A Hub for the Mission of Redeeming Life?
UPDATE: We've found a space and could use your help. Learn more here.
We are praying that God will redeem Salt Lake City by the power of the Gospel. We believe he wants to do so and we want to join him in this mission. Therefore, Redeeming Life Church exists to make, mature, and mobilize disciples into our city and throughout the world.
As we've been sharing the gospel, prayer walking the streets, and seeking ways to bless our neighbors, we've come to believe that we will be more effective in our mission if we have a base of operations. We are working house-to-house and plan to keep living and ministering in homes in our community, but the homes are small... and we're growing!
I was recently in a west-side Salt Lake home of a family of 5 and noticed they have no dining area or even room for a table. They eat outside. I love my home in Rose Park but we struggle to host more than a small family unless we're in our backyard. In fact, we do everything in our front or back yard--meetings, hosting, discipleship, and even baptism services. It works for now, but we'll be in trouble when it starts snowing.
We presently rent space in the Northwest Community Center for our Sunday morning worship and prayer. For about $500 per month we get space for 4 hours on Sunday mornings. It is an absolute blessing, but it's only 4 hours one day a week.
We've learned that many of the people in our community work two or three jobs or atypical hours. Many among our community are uneasy entering other people's homes due to safety concerns, cultural barriers, and space limitations. We've also learned that the folks of the prominent religion in our area just don't see a church using homes and a mobile space as credible. We're limited but we want to do more, much more.
We have some ideas. We believe we could impact an entirely unreached people group simply by offering an evening service. With space, we could make a way for fellowship leaders and Bible teachers who don't have enough room to host indoors (like my family). We seek to offer special services to the homeless community, the prostitutes, and other struggling people in our community. A number of other ministries could potentially partner with us and have room for mid-week opportunities and service to the least of these. Our space could be home to another church plant, maybe one of another language. We could host mission teams. And we want to pray. A lot. It's my dream to host a number of simple prayer and worship times throughout the week. We desire to pray with and for people. We want to intercede for our city. We would like to start an addiction recovery ministry. The worship team could practice and we could start building multiple team. I hope to teach Contextual Learning Development courses (accredited through Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary) in a space in our area. I truly believe a base of operations could help us do all of these things and much more.
We want to plant a flag for the gospel in Salt Lake City and we believe having a space that we don't move in a trailer will greatly help us do just such a thing. Will you consider helping us on our mission to see Salt Lake redeeming by the power of the gospel? Will you help us stake a claim for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ?
Please pray for an affordable space and the resources for us to lease such a building. We believe "The 116" featured in this video would be ideal. We do a lot of ministry right at this building and it's very affordable.
Like our mission to the people of Salt Lake, we are absolutely okay going into a broken, ugly, distressed and troubled space. Like the lives of those we prayer for, we will be excited seeing a building in our neighborhood redeemed for God's glory. We want to be good for our community. We've looked at one space that's home to a number of squatters but can't locate the owner who abandoned the building.
As I've already said, we love the old post office which more recently housed Printco Swenson Printing Services (featured in the above video). It's huge! It's in a high traffic area that we believe could be greatly benefited by God's people. And if we take it as-is, it will be extremely affordable ($0.33 per square foot, compared to as much as $8 per square foot 100 yards west of this building).
Please pray for us. And if you can help financially, you can make a donation on The City, our online communication system by following this link: https://redeeminglife.onthecity.org/give. (Please select the "Properties and Equipment" fund in the dropdown options.) Or you may send a check to Redeeming Life Church. 901 Nocturne Drive. Salt Lake City, Utah 84116.
Thank you for join us in God's mission for Salt Lake City!
Soli Deo gloria!
Pastor Bryan