At Mars Hill Church, it’s the season for Redemption Groups to start up for another quarter. Already, we are hearing stories of redemption.

Shelly Ann is a group participant battling cancer. In her recent blog post, she reflects on God’s seeing and knowing her in the midst her suffering, drawing from Exodus 2:23–25, the theme of Chapter 1 in the Redemption book:

My God knows my personal sorrows, my personal grief, my personal suffering in the evil slavery, as it were, of cancer. He knows and He cares. And He will fulfill His promises to me through it. And though I’m just a tiny little weave in the fabric of His grand story, I am there, and just like the Israelites story, my grief will be redeemed. Because it’s not all for nothing. My God knows. And sweeter yet, He makes Himself known to me.

One lead pastor has this to say after participating in the first round of Redemption Groups at his church:

Engaging the Redemption Group material has been both timely and life-changing for this season of my life. Church struggles, one friend’s significant illness and some weighty personal discovery coincided with my engagement of this material. As a result, I’ve experienced both redemptive pain and redemptive freedom. As such, I’m a “true believer” in this material. Pastorally, I’m encouraged by the potential benefits of engaging our people with this resource. Personally, the material has been a valuable tool in reinforcing my sense of the hope and power in the Gospel to redeem those things that would seek to enslave us in the guilt and shame of things long-lost.

One pastor from a church who recently completed their first cycle through Redemption Groups—the pastor a group participant himself—says:

I deeply sense that the Redemption material is going to be more than just a useful resource for [our church] but that it will become part of the backbone of who we are and want to become.

Our goal as a church is simply to point people to Jesus in all circumstances of life and this material is about that very thing.

I am very excited about the approach of not chasing after our “sobriety” or “promise lands” but chasing after the very heart of God. The material says it wonderfully that Jesus is the prize, not our sought after future ability or will power to not do the things we do not want to do.

The most impactful part of this material was writing my own Psalm. It has become a regular practice for me now and I believe it will be for the rest of my journey with Christ.

Thank you for doing the hard work of showing people that our identity is not in our sin and will never be but that our identity firmly rest in the work and continued sanctification he works in us to make us better image bearers of himself.