Redeemer as a Teenage Cathedral
by The Very Rev. Dr. Dan Alger
This is adapted from an article featured in the Winter 2022-23 Advent/Christmas issue of The Table magazine.
Her pink dress was stretched and stained, the ringlets in her hair were matted with a mix of lollipop and dirt. I was standing in the back of a high school cafeteria after the Sunday service of a new church plant when the little girl came running by. She had the grace of a two-year-old, which is to say not much. There was a mix of concentration and exhilaration on her face as her little legs churned and she chugged through the crowd of people. Just as she reached the spot where the planter and I were standing, she tripped over her own feet and crashed face first onto the ground, sliding a bit before the sticky cafeteria floor finally arrested her momentum. I instinctively reached down to help her up, but before I could act she bounced back up and ran on. She was a mess–awkward, dirty, a frenzy of unfocused energy, covered with bruises–but she was a beautiful and happy two-year-old.
The church planter smiled and said to me, “That little girl was born on the very day we started this church. So, when I get frustrated about things we haven’t done yet, or things we don’t do well, or when we make mistakes, I look at her and remember: our church is only that old. Maybe I should have some grace and patience.” He was wonderfully right. No one looked at that beautiful little girl and thought that her grimy face and uncoordinated locomotion was odd or inappropriate; she was only two.
Churches, like children, start small and clumsy and change as they grow and mature; this is natural and normal and good. As we watch our children grow, we can look back fondly on the memories of when they were toddling around in princess dresses covered in sugar and sweat, but it would be awkward in the least if they never matured out of that phase. Our hope for our children is that they will grow into strong, healthy, mature adults who flourish in their relationships, professions, and life in Jesus’ church. Likewise, we want to see our church plants grow to be healthy, faithful, established churches that are able to multiply disciples and plant new churches as a natural part of their lives.
A Season of Change
Redeemer’s first service was in December of 2007. That makes us a healthy fourteen-year-old. There is significant change in the life of a teenager: new discoveries, new skills, new responsibilities, and new friends. And so it is true of Redeemer. Most visibly, we have had leadership changes. Alan Hawkins planted Redeemer and served as rector until January of 2022 when I was asked to step into this important role. Alan was elected bishop coadjutor of our diocese last year, which means that he will take over as the bishop of the diocese in the next couple of years when our current bishop (Steve Breedlove) enters into retirement. Alan’s new role also means that Redeemer has become a pro-cathedral of the diocese. This is more than a change in name. As a cathedral, our vision expands to serve the churches of our diocese: to strengthen, encourage, and plant wherever we have the opportunity. Alan built a strong foundation at Redeemer, full of an amazing vision, beautiful relationships, and committed leaders, and we are thankful that he is still a significant part of our life and ministry at Redeemer. As I live into the calling of rector of Redeemer (also called dean of the cathedral), my desire is to honor the people, ethos, and faithful work of the church for the previous 14 years, and lead us humbly into the next stage of our life and ministry together. I have the honor of being the father of teenagers in more ways than one. No matter how in sync Alan and I are with each other, however, a new person in this role is a big change for the church.
We’ve had other staff transitions as well. With a staff of 22, change and turnover are inevitable. Some folks we have sent out into new mission: Drew Hill, our long-time associate rector, took a call to be headmaster of The Covenant School, which he helped to start many years ago; Cherie Weber, our Director of Children’s Ministry, is preparing to move to Rwanda with her family to serve the Lord with our sister church in Gahini Diocese; Lena Van Wyk, who was the lifeblood of our farm for many years, has transitioned into the important missional role of full-time mom. Others have had changes in situation or calling and moved on to serve in new ways at Redeemer or elsewhere. We’ve also had many new wonderful faces join our staff recently. Jared and Abbi Wensyel joined us a little over a year ago as Jared began our curacy program. He has now been ordained a priest and is serving as our assistant rector. Abbi is a lifesaver for me as my executive assistant. Amelia Blanchard, Madison Miller, and Ana Howland all graduated from our Fellows Program and serve in various roles on staff. It has been astounding to see how the Lord has provided every time we have had a need: JD Meeder has joined us to give direction to the Fellows Program, Steven Hebbard succeeded Lena as Farm Director, and Jessica Ronnevik has swept in as Children’s Ministry Director just as Cherie needed to step out. I don't have room to list all of the changes in people and position here. What I can say is that in the midst of a whirlwind of change, I have been amazed at the swiftness of God’s provision and the quality of leaders he is bringing to us. With these new leaders come new ideas and new ways of doing things, but at the same time, the identity, mission, ethos, and faithfulness of Redeemer is unchanging.
As should be expected in transitions such as these, there will naturally be differences in communication style, emphases, leadership choices, etc. It is of utmost importance as we walk into this new season together that we are intentional about patience during a time of getting to know each other in our new roles, grace as we all adjust together, and purposeful trust in one another.
In addition to new leadership, another change we are seeing as we live through our teenage years is a large number of new faces and friends joining us in the congregation. The Lord is doing great things at Redeemer! Our Free Farmer’s market served over 600 families last year and entered its third year on October 1st, running through November 19th; our community gathering on Wednesday nights, called Connections, is serving more than 150 people, including a record number of kids who are participating in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd; we are expanding our multi-ethnic services to include an Arabic service; and our youth group is growing! Scores of new people are joining Redeemer–what an amazing thing to see!--and with this, we are seeing new baptisms and dozens of confirmations every year. Our family is expanding. With new faces comes new relationships, new energy towards our corporate mission, more hands joining the work, more seats around our family meal.
With many new people, we have had to develop new systems for everything from pastoral care to communication to safety policies to discipleship. Budgeting is different, our long term strategies for ministry are adapting, new challenges are being addressed, and we are working hard to figure out how to more consistently control all these stinking weeds on our property! We have changed Sundays to hold two morning services in order to welcome as many people as possible. There is a lot to do in order to love and steward our people well. All of these changes have come on top of three of the most disruptive years in the history of our nation with political division, economic upheaval, and a global pandemic. People who are only just now returning to Redeemer after being separated during Covid are returning to a place that looks very different. But at its core, Redeemer is still very much the same. Just like in growing up, change is not always loss, it is sometimes simply the next season of life.
Some Things Will Never Change
This edition of The Table is focused on the heart. Not the fleshy organ inside of our chests, but rather what it stands for: the seat of our passions, emotions, loves, and intentions. Through all of the changes of this season, the heart of Redeemer is what has remained unchanging. The same driving passions, mission, ethos, and beliefs that had us sprinting forward as a toddler remains constant for us as a teenage church.
Our staff, vestry, and clergy are working hard to ensure that even while there are so many new things taking place, those aspects of Redeemer that should never change remain ever-constant. Redeemer will always serve Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, according to the authority and truth of the Scripture. Our continued vision is to love those inside Redeemer well and remain passionate about reaching those outside of our church with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have an identity that we define as Parish, Park, Farm, Abbey which we remain committed to pursuing. We are a place of hospitality, authenticity, generosity, service, relationship, and community. We are multi-ethnic and intentionally multi-generational. We are committed to Word and Sacrament as we worship as part of the historic Anglican Tradition. Above all, we remain a place that proclaims grace, is in need of grace, and receives grace–all in the name of Jesus.
The Awkward Teenage Cathedral
My church planter friend framed the stage of life his church was in by looking at that beautifully stumbling child. Sometimes Redeemer is a beautifully gangly teenager. Our body is growing but our coordination has not caught up. We recognize our continued need for maturation, but sometimes we slip backwards into stages of life we thought we’d grown out of. Like a teenager, we are beginning to see more clearly who we are becoming, the sort of impact we can have on the world, the potential for what God wants to do in us and through us. At the same time, we are caught in a wonderfully awkward stage of growth and development. Our systems need to catch up to our growth, our leaders need to adapt to new ways of doing ministry: we are sometimes all knees and elbows. Our church started in living rooms, school cafeterias, local parks, and hotel conference rooms with a small staff and a big vision. Now we sit on acres of land with hundreds of people in our midst, but we still trip over our own feet. Even though our body is growing and changing, it is still the same heart in the chest of Redeemer: a heart of faithfulness, worship, mission, and community that reflects the heart of Christ.
So, Redeemer family, as we walk through these awkward teenage years together, let’s embrace both excitement and grace with one another in our church. Change is a part of the natural growth of a person and a church. Yes, we can look fondly back on our childhood years, when we ran energetically around on cafeteria floors, and we can look forward with excitement to the amazing, mature life God is calling us into. At the same time, let’s embrace these current years when we are somewhere in the middle. Have grace with what hasn’t grown up yet. Rejoice in the progress that we have made. Recognize that the changes we are experiencing are normal and good–we are growing up. And no matter what stage of Redeemer it was that you joined the family, let us enjoy together these teen years of new friends, big decisions, and significant learning. Let the thumping of the heart of Redeemer give us comfort in its consistency and may it race a little faster in anticipation that the great things God has already done at Redeemer in every wonderful stage of its growth are also a preparation for all that he wants to do next–even if we still have pieces of lollipop stuck in our hair.
