Garet Halbert
How have you seen God working in your life?
I was 19 years old when God radically saved me from my sin. I was the stereotypical college athlete, who only cared about baseball, girls, and parties. During my freshmen year in college, I struggled with an injury to my pitching arm and the setback devastated me. So, I went deeper into immoral living but this didn’t solve my problems. In my despair, I began to attend a Bible Study on campus. Initially, I would try to keep God’s commandments but I was failing at putting my sin to death. I was still enslaved to pornography and indulging in immoral relationships. However, in October of 2012, I began to understand that salvation is more than just being freed from a future in Hell. Salvation is freedom from sin’s penalty (hell), sin’s power (bondage to sin), and, yes, one-day, freedom from sin’s presence in heaven! I finally saw that redemption is ultimately about my sin against my Creator. And to make redemption possible, Jesus lived the obedient, sinless life that we were supposed to live, but did not, so that He could die the death our sins deserved on the cross. Then, He raised from the dead three days later to offer this freeing salvation to all who repent and believe in Him! I received that glorious salvation through faith then.
Now, God continues to work that powerful salvation in me and calls me to spend my life for others to know Christ and experience His full and freeing redemption.
How have you seen god working in your family?
God has been uniting our family for the gospel mission. In our marriage, Heidi and I began to sense a calling to church plant back in 2018, but we wanted to grow as believers and leaders and seek the affirmation of our church and trusted mentors. During this time of preparation, COVID broke out. Any notions that living on mission would be easy went out the window! Heidi and I had moved from Missouri to New England during the pandemic and it was incredibly isolating. But God began to birth a resolve and commitment to the mission in Heidi and me through this challenging season. We are clear that our calling is to work together to reach the lost and build up believers in Manchester, CT. With our children: God has given us four extroverted girls who see church planting as an adventure and mission that our family is giving our lives for. They are in it just as much as we are! Our daughters love to engage people, spend evenings with other families, and pray with us for the lost. My daughters often ask who has daddy shared the Gospel with so that they can be praying for them! We have been intentional in our preparation to church plant and God has been working in our family to unite us for the hard but incredible season we are in.
How have you seen god working in your church?
We are in the initial stages of church planting but we can see that God is working. My two main focuses are: reaching the lost with the Gospel and recruiting believers for the mission. Our passion for the lost began back in 2018. Heidi and I became burdened for those who do not have a gospel-preaching church near them to hear the word of Christ and experience the family of believers. That burden drove us to leave our amazing church in Missouri to move to Manchester, CT in June 2023 so that the lost can experience what we’ve experienced in the local church. By God’s grace, we are creating relationships and are having evangelistic Bible studies with some who’ve never read the Bible before! In addition to reaching the lost, Heidi and I recognize that we cannot do this alone. So, we are seeking to recruit believers to live on mission with us. The essence of our challenge to fellow brothers and sisters is to join us in the burden God gave us back in 2018. To be sent out from their amazing church to live on a mission for those who haven’t got to experience what we’ve experienced in the local church. God is working to rally other believers, and we look forward with anticipation to the group God gathers together as we seek to launch Sunday morning services in the fall of 2024!
church Name
Christ Redemption Church
church Email
garethalbert03@gmail.com
What is your church’s mission/Vision?
Mission: To plant a Christ-centered church in Manchester, CT through the preaching of the gospel from all of Scripture for the salvation of sinners and the glory of God that will then plant more churches in Greater Hartford and beyond.
Vision: Our vision is to see God display His power by saving sinners and sanctifying saints through the faithful preaching of the gospel by all of the members to His eternal glory.
The Halbert Family