On Earth as it is in Heaven.
Our history began in Santa Barbara in 2000, when Christ Presbyterian Church sent church planter Roy Bennett to nurture a study group in Ojai, CA into a PCA mission church. By the summer of 2001, a committed team was formed and ready to launch. Christ Church Ojai held its first public worship service on September 9, 2001 to establish the initial steps of gospel ministry in Ventura County. Then, in the spring of 2004, a second mission church formed in Ventura and began public worship on January 8, 2006. Christ Church Ojai/Ventura was particularized as a multi-site congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America on June 4, 2006, and Roy Bennett was installed as Pastor. A year later, the mission sites merged into a single congregation meeting for worship as Christ Church Ventura. For sixteen beautiful and storied years, Pastor Roy Bennett pastored Christ Church Ventura until the day of his retirement on May 31, 2022.
All the while, another study group emerged in Camarillo, CA through the assembling of Cal and Bora Wong in the Spring of 2015. As they continued to gather people toward prayer and fellowship, these prayer meetings eventually led to biweekly Bible Studies. And with the conviction toward a deeper nurture through God’s Word, by the summer of 2017, there developed the desire and feasibility to form this growing community into a church. From there, Sun Kwak was called to be the planting pastor of Redeemer Ventura County, which held its first service on September 9, 2018, and Jon Kim was called to serve alongside as assistant pastor on June 2021.
In Tim Keller’s paraphrased words of wisdom — in order to reach the entire city, we must learn to work cross-denominationally and in Gospel unity.
With a perceived lack in the PCA and Reformed presence in both Camarillo and Ventura County, in the spring of 2022, Christ Church Ventura and Redeemer Ventura County began exploring the possibility of a merge, with the firm conviction that we were and are better and stronger together. It’s our desire to fill this void while coming alongside many others tilling the soil in gospel partnership and cooperation. We are eager to engage in these next steps of our church’s life together, as we trust our God who walks with us and has never left our side. On May 28, 2023, our two congregations set out for life together as a unified body of Christ as Christ Our Redeemer, with our first public worship service held at Rancho Campana High School.
And as the steps of these two congregations have been merged into this newly assembled community, our story is just beginning.
We’ve faced a number of challenges and have been dealt unexpected hands. And yet, at any moment and in every which way we turn, our comfort lies in a traveler who came from a faraway land to make his dwelling among us. And it’s His Story that we commit to gather around. We rest in the truth that the presence of Jesus will never leave our pages as long as He remains both the Author and Perfecter of our faith and of this church. So, we face the unexpected and step forward, knowing that He has seen this journey through. Trusting in His guidance, protection, and presence, in whatever season, we know this church will be in good hands and in His firm grip.
What now persists is the initial outlook of those who continue to gaze into the far-reaching land called “What if.”
And so, we observe and celebrate the evidences of God’s nearness through tracing His hand that’s moved His people, His servants, and His churches in years past. And in wonder and trust, we dream toward the land of “What if,” seeking to join those faithfully serving as Gospel ambassadors in our city and county. And we invite you to join us, as these next chapters continue to be written in our ongoing plot line. We trust, we pray, and we eagerly anticipate this developing story of Christ Our Redeemer.
