our Vision: The why of RMC
To pursue renewal and healing
for all the people and places of Birmingham
through Gospel ministry in word and deed.
Our values: the Who of RMC
GOspel Centrality
The Gospel is the good news about Jesus Christ. It is what we believe and why we love, however much we struggle with both. Countless things could preoccupy a church’s attention. Where should we focus? To ask it another way, what are we willing to suffer for? When the Apostle Paul wrote to a first century church, he said, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” The good news about Jesus Christ is the principle that animates our church.
Our conviction is that our identity in Jesus not only gives meaning and hope for our lives, but also the world. And so, our desire is to not only grow deeper in our love for gospel, but we want everything we say and do to point to Jesus as our offering to others.
Gathered worship
What are we supposed to do with the good news about Jesus Christ? How should we respond? The answer is to worship God by glorifying Him in all we think, do and say. But what is worship? According to the Bible, we are all worshippers and we are worshipping all the time. Worship is what we give our hearts, thoughts, time, and resources to. Therefore worship is the continual battle for what the Bible calls “the heart.”
At RMC we prioritize gathered worship every Sunday to hear again the good news about Jesus Christ and to immerse ourselves in God’s story of redemption. We believe that our worship is not only the primary way God deepens us in faith, but is strengthened when we do it together. We meet for gathered worship every week because we can’t do the life of faith alone. We need a steady diet of God’s word and God’s people to experience what the Bible calls, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
GOspel Community
From the earliest chapters of the Bible we learn human beings were made for relationship. We were made for relationship with God and with one another. But we also learn from the earliest chapters of the Bible that sin ruins our relationship with God and one another.
But the gospel creates a whole new community. A community of sinners saved by grace sharing their lives with one another. God’s people were never intended to live the life of faith alone but as a people on their way to their true home.
The church is made up of young and old, rich and poor, from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. The Apostle Paul visually described God’s people as a body with many parts. Each part is necessary for the health and flourishing of the body. The importance of community is crucial not only for the health of the body but also for loving and serving our city.
City Focus
As Jesus’ church, we believe that we are to participate in God’s redemptive work in the places we inhabit. As a church located in the city of Birmingham, we long to be a community of people that faithfully serves those around us. Because of this, our desire is to serve the city. Every city includes the very best and worst of human endeavor. With a long, painful history of racism, classism, injustice, and inequality, Birmingham is a place of great complexity and opportunity for mercy and justice. This kind of work is hard to talk about and hard to do. Nevertheless, we are committed to pursuing the renewal and healing of Birmingham by investing in partnerships with other ministries in the city, providing venues for people to come to know Jesus, and by serving the neighboring residents and businesses in Lakeview.