A new church in Tempe is looking to make the community a better place by helping ASU students build a relationship with God.
Redemption Church is the new church formed from the former East Valley Bible Church in Gilbert and the former Praxis churches in Tempe and Arcadia. Redemption Church is located at the three sites of those original churches.
The idea of mixing both the East Valley and Praxis church populations came through five years of mutual church events and one year of conversation between the church elders, said Riccardo Stewart, a pastor at Redemption Church’s Tempe location, which is at the intersection of Price Road and Southern Avenue.
Stewart is also a former ASU football player who graduated in 2004.
Over the next year, Stewart hopes to help out both high school and college athletes in the Tempe community, including helping with camps and clinics and wherever his skills will be useful, he said.
In the future, Redemption Church hopes ASU will be willing to work with them, said Tyler Johnson, the pastor of city engagements for Redemption Church.
“Redemption Church appreciates ASU from the athletes to the research. All of us are benefited from ASU," said Johnson, a former ASU baseball player who graduated in 2001.
Stewart said they would love to have experts and leaders from the University, like ASU President Michael Crow, come talk at Hot Summer Nights, a question-and-answer forum at the church’s Gilbert location.
Past guests have included Gov. Jan Brewer and Sen. John McCain, Johnson said.
Other possible ideas Johnson has for working with the University include encouraging members to take advantage of lectures and events sponsored by ASU and talking with leaders of the University.
Johnson said he hopes to have significant conversations to help figure out how the church and the University can work together to help the community.
Some current ASU students are adjusting to the new collaboration.
“I’ve been [to the Redemption Church] once since East Valley became a part of the Redemption Church,” marketing junior Payton LaCivita said. “It’s a good church. The leaders are all great. They have lots of good programs going on all the time.”
Stewart said the main focus of the church is to live in the community and help make it a better place.
Combining the Praxis and East Valley Bible churches was a way to better serve the community, he said.
“The final straw and really the main question that we were asking ourselves throughout the process was, ‘could we serve the city better together than we could apart?’” said Justin Anderson, former lead pastor of Praxis Church and now the lead pastor of Redemption Church. “Once we decided the answer was yes, it was just details after that.”
Reach the reporter at chward@asu.edu
