Below is what we are: ..............................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................. Gospel-First
Redemption Bible Church was founded on the belief that Jesus
Christ is the head of the church and that
the Gospel alone builds the
church. All true preaching either points
towards the Gospel, laying the groundwork for people to
receive Christ, or it proclaims those things that flow
from the Gospel as a benefit of
the cross.
Evangelism-Oriented
Because only the Gospel can be the power of God unto
salvation, Redemption's outreach ministries involve only
those mercy ministries that combine with evangelism.
However, most of our outreach efforts are entirely
evangelistic.
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Biblically-Modeled Preaching
The New Testament models three kinds of preaching:
1. Imparting the Faith.
Therefore we preach the essential doctrines. That's what you'll get from our "Foundations Series." [See
Statement of Faith]
2. Showing Christ in Every Scripture.
Therefore, our preaching is radically Christ-centric. We do this through our "Expository Series."
3. Shepherding and Topical Messages. Thus, we
look at the local body's needs and ask, "How can we minister to this church body
particularly?" That's the idea behind our "Shepherd Talks."
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A Community of Prayer
William E Sangster wisely said, "When you get to heaven
and realize all that prayer did on this earth, you will
be ashamed that you prayed so poorly." The Gospel of
Luke and the Book of Acts reveal that God's people, in
following the model set by Christ, are a people of
prayer. To be an Acts 1:8 supernatural people we must
ask of God for the success of our efforts. For only by
the power of God's Spirit are people drawn to Christ,
enlightened to see Christ's beauty, regenerated unto new
life, filled by the Spirit, and moved to walk in a
newness of holy living.
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A Community of Holiness
Christ saved us that He might make us holy both by
justification and by sanctification. By justification we
are freely reckoned to be holy through the perfect
righteousness of Christ gifted to us as if it were our
own righteousness. By sanctification, the Spirit of
Christ in us makes us more and more truly holy in faith,
desire, and actions. To this end, we define holiness
only by the terms described in Scripture and not by any
so-called "new movements" or extreme or rigid external
forms of holiness such as those condemned by Christ in
the lives of the Pharisees.
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Sound Theology
Our theology is closely inline with pastors and
preachers such as Alistair Begg, Paul Washer, Joel Beeke, John MacArthur, Voddie Baucham, and John Piper. [See
Statement of Faith].
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Contemporary and Theologically Sound Music
Because we understand that God is to be worshipped as he
commands, we worship with songs that derive their lyrics from Scriptural truths.
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Families Are Invited to Worship Together
Here we invite children to attend
with the adults for the main service. This doesn’t mean
that we don’t have a youth program led by formally trained teachers. We do (Read about it
here). It does mean that youth, adult, and
other age-group ministry happens in a church that also
strives for multi-generational interaction and unity.
United churches are finding allies among
seminaries such as the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary (see:
Al Mohler on Age Segregation) and well-known pastors
because of their proven efficacy
in promoting multi-generational faithfulness.
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Multi-Racial Unity
Redemption Bible Church seeks to model the church from every tongue and
every tribe and we embrace racial unity that is only
possible through Jesus Christ.
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Outreach Ministries
• Evangelism
•
Homebound Visitation
•
Hospice Spiritual Comfort Care
•
Homeless Mother Support
•
Human Trafficking Rescue
•
Adultery Crisis Counseling
•
Broken Marriage Counseling
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Tithes & Distribution
Many people want to know where tithes go.
Redemption Bible Church takes all general tithing (tithes
where the donor does not specify a specific fund) and
distributes it among the following purposes:
1 Currently supporting full-time missionaries
in Mexico (Matthew 28-16-20). 2 Seminary, missions, & college expenses (Matthew
9:38; 2 Timothy 2:2). 3 Utilities, administrative overhead,
payroll, travel, assets, insurance, etc. (Galatians
6:6).
Meet Our Team
....................................... Greg Thornberg
Teaching Pastor
Studied at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's Billy Graham School of Evangelism for his Masters of Divinity and is now pursuing his Doctorate of Ministry.
Greg is 51 years old, married to his beautiful wife Jennifer, and has 14 kids (birth and adopted) and 6 adorable grandchildren.
....................................... Josh Franklin
Teaching Pastor
Studied at Bible Study Fellowship
Discipleship Team
....................................... Brad Petzold
Discipleship Team
Studied Biblical Theology
Through Equip Ministries
....................................... Samuel Thornberg
Music Director
....................................... Corbin Schneeflock
Youth Discipleship
Biblical Studies Major at
Boyce College
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Q. Are you denominationally affiliated?
A. Yes. We are a Southern Baptist Church and adhere to the Baptist Faith and Message in addition to our other doctrinal positions listed on our "What We Believe" page.
Q. What version of the Bible do you recommend?
A. For younger readers and new believers, we highly
recommend the NIV. For most adult believers, we
recommend the ESV. And for academic study of the Bible,
we recommend the NASB. We read the ESV for our services.
Q. Are you Reformed or Arminian?
A. Our pastors are Reformed but we hold that Reformed and Arminian
Christians are within
orthodox Christianity. Our congregation is a mix of both. As such, we are eager to labor in
the Gospel with a variety of churches.
Q. Are small children allowed to be in the
service with me?
A. Absolutely. This is encouraged but not required. If
your children find it too difficult to sit through the
entire service, we will also work to have a family room
where you can let your small children play while you
listen to the sermon.
Q. Are you an expository sermon preaching
church?
A. Yes. This means that the points we preach must come
from the Scriptures themselves. We are not, however, a
strictly verse-by-verse preaching church. See our
"Biblically-Modeled Preaching" section above.
Q. Who teaches at your church?
A. RBC only has teachers and pastors who have been
formally trained either by churches, ministries, colleges, or seminaries.
These pastors and teachers have been affirmed by the
congregation who have seen these individuals walking
with the Lord faithfully for years, affirmed their
calling to ministry, affirmed their soundness of
doctrine, and affirmed their ability to teach. When
guest pastors and teachers come, these pastors and
teachers also meet the requirements above.
Q. Do you have church membership? Why and how
does it work?
A. Yes. Why have membership? Because the early church
leaders of the Bible recognized those who made a
credible profession of faith, evidenced by a new way of
life, and included them into the church. This is why we
consider membership to be biblical. Like the apostles,
we identify believers and include them in the local
church's work. Unbelievers were not admitted to be
members of the church, though they were always welcome
to come and hear the Gospel preached. Membership is for
believers who make a credible profession of faith, show
a credible change of life, and are rightly baptized
(i.e., were believers when receiving baptism).
Membership is voluntary and members are free to leave at any time
to join another church. The duties
of membership include the support of the entire church
(of both fellow members and staff) through sharing of
burdens, mutual edification, compassion, community
outreach, defense of the faith, and decision making for
the church. We also have members enter into a membership
covenant promising to uphold the biblical duties of all
fellow believers as commanded in Scripture (see
Membership
Covenant).
Q. Who is allowed to take communion at your
church?
A. It is our position that all who are old enough to make a credible
profession of faith, have been baptized as part of that
profession, and live a life demonstrating the fruits of
the born again nature may participate in communion and
are not required to be members of our church. However,
they must be faithful members of a true, orthodox, and
Gospel-preaching church.
Q. What is your official end times view?
A. Most of those teaching in our church are either historic premillennial like Charles Spurgeon,
John Piper, and Wayne Grudem or amillennial like R.C. Sproul, Joel Beeke, and Voddie Baucham. This is not to be
confused with forms of dispensationalism (most common
among KJV-only churches) some of which we hold to be
apostate views contrary to the Gospel. We are not a
dispensationalist church.
Q. One of your pastors has a LOT of kids. Are
you anti-birth control?
A. The size of your family is not a measure of holiness.
However, we do feel that most Christian families are not
open enough to having children and that birth control is
often used more than God would desire. We ought to agree
with God that children are a blessing (Psalm 127). The
idea that having fewer children is the path to
prosperity and blessedness is a decidedly secular belief that has harmed
the prosperity of many nations. That said, our church's
official stance on birth control is that Christians
should be more open to having children and should avoid
those forms of birth control that are abortifacient
(abortion / miscarriage-causing drugs and devices)
because God commands us not to kill. Because of this, we
believe that, if birth control is used, barrier method
birth control or rythm method brith control are to be
preferred and let each family follow their own
conscience as it pertains to family size.
Q. What are your thoughts on the LGBTQ+
community?
A. We have the same thoughts on this issue as we do
alcoholism, promiscuity, adultery, etc. . . . such were
some of us. But we were washed, we were sanctified, we
were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and
by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). The gospel invites all to repent of their
sins and to become members of the saved and sanctified church.
Q. Does your church teach the courtship model
for marriage and relationships?
A. Our answer is more nuanced than a simple yes or no
answer. We answer it here because we have ministered to
many young couples who have been traumatized and/or
confused by this well-intentioned movement and wonder
what God's will is for relationship. First, there are two courtship
movements--hyper-patriarchal and self-imposed courtship
models. Our opinion of them both is found below.
The Hyper-Patriarchal Courtship Model
The first is a hyper-patriarchal courtship model
based on a poor interpretation of Numbers 30:3-5. In
this model, a father "remains in authority over his
daughters" even when she is an adult.
We reject this
courtship model. Numbers 30 does not say
that the father has authority over adult children.
Rather, it says that the father has authority over her
"in her youth." The Bible affirms authority of fathers
over all "children" (sons and daughters) in their youth
(Ephesians 6:1; hence the word "children").
We affirm the
authority of parents over minors. However, we reject the
authority of parents over adults.
Further, a person who asserts authority where they do
not have authority is practicing tyranny. So we reject
the hyper-patriarchal model because it is an exercize in
abuse of authority. Also, where tyranny exists and is
wielded in the name of God you have spiritual abuse. So
we reject this model because it is an exercize of
spiritual abuse and brings disrepute on the name of
Christ. Finally, this model in practice usually ends in
disaster and broken families. We say this based on our
personal experience of helping young adult men and women
navigate coming out of this culture. The
hyper-patriarchal courtship movement has the tendency to
destroy the relationships between parents and adult
children and leaves life-long emotional, spiritual, and
relational scars by many who practice it. So we reject
this model because it is destructive. There are several
other serious problems related to this model that lead
us to reject it, but we do not have time to ellaborate
on all of them (anti-Gospel mindset, cult-like authority
of parents, almost marriage-like commitments required of
young men prior to engangement, arbitrary parental
expectations imposed on a couple, an almost
hostage-negotiation-like feel for young women, the
inability of young couples to really get to know each
other due to an inability to be open and honest,
legalism, joylessness, depression, de facto prohibition
of marriage in some cases, and more).
The Self-Imposed Courtship Model
The second courtship model is the self-imposed
courtship model. This model is not imposed by
parents but by the individual upon themselves. The idea
behind this model is to avoid excessive emotional and
relational entanglements until one is sure that a
prospective mate is ideal for marriage. This model aims
to maintain purity, be ready for the duties of marriage,
avoid "recreational dating," honor parents, and
thoroughly examine prospective mates before becoming
emotionally attached and engaged.
Whilewe agree with
many of the goals of this model,
some elements of this
model are unbiblical. For example, some couples in this
model withhold emotions until they are engaged to marry.
The problem with this is that when they decide to get
engaged it requires a person to make a promise to marry
(i.e., get engaged) prior to establishing that one
person loves the other. Because love is required in
marriage, we hold that it is sinful to promise to marry
someone prior to determining whether or not one person
will fulfill the duty to love the other. Love for one
another should be firmly established prior to an
engagement. We are not opposed to the term courtship and
we feel fond of this term, but it is our desire to seek
biblical balance. Our
position is that Christians should maintain the things
of the self-imposed courtship model that agree with
God's Word (purity, readiness, etc.) while rejecting
those things that do not (sterile emotionless evaluation
of a mate, etc.).And given the many
different ways people righteously got married in the
Bible,[a] we should avoid a rigid one-size-fits-all
approach to relationships and marriage.
What young adults should do is apply biblical principles
(love, purity, readiness, etc.) to every unique
relationship opportunity that arises and to expect that
the application of these biblical principles may vary
depending on the circumstances.
[a] There isn't a
one-size-fits-all marriage model. Isaac's marriage was
arranged. Jacob worked for his. Moses got his by means
of chivalry. Ruth's was initiated by the woman. David
got his bride as a reward. It's time to stop talking
about THE "biblical model" as if there's only one.
