We are...
A group of people who gather to learn about and serve Jesus Christ. We are multi-generational and come from all around the Greater Lansing area.
A group of people who don't have it all together. We know the pain of broken relationships and bad decisions. We also know what it's like to lose family members, and some of us have walked long roads of chronic suffering (addiction, illness, rejection, the list goes on...).
A group of people who want to welcome others in the way that God has welcomed us. We believe that Jesus Christ, God's Son, offers hope for the suffering and ultimate victory over the brokenness around us and our own brokenness. Our desire is that everyone who comes, whether seeking a church home, just visiting, or never having entered a church, would feel welcomed here. This is a place where Christ and all who desperately need him gather.
We want to be...
in christ-centered community for mission
but what does that mean?
(Let us explain this goal from three different angles...)
We want to be in
christ-centered
community for mission.
“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.”
Jesus said this over two-thousand years ago, but we believe that it remains true for us today. We rely on Jesus as much as branches rely on the plant that they grow out of.
Experiencing true life is much more than “making the most” out of the few years we have on this planet. Experiencing TRUE life comes from knowing God—the Creator of the universe. The life we gain because of Him lasts forever.
We can’t experience true life on our own because we have rebelled against Him from the beginning. Because of our rebellion against this perfect God, we deserve His punishment.
Thankfully, God hasn't left us to our own devices. He hasn't let us continue to rebel, and He hasn't given us the punishment that we deserve. Instead, the God of no beginning and no end took on flesh to live a perfect life and die as the ultimate sacrifice for the sin that separates us from Him. In the Person of Jesus, God came to us and offered us something we couldn’t reach on our own: everlasting communion with Him.
Jesus defeated death after 3 days, and He is alive. Our hope of eternity with God is rooted in Jesus. He is our King and our Savior. At Red Cedar Church, we strive to remember that we are centered on Him—we rely on Him.
We want to be in Christ-Centered
Community
for mission.
We at Red Cedar are a LOCAL example of a worldwide group of people that sees Jesus as its King and Savior. This worldwide group of people is known as “the Church.” Jesus said:
“Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ”
We want to make God known even when it hurts. We want to love each other—not in a sappy way but in a sacrificial way. This means spending time together, getting to know Jesus through the Bible, and choosing to know and be known by others.
"Community" means that we need each other to rely on Jesus and to represent Jesus in our city and beyond.
We want to be in Christ-Centered Community
for mission.
“The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you...
As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”
Jesus came to this world, died, and rose again in order to give us true life—a right relationship with God. We are bound together as a community by our desire for others to know God and by the command of Jesus to make Him known.
Through partnerships with area churches, Michigan State University campus ministries, and food pantries, we are exploring ways that we make Jesus famous in our words and actions.
We want to make Jesus’ love known to our neighbors and coworkers. We’re hoping that small groups can serve as laboratories of sorts—places where we can explore how to live out our identity as a Christ-centered community in our jobs and in our neighborhoods.
We want to be open and ready to tell others about the true life that comes through trusting in Jesus Christ. This is our mission.
Red Cedar Church belongs to the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). You can read the EFCA statement of faith here.