Connecting With God, Connecting With People is our mission statement. There is a lot of content, ideas and passion that surround, support and put these simple terms into motion. We understand the importance of the connection we lost over the course of the pandemic. Connection Church has made it our goal to reconnect what matters and to reach the ones that need connection the most.
Pastor Chris and Torri Light have been serving in the pastoral ministry in the Redding area for more than 25 years. Beginning ministry as youth pastors, they eventually planted a church in the heart of Redding where they served as lead pastors for 10 years. In 2012, the Light family transitioned to City Church where they spent the next few years serving in various roles. In 2015, Pastor Chris became the lead pastor of city church, now called Connection Church. He and Torri have been married for 21 years and have four children Amy, Torri Fay, Trent, and Jackie. In his spare time, he likes to play guitar and travel with his family.
“We are passionate about sharing the hope of Salvation that comes through receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior. At Connection Church, we express our love for God and draw close to Him through dynamic worship, prayer, and the diligent study of the Bible. We grow together as a community through designated times of connection. We look for ways to serve each other and those in our area. Connection Church truly is a family, and we would love to see you become a part of it!” -Pastor Chris Light
At Connection Church we aspire to be a community of people who love others and demonstrate that love in healthy, supportive relationships. But the focus of “loving” as it relates to our mission is not on people (at least initially). It is on God. You can find yourself among a group of people who are really loving and caring and yet, end up being just as stuck, broken and lost as you were without them and their loving ways. Love is necessary, but not just any kind and means of love. Love’s beginnings, origins… its Source is the essential factor. The most profound transformation for any human being is found in experiencing the reality of being loved by God as our Maker, Savior and Comforter, and then loving Him in return. The evidence is that a lot of people have ideas or concepts of God that are either very religious (based on fearfulness and attempts to gain God’s favor and approval through “right” behavior), or these concepts are rooted in vague ideas and personal imagination (the mixture of varied spiritual perspectives and the projection of an image of God that begins with “If I were god…”). Religious works and fear will produce a person who is perhaps dutiful in respect to God, but they will be kept far outside of the experience of being loved by and loving God. It would seem reasonable that seeking a relationship with God that is based on “god as I understand or imagine Him…” would provide the freedom and informality that we think love needs to flourish and grow, but it really only produces confusion as our sculpted ideas about God are not realized experientially, or they come into conflict with some of the things that the Bible clearly says about Him.
It is our intense desire to introduce people into a loving relationship with God that is free of religious legalism, but is at the same time anchored deeply into the way that God has revealed Himself to us through the Scripture and specifically in message of the Gospel that is centered on Jesus, God’s Son and our Savior. All that to say that you will find Connection Church to be Gospel-centered; making sure that everyone understands the message of grace that clearly defines God’s character, understands His promises and receives the transformational power of His love through faith.
As you gather with us in the services offered each weekend you will find that our songs and testimonies encourage celebration and gratitude for this grace and give us a place and freedom to be fully engaged in the expression of our love and devotion to Jesus. You will also find that the messages given from week to week are deeply Biblical and immensely practical. The objective that we have in teaching and preaching is to make Jesus known, filling hearts with the wonder of His love and glory, and to make the way of trusting and following Him “doable,” accessible and clear.
Loving God and experiencing His love for you is the best and only place to begin. Everything of good in your relationship with others, encountering freedom from past damages to your soul and discovering the gifts and purposes God has designed into your future flows from this encounter with Christ through the Gospel. Come along with us at Connection Church and we will make sure that you authentically find Him, encounter His grace and experience His love.
Connection Church is a Foursquare church in Redding. For more information click here.