Good Friday 2013 Public Launch Planned for The Redemption Movement!

We are happy to announce that we are on track for a Good Friday public launch for March 29, 2013! This will also be day number 30 of our 30 Days of Kindness project. Good Friday will be huge day for The Redemption Movement because it will mark the beginning of a weekly Friday night ministry for our Oneonta community. Up until this point, we have been active with an Acts of Kindness ministry, and discipled a small group of people with a home Bible study, but we have always lacked an entry point to our church where people from the public can plan a visit around. Starting March 29, you will be able to visit The Redemption Movement any Friday night in our remodeled storefront at 148 River St., Oneonta, N.Y.

A Friday evening is an unconventional time to launch a church service, but as a new church, we have the freedom to be unconventional in order to better connect with our culture. To help you know what to expect on a Friday visit to The Redemption Movement, we are going to answer a few frequently asked questions.

Isn't church supposed to be on a Sunday? Why is the RM launching on a Friday?

Church can be any day. The early church actually met every day, and even met in each other's homes. Sunday is an important day in the tradition of the church, but it is not the only day church is allowed to meet. We would also like to point at that Sunday morning services are a part of our long term plan; we hoping that a Friday ministry will build a solid group of people who can lead quality Sunday morning church services in the future.
As a new church, we have a strong focus on inviting new people to church. People who are attending a church on Sunday morning, already belong to a community of believers; and as a new church, we do not want to break up existing faith communities by "stealing" people away from other local churches. We have also noticed that it is difficult to invite people who are not in the habit of attending church, to come to a Sunday morning church service. We have also noticed that most people in our culture have Friday evenings off, and they are open to trying new activities while "going out," especially in a small town.

What will Friday evenings at The Redemption Movement look like? 

Our Friday evening ministry is an exciting attempt to try a new format of ministry designed to maximize all five ministries that we see the early church doing (unconventionally) in Acts 2:42-47. These five ministries include Worship, Prayer, Fellowship, Discipleship, and Evangelism.
Our Friday night ministry can be described as a coffee shop/living room/church service hybrid. We are trying to make church a full and rich experience where you come and connect with people and God, instead of simply watching a performance.

Click Here to Watch a Short Video About What Kind of Church We Are

What time does it start?

Tentatively, we are looking at starting at 6pm. Unlike a traditional church service, there will not be a start time and a stop time, instead there will be an open and close time, and we will close late into the night. This approach will give you the freedom to come and go at your convenience, stay for 30 minutes or even stay for 5 hours if you like. You can now plan on attending church around your previously made Friday commitments, and never again be late to church!

Do I have to participate? 

You will not be forced to sing or pray or do anything that you are uncomfortable with. You can even hang out in the lobby and eat snacks and play games all night, the choice is up to you. On the other hand, there is also room to participate in everything, to be prayed for and pray for others, to participate in group discussions, and worship for an extended period of time.
We want people's experiences to be authentic, and although we do no pressure people to participate, we do encourage it. This is because the Friday night model is an attempt to break away from the church service model where you attend, sit and consume preaching and music and then go home without being challenged. Friday nights at The Redemption Movement will provide people lots of opportunities to participate and even ask tough questions to help people grow in their faith.  

Do I need to dress up?

Come as you are. The staff will be wearing jeans and you can wear what you want to. We want to make it possible to visit us after work on Friday, without having to go home get "all prettied up."

Will I be preached at?

Instead of a preacher talking at you for 45 minutes, there will be 3 sessions where a Pastor will teach for 15-20 minutes each. After each teaching session, there will be a time set aside for group discussion, prayer, worship, or anything else that may be appropriate based on the theme of the night. Between these sessions we will take breaks to encourage fellowship and build relationships. Get to know everybody over a cup of coffee, snacks, or even make a friend while playing a board game.
As a Bible based church, the topic will always be teachings from the Bible, applied practically to your life. The teaching style of the Pastor will be casual, similar to a college lecture, and will often incorporate illustrations with both props and media.    

What kind of music will there be?

There will be a variety of music. Before each teaching session, we will play a few songs with the words on a screen for you to follow along with. Many of the songs will be modern, but we are also very open to trying out different styles and different genres of music. In fact, some nights we will try out different art-forms to worship with besides music. Looking at creation, we know God enjoys variety. 

Will you be asking me for money?

We will not pass a collection plate with an Usher watching over you. But we will have a giving box where you can drop off a donation. We may talk about money from time-to-time during the lessons, but it is not our intention to manipulate people into giving.

What about Communion (Lord's supper/Eucharist)? 

We will be offering communion most Friday nights. Typically, it will be sometime during the second half of the night. Anybody who considers themselves a follower of Christ is free to take Communion with us. Instructions will be provided during the Lord's Supper, and we will be serving grape juice with bread. 

What about children?

We will have educational activities provided for kids. If a child is mature enough to participate, then we encourage them to learn and worship alongside their parents.
  
Good Friday 2013 is a very appropriate day for The Redemption Movement to begin public ministry, this is because we are a Gospel-centered church, and everything we do is because of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ sacrificing himself on the cross. This will be the topic of our grand opening, as well as the topic every time we meet.

The Redemption Movement on Facebook!

This October we are launching our Facebook page www.facebook.com/TheRedemptionMovement in order to better connect with people. We plan for The Facebook page to be our most frequently updated media, so we encourage you "Like" us if you wish to stay current with news and announcements.

We will still use this blog, and it will continue to be our primary webpage until we get a real website. We hope to keep updating the blog with articles a few times a month, while the Facebook page will have multiple updates per week and act as a networking tool for church events.

Whichever medium you prefer, all of our digital efforts are one big attempt to connect with you! See you on the book of faces!

Seasons of Ministry, Spring & Summer 2012 Recap

The pace of this Oneonta mission seems to be like waves of activity that change with the seasons.

• In the spring of 2012 we had a big push with our outreach ministry: doing funnel cake giveaways, throwing a neighborhood block party, and hosting a free rock show.
•  Summer and fall of 2012 we shifted gears and focused on the remodeling of our building, working mostly on the ceiling: new lights, new insulation, and stabilizing the structure. 
• During these seasons, we also cleared some major administrative hurdles, electing a board of officers and filing 501c3 paperwork for the IRS in order to achieve nonprofit status with the Federal Government.

We have found one of the challenges of church planting as tent-makers (ministers who support themselves with an outside job) is that it forces us to pick one ministry to focus on per season. This means it is hard to accomplish ministries like outreach, worship services, administrative duties, dynamic Bible studies, and remodeling work all at the same time. Ministering part time forces you to pick one area, give it lots of love and attention, and then move on to the next area that has the biggest need.

This fall and winter we plan to get back into doing more community outreach ministry (this is really where our hearts are at), but there is still a lot of work on the building yet to do. We have plans to launch for Good Friday 2013, hopefully as the building becomes more ready for people, it will become easier to find time to ramp up outreach efforts and promotional activities for the 2013 launch.

         

May Weather Rock Show!

We would like to thank the rock band May Weather for stopping by The Redemption Movement and playing their hearts out in the summer heat for over 1.5 hours!

June 21 Free Rock Show!

The Redemption Movement is pleased to welcome, for the first time to Oneonta NY, May Weather! May Weather will be playing a free show on Thursday, June 21 at 6pm. The band is from Hagersville MD, and is including Oneonta on the first leg of their summer tour.
May Weather is a 7 piece rock/ska/swing/swag band, they bring lots of energy and variety to their shows, and it is almost impossible not to dance along to their catchy tunes. They have released two EP's, and most importantly, they are just some of the nicest young men you will meet.
This is the second show hosted by The Redemption Movement, and we look forward to more shows as we develop a heart for the arts (God is an artist) as well as using our space as a community center that brings people together for good times and good music.

June 17 Meet & Greet!

Sunday, June 17, 6pm, we will be hosting the last information meeting of the season. This will be held at the Pastor's apartment at 148 River St, or downstairs in the storefront if more space is needed. A free meal will be provided, followed by a presentation on the church. Please RSVP by either calling Kaler @ (607) 434-2564, or emailing: kalerandlaura@yahoo.com

If you are checking out The Redemption Movement for the first time because of a newspaper advertisement then welcome! We are a new church in Oneonta and we are in the early stages of doing the work it takes to open our doors for services, and because we currently lack public church services, we prefer to introduce ourselves with information meetings-where we fellowship around a meal and lay out the vision and needs of the church with a multimedia presentation.
We are currently trying to build a team of helpers to assist in the work of the church. Our current plan is to prepare people with regular discipleship and ministry for the next year so we can publicly launch as a church on Easter 2013.
If you have any interest or curiosity about our church and how you might fit in, then I highly encourage you to attend the information meeting where all of your questions can be answered, you can also meet the Pastors, and at the very least you will get a free meal out of the deal!

We Know How to Party!

The block party for the 6th Ward neighborhood in Oneonta NY was a success!

A big thank you goes out to everyone who volunteered their time to help set up and those who donated money, supplies, and food. We also want to thank the two rock bands, Atlas Arrows and Lightning Killed My Parents, for breakin' in the old storefront with some quality rock-n-roll. And let us not forget Laura Carpenter who made her musical debut as a solo artist.

All-in-all, there were over 70 people in attendance, and everybody seemed to really enjoy themselves. People in the community now know more about our little church and what we are about, whereas previously we might have only been known as, "I think somebody  is turning that old building into a church."  It was also nice to see neighbors coming together and building friendships, in this way the block party truly is a classic picture of community.

Prayer also played a big part with the success of the party. The power of prayer was most obviously seen with the weather. It was forecasted  to rain all day, and it did. It was also raining the previous day as well--when we went door-to-door to pass out invitations. And sure enough, 2 hours before the party was scheduled to start the storm passed and the weather cleared, just in time to set up a dry bounce house, and it remained
dry and even sunny throughout the entire party.

The party is also encouraging for us in that it forced us to work hard on certain projects needed to be done in order to host such an event, i.e., install a sink and toilet, lights, outlets, and a bathroom door. We are by no means done with our building project, but we are excited to finally be at a point were we can host more events like this for the community. With that said I encourage you to keep checking the blog for more updates on what we have planned next for The Redemption Movement, and please feel free to contact us if you want to be a part of our next event!

1st Church of the Funnel Cake

If you are visiting our blog because you happened across a friendly face next to a truck giving away delicious funnel cakes while going about your business in Oneonta NY, then welcome! Mmmmm, funnel cake...

...mmm, that was a good one. So, yes, this April and May we are packing the truck, firing up the fryer, and canvassing the town to give away funnel cakes! We have a twofold purpose to this: One, we love going out into our community and showing people the love of God in practical ways, such as serving needs and giving away goodies. We call this our Acts of Kindness Ministry. It is a fun way to serve, and we have been doing a variety of AOK projects ever since 2010. The funnel cake outreach has been particularly fun, watching people walk by our "Free Funnel Cake" sign, do a double take, and say "Seriously!" ...mmm, everybody seems to enjoy biting into a crisp, sugary...

...oh, sorry. Where was I? Right. The second purpose with our funnel cake outreach is to meet people and tell them about God and our church. This outreach works out especially well for this purpose because it takes a few minutes to fry up a funnel cake; time we use to engage in conversation. Nine times out of ten we get the opportunity to talk about God's love and the church because people are always a bit skeptical as to, "What's the catch?" We've found the conversational route to be non-intrusive, and if someone doesn't feel like talking about religion, they don't have to.

This simple funnel cake outreach is important to us in regards to launching the church. Before we launch the church, we want to develop a launch team. Hopefully, this team will come from people that we'll meet while doing outreach activities, like giving away funnel cakes. The plan is to "funnel" interested people to information meetings where they can learn more about the vision and the plan of the church. When it comes down to it, using our God-entrusted resources to give away funnel cakes and talk to people face-to-face seems like a smarter, healthier, and more enjoyable way to meet people, spread God's love, and promote the church than traditional marketing techniques.

So keep your eyes peeled Oneonta, and be on the look out for our 1977 two-tone blue "Mobile Ministry Machine" and fryer. Or, simply follow your nose! Mmm....

We Are Having Ourselves a Block Party!

Event: 6th Ward Block Party
Date: Tues., May 15
Address: The Redemption Movement, 148 River St., Oneonta, NY
Time: 3-7pm, (bands begin at 5pm)
Admission: Free, all ages.
Description: The Redemption Movement would like to introduce ourselves to our Oneonta neighborhood, the 6th ward, by hosting a family-friendly block party!
Parking: Gilbert Street (walking and carpooling is highly encouraged), After 5:15pm additional parking will also be available at Oneonta Christian Community School.
Activities: Live music, chili cook off, more food, bounce house, games and more! (Bring your own chair is you want to sit)
Live Bands:

Lightning Killed My Parents

The Redemption Movement is pleased to welcome Lightning Killed My Parents for their first show in Oneonta! LKMP is "a 9 piece ska/rock band from Fredonia, NY. Formed in late 2010, this band is based on three concepts: having fun, playing music, and producing enough energy to make the crowd pass out from sheer excitement."

Atlas Arrows

Also showing up for the party is the indie rock/alternative band Atlas Arrows! Hailing from the booming suburbs of Binghamton NY, Atlas Arrows began in the Fall of 2011 and includes former members of local indie band Where's Ulysses. In January of 2012 they released two songs now available for free download, and they are looking forward to touring and sharing their music with you.

Purpose: We want to be a blessing to Oneonta! Our heart is to be a church for the community, this means we value using our resources to bring people together, thus making our community stronger. A block party is intended to be a fun event where neighbors can come together and fellowship with each other. And in today's digital age, where it is easy to have hundreds of facebook "friends" without even knowing one's physical neighbors, we are excited to provide an event that creates an opportunity for neighbors to be introduced to each other for maybe even the first time. And in this spirit of friendly introductions, we at The Redemption Movement would like to introduce ourselves to our neighbors! We have been making plans and improving this old storefront of ours since 2009, and we now feel that we are finally in a position to open the doors to our work-in-progress and introduce ourselves to the community we love. This party is by no means our official launch (we are planning to launch Easter 2013); in fact, our facilities are still under construction--so please look past our mess, but the desire to host an event that blesses our community is so strong that we simply cannot wait until 2013! So construction messes and sound system glitches be darned, we are throwing ourselves a block party!

Update: The party was a success!

Great Church Values

Valuing the 8 Values of The Redemption Movement

In 2009-2010 we put into words a church mission statement, a ministry approach, and long term plan. In 2012, we realized that we were missing a key element to our church identity: Values. Now, with a newly-minted official set of values, we hope to strengthen all of our ministry visions and plans.

Any random group of people can be given a singular task, and everybody can start off energized to see the task completed; but, unless every person equally values the same truths, conflicts will naturally arise, and the task (and even the group itself) will fall apart.

Moreover, having every group member share the same values still isn't good enough. Churches provide us with a clear example of this. It's painfully obvious that there are too many different church groups to keep track of, yet they all share the same Christian doctrines, and even values to a lesser extent. Despite this, people of shared faith are able to find significant enough differences to justify division. I suggest that church divisions aren't for a lack of believing in good doctrine, or even holding similar values; instead, churches divide because they value certain values more than others. A valuing your values, if you will.

Therefore, it's important for a faith community to prioritize their values. As recommend in Philippians 1:27 and 2:2: "stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel." "...then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. (NIV)" Considering how important strong church values are, here are the 8 values of The Redemption Movement, ranked from 1-8:


1. We are centered on the truth of the Gospel.
Mark 8:34-35, Acts 20:24, Romans 1:16-17, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

2. We are striving to grow in Christ-like character.
Romans 13:14, Colossians 3:9-15, Philippians 2:3-5

3. We are authentic in our worship.
John 4:23-24, Romans 15:17, 1 Corinthians 10:31

4. We are committed to healthy relationships.
Leviticus 19:18, John 13:34, 1 Thessalonians 4:9, 1 Peter 1:22

5. We are empowered and gifted to be servants.
Acts 1:8, 1 Corinthians 12,13, 2 Corinthians 13:4, Galatians 5:13

6. We are creatively influencing culture for good.
Genesis 1:25-29, 31, Romans 2:6-7, 12:2

7. We are compassionate towards our community.
Matthew 25:35-36, Luke 14:15-24, James 1:27

8. We are simple in both lifestyle and methods.
Matthew 6:19-34, Mark 10:17-31, 12:41-44, Luke 16:1-15

The interesting thing about values is that, whether they're written down or not, they exist in a person's heart. Making a clearly defined list serves to strengthen a person's values. Even though we waited until 2012 to make our official list, these values were actually surfacing in our hearts back in 2009. Defining and ranking our church values has been a valuable and revealing experience and I'm sure it will make us a stronger church.

I encourage individuals to soul-search and create their own value list, and if your values happen to line up with the values of The Redemption Movement, then I invite you to join us and "contend as one man for the faith of the gospel."

What We Believe

The Bible

We believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God. To summarize the Bible, it is a special revelation of the character of God and His plan to redeem the world through Jesus Christ. The original writings were inerrant, infallible, and God breathed. God has purposed the Bible to be the final authority for faith and life, and He has overseen the events of history to piece together the canon (the 66 books) as we have it today. The revelation of the Bible is complete and no other teachings are to share in the same authority.

2Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Matthew 5:18; John 16:12-13; Psalms 1:1-3; 1 Corinthians 14:37

The Triune God

We believe in one God who has revealed Himself in three eternally existing persons-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit co-eternal in being and in nature, co-equal in power and glory, having the same attributes and perfections.

Deuteronomy 6:4; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 Peter 1:2; John 1:1-4; Matthew 3:16-17; 28:19

God the Father

We believe God the Father is uncreated, eternal in nature, unchanging, and the Creator of all things, both seen and unseen. He is omnipotent (He has all power and authority), omnipresent (fully present everywhere), and omniscient (all knowing). God is Holy (all good) and He is over all creation as well as involved personally in the lives of every person and all events. God reveals himself to every person through His creation and peoples’ consciences, and He has specially revealed Himself through His Word and His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus and the Holy Spirit share equally in these attributes, and are both in submission to God the Father.

Romans 1:20; Isaiah 6:3; Psalms 19:1-4; 90:2; 139:7-10; Revelation 1:8; Deuteronomy 10:14

Jesus Christ

We believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, uncreated, eternal and co-equal with the Father. Being obedient to the Father, Jesus temporarily set aside His divine glory and fully took on human flesh, while at the same time remaining fully God. Jesus did this with the purpose of sacrificing his life as an act of final atonement for the sins of man, making forgiveness and citizenship into God’s Kingdom possible through belief and submission unto his Lordship.

Jesus was born of Mary, a virgin birth, conceived by the Holy Spirit. He spent his life ministering to people, preaching the Kingdom of God, fulfilling the Old Testament prophesies regarding the Jewish Messiah, and discipeling the believers who would make up His church.

He was crucified on a cross after being condemned by the Jewish and Roman authorities. After three days he rose bodily from the dead, appeared to his disciples and ascended into heaven where he is now exalted at the right hand of God.

Jesus currently ministers as our high priest before God as our representative, intercessor, and advocate.

Luke 1:35; Romans 3:22-26; 1 Peter 1:3-5; Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Acts 1:9-10; Hebrews 7:25-26; Luke 24

The Holy Spirit

We believe the Holy Spirit is a person of the God-head and as such, is co-equal with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; and, that he is the supernatural agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ, indwelling and sealing them unto the day of redemption.

The Holy Spirit ministers to the church today, continuing the ministry of Jesus Christ. He empowers believers to minister the Gospel, and bestows spiritual gifts to the church for the purpose of edification and evangelism. These supernatural giftings and the personal experiences a believer has with the Holy Spirit are always consistent with the testimony of Scripture.

John 3:5-18; 16:5-15; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; 14:12, 26; Acts 1:5; Romans 8:9; Ephesians 5:18;

The Church

We believe the church is universal (made up of all believers from every age), and local. The church is established by Jesus and he relates to the church similar to how a loving husband relates to his wife. Jesus is the head of the church, and as such He is actively involved in the churches ministry, including the establishment of a leadership structure with the offices prescribed in the New Testament, and discipline within the church; also, as the body of Christ, the church is to be Jesus’ representative on Earth until his physical return, this includes the responsibility of making Christ known.

The church is composed of those who believe in Christ, and offers believers a community for discipleship, prayer, worship, evangelism, and fellowship. Specific ministries to be administered by the church, which are prescribed by the Bible, are the Lord’s supper and water baptism. Participation in, and submission to a local church is an essential component of a believers faith.

Ephesians 1:22-23; 4:11-13; 5:25-27; 1 Corinthians 12:12-14; Acts 2:42-47; Matthew 18:15-20

Sin

We believe mankind and all of creation were originally created by God as good, man was made special in the likeness and image of God. Due to Adams sin, and because we are all descendants of Adam, every person is born with a sinful nature that separates them from God, who is holy and perfect in nature. This sin nature makes it impossible for a person to relate to God on a one’s own strength, will, and merits. The original sin was so severe that is also affected all of creation.

Genesis 1:26-27; 3:1-19; Romans 3:22-23; 5:12, 18-19; 8:8; Ephesians 2:1-3, 12; James 2:10-11

Salvation

We believe salvation is a gift from God, made available to every person, “whosever believes.” Each member of the Godhead has a part in a persons salvation. The Father predestined those who would be saved and sent Jesus his only Son, Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross to pay the price of salvation and intercedes to the Father on the believers behalf, and the Holy Spirit convicts a sinners heart of the truth and regenerates and baptizes them into the body of Christ upon belief in Jesus’ Lordship. Salvation is possible because the atonement sacrifice of Jesus’ blood satisfies the wrath of God, which is the penalty of sin from a Holy God. Receiving salvation justifies a believer before God, because now a person stands before God taking on the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Repentance of one’s own sins must take place before a person receives salvation. A persons decision to repent and believe, and God’s role of predestination, work miraculously and mysteriously together for salvation to take place.

Ephesians 1:4-7; John 1:12-13; 3:16-18; 1 Peter 1:18-21; Galatians 2:20; Acts 20:21; 2 Corinthians 7:10

Christian Living

We believe that after the event of salvation, the redeemed believer is kept by God’s power through the indwelling Holy Spirit, and thus the new believer has security and assurance in their salvation. This assurance stems from a persons new spiritual position found in Christ Jesus. A believer’s new standing before God should become ones new life identity and should therefore effect every attitude and decision one makes. This new identity should produce a life that looks completely different from a believer’s old life, as if one was born again. God is actively involved in the life of a believer, making salvation out to be a process. This process is called sanctification: where the Holy Spirit continually works in a persons life to shape them more and more into the image of Christ, up until the point of death where they will be free from the influences of sin.

A believer will still battle with sin and the flesh, and therefore must live a life of repentance, and submission to God. Concerning the hardships and struggles of life, God has promised to keep and never leave or forsake his children, and therefore a believer with authentic faith can endure all trials and temptations with God’s help. The believers responsibility therefore, is not to analyze the authenticity of everyone's salvation, but to instead live out their own faith by trusting God.

Christian living means always living in tension. This tension is found between the command to be called out from the world and live holy lives, and the command to go out and be a witness to the world in which one lives. Living out either extreme can produce a life of legalism, or a life that is subject to the desires of the flesh, both of these ways are contrary to the Gospel. Guidance on living out the tension of the Christian life within culture can be found in the church, in relationships with others who are also living the same tension, and the Bible.

Romans 8:1; 1 John 3:2; 1 Peter 1:22-23; John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Romans 8:1,38-39; James 4:4

The Return

We believe Jesus has promised to physically return to earth to establish His kingdom, and His return is immanent. When Christ returns, He will come in great power and authority along with all of Heaven, and the believers will be physically transformed to take part in this new Kingdom. A universal resurrection of all people will take place, where people will stand judgment before Jesus, which will result in “every knee bowing” before the Lord; and sin, evil, and Satan will be eliminated, making possible a new creation with a new heaven and a new earth where Jesus will reign as King.

Psalms 72:8-14; Matthew 24:27-51; 1 Corinthians 15:23-28; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-5:4; Revelation 21-22