How Redeemer is trying to advance the kingdom
When you tell someone about Redeemer Church London, one of the first questions you might be asked is about what denomination or group we belong to.
Well, here’s your answer - we are part of the ‘Advance’ network, which is a growing partnership of about 150 churches based across five continents.
Advance is a relatively new movement which was set up about a decade ago when the charismatic Newfrontiers network was split into different sections.
Among the group’s overarching goals are to see churches established worldwide which support communities, train leaders and grow in a healthy way.
Advance officially defines itself as ‘movement of churches joining together to advance the Gospel of Jesus through planting and strengthening churches’.
While it sits within the broader tradition of Protestant Reformed churches, many parts of services are similar to those in Baptist churches – such as baptising adults.
Redeemer is also involved in the Advance UK Church Planting Course (ACPC) which helps with training, resourcing and sending people to set up new churches.
In addition, we join with other churches at the annual Advance UK & Europe Conference - most recently held at London’s Westminster Chapel last November.
And Redeemer also sends a delegation to the Advance Global Gathering – with the 2026 event held in Cape Town in March. It’s all part of our work in building churches together.
For more information about the work of Advance, you can visit their website here.
Week of Prayer - Advance Prayer Focus - Day 3
On Day 3 of our Advance Prayer Points series, we encourage you to pray for churches and church planters here in the UK and across the world.
This week it’s a Week of Prayer at Redeemer, and over the next three days we’re going to be highlighting areas within the Advance sphere of churches, which you can be praying for!
Today we’re asking you to pray for the Holy Spirit to move powerfully in two ways, in the life of a church leader struggling with serious health issues, and by equipping those across the world who are passionate about church planting.
Pray for Dar Es Salaam
Sheshi and Trudie Kaniki, along with their wonderful eldership team lead God's Tribe Church in Dar es Salaam. Sheshi is currently battling cancer, and we would love you to pray for them personally as well as for their church - here's what they are trusting God for:
- Please pray for Sheshi as he is starting what is scheduled to be his last round of chemo. As well as wisdom and peace moving forward as he considers treatment options.
- Continued prayer for Sheshi and Trudie's children, that this season, although stretching and hard, would be for the strengthening of their faith.
- Pray that the Spirit would continue to move and work in God's Tribe as whole and in the lives of individuals as they increase their focus on evangelism and outreach.
Pray for the Advance Church Planters Course
The Advance Church Planters Course (ACPC) exists to equip leaders both theologically and practically to plant and lead Gospel-centred, missional, Spirit-empowered and reproducing churches. It has been so wonderful to see the batches of leaders come through the course over the years, as well as the churches who have benefitted from this strengthening and training!
The course is currently offered in the UK, the US and in South Africa. Pete Cornford from Redeemer London, Tom Taping from One Harbour, and Dave Adams from Jubilee, oversee each hub's course respectively. We recently caught up with them to hear about the current participants and modules.
"We are so grateful for the technology that allows us to meet online when we can't meet in person. The whole program can continue. We can also draw on speakers from around the country and further afield! It's been hard because the peer relationships are not being formed, so that is limited when we are meeting online, we are trusting that we can soon return to that!" - Dave Adams, South African ACPC
Pete Cornford, who coordinates ACPC in the UK, celebrated this being the first time participants had gathered physically in the same place together.
Prayer Points
- Pray for current participants of ACPC as some gear up to plant.
- Pray for 'would-be' participants, that God would add to the course and use this content to equip and encourage many church planting couples and families. ( On the 17th of July, the UK hub is hosting an online event for people to learn more about planting with Advance.)
- Pray for God to continue to raise up future church planters for the next generation.
Week of Prayer - Advance Prayer Focus - Day 2
As we continue with our Week of Prayer, be inspired by stories of Advance church plants across the world, and find out how you can pray for them!
This week it’s a Week of Prayer at Redeemer, and over the next three days we’re going to be highlighting areas within the Advance sphere of churches, which you can be praying for!
Today we’re focusing on Advance church plants in Madagascar & South Africa.
Pray for Madagascar
Take a look at the video from Blake and Rachel Tucker in Madagascar!
Please join them in prayer for the following:
- Trusting for a maturing of disciples which would result in leaders being raised up.
- Two of the four churches in Antannanarivo are experiencing venue constraints, even before COVID hit and now even more so. Please pray that God would open doors for great venues!
- Some of the young leaders are facing either big life changes such as marriage, or health issues - pray that God strengthens them.
- Pray for the salvation of many in the region!
Pray for South Africa
In South Africa, there are two new church plants gearing up to plant in the next short while. Both of these church plants are in area's where recent looting has been rampant, please pray for peace in these area's and for God to guide the journeys towards planting!
Rob and Ilse Weddel are planting in Boksburg in Gauteng, and Tom and Nokwazi Moffat are planting into eThekwini in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Since the filming of this clip, both teams have secured venues, which we thank God for!
Prayer Points
Boksburg
- Strength for both the sending church ( GodFirst, Benoni), as well as the new church plant.
- Trusting God for the salvation of many in the Boksburg area.
- They are praying for a visible footprint in the Boksburg area for the glory of God.
eThekwini
- That God would go ahead of them and stir the hearts of many in the area, and draw people to himself through this local church.
- That God sends leaders with gospel clarity and capacity to serve and love in this context.
Week of Prayer - Advance Prayer Focus - Day 1
This week is our Week of Prayer! Find out how you can be praying for other Advance churches around the world here…
This week it’s a Week of Prayer at Redeemer, and over the next three days we’re going to be highlighting areas within the Advance sphere of churches, which you can be praying for!
Today we’re focusing on two nations where Advance churches are seeking to transform their local areas through the power of the gospel - South Africa & Nepal.
Pray for South Africa
For much of this week, South Africa has been in the grip of destructive looting and unrest. Mainly in the Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu Natal provinces, however fear and uncertainty has rippled throughout the nation.
Here is an update from Gareth Bowley from Reconciliation Road Church, Greg Tait from GodFirst, and Mosala Balatseng from Grace Generation Church on behalf of the KZN and Gauteng church leaders:
"Thankfully, our people are safe and no loss or destruction have come to any church properties. Sadly, however, economic and retail infrastructure has been destroyed in all towns across the province of KZN and many in Gauteng. In Durban and Pietermaritzburg, there are almost no business or public services open to the public and all COVID vaccine sites have been stopped. There is concern about availability of food, fuel and essential items in many areas.
Added to this, it seems as though racial tensions in some areas have been fuelled, highlighting the deep divisions within our nation."
Prayer Points
- South African leaders as they govern in this difficult time.
- Restoration of law and order, of supply chains for food, medical supplies, fuel and ambulance services.
- For community members and municipal workers who are beginning to join forces to clear up the streets.
- Pray for businesses that have been destroyed and individuals who have lost employment.
- Pray for the restraint of vigilantism and opportunistic evil.
- For Christ followers to lead in racial reconciliation, and demonstration of love and unity.
- Pray that churches and individuals would cling to the Hope of Christ and be strengthened by him.
Pray for Nepal
Puran and Rebecca Rasali from Khatmandu, wrote to us all with an update from Advance relating churches in the Nepal region. You can read that here.
Here is how you can pray:
- The whole area has been very hard hit by COVID19, please pray for health and restoration.
- Damak Fellowship in Eastern Nepal is in the process of purchasing a piece of land for a church property. Half the money has been paid and they are trusting for the rest. Please pray for God's provision.
- Aiselukharka Community Church in Khotang are building a venue, after meeting in homes almost for 3 years. Half the work is done. Please pray with us that it can be complete by end of this year.
- Funds have been provided for Kathmandu Capital Church to procure a small piece of land. Pray for the clearance from Social Welfare Council. They are trusting for the funds for building, by the end of this year, we like to start construction work.
#RedeemerRecommends - Get uncomfortable....
#RedeemerRecommends a book which will help you to embrace Christian community, especially if it makes you feel uncomfortable!
A few weeks ago at our leadership training evening, Pete recommended a book to all of us, and I decided to order it there and then!
I’m so glad I did, although as I’ve been reading it, there have been moments where I wished I didn’t…
Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community is a book which has made me laugh and cringe in equal measure as it reveals truths about what it feels like to be part of a diverse, bible believing church in 2021.
In a season where I don’t have the opportunity to be part of a physical church gathering every Sunday, the book has hammered home just how much I miss it, while also stirring me to think about what I might do differently once we are able to meet together again.
Keeping Cool
Brett McCracken - the author of the book, and a pastor at an Advance church in California - sums up his main challenge for us in the first chapter.
"When the Christian church is comfortable and cultural, she tends to be weak. When she is uncomfortable and countercultural, she tends to be strong.”
This is a constant challenge for us as a Church and as individual Christians in London, the draw towards being accepted and seen as ‘cool’ is real, and strong! But McCracken reminds us here that we are called instead to holiness, particularly when it comes to cultural touchstones such as sexual ethics and diversity.
Uncomfortable Mission
This is where the benefit of this book really hits home for me, McCracken has not simply written a book to encourage us to be better friends with one another - although reading it will certainly make you appreciate the benefit of church community to an even greater extent!
Instead, he also emphasises that when we as a church look different from the culture around us, that is when we put ourselves in the greatest position to impact those living in that very culture, and reveal the truth of the gospel to them!
In the final chapter, entitled Countercultural Comfort, he writes:
Regardless of its routine, the reality of the church is revolutionary. However unpopular we are, our purpose is profound. As salt and light, we are the hope of the world.
There are many other essential challenges that are brought to light in the book, from our unhealthy obsession with brokenness, to our discomfort with submitting to the authority of Christ, scripture and church leadership. If you ever feel uncomfortable in church, I would recommend that you read it! You will be reassured to learn that you are most certainly not alone, but also reminded that this uncomfortable feeling likely won’t, and arguably shouldn’t ever change.
But that’s not the whole story…
We are, mysteriously, part of a cosmic plan God has eternally known. And we have an eternal inheritance. The discomfort and disdain we endure in this life as a peculiar people will be a blip in the timeline of our infinite history. We will at last be the perfect church we presently long for; the unblemished bride at an unimaginable wedding feast.
#RedeemerRecommends - Andrew Haslam's latest blog
#ReedeemerRecommends a blog from Andrew Haslam, a leader of a fellow Advance church in London.
This blog has featured the talents of many members of the Redeemer family over the last few weeks, for today’s #RedeemerRecommends we travel a little further afield (though only a few miles across London). Andrew Haslam is the leader of Grace Church, London, another church in the Advance group of churches of which we are part. He is a fantastic writer and theologian, and on Good Friday he published a blog highlighting the fear which is gripping society during this time, and how we as Christians look at fear differently to others. We hope you enjoy reading it, and that you continue to stay safe during this time.
Coronavirus, faith, and the fear of death
Many are questioning religious faith right now. I understand this. The shock of watching the death toll rise each day as the world is battered by this invisible enemy is an example of something very evil in this world. And the question of how God can allow evil to exist is, perhaps, the greatest obstacle to faith in the modern age.
But, with all respect to those asking such questions, to pose the problem in this way is to miss the entire point of the Christian faith.
A Fresh Touch From Jesus
Our resident poet Steve Page shares a poem inspired by a recent visiting speaker…
Recently we were blessed to have Stephen Van Rhyn, visit and preach to us at Redeemer. He is part of the leadership team for Advance, the group of churches we are part of, and he also leads Jubilee Community Church in Cape Town, South Africa.
When he visited and spoke to us he focused on the testimony of the blind man who was healed by Jesus which is found in Mark 8:22-25. It was a Sunday where God so clearly moved amongst us in worship and also through what Stephen shared with us! Our resident poet Steve Page has written the following poem off the back of his message, to which you can find a link at the bottom of this page, in case you haven’t heard it yet, or simply wanted to listen again!
Double Touch
I need the double touch of His grace on my face, hinging on His mercy coupled with His ability to not assume, to not barrel past, but to rather ask (and twice ask) with His intentional hearing and His long compassionate waiting.
Jesus wasn't one for placing His touch 'in passing', but placing His touch with presence - His was an off-the-fence, no-pretence full in the face presence. He held back from the passing pack and exercised the knack of going far enough to reach a truer understanding, to reach out with both arms to allow Him to encompass all previous experience of mishandling.
He knew that truthfully the healing is secondary to the true medicinal touch, to the reassuring brush with acceptance, to the knowing that you've received close hearing and closer grasping - a meeting of more than minds, a confidence of souls truly embracing and only releasing once we have the assurance of knowing that we've been double-touched with honesty and that we're twice as much connected fully and gracefully with the One who never turned anyone away.
Mark 8:22-25
22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.
23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
#RedeemerRecommends on Valentine's - salt.london
#RedeemerRecommends a blog from another London based Advance church, with a focus on real love this Valentine’s Day…
If you’ve walked past a shop front or been on social media at all today, you will be aware that it is Valentine’s Day! A day which I’m sure brings about mixed feelings for many of you reading this.
There are many Christian blogs out there focusing on the subject of love, but this week’s #RedeemerRecommends has picked out one in particular which we think is worth a read!
salt.london is a blog which is run by a few friends from another Advance church in Waterloo, led by Andrew Haslam. It describes itself as a blog which seeks to “engage with thoughtful Londoners on matters of faith, philosophy, and life.”
The blog focuses on a range of topics, but you can find some links to their specific Valentine’s themed posts below. We hope you will find them thought provoking and encouraging, whether you’re single or married!
Get thinking. #RedeemerRecommends
In the first of our #RedeemerRecommends series, Rich Smith introduces us to a blog he has found thought provoking and inspiring recently, and excites us about a guest preacher visiting Redeemer at the end of November!
In the first of our #RedeemerRecommends blog posts, Rich Smith introduces to a blog he has been inspired by recently. Look out for more recommendations over the coming months as others from Redeemer let you in on what they’ve been reading. Over to Rich…
Get thinking.
At the end of November we have close friend of the church Matt Hosier returning to speak at our Sunday meeting. Matt and his wife Grace first visited Redeemer a year ago to preach about eldership, and to stand with and pray for our church as we started a new chapter of our story.
Matt is a gifted preacher. Just as he served us so well last November, we’re anticipating he’ll bring a combination of theological clarity and heartfelt encouragement this November!
Those who were at the Advance conference earlier in October will know he’s a wise, measured and phenomenally well read theological thinker, and it’s with that in mind that I wanted to point you in the direction of an excellent website to which he often contributes, Think Theology.
“Think” describes itself as a “collaboration of thinkers and writers who are passionate about the Church, and who enjoy spending time wrestling with deep theological questions and helping others to engage with them.” Matt, Jennie Pollock (another speaker from the recent Advance conference in fact), and Andrew Wilson produce the majority of the content for the site and you’ll find roughly a post per day on a broad range of topics.
Looking back at posts over the last two weeks you’ll see posts covering social media, wisdom in engaging politically, sexual identity, reading well, TV show theology, book reviews and Psalms.
Whether you’re starting to explore theology for the first time or looking to expand your regular reading, posts from Matt and others at Think are worth your time. I find they’re perfect for the commute, and regularly engage the mind, the emotions and stir the spirit. Enjoy.