Below is a list of the questions that we are commonly asked. Please also feel free to email us to ask anything which you feel is unclear, or other questions you may have. We would love to hear from you and answer any uncertainties you may have.
1. Why did you name the church “Redemption Hill Church”?
We believe that the church should be a loudhailer, a city on a hill, a people who cry out with the Apostle Paul ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel’. The salvation of our God made possible through the horrific death of his Son is what should be first and foremost on our minds and hearts. This in turn should lead us into sweet relationship with Him, and stir us to spend our lives for the sake of seeing the lost reconciled to Him.
What we wanted in a name:
1) An allusion to Christ’s death on the cross of Calvary, the central act of all history. It had to refer to our salvation, as we see this as being central to the church, not simply one part of the whole.
2) Something that nailed our colors to the mast. It had to be a representation of our deepest conviction regarding what God is doing through the church. ‘We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.’ The name reminds us of this redemption that we have and are to represent to the world.
3) A sense of being outward looking instead of inward focused. Redemption Hill implies something to which people can look and see an act of salvation. I hope it reminds us that we are people on mission, living for something greater than ourselves.
And that is why we decided to name the church ‘Redemption Hill Church’.
2. What is your view on church leadership?
We believe that the bible gives clear directions on how churches should be led. Biblically there are two offices in the New Testament church, those of elders and deacons. Churches are led by a team of men known as elders. This is a team of men who are called by God, recognized and ordained by men with an apostolic ministry and set in place to watch over the local church. We see biblically that there was team of elders in local churches, not just one elder. Their function includes shepherding God’s people, leading the church in terms of administration and overseeing the local body (Acts 20). Although men are ordained as elders, we strongly believe that husbands and wives are the first team that God puts together, and so we believe that wives should be included as much as is necessary for the perspective they have and for the gifts God has given to them. Deacons are those who serve the church predominantly in more practical ways, although according to scripture they contribute spiritually too. Both men and women are qualified to be deacons (Romans 16).
3. How are you different from other churches that identify themselves as being reformed?
A helpful way to summarize our convictions is that we hold to a reformed view of salvation. We believe that God is sovereign over all things, including the salvation of individual sinners, and that all things, including salvation, have as their ultimate goal the glory of God. Such a perspective keeps the gospel central and grace amazing. While we believe that traditional reformed theology generally represents Scripture well, our ultimate theological commitment is not to a particular system of theology, but to theology that is biblical. Theology is the pursuit of God that must lead us to deep reverence of Him, and love for Him. We certainly do not hold to some of the traditional reformed views, such as infant baptism and the cessation of the gifts.
4. Do you believe in the sovereignty of God in salvation and also in the gifts of the Spirit?
Yes we do! While such a combination is not common, it is by no means theologically inconsistent. Indeed, a robust view of the sovereignty of God suggests that believers can expect to regularly experience the active presence of God and work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The insistence that gifts such as prophecy were limited to the apostolic age most commonly arises from understandable concerns about the issue of revelation. Scripture is truly, and must remain, the only source of inspired, inerrant, authoritative revelation from God for the faith and life of the church. However, New Testament teaching regarding spiritual gifts in no way implies that the gifts necessarily endanger the role of Scripture in the church’s life. Our experience with spiritual gifts confirms this. The best way to prevent the undermining of Scripture’s authority is, quite simply, to maintain and teach a high view of Scripture. Scripture must be allowed to function in a way that demonstrates that it is indeed God’s normative revelation for the faith and life of the church. This includes allowing Scripture to govern the use of spiritual gifts. We strongly believe that, when the use of gifts is tested and governed by Scripture, two things will happen: God’s people will be edified by the proper functioning of the gifts in accord with God’s purposes, and Scripture will be protected as the only authoritative and normative rule and guide of all Christian life, practice, and doctrine.
5. What do you believe about spiritual gifts and the work of the Holy Spirit?
We hold to the continuity of all the spiritual gifts given to the church referred to in Scripture. We find nothing in Scripture that suggests that these gifts have passed away or will pass away prior to Christ’s return. Rather, Scripture portrays these gifts as available to believers and vital to the mission of the church. We want to be obedient to Scripture’s commands, not simply to acknowledge spiritual gifts, but to earnestly desire them (1 Corinthians 14:1). Thus, we believe in the present-day work of the Holy Spirit in the many ways that the Spirit’s work is described and manifested in Scripture. However, we are careful to emphasize the broad work of the Spirit. We never want to be preoccupied with the more spectacular aspects of the Spirit’s work to the neglect of the countless ways in which the Spirit is at work in our lives. Most importantly, nothing could be more spectacular, miraculous, or powerful than God’s work of regeneration in a person’s heart. We are desperate for the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
For more information on this, you can download Week 2 and 3 from the sermon series, ‘The Local Church in Acts’. Those two sermons are entitled ‘The Holy Spirit: God in us’ and ‘The Holy Spirit: God through us’. Some of the answers on the Spirit’s gifts were adapted from the website of Sovereign Grace Ministries (www.sovereigngraceministeries.org)