Who We Are
Sharing and showing Jesus one family at a time.
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Our History
RCM traces its roots to the Fall of 2015 when God began burdening Paul & Victoria to start a new evangelistic church plant in their city of Bradenton. Over the course of the next year, as they dreamed and prayed, and prayed some more, God affirmed this burden and the Heltons began putting the pieces together to plant RCM. In the Spring of 2017, their home church of nearly 15 years sent out Paul & Victoria to plant RCM.
In November, 2017, a small group of about 20 people worshiped in the Helton’s dining room and convenanted together to form Redemption Church Manatee. In January, 2018, RCM held its very first public worship service at Rowlett Middle Academy.
Vision & Mission
RCM exists to bring glory to God by making disciples of all nations. We believe God has given us a vision for disciple making through evangelistic church planting all over Manatee County, and to the ends of the earth.
Our mission, as a church family, is to share and show Jesus to every family in our community, one family at a time.
Values
Since its inception, RCM has been centered on 4 Core Values: Gracious, Truthful, Generous and Bold. These values fuel how we share and show Jesus as families, and as a family.
We are gracious, first and foremost, because God through Christ has been exceedingly gracious to us. As the beauty of God’s grace in Christ takes root in our lives, the result should be living graciously among others.
We believe that the Bible, is completely truthful and trustworthy, and is all sufficient for life and faith. Because of this belief, we evaluate everything we do through the lens of the Scriptures, and we center out church and our lives in the truths of the Bible.
As a church family, and as individual families, we live generous lives as we share and show Jesus to families in our community.
Affiliations
RCM is affiliated with the Florida Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention. RCM is a member of the Send Network and SendFlorida. Both of these are part of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board.
Beliefs
RCM is a cooperating church in the Southern Baptist Convention and affirms the Baptist Faith & Message, 2000. A summary of these beliefs are as follows:
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.
The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.
The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.
Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.
The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
Paul Helton, Lead Pastor & Elder
Paul has served as the lead pastor at RCM since its beginning, and has been in pastoral ministry since the Fall of 2012. Paul and Victoria have been married since 2002 and met at the University of Miami. They have 5 children – Grace, Alexa, Shawnkos, Dillon, and Ayanda. Victoria is a middle school band director, and plays keyboard at RCM every Sunday.
Paul has degrees from the University of Miami (BM, 1999), Clemson University (MBA, 2001) and Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary (MA, 2013). Prior to becoming a pastor, Paul was a commercial banker in SW Florida for more than a decade.
Our Leadership
Elder
Matt, a Sarasota native, together with his wife Nicole have 3 wonderful kids. Matt has been a part of RCM since its inception, and was ordained as an elder/pastor at RCM in 2019. Matt and Nicole own and operate a professional photography business, serving the real estate industry all throughout Southwest Florida.
Director of Digital Content
Amanda has a background in digital marketing with a passion for social media. She’s now using her skill and passion to serve as our digital content director.
Musical Worship Leader
Nicole is a Sarasota native, and, together with her husband Matt, have 3 incredible kids. Nicole has served as our musical worship leader at RCM from the very beginning and has a long track record of using her gifts of music in local church settings. Nicole and Matt own and operate a professional photography business, serving the real estate industry all throughout Southwest Florida.
Join Our Small Groups
Small groups allow for members and friends of RCM to connect by sharing a meal together, and studying the scriptures together. We currently have 3 family small groups, and several other Bible studies. Our schedule roughly follows the local school schedule, with a break for summer and the Christmas holiday season.
- Thursday North Sarasota small group
- Saturday South Bradenton small group
- Saturday Bradenton small group
- Tuesday men’s Bible study
- Tuesday ladies’ Bible study
- Sunday evening ladies’ Bible study