Broken relationships. Divided communities. Poverty and violence in our neighborhoods. Most of us feel it, even when we cannot name it. The good news is that God longs to work through us to help restore things to the way they were intended to be. In the language of the Old Testament, this wholeness is called shalom … a state where nothing is missing and nothing is broken.
Redemption Church in Olathe is a group of Christians committed to seeing the people in our community holistically restored. We believe that God wants to restore us not only to right relationship with God, but also with our own true selves, our families, and our communities. Not just spiritually, but emotionally, physically, economically, and socially. Not by offering mercy alone, but by undergirding mercy with justice.
To this end, we follow Jesus’s example of love and reconciliation. We have built our church in the middle of one of Olathe’s most economically pressed neighborhoods. We pray that the work we do will allow us to become one with our neighbors until there is no longer an “us” and “them,” but only a “we.”
“Work and pray for the well-being of our city, for if it prospers, you too will prosper.”After Jeremiah 29:7
None of this is a service we provide, and no one who walks through the door is a client. This is what our common life looks like when it spills out of the building … some of it gathered in these rooms, some of it kept alongside neighbors and friends who were at the work long before we got here. None of it will end poverty in Johnson County. It was never meant to. It is how we are learning to be a people who belong to this place, and there is room in all of it for you.
The Harvesters mobile pantry sets up in our parking lot. More than a hundred neighbors come through most months, and anyone who needs groceries is welcome.
If the Olathe schools have a snow day on the first Friday of the month, there will be no food pantry. · No tendremos la despensa de alimentos si el distrito escolar de Olathe cancela las clases el viernes anterior.
The Strengthening Families Program is an evidence-based prevention program for parents and children ages 3–5, 6–11, and 12–16 in higher-risk families. It combines parenting skills, children’s life skills, and family skills training across fourteen two-hour sessions. Each class is preceded by a meal that includes informal family time and group leader coaching.
We have developed a homeless outreach program that offers rides to church and showers throughout the week. Through this ministry we have developed meaningful relationships with a group that, though marginalized by society, has become a flourishing part of our congregation.
A place where neighbors can come together, shoulder to shoulder, plunge their hands into the soil, curse at weeds, and share real-life stories like human beings have done for thousands of years ... while making the world a little bit greener, a little more beautiful, a little more flavorful, and a little more human.
A wonderful way to bring our community into the classroom is to volunteer as a youth mentor at Ridgeview Elementary, our immediate neighbor. Alongside the mentoring, we keep ongoing relationships with Ridgeview and Havencroft Elementary ... when a school or a family has a need, we show up with food, supplies, and hands.
Redemption Church, along with more than twenty other faith congregations across Johnson County, has joined together to identify pressing problems in our community and to press our leaders for solutions ... affordable housing, mental health, and homelessness. Each year the network gathers over a thousand people of faith at the Nehemiah Assembly, where local decision-makers make concrete public commitments. Our lead pastor, Tim Suttle, is a co-founder.
Visit the Good Faith Network →PartnershipProject 1020 is Johnson County’s only no-barrier shelter and case management service for adults experiencing homelessness. It provides transportation to and from the shelter, a hot evening meal, and a grab-and-go breakfast in the morning ... a safe place to sleep and to receive care, compassion, and support. Founded in 2015, it originally operated out of this building, and Jim Schmidt, one of our elders, runs it.
Visit Project 1020 →Mandy and Amelia lead the compassion and justice work at Redemption. If you want to volunteer, ask a question, or find out what a neighbor needs this week, either of them is a good place to start.
Every one of these ministries runs on people who show up. You do not need training, a background in social work, or even a settled faith … you need a free Saturday morning, or a Monday evening, or a willingness to carry tables.
