It feels like it’s been an eternity since I decided to plant this church. In reality, it’s been less than two years. It was late summer of 2011 when, after much debate, prayer, fasting and mind-changing, my wife and I decided that God was calling us away from our home, our friends, family and the church that we had planted and loved to head north and start all over again.

We knew one person that lived in the city when we moved here, which was quite a shock to us considering we had come from a place of such familiarity and close community. It took us several months to get acclimated to our new, urban environment and has taken many more months before it began to feel like home.

Now, after more than a year, we are ready to start pursuing the reason why we came here in the first place. This Sunday we will start weekly Sunday services, which is less of a starting point than it is the next step in our process. For several months now we have been preparing for this day by investing in discipleship and training and by spending a lot of hours walking the streets and talking to people.

We have gathered a really strong core group and God has blessed us with an embarrassment of riches when it comes to leaders and solidly missional and Gospel-centered people. We think the transition from monthly to weekly services is the right next step to accomplish what God has called us to here.

Its funny, this doesn’t feel like a launch to me and I’m afraid Sunday will feel a little anticlimactic. We have been so committed to establishing a culture where discipleship is normal and expected that our gatherings have been almost a second thought, or maybe just a tool to continue creating the culture we want.

So this Sunday will be our first, but there will be little fanfare, no balloons, giveaways or well-wishers. In fact, I asked my family and friends to not make the trip. There will come a day for celebration but this Sunday is about Redemption Church taking the next step as a church that is committed to Making Disciples, Training Leaders and Living Missionally in the city.

Justin Anderson
Lead Pastor
Redemption | San Francisco