About Redeemer

Redeemer is a community where you can come as you are, be loved where you are, and, hopefully, find God renewing who you are through life together with Him. We hope to be a church for the convinced and unconvinced, a safe place for the curious and skeptical, and a community where the weary find rest. We would love the opportunity to welcome you.

Our Story

In 2008, Redeemer began out of the ashes of a church fire, literally. Our planting church, Zion, burned to the ground and the congregation relocated to south Lincoln. A small group Bible study with a weekly Sunday School class began casting a vision for a new church plant in downtown Lincoln. With resources from the burned down building a new church was born.

That group met at first in borrowed spaces but now owns a small, 100-year-old church a few blocks from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in The North Bottoms. The former owners wanted to make sure it stayed a church and sold it to Redeemer for a $1.  

We're no longer a small group but a gathering of people with lots of different stories. We're single, married, and divorced. We're students, artists, professionals, creatives, stay-at-home parents, and kids of all ages. We're a gathering of Jesus' broken people rooted in the gospel seeking to live out a genuine expression of Christian community that reflects something of His beauty.  Seeking to connect the disconnect to love God, love people, and love Lincoln.  

One building burned to the ground. One building bought for $1. Broken people with a beautiful Christ. We like our story because it reminds us of what is at the heart of our community: the generous grace of God that gives to us what we neither deserve nor earn. 

Redeemer Staff

Matt Odum (Senior Pastor)

Matt was born in Augusta, Georgia and grew up in that area. He attended Georgia Southern University and majored in Writing and Linguistics. He moved to Texas in 2007 where he helped plant a PCA church while attending Westminster Theological Seminary in Dallas. He started a chapter of Reformed University Fellowship in 2013 at the University of North Texas after graduating from seminary.

He and Sarah met in Lincoln, NE and got married in 2009. They have two Texas-born children, Ambrose and Lazarus. They moved to Lincoln to serve at Redeemer in the summer of 2017.

Matt loves to preach the gospel and engage with those who doubt in the reality of Jesus.

He has too many hobbies (basketball, cooking, and golf are among his favorites).

Adam Odell (Associate Pastor)

Adam grew up in the Chicago area and attended Taylor University, where he met his wife, Kate. With over 20 years of experience serving as a youth pastor, Adam brings a heart as big as his experience to Redeemer. After completing his Master of Divinity, Adam served as the Youth Pastor at Intown Community Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 2003, Adam and his family moved to Lincoln where Adam served for five years as the Youth Pastor at Zion Church. Adam’s love for children and his passion for reaching and serving the urban neighborhoods in downtown Lincoln drew him to partner in establishing Redeemer. Adam’s life calling is to connect people to Jesus Christ and to one another.

Adam and Kate have five children: Caleb, Isaac, Micah, Jacob and Kiah.

Jen Hinrichs (Church Administrator)

Jen Hinrichs has been married to her feisty, wonderful husband for 30 years; together they have four feisty, wonderful daughters and four grandchildren.

Jen grew up in south-central Nebraska, and moved to Lincoln to attend UNL and obtain her degree in accounting.  Jen helps with her husband's cabinet business, is a deaconess, and works in the church office. Jen desires to see her community transformed by God’s grace through encouragement, serving and sharing the Word of God inside and outside the church.

Claire Shinn (social media & 4th/5th grade ministry coordinator)

Claire is a Lincoln native who started attending Redeemer during her time as a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Following graduation, Claire moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma to work for Reformed University Fellowship (RUF), a nationwide campus ministry that seeks to equip and support college students during their formative college years.

After finishing her work with RUF at Oklahoma State University, Claire returned to Lincoln, where she now does marketing and fundraising full-time in the nonprofit sector and serves as Redeemer's social media director and 4th/5th grade ministry coordinator. Claire loves dance-offs, house plants, and petting every dog that crosses her path.

Thomas kuhn (RUF Campus Minister)

Thomas was born and raised in central North Carolina where he learned to love barbecue and college basketball. He went to college at NC State University where he first got involved with Reformed University Fellowship (RUF). It was in RUF that Thomas began to kick around the idea of vocational ministry as a career. After college, Thomas went on to work for RUF at the University of Kentucky. It was during this time that the Lord solidified Thomas's sense of call to ministry. It was also during this time that Thomas met Molly and the two were married in June of 2015. 

Molly was born in Connecticut but spent most of her childhood in Asheville, NC. She graduated from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC in 2014. Molly is an avid reader and an aspiring baker. 

After their first year of marriage, Thomas and Molly packed up and moved to St. Louis, MO for Thomas to get his MDiv from Covenant Seminary. During seminary, Thomas and Molly both felt a strong desire to return to work with college students through RUF. 

After Thomas graduated from seminary, they moved to Lincoln in January 2020 for Thomas's call as the RUF Campus Minister at the University of Nebraska. Thomas and Molly are thrilled to be in Lincoln and to work with students on campus at UNL. Go Big Red! 

Our Affiliation

Our flourishing is found in rootedness, in belonging, in participating. Life is not meant to be lived in isolation. This is true for individuals and for churches. 

Redeemer is a young church, but rooted in an ancient faith. We embrace the historic Christian faith expressed in the Apostles' and Nicene creeds.

As a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, our heritage is in the Protestant Reformation and its strong emphasis on God's grace. The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms offer a helpful summary of these beliefs.

Regionally, we live out our connectedness through membership in the Platte Valley Presbytery. We have two sister churches in Lincoln, Zion and Grace Chapel.