We began as a mission & we continue on mission.
In 2000, the Province de L’Eglise Anglicane au Rwanda, or PEAR (Anglican Church of Rwanda) gathered a group of Anglican churches and Anglican missionary priests for a sustained mission in North America. Aiming to birth mission-oriented churches within the Anglican tradition, and recognizing the failing witness of the Episcopal Church USA, PEAR encouraged bold gospel proclamation and clear-minded exposition of Scripture to both Christians and those not believing in Jesus. In 2008, as the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) was formed and incorporated into the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans through the inaugural GAFCON in Jerusalem, we joined in partnership with the new province in America. Finally, in June of 2016, the Church of Rwanda released its American churches fully into the ACNA Province. While the organization and composition of the mission has shifted through the past fifteen years, our mission in America has remained constant, embracing the reality of a global church whose center has shifted to the Global South. Churches like ours embody this shift: infused by the evangelical spirit of the East African Revival, tangibly connected to the burgeoning global church, for local ministry in the places where our God has called us as his witnesses (1 Peter 1.1-2).
When Ben and Brooke Fischer moved to Nampa from Notre Dame, they soon joined with a small group in Eagle, Idaho for the planting of Holy Trinity Church in 2009. With an eye to ministry towards college students at NNU, Ben and Brooke conducted Bible studies and prayer groups for several years as an outreach of Holy Trinity. Following Ben’s ordination to the presbyterate in the Anglican Church of Rwanda, the Nampa Mission began meeting weekly on Sunday evenings in September 2011 to worship the Lord in the Anglican tradition. Holding fast to the ancient rhythms of worship, with an emphasis on teaching the Word and obeying the Holy Spirit, services also pulled in the best of today’s music and song.
For three years, the Nampa Mission met as a local extension of Holy Trinity’s mission to the Treasure Valley, meeting in a church, a house, a banquet hall, and the American Legion Hall. In 2014, the pastoral leadership of Holy Trinity recognized that the Nampa Mission was becoming a distinct church body. With blessing and support from Holy Trinity, the Nampa Mission became Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church on August 31, 2014.