Research On Religion | Matt Boswell on Building Redemption Church, Part II

Matt Boswell on Building Redemption Church, Part II

Date: February 20th, 2012

Tags: by-laws, Christmas, church buildings, church membership, church organization, church without walls, denominationalism, Duvall (WA), elders, kit bashing, power outage, public school, Redemption Church, religious pluralism, small groups (re:groups), Tim Tebow, volunteerism

What does it take to create a church? In fall of 2011, we visited with Pastor Matt Boswell of Redemption Church in Duvall, WA. Matt and a number of other folks were charged with setting up a church within one week’s time and we had the opportunity to talk with him just a few days after they accomplished this seemingly impossible mission. In this interview, we return to Pastor Matt and first ask him to reflect upon that first chaotic week to see if he would have done anything differently. It turns out that with a few months of 20/20 hindsight that they would not have done anything differently and Matt talks about how God’s hand played a huge role in accomplishing the organizational tasks needed gather 500+ people for a Sunday service. We turn our attention then to the next month. After getting a chance to breathe a bit and catch up on some sleep, the leaders of Redemption Church were faced with the challenge of establishing by-laws, determining the requirements for church membership, and taking care of finding space to conduct their youth ministry and other small groups (cleverly called “re:groups” by Redemption Church). We start out by talking about the importance of having a permanent meeting place and how the church moved from meeting temporarily in whatever place they could find (including the homes and barns of members) to a more permanent location. Tony presses Matt about whether or not the church will have to move out of the high school auditorium eventually and the merits about having a permanent structure that is both the Sunday meeting place and weekday offices. Matt, who recognizes the high school is not a permanent solution, provides some interesting ruminations about what the future physical location of Redemption Church will look like, including the importance of making the building “uncomfortable” for the pastoral staff so that they don’t become too isolated behind church walls. Along the way, Matt tells some stories about how he had been “accidently” ministering in a local tavern and what this taught him about being a “church without walls.” Our discussion then veers towards the discussion of by-laws including how the church chooses its elders, trains them, establishes requirements for membership. Tony and Matt then share the story of how the congregation dealt with having Christmas services at a public high school and what happened when the power went out about a half hour before Christmas Day services. The interview ends with a brief discussion on the merits of denominationalism and whether or not Redemption Church has plans to join an established denomination. This is a great podcast for pastors or individuals who are interested in the background organization of churches. Recorded: January 9, 2012.

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