Author: Mr. & Mrs. Dixon

March Update

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We’re Growing!

March 8, 2021

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3) and grace and peace to all of you reading this. 

Daniel and I have been immensely blessed by your prayers, your giving, your words of encouragement, and your support. As we continue on this journey of planting Redeemer Fellowship VA we are in desperate need of the faithful prayers of the saints. Our mission is to cultivate a family of transformed disciples who love God, love their neighbor, and seek God’s kingdom together. Our vision is to see people in Northern Virginia transformed by the Gospel through planting a church that seeks the lost, matures the believer, and cultivates leaders to serve the city.

With that, we have so much to update you on and many, many things to praise God for with you! 

Zach and Emily Hollifield, members of our leadership team.
  • Praise God for the gift of another little baby on the way! I am 16 weeks pregnant and finally turned the corner a few weeks ago from some serious morning sickness and fatigue. I certainly need all my energy back to chase around our sweet and vivacious Evelyn who is now 15 months old!
  • Praise God for calling Zach and Emily Hollifield (and for their obedience in answering God’s call) to join our leadership team and help with the church planting process. Zach and Emily have been a tremendous gift to Daniel and I and continue to step up and serve us and the church where needs arise. 
  • Praise God for calling Alex Lee to join our leadership team.
  • Praise God for allowing us to complete the process of becoming established as a separate entity under the SBC. Praise God for the many men and women at the SBC and elsewhere who have helped us step-by-step through the process.
  • Praise God for All Peoples Community Church, their elders, and leaders who have been loving and hospitable to us, providing us a home to grow and a runway to launch Redeemer Fellowship VA. 
  • Praise God for gathering 8-10 men and women to join us weekly in small group, to follow our leadership, and to learn more about what it looks like to partner with us as part of our core team. 
  • Praise God for providing for us! Praise God for allowing generous individuals and families to support us financially – those gifts have allowed us to purchase full coverage health insurance that will go into effect next month.
  • Praise God for the opportunity for Daniel to grow in relationship with other pastors in the area and for opening the door to establish relationships with other churches in the DMV that long to see this church planted and more people come to Christ in Northern Virginia. 
  • Praise God for providing the opportunity for us to serve several of our neighbors who recently became parents by providing groceries and meals. We are continuing to pray for those relationships to grow and for more opportunities to share the Gospel with our neighbors. 

I could go on. Truly the Lord has shown us His faithfulness, His goodness, and His sovereignty in more ways (big and small) than I can count. He is using this season of preparation and anticipation to cultivate deeper dependency on Him, intimacy with Him, and a heightened sense of passion to share His great love with those around us. This season has also been a tremendous challenge for us individually and as a couple. As we ride out rougher waves we are continually trying to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and leaning on the support of faithful friends and mentors who are praying, coaching and correcting us as we go.

As we look forward we are praying for 20-30 individuals and families to commit to joining us over the next three months, and we are praying and planning to use this summer to delve deep into discipleship and leadership training as we plan to launch in person services this Fall. Much of the timeline and logistics will depend on local/state COVID guidelines; we will certainly adhere to such while still finding intentional and creative ways to gather and grow Redeemer VA. We have also identified and started building relationships with two fantastic local organizations that align with our mission: Second Story and Food For Others. We are excited to serve and love those in need in our community through these organizations.

Prayer Requests:

  • Pray for our marriage. Pray that God would strengthen and unify us in this season. Pray that we would be intentional about creating time and space to invest into the health of our marriage.
  • Pray for our leadership team. Pray that the Lord would deepen our affections for Him, pray that we would grow in servant leadership, and that God would allow us to use our gifts to His glory as He grows His church.
  • Pray for our small group. Pray that God would guide Daniel and I as we aim to lead faithfully, point our group to Christ, and strive to cultivate a “space” where people can be fully known in a virtual environment (for the time being). 
  • Pray for God to call other pastors and elders to join Daniel. Pray for God to raise up 20-30 families to join our core team over the next several months.
  • Pray for new partnerships. We are aiming to raise another $150,000 for church operations for a total of $300,000 for Year One of Redeemer Fellowship VA.

October Update

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I looked at Shelly the other day and said, “It has been five months since we left Kansas City.” We both took a deep breath and so did Evelyn (who is learning how to take deep breaths too). We sat in the moment, deeply saddened by the things we left behind, but then Shelly reminded us, “We have been called to be back home.” We are learning how to hold those two things in tension: celebrating and giving thanks to God for what KC means to us, what God started in and through us in KC; while also looking ahead to what God is doing now and what he is going to do in the months and years ahead. Although we miss a place and the people, we are thrilled to be where we are and to minister the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people God has led us to here. 

About a month ago, I was catching up with a church planter about 18 miles west of us, Will Klotz, who planted New City Fellowship. As we were buying lunch to take back to his office two young men (Comey and Jordan) approached us asking for money. Will offered to buy them a sub and they accepted. As Will was buying them lunch I began to ask questions: Where are you from? Where did you grow up? Who do you live with? Where is your father? When did he die? What is it like being the man of the house? Etc. Comey was open, engaged, and willing to share what was going on his world. I asked him if he knew how to make sense of his life: the ups and downs, the aches and pains of his story, and Comey said, “I read the Bible and pray, but not really.” A verse that came to mind in the moment was Psalm 68:5, “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is a god in his holy habitation.”

I shared with Comey a little of my story and my relationship with my earthly father. Out of that I got to share the Good News of Jesus and the Father’s love for his creation, his love for Comey, and for Jordan. We prayed for them and Will exchanged contact info with them. A week later, early in the morning I received a text from Will with heavy news: “Comey just texted me because his friend Jordon overdosed and died.” My heart was heavy from the death of Jordan, but so grateful Jordan heard the Good News of Jesus before he took his last breath. Will is now walking with Comey and building a relationship with him. Please join us in praying for Comey, his mother and sister, and that they would trust Jesus.

Shelly here 🙂 Over the past few months since we moved into our townhome, we’ve had the opportunity to meet and build relationships with several of our neighbors. Our sweet Great Dane, Ky, was a big help with that as many, many folks were drawn to a 120lbs gentle giant like her. Sadly, we lost Ky-girl a little over a month ago after she developed some severe health issues. It’s been strange getting used to life without her. She’s been a part of our family from the beginning. My youngest sister moved in with us with her chocolate lab, Duke, and they’ve both been a joy to have around. She’s been joining a weekly Bible Study I’ve been leading virtually and wrestling with the Truth of the Gospel. We continue to thank God for her presence and pray that she would give her life to Jesus.

We are so grateful to be able to slowly build relationships with our neighbors (while following public health guidelines). I had the opportunity to share the Gospel with one of our neighbors a few months ago and we are continuing to pray for God to save her and her husband.  

About a week ago, I had the opportunity to meet a woman while on a walk with Evelyn and during the course of our conversation I had the opportunity to share my faith and our mission to plant a church in the area. To my surprise, she shared that her and her husband are believers and have been praying for a local church to get involved in. They have committed to joining us in praying for our community and church plant. I must stop to praise God: How incredible, how faithful, how good and how gracious He is to us! Meeting her and her husband is an answered prayer as we seek to gather a team of people to pray and work together to advance the Gospel in Northern Virginia.

On the logistical side of things:

Growing partnerships…

As of today we are half way there in our personal support $6,360/mo; our goal is $11,500/mo. For the church plant, we need $245,000 for the initial launch of our church. We are still running hard at sharing the Vision of our church plant and inviting people to partner in three ways: Praying, Giving, Joining. 

Settling in…

Two moves in three months and now we can finally say we are settling in. When I (Daniel) say I am exhausted from moving, I mean it. Since the age of eight, I have lived in a different home every year, but now it’s time for a change. We signed a two year lease in Dunn Loring Village where the Dixon family plans to plant roots and build community. We are making breakfast sandwiches with homemade buttermilk biscuits and blessing our neighbors as often (& safely) as we can. We are meeting a ton of young families and setting up socially distanced hangouts. 

One step closer…

We are one step closer to planting! We have identified a local sending church, All Peoples Community Church. (Redeemer Fellowship in Kansas City, MO is our official sending church, but when your sending church is out of state it is healthy to find a local sending church to be apart of before launching.) We became members last week and I am serving on staff overseeing Discipleship and Groups. Shelly is co-leading a women’s discipleship group. We are still praying for a Fall 2021 launch and will continue to seek the Lord’s guidance and the wisdom of faithful brothers and sisters in order to plant in the healthiest way possible. Please continue to pray for us as we walk out what the Lord has called us to here in Northern VA.

Go over to the Church Planting page to hear recent sermons and read through our prospectus.

Thank you for following our journey. We love you!

Peace and Grace from the Dixons!

Newsletter 1.0

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Hey fam, Dixon here.

It’s been 8 weeks since we were standing on stage at Redeemer Fellowship, being commissioned by elders and friends to come back to Northern Virginia to plant a church. So much has changed since then, but God remains faithful and fully in control. Here are a few updates:

Family:

We have been living with one of the families that took me in when I was homeless in high school and have loved this time with them: playing scrabble, learning about gardening, and perfecting a dope mocktail. We are excited to move into a townhouse this weekend, but we’re also sad to leave here

Evelyn is growing up so fast! She loves to practice walking, to pet Ky, and to listen to books or music. She’s definitely keeping us on our toes. Shelly is wrapping up her studies for the National Association of Sports Medicine (NASM) Personal Training (PT) Certification. She is signing up for her exam in just a few weeks. We love being closer to our families, even though we miss our Redeemer family big time. Check out Shelly’s blog post for a special shout out to y’all.

The Redirect // Church Planting:

When we left KC we anticipated settling in at a church in Georgetown for a period of time before starting the planting journey, however through the hiring process Shelly and I felt our souls experiencing some conflict and we, ultimately, decided to pull ourselves out of the process. We instantly felt peace about that decision and we’re now focused in on planting Redeemer City in Summer 2021. We know that to be effective church planters we first need to learn the city and cultural idols present. We have an obvious head start since we both grew up here, but a lot has changed while we were in KC. I am taking the opportunity to talk to pastors and leaders around the area, engage in prayer walks, pray and fast as we settle into the area. COVID-19 has made it challenging to build relationships, evangelize and dig in deep so far, but we are eager to keep our roots healthy, to pray for fertile soil, and to watch how the Lord moves in and around us in the months and years to come. We’re continuing conversations with several local churches to identify a local sending church and build a core team.

Throughout this season, I am learning how to lead my family in trusting in the steadfast love of the Lord. We are praying through Psalm 136. The Psalmist repeats, 26 times, the phrase, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” Regardless of the many changes we have faced, one things remains the same, the steadfast love of God, unequivocally, endures forever!

Fundraising Update:

Thank you so much to those of you who are already partnering with us in our mission to see Northern Virginia transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ! We are working towards our goal of $11,300 a month to support our family and ministry expenses. We currently have $5,200 of monthly support raised. We are praying for ongoing monthly, quarterly, and annual partners to meet our $135,600 goal for the next 3-5 years or until we become internally self-sustaining.

            -Goal to be at $7,500/month by August 31

            -Goal to be at $9,500/month by September 31

            -Goal to be fully supported by October 31

To give now: Go to www.sentnetwork.org, click “give” tab, select “Daniel Dixon” on the “I want to support” drop down.

Other Things:

One of the first things I picked up when we got here is some Mumbo Sauce… If you don’t know what Mumbo Sauce is, you ain’t livin. I pray for the maturity of your taste buds. Shalom has not fallen upon you. 

We miss Oddly Correct coffee so much. Honestly, we bought 4lbs of beans once we arrived, but we’re trying to support local as much as we can and are currently enjoying beans from Caffé Amouri. Our favorite is the Guatemala.

Prayer Requests:

  • Pray for our marriage. Pray that we would stay unified. Pray that we would extend grace to each other in our failures and shortcomings. We know the enemy is all for destroying marriages, especially godly ones, so please pray for spiritual protection. Ephesians 6
  • Pray for us as parents. Pray that we would love and serve Evelyn well; that we would be present with her and not distracted with everything that is going on. Pray that she would sleep through the night consistently (Lord, JESUS!).
  • Pray for wisdom as we identify a local church to land at for the next year or so and to be our local sending church. 
  • Pray that we would be fully funded sooner than our goal. Pray for God to continue to stir people’s hearts to be generous towards us. 
  • Pray for a core team.
  • Pray for people in Northern Virginia to desire to know Jesus, pray God to meet people in supernatural ways.

To give towards Redeemer City’s mission:

Go to http://www.sentnetwork.org, click the “give” tab, and choose “Daniel Dixon” on the “I want to support” dropdown menu.

Brian & Mia

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by S.D.

Standing in the kitchen, we watched as Brian held Mia in his arms, trying to balance her like a baseball bat in one hand. Both of her feet fitting perfectly in a single palm, while his other hand stabilized and repositioned her. Unwittingly, Mia grabbed at his neck, afraid to let go, afraid she would fall to the hardwood floor below. She would get close to letting go, then pull herself right back into the safety of her own arms around him. All the while Brian softly repeated, “Trust Daddy, trust Daddy,” over and over again in her ear. I’m not sure if his words even registered past her fear that she would fall, that her Daddy wouldn’t be able to hold her up. He, finally, gently placed her on the ground in front of him. 

“She used to do it as a little baby, just lock her legs out and balance,” he said to us or maybe to himself as he looked down at his little girl, less and less little every day now, but still so much his girl. At some point, the fear of falling became more real than the hands holding her. The voice in her head whispering, “This isn’t going to work,” or even more insidiously, “He’s lying he can’t hold me up,”; while her Father’s voice, quietly echoed, “Trust Daddy.” 

In a moment, the Lord can meet us. In an instant, He can remind, encourage, admonish, convict us. Tiny, simple, ordinary moments that He unravels to reveal something about Himself that is true or other times, reveal falsehoods we have believed about Him & ourselves.

a Father holds His wobbling daughter,
two tiny feet affixed in His palm like He taught her.
a balancing act playing out before our eyes,
while a daughter of Eve is confronted with lies.

“trust Daddy,” the Father whispers to His precious, little daughter,
but the floor seems much greater than the arm of her Father.
He tried to wrap her in His affections with the words that He said,
and adorn her with truth as a crown upon her head.

hurriedly she grabbed at His neck, afraid to let go,
afraid she would fall to the hard floor below.
she loosened her grip to experience a glimpse of His promise,
then pulled herself back into the arms of her own solace.
 
finally, her fear enveloped her Father’s petition,
deterring His truth and affections ‘til she relied on her own ambition.
she thought, “His arms couldn’t possibly keep me from toppling over,”
so, she wrapped her arms tightly again around His neck and shoulder.
 
her Father’s gentle pleas continued, but in her ears faded.
as the voice of her fear grew louder, unabated.
when did the fear become more real than the arms that loved her?
God help the daughter that questions the Word of her Father.

Goodbye KC, Hello NOVA

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The day we left Kansas City was strange and rushed.

Strange because in the midst of a global pandemic, the church building was almost completely empty when we went in that Sunday morning for our Redeemer family to pray over us. I went into the nursing mothers’ room when we first arrived to feed Evelyn and make an attempt at a nap. It was so eerie and quiet. Just me and a half dozen gliders that looked lonely without moms balancing their babies, smiling, humming along to the music, or chatting while their little ones nursed or bobbed on their knees. 

I never imagined how hard it would be or how lonely it would feel to embark on this church planting journey. While Daniel and I feel confident in our calling, the in-between: that space and time between setting out on the journey and actually launching a healthy, Christ-exalting church is daunting. The fear of failure is real. We’ve spent, or rather I have spent, many nights grumbling, complaining that we were better off in Kansas City. Things were easier there. We were safer there. Sound familiar? I revisit the Israelites’ journey from Egypt to the Promised Land… I must admit, I am also too easily compelled to make a golden calf to worship, to put my hope and faith and trust in when God takes longer to move than I find comfortable. I am also so easily tempted to cast blame, to cower, than to trust. But, even if we “fail,” God has not and never will. He will always perfectly accomplish His plans. Honestly, we’re just stoked to join in the small ways we can. 

Words by C.S. Lewis come to mind, that both comfort and scare me, from the majestic, Christ-figure, Aslan: “I’m not safe, but I am good.” We are not “safe” in the sense that everything from here on out is going to be straightforward, easy, or comfortable. No, no, no. I need to remind myself time and time again, God does not promise us an easy life when we put our faith in Him. He simply, unequivocally promises to be with us. As Daniel and I pray and pursue this calling, we are greatly, desperately in need of God’s presence and of the faithful encouragement, prayers, and support of many, many people. If that gets you pumped, we’d love to chat with you about joining us (in prayer, in presence, or in giving).

Back in the nursing mother’s room at Redeemer, I felt empty for a moment. In a mostly empty church. My daughter asleep in my arms, sitting one more time in our glider (that we gave to Redeemer), in an empty room. Just me and her and God. Surrounded by empty chairs, just the sound of her steady, beautiful breathing keeping me present. As I prayed, quiet, fearful, grateful tears slid down my cheeks:

Lord, thank you for this place. Thank you for the women I sat in this room with. Spoke with. Confided in. Thank you for the people who filled this church building not too long ago. It’s vastness and emptiness now reminds me that a church is a people, not a building. Thank you for reminding me that. These walls and hallways just caverns and canvases for beautiful, broken, redeemed people to fill and flourish (and yes, sometimes fail). Thank you for reminding me that. Thank you for the friends we made, the family we met, the leaders who challenged, comforted, loved, and blessed us. 

I came here kicking and screaming and in many ways, I’m leaving kicking and screaming. But I am not the same. Everything I once found comfort and solace and achievement in was stripped away from me when I came here. It felt like pieces of me were dying away and I kept wondering, what could be left beneath the wreckage? Well… Someone acutely, constantly in need of You. So, here we are: unadorned, exposed, and vulnerable. Use us as you see fit.

Our KC peeps, our Redeemer family, our wonderful neighbors and friends, we love you so much. You’ve taught us so much, loved us so well, and we are deeply grateful. Our other peeps, we love you too. Stay tuned for quite an adventure… “The road to life will expose you to terrible failure and crushing conflict. But only that road leads to the life you want, the life I give you.” Off we go.

Love, S.D.