Redeemer’s 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 single dollar.

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 a dollar. 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.