Redeemer Presbyterian Church

I'd like to apologize for being a little late with my post on Redeemer. Going forward I'd like to do the review a little bit sooner after we go to a service, but I was really lazy this week and didn't get around to writing down my thoughts until now. Christian's post was fairly comprehensive, so I don't have that much to add except for some minor thoughts.

I liked Redeemer. Part of the reason for this, I suspect, is that the church seems to be geared towards people like me. By that I mean professionals in their twenties or thirties who may not have a whole lot of experience with Christianity and who might not feel totally comfortable just walking into a church.

Because the service was held in a college auditorium, I felt a lot more comfortable walking inside. It can be intimidating walking into a house of worship, especially when it's not for a religion that you are a member of or if you are like me and don't have a whole lot of experience going to any houses of worship. Since the service was in a college auditorium and filled with people my own age, it felt like I was back in college and was going to see a speaker on some random topic. While not all of Redeemer's services are at Hunter College, having that option made it a little easier to visit.

For the service itself, it seemed to me to be a fairly standard Christian service. The Eucharist, a reading of the Apostle's Creed and a reading of portion of the Bible all played a role and made it very difficult to mistake this for anything but a very Christian religious experience. The other members of our group, who were all more familiar with Christianity that I am, thought there was something missing. I was unable to pick up on that while I was there. Thought, I will admit that I know no more now about Presbyterianism and how it differs from other branches of Christianity then I did before I went to Redeemer.

I do agree with Christian that Dr. Keller's sermon would have worked just as well as a motivational speech without the religious components. It was partially because of this that I enjoyed it as much as I did. In my limited religious experience, sermons in any religion can often feel very forced and dull. I'd prefer a sermon with a coherent and interesting moral or life message to one that forces a connection to God and doesn't flow well. This is one of the few sermons that I have heard that was interesting enough that I would feel compelled to go back again just to hear another.

The events that Redeemer listed in their bulletin also seemed much more likely than a typical Church to draw me in. In addition to the more typical volunteer and counseling events, I noticed a number of professional and social activities that I would be interested in checking out, if only for the networking opportunities. Based on the size of the church, I would also imagine that many of these events get a sizable number of people. Perhaps that's not the best reason to join a religious group, but if the idea is to create a community, Redeemer seems a lot more effective in creating an environment that fits Manhattan professionals and caters to their needs.

Something that also probably draws a lot of people to Redeemer is the chance to meet someone of the opposite sex (I can't seem to find any reference to homosexuality on their website or in their materials so I don't know how accepting they are for people trying to meet someone of the same sex to couple off with). There were hundreds of people at the meet-up after the service and there seemed to be a lot of individuals that weren't in groups that were probably looking to meet people and make new friends.

In a city like New York, a place to meet relatively sane and well adjusted people in their twenties and thirties is very rare and is very much a good thing. Just based off numbers alone, I'm sure hundreds of people have met their significant others there and I wouldn't be surprised if there have been more than a few marriages that resulted from meetings at Redeemer.

Redeemer might not be for everyone, but it seems to succeed in its efforts to cater towards a specific demographic. If you are a member of that demographic (young professionals) and are interested in religion I would definitely recommend checking it out. At the very least, as I said above, the sermon is more interesting than most that I have seen.