Membership

Would you like to join Redeemer as a member of the church?

Our membership process is intentionally thorough, because we would like to ensure you have the opportunity to get to know our vision, values, and who we are, as well as what is expected of a member at Church of the Redeemer before joining. The membership process consists of three steps:
1. Discovering Redeemer class
2. Catechumenate group
3. Confirmation

You can read more about each of these steps below!

Part One: Discovering Redeemer

Our Discovering Redeemer course is an introduction to all things Church of the Redeemer, and a basic introduction to Anglicanism in general! We meet for a 4 hour intensive to introduce you to Redeemer—especially to our Parish, Park, Farm, and Abbey vision—and let you know how you can get connected here! We get into many more of the details of the history and theology of Anglicanism in the next step of the process (our catechumenate course), but we go over it a bit to give you a starting point.

Part Two: Catechumenate

Catechumenate (pronounced cat-uh-que-men-ate): a period of instruction that serves as a foundational piece of community and an introduction to full involvement at Church of the Redeemer.
The word catecheo comes from the Greek word 'to instruct'. In the older church, everyone coming into the life of a church body had to go through a period of instruction (often called the catechumenate) where you would learn the basics of the faith. We have returned to this older model because we see the wisdom in it.
We meet during our Connections nights on Wednesdays so that we can fellowship over a potluck meal before heading off to our classes. Over 6 months, we walk through two parts of catechumenate: first we go through Anglican Way and 30 Minute Bible, and secondly we go through To Be A Christian. For everyone who completes this process, it opens the door for joining Redeemer as a member through confirmation and participating in the full life of the church.

Part Three: Confirmation

Our membership process comes to its fulfillment in our membership meeting and confirmation. Confirmation is an ancient practice of the church of laying on of hands to confirm the baptism of Christian believers and equip and empower them for ministry in Christ’s church. As an Anglican church Redeemer we hold to the historic office of bishops who carry apostolic authority and responsibility to lead and serve the church. The laying on of hands by bishops follows the apostles’ practice of laying on of hands for the filling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17). Through this, followers of Jesus are equipped and empowered to serve according to their gifts and callings in the ministry of Christ’s church.
Before confirmation happens during a Sunday morning service, we meet with those in the membership process for a membership meeting with pastoral interviews, final discussions regarding membership, and signing of membership commitments.