Our History
KW Redeemer held its first public worship service on Easter Sunday, April 5, 2015 at 35B Weber Street, Downtown Kitchener. The church was founded by pastor Paul Dunk, his wife Susan, and 15 families. The mission of the church plant was twofold: to recover and preserve the centrality of Christ in the teaching of the church, and to spread the good news of God's grace in the city. Redeemer is a part of the Presbyterian Church in North America. (PCA)
Our Preaching Is Christ Centered
In Luke 24, Christ declared that He is the fulfillment of all Scripture and that unless we look at the Scriptures in light of how He fulfilled them for us, they cannot be understood. Therefore, God’s grace toward us in Christ is central in our teaching. The gospel is both the good news that invites us into Christian faith and the power by which we live it out.
Our Theology Is Grace Based
At the time of the Reformation, there were 5 teachings from Scripture that summarized the gospel and were integral in helping the church recover the good news during a dark time in church history. Known as the 5 ‘solas’ (Latin for ‘alone’) these teachings describe why Sundays are celebrations at Redeemer. Simply put, they are that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone - according to Scripture alone.
This teaches that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) Apart from Christ, all people are spiritually dead in their sins (Ephesians 2:1-3). Therefore, if anyone is to be rescued from this condition, God must graciously save us since none of us can make ourselves presentable to God. God therefore, in grace, reaches down into our sinful condition and cleanses us, forgiving our sins. Salvation is grace from beginning to end.
This teaches that a person is justified (that is, declared by God ‘not guilty’ and ‘righteous’ in His sight) by grace through faith alone. Since we are dead in our sins, God must revive us in order to give us the gift of faith through which we believe and are saved. As the Bible teaches, “It is by grace that you have been saved – through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). No one is made right before God by doing good things, but only by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and receiving the free of eternal life that is in Christ Jesus. This believing / receiving is what the Bible calls faith. Faith is a gift that God gives.
This teaches us that salvation is found in Christ alone (Acts 4:12). The Bible from the beginning to the end is the revelation of the mission of God who is determined to bless this world by rescuing it from its curse and redeeming a people for Himself. These acts of redemption are focused in the life and death of Jesus Christ and find their fullest expression when God restores all things in Christ (Acts 3:21). Jesus taught that the whole of the Scriptures speaks of Him (John 5:39; Acts 2:27, Luke 24). Therefore the story of salvation recorded for us in the New Testament cannot be fully understood until we see its beginnings in the Old Testament.
This declares that the Scriptures containing the Old & New Testaments are the authoritative revelation of God. Since these Scriptures, written by human hands, are the inspired words of God (literally, ‘God-breathed’ according to 2 Timothy 3:16), they are to be the final authoritative rule for our faith and life. We believe that the Scriptures are infallible and the original autographs were without error. The Scriptures are given by God to the church. They are to be interpreted in accordance with the faith that was once and for all entrusted to the apostles. (Jude 3).
Since salvation is the free gift of God that we receive by faith alone, God gets all the glory. No one has room to boast before God. If God had not planned, accomplished, and applied salvation to His people, no one could be saved. But God has provided salvation to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 17:3; Acts 16:31). Therefore we dedicate our lives to glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.
Our Ministry Is Gospel Driven
We aim to preserve the gospel through faithful teaching and spread the gospel by supporting church planting in Canada. Practically speaking, we have four ministry values that shape the way we approach our mission. These four values are:
The gospel is the good news that Jesus perfect life, sacrificial death and divine resurrection has fully paid the price for the sin of all who believe in Him. The gospel is not simply a set of beliefs that serve as the entrance into our faith, but also as the transforming power of grace by which we live it out. Therefore, we gather to receive from God as He meets us through His ordinary means of grace: Worship, preaching Christ, receiving the Lord’s Supper & baptism.
The church is God’s family and Christ is the head. We are like every family – we have our problems and dysfunctions. The church is not where “good people go”, it’s where forgiven sinners go to worship the only One who is good by God’s standard and loves us despite our inability to be good by His standard. God loves us when we are at our worst. Therefore, we desire to love others when they are at their worst. God’s love for us fuels our ability to live for the benefit of others at our expense.
We acknowledge the call of Christ to remember those in need and to minister healing and the hope of the gospel to the broken.
We love the diversity and vitality of KW. We celebrate the arts, professions, education and the diverse cultural expressions that are here. We desire to be an outward facing church, involved in our community. We welcome seekers and skeptics. We invite their questions, graciously sharing why our hope is in Christ. We desire to show love to those who disagree with our convictions and maintain that this can be done without abandoning our convictions. We actively support St. John’s Kitchen, the Mennonite Central Committee for Refugee Support and church planting in Canada.
Our Doctrine Is Reformational
The Bible itself is the only infallible standard for teaching. In order for church confessions and creeds to be considered "sound", the things they restate, expound upon or explain must faithfully align with Scripture.
Our denomination considers The Westminster Confession to be a faithful summary of the core tenets of the Christian faith.