that, and then I'll bring the guys up and we'll have a discussion about where we're headed.

Justin's Story: Roots and Background

I want to tell you a little bit about who I am and how Praxis began. I was born and raised outside of Portland, Oregon, in a little town called Boring — B-O-R-I-N-G, comma, Oregon. That's where I grew up, about 5,000 people. I providentially grew up in a really great church, and you wouldn't think great churches were in Boring, Oregon, but my pastor was a guy named Randy Alcorn. I grew up with his eldest daughter, and they were really close family friends of ours, so I grew up in a fantastic church environment.

My family moved to the Phoenix area in 1993, so I actually went to high school here — Corona del Sol High School in Tempe — and then graduated from Valley Christian High School. I have some roots here. My family has been here since 1993. I spent six years in San Diego, went to school at Point Loma Nazarene University, got to play baseball there, and studied theology.

I love telling the story of going to Point Loma to study theology, because I went to an Armenian university, studied Armenian theology, and came out a Calvinist. I think that constitutes failure on their part. I loved my time at Point Loma — I woke up next to the beach every day and studied a little as well.

Ministry Before Praxis

After graduating from Point Loma, I got a job as a college pastor at the church I had been attending in San Diego called the Rock Church, which is a large evangelical church there. It came out of the Calvary Chapel movement, and it was a really good experience — a growing church, a large church environment. I spent three years there as a college pastor, and by the time I left I was overseeing all the Sunday services, youth, children's, and a lot of different things.

Planting Praxis

In 2004, we felt called to Phoenix to plant a church. I had known since I was about 18 years old that God wanted me to plant a church. I didn't know exactly what that meant — church planting wasn't a big movement back then — but I knew I had an entrepreneurial spirit and that God had called me to preach and to lead people.

In 2004, we started praying about where we were going to plant. We had five cities in mind: San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, and Tempe. Tempe was a distant fifth on my list. To be honest, I would have preferred to end up on the West Coast, but through a variety of different reasons — mostly because God called us here — it became really clear that God called us to Tempe. At the time, there was need. There were not a lot of good churches in Tempe as far as we could tell, and certainly no Reformed churches that we knew of at that time.

So we planted the church in 2004 with 10 people. I was related to half of them, so they were somewhat obliged. We got started and very naively thought we'll throw open the doors, I will preach, we will sing, and the people will flock to us. It didn't end up that way, amazingly enough. We really didn't know what we were doing — I know Tom tells that story of not really knowing what they were doing when they started East Valley, and I'm not sure we knew much more.

The Difficult Early Years

The first two years of our plant were slow and difficult. And this is not something you should do, but I got engaged the week before I moved to Phoenix. So the first year of our church plant was my year of engagement, and then I got married a year into the church plant. My first year of marriage was the second year of the church plant. By God's grace, both the church and the marriage survived and we continued on, but those first two years were really, really hard.

My expectations for how the church was going to go were not met. By the time we finished that second year, we were still really small and starting to seriously question whether we were ever going to get traction. Around the end of that second year, in fall 2006, we were at about 75 people. So in the first two years, we went from 10 to 75.

Four Years of Growth

In the last four years — and we celebrate our anniversary this Sunday as well — we went from 75 people to about 1,200 people. It was way slower than I wanted at the beginning, and way faster than I wanted for the last four years. Praxis is a young congregation, young demographically, with a lot of university students at the Tempe campus.

Introduction and Background

We also have a campus — what we call a mission — in Arcadia at 42nd Street and Thomas, right across the street from Phoenix Seminary. We are at this point a multi-campus church. That has been quite an experience, and it really was not something we planned. It happened as a result of growth and building situations. We have been in 13 different locations in six years, and not by choice — by necessity. Buildings were sold out from under us, or growth presented challenges, whatever the case may be. We have had a sign out in front of our building for only one of our six years, so we have been the church that is hard to find. But God providentially has made it happen.

I met Tyler about five years ago, and we bonded over baseball — his career was better than mine, but I wanted to hear his stories. He was doing work with ASU baseball, and we bonded over college ministry and all those things. He introduced me to Tom maybe six months later. Thomas has played an instrumental role in my development and is really probably the closest thing to a mentor I have had over the last five years. We have met regularly, and we are here today as a result of those five years of relationship. The generosity that East Valley has shown to Praxis — in time, coaching, and facilitating other relationships — has brought us to this point. In one sense this seems unexpected, and in another sense it seems completely normal and natural, simply a product of five years of relationship and doing ministry together.

Introducing Today's Announcement

I do wish we could have Justin here today, but he is with Praxis this morning and again tonight, sharing the same information with them. Tyler was with Justin and some of his leaders and members on Friday night, and I was there yesterday. They are rolling this out at the same time you are receiving it. For those of you who had no idea this was happening — and it looks like that is quite a few of you — when you hear something like this, it is a big thing. It can take your breath away and cause a whole host of questions to start forming.

I believe we can answer most of those questions. We have been through two, three, or four meetings like this one, with literally hundreds of people present, so I think I can anticipate most of what you are wondering. We are going to try to answer those questions this morning. If you are serious about getting fully up to speed on all of this, it will be important for you to visit the website, because the hour-and-forty-five-to-fifty-minute presentation — even with Justin included — is much more in depth and thorough. There are three, four, or five questions that did not get answered in the first hour that are important, but there are so many questions that you have to prioritize them. So if you are truly serious about this, go to the website.

When you leave today, we are going to give you a piece of material that speaks to our vision and the values we have developed. There is a small card with frequently asked questions that we believe will address a number of your concerns. This service will also go on the website this week, along with the extended version from the third Thursday meeting.

The Question of Why

The very first question I receive from everyone I have talked to is simply: why? So let me take you through the why of this. There are three things to keep in mind, beginning with some practical considerations, and then moving to the most important part.

On the practical side, we feel there is strength and unity in our doctrine, our vision, and our values. If you were to spend time looking at them, you would see they line up exactly. We could not be more alike in our philosophical approach to ministry — the simple, natural, organic way we do things. Our vision, doctrine, and values fit together seamlessly. We genuinely believe that coming together, with shared giftedness and shared vision, allows us to do a more effective job of reaching the city and the state for Christ.

You have heard the phrase before: new pockets and new people. The energy of a church that simply hovers around itself does not bless others. We really believe that God has called us to be a blessing — a blessing of redemption to the world. So we have decided, at least for now, that the target is the state of Arizona. We believe that going to new places and seeing God work is what bringing us together is meant to strengthen and advance. Those are the pragmatic reasons why.

God's Direction in the Process

But there is another reason, and it is the part we most deeply believe. The writer of Proverbs says in chapter 16 that man plans, but God directs his steps. We believe that in this case, as we have prayed, as we have talked, and as we have considered who we are and where God is leading —

A Name That Means Something

We are changing the name of the church. The name Praxis — which is the Greek word for "practical" — is going away, and East Valley Bible Church is going away, and we are going to call it Redemption Church. When the idea was first out there and we were asking what we were going to call this thing, there was a quick flyover of thinking: well, there's probably no way we're going to find a name that we all love, so let's just pick a name that no one hates. That's how it started.

But when it all came down to it, redemption really describes what we are about. We can't call ourselves an East Valley church because we're not in the East Valley only anymore. Starting in January, we have a church in Phoenix, which means an East Valley description wouldn't work. And the Bible part — we feel like the redemption piece is clearly what we mean by that.

Genesis to Revelation is a redemptive story. If you've read it, if you know it, you know that God came on a rescue mission. The nature of man, the nature of God, the holiness of God, the wrath of God — all of it is revealed throughout the Old Testament, and then suddenly, right there in Matthew, we begin the disclosure of God's grace and mercy, which is the only way we have any hope.

So in the process of deciding what to call this thing together, we knew that the story of God is a redemptive story. What better way than to call ourselves Redemption Church, because that puts us right out front about what we are about. It has historical and theological depth and weight to it. It lasts forever. It's not cute, but it gets to the point.

Redemption Church — redeemed people sent to reach a people that need redemption of the Lord too. It also communicates that the Praxis jerseys and the East Valley Bible Church jerseys go away, that this isn't two separate organizations. This is one church, and we believe that will communicate to the whole community a real strength as we approach it this way.

Doctrine, Philosophy, and Relationship

Five years ago, when Tom and I met Justin, this merger was not even a figment of our imagination. We had no idea this was what God was doing. But what happens along the way, with any relationship, is that as you start growing with somebody, you start realizing there is a real connection.

That connection began immediately. When you meet another person in ministry, one of the first things everybody wants to know is: what do you believe? From the very beginning, we realized this church was being planted with essentially the exact same doctrine — and I don't even know if I'd say essentially. It is the exact same doctrine. So you start thinking, we have real commonality there.

Then you get into philosophy, and you realize they are doing things virtually identical to the way we do things. And then over time, you just start thinking, I really like this guy. We really like these people. We really like this church. Over time, those things all came together.

Growing Vision Beyond One Campus

One of the developments out of Justin and my relationship was East Valley really saying we want to be an influence beyond this campus. Out of that, my role has been developed — I am the pastor of community and global engagement, which covers church planting, church partnerships, and community development with a very gospel-centered focus. It also includes the global work we do overseas, and the reality that people from all nations and other countries are coming to our city and we want to minister to them.

As we began to do that, we knew that churches need to be aligned and need to be working together more. There was also a big movement of church planting, with these churches out there on islands, and we began to bring them all together and simply say: let's bless them relationally with wisdom, and do as much for other churches as we possibly can. Out of that came a network called

The Theology Behind the Merger

The Surge Network now has influence with about 100 churches. Every first Wednesday of the month, about 50 churches are represented. We use a lecture-type format, hearing from different men within the network as well as outside voices, followed by a sharpening time after the meal where men challenge each other and push back theologically and practically. All of that really originated through the relationships of four men: Justin Anderson, myself, Luke Simmons at Second Mile, and Chris Gonzalez at Missy O'Day, along with the strong influence of the men on the stage. Through those relationships, we started developing and dreaming, and out of that came the question of what this could really look like.

The most important thing, first and foremost, is the theology and doctrine behind this. Redemption Church — the coming together of these two churches — will rally around the Gospel Coalition documentation. Tim Keller and D.A. Carson, along with the likes of John Piper and Mark Dever, came together wanting to craft a document that would serve as the 21st-century version of a Westminster Confession of Faith. They have crafted documents that are so rich theologically, and I would argue faultless biblically, written in such a way that people from around the world can say, "Yes, we believe that." It was really a sense that there is a big movement away from the biblical gospel, and these documents were a way to reestablish it — and they form the founding documents of the Gospel Coalition.

Those founding documents also include a theological vision for ministry. So if you are curious whether we will uphold what we have always believed as East Valley Bible Church, the answer is simply yes. If you go and read these documents, I guarantee you will be tremendously blessed, and you could even use them in your devotions over the next couple of weeks to see what we are going to believe together. We will also have the opportunity to post some additional position papers, but the Gospel Coalition documents serve as the rallying foundation — what we believe and how we go about ministry.

Mission, Church Planting, and Strategic Expansion

Out of that shared theology is a real desire in both of our churches to plant more churches and to see this state reached for Christ. All of that — the coming together of what we believe and our shared mission for the future — made this a genuinely solid fit. One of the closest stumbling points, the moment we nearly said we would not do this, came when we identified the top twelve cultural centers in the state that we wanted to penetrate, and that list actually included Tucson. We almost divided over that issue, but in the end we were able to bury our differences and include Tucson.

Over a period of a decade to a decade and a half, you are going to see us strategically expanding Redemption Church. At the same time — and I want to make sure this point does not get lost — we will continue planting autonomous churches that will not be part of Redemption Church. So we will continue to plant churches like Second Mile and Christ Church, while also extending and planting new venues under the Redemption model.

Structure and Financial Strength

When we talk about structure, typically in a merger there is really somebody who is in trouble pretending they are not, and then somebody who is large and knows it, putting together a pseudo-merger so they can absorb the other one. That is not the case here. This is very different from a typical merger. I have actually been part of a merger in the business community, when I worked for a small company that was barely surviving and a larger company came in. We called it a merger, but it really was not, because if the larger company had not come in, we would have disappeared.

That is not what this is about at all. This is two very strong financial organizations coming together to make an even stronger one. We did our due diligence, and so did they, to make sure that both organizations were well-managed, well-funded, and able to contribute to the overall whole. Both churches are in a position to continue on independently and be very successful — but coming together, we will be even stronger.

We will be one corporation. Praxis Corporation will be dissolved and merged into the East Valley Bible Church Corporation, and we will do business as Redemption Church. That means all employees will be under one structure, and all accounts payable, contributions, and administrative functions will be handled under one roof. This will give us a great deal of economy of scale, allowing us to operate more efficiently than we currently do. It also provides the foundation necessary for church plants and missions going out throughout the state, so that those teams will not have to worry about finding someone to manage finances — those resources will already be in place.

Demographic Fit and Complementary Strengths

When we talk about fit, there is something really encouraging beyond theology and structure — these are two demographically different organizations and churches. Justin described it well the other night: Redemption Church brings idealism, youth, and vigor, and then there is us — the older version of vigor. When you put those things together, both organizations, at critical times, bring something the other needs.

Moving Forward Together

How do we go forward? How do we really see the dream and vision become a reality? When we were in a meeting, a senior leader spoke last week and said that when a church gets to be 20 years old, it becomes very inward focused. At 30, it gets gray and begins to die, and really doesn't care. This merger re-energizes us and provides a base of wisdom as well.

Speaking of wisdom, when we asked who was present that very first Sunday, one of those people was here in the room today. From his vantage point watching this unfold, he shared a telling story. He was in the conference center afterwards, looking for questions from the congregation, when a woman made her way through the crowd specifically to reach him. Her question: "When you have your anniversary Sunday next year, will it be in November or will it be in January?" That, he noted, was the depth of impact they had made on her.

When the church started 19 years ago, they were, by their own admission, clueless. There was more nervousness about failure than confidence in success. They began on Thursday nights at the Hilton Hotel, and from the very beginning the Lord blessed them. They stumbled along the way, but it kept moving forward, and when the building was constructed, things really began to flourish.

Along the way there were speed bumps. The church grew comfortable, different things happened, and it began to turn inward. But coming into this moment at 19 years, this is genuinely exciting. It secures the future, brings fresh vision, and introduces young leaders into the work.

This merger gives the church opportunities to go outward into the community and outward into the world. It creates a chance to invest in young leaders who can go out and be faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ. While the past was great, it is the past. This is where the church is going — forward. If you have invested in this church and believe in what it is, you will want to see it go forward, because that is where it needs to go.

How the Merger Took Shape

The process began, as was alluded to earlier, through relationship. Inside East Valley, a conviction took root that the best days of the church were not behind it but ahead of it. The leadership team was filtering one central question: What is it, God, that You want us to do?

Tim spoke to the clear mandate God gives — to make His glory known, to go out and make disciples. He gives specifics about how to conduct yourself in the church, about multiplying churches and multiplying disciples. But much of the how remains open. And God has wired human beings, created in His image, to be creative and to think.

So the leadership began thinking. There were many different ideas on the board about what East Valley should do, what transition should look like, and how to go about it. There was a moment when a small group was having conversations and someone said, "What if we became one church?" They all laughed. Then they talked about it for a season, and it died — it seemed impossible. Then God resurrected the idea and brought it back.

What the congregation does not get to see is how God confirms those Holy Spirit promptings. It was not five or six men cloistered in a room deciding what they wanted. It was praying, thinking, feeling, expressing, writing, and then engaging with other leaders around the country, asking what they thought of the idea.

Scripture makes it very clear that God confirms things through the counsel of many — that He speaks when wisdom is sought from outside. Several people were consulted, and they were all struck by this situation for a particular reason. The classic definition of a merger is a strong church rescuing a weak one. Nobody has a case where two strong, fully independent churches — neither needing the other — come together purely for the sake of unity and mission. That scenario simply does not exist. Because of that, some began with skepticism and yellow flags, expressing concern about what it takes to make something like this work.

Open Hands and Kingdom Vision

To see that happen requires a very open-handed, "not my kingdom, but God's kingdom" approach to it. I've been at East Valley for 13 years, and I think I'm heavily invested in this church. I have a lot of history here. But if it was about hanging on to East Valley, we couldn't do this. If it was Praxis, who is closer to their genesis than we are, hanging on to that, we couldn't do this. It took a group of men willing to lay down those things and simply ask, "God, would You do this? Would You move here?"

We met with a prominent pastor in San Diego about a week and a half ago. We were invited to his home and talked through all of this. Justin had already introduced the idea to him, and this pastor's initial concerns were yellow flags — and at that point he had only spoken with Justin. When we arrived, it became clear to me, as I told the team earlier, that it was this pastor's interview of us. He was trying to discern whether pride, insecurity, or any of the things that can wreck an endeavor like this were present in it. He came away from that meeting and said, "This is God's hand on this — you should do this."

That is all we have heard. We have received nothing but excitement from people who have never seen anything like this, and they are looking at it and saying, "Wow, maybe God could do that with us." We have been greatly encouraged by the input of others.

A Relationship Built on Trust

One of the other things that has come about as we have worked through this process is developing a relationship with Justin. You got to see a little of him on the screen. This leadership team has existed, developed, and been successful largely because of our relationships with one another. These men are all very competent and can do their jobs, but it is ultimately about the ability to relate together, to work together, to trust each other, and to love each other. Justin has stepped into this group seamlessly, and it has been wonderful to get to know him, to discover his strengths and talents, and to see how well they mesh with the rest of the team. It truly is a God thing, and it has been extremely encouraging.

Why "Bible" Doesn't Have to Be in the Name

A question just came in about the name, and it simply said, "Need Bible in the name." I'll speak to that. History is always important here, just to understand our context. The Bible church movement is a very, very new movement. If you went back historically and asked how many churches hundreds of years ago had "Bible" in their name, the answer is very few. There was a movement — a Bible church movement that came out of a specific seminary in the South — and it simply began to spread. East Valley Bible Church put "Bible" in the name to say, "Hey, we are a Bible church. Everything we do is based upon the Bible."

We really feel that taking "Bible" out of the name in no way says we are not about the Bible. Instead, we chose this robust theological word — Redemption. One of the major reasons we landed on this name is that we wanted something with lasting value, something that historically would communicate that this church has enduring substance. Justin himself has said, partly in humor, that one of his reasons for wanting to make this change is simply to get rid of the name Praxis. There has been a movement in church planting to choose Greek names, and we all laugh and acknowledge that people will look back at those church names years from now and say, "Oh, that church was planted in the early 2000s," because of the Greek name. We wanted a historic, lasting name, and we truly believe Redemption says it all.

With that name, and with what you will experience when you walk through the doors — expository preaching, verse by verse, line by line, everything biblically based and theologically infused — we will prove ourselves. We need the Bible in the pulpit, whether it is in the name or not. But we absolutely must make sure it is in the pulpit, in the school, in the children's ministry, and in the student ministry. I feel very strongly about that. And just as a point of wisdom on the naming question — the name they had chosen, the Greek name, literally means "practical." That alone illustrates why we wanted to bring more careful thought to the naming process.

Making a Big Church Small, Not a Bigger Church Bigger

A comment came in saying, "I thought we were about making a big church small, not a bigger church bigger." I don't think this merger stops that at all. We are not trying to create a 7,000-person church experience. The thrust of what we do here is small groups. The thrust of what Praxis does is small groups — community groups, missional communities, whatever you want to call them. Our disciple-making arm is small groups. I've served in both smaller and larger churches, and I believe a larger church can actually do smaller church better than a small church can, because we have the capacity to run these community groups, missional communities, and intentional relational communities at scale. That is still the foundation of making disciples — that mandate we have been given.

One thing we may not have made clear is that we are going to keep this campus, and Praxis has two other campuses which will remain on their sites. So while we may be larger in number as Redemption Church, the individual locations will each have their own identity, and we will be planting additional locations. This specific building does not simply get bigger. Redemption Church gets bigger, but it gets bigger in different areas of the valley — and even potentially across the state.

Gospel-Centered, Outward-Focused

When it comes to size, I think what we do is great, and if it were 50,000 or 100,000, I would be happy with it. I am not concerned about the size. With growth comes a potential temptation where size can become an end in itself. But ultimately, it gets down to the heart of the leaders and the hearts of the men and women — and by leaders, I don't just mean us, though that's part of it. I mean the leadership team, the 400 we had the other night, the leaders who were at Praxis the other day.

I hope God does grow this thing numerically. I hope it gets huge. But I don't think that in any way will dilute what we do. As we've said, we can take this church as it gets bigger and bring all sorts of resources, gifts, talents, money, and church planting opportunities. There are just endless opportunities and advantages we believe this will bring to us — some that we have now, and even those will allow us to do them far better and open up all sorts of new possibilities.

Not Trying to Become Anyone Else

There are questions about other church models — Tim Keller's Redeemer Church, Calvary Chapel, Acts 29, and others. I think anytime you are a Christian, humility is a significant attribute of being Christ-like. With humility comes teachability, and you want to learn from a lot of things people are doing around the country. But it is really important to realize we are not trying to become anybody.

We are not trying to become Redeemer Church in New York City — we are Redemption in Phoenix. We are not trying to become the next Calvary Chapel. We are trying to follow the leading that God has given us, and we are trying to be Redemption Church, with this amazing foundation and this amazing history, because of the coming together of these two churches for the purpose of what we believe God has called us to do. The way He has called Redemption Church is to make disciples inside the church, and as we go out to make disciples and make His glory known, we believe this coming together will enable us to do that better together than apart. We aren't trying to be anything other than what God has called us to be.

Aligning with Acts 29

In the process of following what God has called us to do, we will be aligning ourselves with some networks with which we have already built strong relational ties. One of those is the Acts 29 network. For those who don't know, Acts 29 is simply a network of church-planting churches, and this connects directly to our outward-focus vision to plant more churches.

Through this alignment, we will be joining a community of churches around the country and around the world that are pursuing the same mission. The theological distinctives of the Acts 29 network are that it is reformed in its view of salvation — which we are — complementarian in its views of men and women's roles in the home and in the church, Spirit-led in that we are listening to God through His Word and being directed by Him in prayer, and missional in its outward focus to make disciples of those who are not already disciples of Christ.

What Gospel-Centered Means

When you leave today, you will be receiving something I think will be helpful. On the front are two phrases: gospel-centered and outward-focused. We want to keep those in front of you going forward.

The gospel is more than just getting you from hell to heaven. The gospel is what frees you to live as Christ in the world, to give meaning to what you do, to give meaning to your family. It is what drives everything we do — it is not just a small appendage off to the side that deals with salvation. It is what gives purpose behind everything we do. In our messages, we talk about this all the time: every text has a gospel, a "so what," and a thrust. Otherwise, it has no power.

The gospel is what frees people to obey. The gospel is what frees people to do and to trust. We believe the gospel is central to what we communicate and therefore central to what we do. So when we call a church to be a church, it isn't the classic fifty-year-old model where the way to get more godly is to get further inside. It is to be Christ on the outside. This thrust of the gospel changing us means we have the ability to respond as agents of redemption in our world — whether that is at Intel, whether you are a plumber, whether you own your own company, whether you are a homemaker. Whatever it is, you are now an agent of redemption in that world, taking the gospel out. It was never meant to just cloister up and stay inside.

Outward-Focused as the Story of the Bible

That outward focus is the story of the entire Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, God is on a mission — a mission to make Himself known. Thirty-eight times in the book of Ezekiel, God says, "So they will know that I am God." That is our responsibility: to join Him in that mission and go out and be salt and light in a very dark, very thirsty world. Together, as Redemption Church, we believe we can follow that mission more effectively and more powerfully for the kingdom.

The Apostle Paul, in Romans, says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for the gospel is the power of God unto salvation" — and he says, "for the Jew first, and then for the Greek." We know that the gospel is the very thing that has made us Christians. God saves sinners. We have talked about that historically, all the time at East Valley.

God-Centered and Outward-Focused

God initiates this work, which is the good news of the gospel. God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world, ultimately climaxing in this atonement, this work on the cross, where Jesus Christ takes our sin upon Himself and gives us His righteousness, so that we stand before God the Father, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, just as Jesus was. Jesus, at His core, following God, was outward-focused. That is why we are called to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength — and we do that through Jesus Christ. He changes our heart, takes out a heart of stone, puts in a heart of flesh, and then calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves. That is this outward focus — the continual spectrum of the Bible: love God, love others.

In the 19-year history of this church, we have had a lot of people, because of jobs and different things, get up and move all over the country. They write back, and I could tell you exactly what they say: we found the perfect house, we found the great school, we cannot find a church. And not only can they not find a church, they do not even know what they are looking for — they cannot define it. When you talk about being God-centered and outward-focused, it does not get any clearer than what God expects from us in our life. A church grounded on those principles will honor the Lord, and He will honor us in what we do with it. This is an exciting thing — to identify what we are all about and ask you to participate with us.

Elder Structure and Executive Leadership

Regarding questions about elders and structure: there is going to be an executive leadership team made up of these four men, and sitting in this chair will be Justin Anderson, who will oversee all of the Redemption churches. Each individual church will have its own elder board, so we will continue with the elder boards that currently exist. There will be an overseeing board, and then there will be an elder board at each church responsible for overseeing what is going on there.

Multi-Site Vision and Church Planting

Redemption Church will be a multi-campus, or multi-site, church — one church, one vision, same doctrine, same budget. If you have been around church for a long time, there was once a significant conversation about whether multiple services could still be one church. Then came morning and evening services with the same message. Now there is a movement of multi-site churches proving you can be one church in many locations. Within the Redemption umbrella, we will call these locations missions. Our first expression of that vision is 12 missions throughout the state of Arizona in culturally influential areas.

On top of that, our goal is to plant at least one autonomous church outside the Redemption umbrella for every Redemption mission we plant. This demonstrates that we do not believe Redemption is the end-all be-all — we want to see more churches. We will support church planting out of Redemption to plant new churches, and we will partner with other churches outside as well. This whole movement of coming together as one church exists for the purpose that the gospel would be pushed out, and that will not be accomplished through one church alone, even if we disperse ourselves across the state. It is going to take many different churches.

There is not a set schedule or timeline for the next phase of Redemption expansion. I think this is so unique that I do not know of another church in the valley — outside of perhaps some we have planted ourselves — that we would look at and say that is the next church that would want to be part of this. We are really going to take the time to do this well.

Launch Timeline and Sermon-Based Ministry

Here is how the launch unfolds: we are informing the congregations today, January 1st we become Redemption Church, and January 9th we will all meet here on campus together for a celebration. We will cover the same material next week — what Justin will be teaching in Tempe and in Arcadia will be exactly what I am teaching here. We will cover our values and then launch the book of James at the first of the year.

We want to see changes that will be driven by sermon-based ministry. Small groups will become sermon-based small groups, and children's ministry will become sermon-based children's ministry. When you go to pick up your kids, you will not have to ask what they learned today — you will already know, because they covered exactly the same material you did. Part of the dream for me is that it is not just on our campus, but on every mission — here, in Tempe, in Arcadia — all hearing and covering the same passage of Scripture. On Monday morning, five, six, seven thousand people are hitting the valley, hitting the schools, hitting the workplace, on message and on mission. I think that is really compelling.

Moving Forward Together

Justin will be here teaching on November 21st, again in December, in January, and in February. From that point on, we are simply going to see what God has for us. I am getting several questions — does this mean I am retiring, does this mean Justin is taking over, does this mean everything will be on video? Honestly, we do not know what we are going to do in this process.

Part of what is really important is that Redemption Church begins to figure out now what it is, who it is, and how that works. We have already had two or three definitions and decisions that we talked about and then changed. So in an uncharacteristic moment of prudence, we decided to wait and see what God does and how this begins to unfold.

What You Can Do

One of the most prevalent messages I have received has been, "What can we do? We love this — how can we help?" Here is what you can do: become really informed, and then cheerlead this. I do not mean that in some blind way. In the midst of discussion there are all sorts of legitimate questions for which there are legitimate answers, but there are also a whole bunch of questions for which the honest answer is simply, "I don't know."

I have already heard back from people saying, "I heard you're going to do this," or "they're going to do that," or "this is going to move over there." Let me be clear — we have talked about everything. I cannot imagine a scenario you could come up with that we have not discussed. But we have not made any decisions on those things. We believe this is something God has done, we think it is very unique and very special, and we are excited to be part of it.

Encouragement to Engage

We believe the vast majority of you are going to say you are excited to be part of it too. Those of you in Tempe and Arcadia, we encourage you to go and visit those missions, familiarize yourself with them, and see Justin when he comes. Begin to sense that there really is a camaraderie here, there is a spirit here.

I understand how unique this is, and therefore I understand being apprehensive. But think about it — when Scottsdale Bible Church started, all I ever heard was that it was just a glorified Sunday school class. Then once it existed for a while, it was called a church that only cared about itself. Then I heard that all the leadership wanted to do was control everything. I cannot imagine something that demonstrates holding things loosely more than what we are doing right here. We are concerned about being gospel-centered and outward-focused. We are concerned about teaching the Word of God and having that Word transform our hearts and minds, and then taking that into the community wherever God has placed us.

Practical Next Steps

Here is what you can do for us. You will receive a handout on the way out — I encourage you to look it over. Watch the video from the other night. If you are in a small group, talk to your leaders. Be really clear, do not speculate, do not try to guess. If you do not know something, just sit with that uncertainty and ask questions.

This, by the way, is a great example of why you should be in a small group if you are not already. This is exactly the kind of moment where you need somebody to go to, somebody who can come around you. So do not be afraid to ask questions in all of this.

Closing Prayer

Father God, we thank You so very much for Your love for us, for Your grace and Your mercy. God, we thank You that something like this we could not invent — that if it is going to have any merit, any weight, any strength, or any future, it has to come from You and Your Spirit. We know and confess outwardly that we are not smart enough, not good enough, and do not know enough to see the dreams we dream come to pass unless You move. So we are asking, God, that You use not just the leadership, not just the pastors, but every person who calls this their church. Use them, Lord, to see Your kingdom come — at least in Arizona. God, it is a big thing, and it clearly matches Your size. We pray this in Jesus' name.