Our History

Redeemer launched the Center for Faith & Work in January 2003 to mobilize the highly educated and motivated Redeemer congregation to make a difference for Christ in their respective professional fields.  Our leaders and participants share a number of common characteristics:

• a passion for seeing the hope and love of the gospel renew the workplaces, professions, and culture of the city - which are all too often driven by greed, fear, power, and hopelessness;
• a commitment to the truth that God intended for us to work "in his image" and be stewards of the resources and institutions of our world;
• a concern that our lives are increasingly bifurcated, with little connection between our faith and faith community and our way of working in our careers;
• a willingness to grow in our relationship with God and our relationships within the Christian community that God has provided for our support and refinement;
• a desire to create programs, community, and initiatives that pool the talents and resources of Redeemer toward the goals of renewing our city and culture.

The Center for Faith & Work (CFW) started with a series of Sunday classes, which have provided the foundation of our thinking about faith and work.  Each class is taught by a different person from within our congregation who has wrestled deeply with their own integration of faith and career.  Almost simultaneously, people wanted to organize by profession, so we started some vocation-based fellowships.  Both the classes and the fellowships continue to expand and grow in quality of programs and leadership.

Even prior to the creation of CFW, certain disciplines within the arts were meeting as groups.  Musicians, many of whom are important contributors to Redeemer's worship music, have met as ensembles, choirs, song writers, creators of Christmas music CDs to benefit ministries in the city, and fellowship groups.  Dancers have also met as a fellowship group and to rehearse and perform.  To help develop a strong arts component of CFW and build upon the foundation started by musicians and dancers, we hired Luann Jennings in September 2004 to draw together artists of all disciplines, closely link us with the Worship & Arts musician initiatives, and nurture leaders within the arts community.  The monthly Redeemer Inter-Arts Fellowship was launched in January 2005 which addresses our culture's "great ideas" from the perspectives of both theology and the artist-practitioner. 

See the rest of the web site for recent history, current programs, and future plans. 

Thanks for your interest,

Katherine L. Leary
Executive Director