Vision and Mission
Vision | Mission | Principles | Redeemer History
Redeemer Lincoln Square is a part of the Redeemer family of churches and ministries that began in 1989. Below, you'll find information about our church and why we exist, our core values and principles as well as the broader history of Redeemer.
“So there was great joy in the city.” — Acts 8:8
Vision
To joyfully live as reflections of God’s love together in the city.
Mission
1. Be a church that's not for ourselves, but for others;
2. Value questions and the people who ask them;
3. Be a place where members of our community are known, loved and cared for.
Principles
We seek to carry out our vision and core values by being a congregation that focuses on the following vision principles:
Gospel Beauty | Deep Life Change | Public Faith | Community | Cultural Renewal | Movement
1. Gospel Beauty
The gospel changes everything, believers and unbelievers alike. Not only is the gospel the solution to our spiritual problems, but also our societal problems. However, we will seek not just to understand it, but also to experience it. The beauty of Christ and his work, which the gospel points to, will inevitably transform and change us.
2. Deep Life Change
The gospel reorders the loves of the heart, and since we are what we love, the only way to change us deeply is to change what we worship. We will seek deep life change not just through preaching and worship, but when we are discipled through spiritual experience and deeper relationships.
3. Public Faith
The beauty of the gospel compels us to share with our friends, neighbors, and associates the good news that addresses all the needs of the world. First, this means we will actively cultivate redemptive relationships with non-Christians and invite them to church (Lk. 5:29). Second, we will be determinedly conscious of and welcoming to non-Christians in our midst (I Cor. 14:23-25). Third, we will communicate not just what we believe but why, in a way that invites questions, engages people in dialogue, and allows processing.
4. Community
The gospel creates a new community, which means our relationships with one another will change from consumer to family relationships. We will live out changed lives through hospitality and deeds of love and kindness in and through community.
5. Social Healing/Cultural Renewal
The gospel changes our attitude toward the city and therefore the Westside of Manhattan. We will love and respect the city for its diverse peoples allowing us to care and address social problems and value all forms of work and cultural production that brings about human flourishing.
6. Movement
The gospel continually breaks out because the kingdom of God is gradually but inexorably growing (Mt. 13:1-23; 11: 12). Therefore, we will emphasize leadership development and empowerment in order to send Christians out to start churches with the same gospel-based core values into every neighborhood of New York City. It will take a movement to serve the city so we will network and partner with a great variety of churches and ministries to see the gospel spread.
Redeemer History
In early 1989, a group of 15 people began meeting weekly in an Upper East Side apartment. Their purpose was to pray about starting a new church in the heart of Manhattan for professional New Yorkers. One of their concerns was that new believers were finding it difficult to locate a church they could attend, a church that was open to people who were seeking answers regarding their faith, and where they felt secure in bringing their friends who were skeptical about matters of faith. Because Dr. Timothy Keller had already been designated by the Mission to North America Committee of the Presbyterian Church in America to investigate the needs of New York City and the possibility of church planting here, he began meeting with this prayer group.
