Resurgence Church, Evansville, IN

Resurgence Church is a small congregation of free grace believers in southern Indiana. Resurgence seeks for sound biblical exegesis and vibrant worship and creates opportunities of service in the community of Evansville, Indiana, while allowing for a casual church experience. Resurgence exists to build fresh faith into the lives of a generation that at times has been abandoned by their family, their friends, and even their church. The whole goal behind what God has called Resurgence to is to reach people and teach people for Jesus Christ.

The inception of Resurgence involved God’s call upon Jeremy Edmondson, and his wife Beth, to leave the position of youth minister at a local church and plant Resurgence with the purpose of reaching the 20 and 30 year olds who were noticeably missing from the surrounding local churches. In the fall of 2006, there were about 15 people who shared a common interest in seeing the church bypass some of the fluff and legalism, and

become concerned with the things that God is concerned with: obedience to His holy Word. In February of 2007, Resurgence held its first service at 4:00pm with 18 in attendance in a borrowed church that did not have a nightly service. The purpose for the odd time was to allow for college students and young couples to make church without having to compete with their “sleep schedule.”

In the months to follow, a steady growth of visitors began to become regulars, and quickly Resurgence was having a consistent attendance of about 40. With this growth also came the need to switch facilities. This led to storing all of the equipment necessary for worship in a storage facility and setting it up fresh every Sunday. While taxing, it was rewarding to see God’s people caring about the need to have the church atmosphere set up and ready for any that might visit.

About two years in, Resurgence found itself again in a time of displacement. Instead of looking for a conventional church building, Resurgence opted to begin meeting at a bar on the west side of Evansville. This would be something “strangely unique,” but not out of the ordinary for the path that Resurgence would began to take in doing ministry differently. With this new “home” came the opportunity to work with the landlord, who owned another bar across the street. After much prayer and conversation, the “Resurgence New Year’s Taxi Service” was born, which provides free rides home for those who are too intoxicated to drive. Since Evansville is a heavily Catholicized area, these trips home have made for an excellent environment to share faith alone in Christ alone with all who are passengers! To this day, the service is still offered on New Year’s Eve and has moved from a traditional bar to offering rides at the downtown gay bar.

In 2010, Resurgence began getting involved in monthly preaching and serving at the Evansville Rescue Mission. Resurgence has a Preaching Team that is made up of eight men from the church who take turns in preaching for the various situations made available to them. With the involvement at the Rescue Mission came the opportunity to get involved in the Youth Care Center; a juvenile correctional facility which holds incarcerated youths from ages 13-17. Every Sunday at noon, Resurgence is able to share the Word of God with these teenagers and allows for personal conversations to take place afterwards. To date, Resurgence has handed out around 300 Living Waters booklets to those who are in the facility and they have had the privilege to see over 15 teens come to faith in Christ in this short time! (In May of 2011, Dr. Bob Wilkin was able to share the gospel with the Youth Care Center teens and spent an hour with some of the teens afterwards, explaining the gospel to them.)

In keeping with Resurgence’s “unconventional” approach to ministry, the church has a late-teen, early 20s group for the alternative sub-culture called Hope for the Rejected. The target audience for this ministry usually consists of teens and twenty-somethings who are not normally accepted because of their music, appearance, or wardrobe. This weekly Bible study group is led by Clint and Heather Vaught and utilizes the basement area of Resurgence’s current facility to host shows for hardcore, punk, pop, and acoustic bands which bring in many saved and unsaved people! The shows are always affordable, and can provide many opportunities for the gospel to be shared! In addition to Bible study and running a music venue, Clint and Heather open their home up to the touring bands and in hosting some atheistic bands, have been able to rebuild some of the bridges that many in the church have burned.

One more ministry highlight that Resurgence is involved in is the yearly “Black Friday Outreach,” which takes hot chocolate and coffee to those who are waiting in line for the Black Friday deals at the major department stores in the area. While this is an “early morning” venture, with each serving comes a gospel tract that was written by Pastor Edmondson called “It’s That Simple” which spells out the gospel message from John 3:16.

In March of 2011, the Lord opened the doors for Resurgence to find a permanent residence in an underprivileged neighborhood on Evansville’s southwest side. This facility allowed space for everything that was needed in the ministries the church supported and to commemorate the opening of the building, Resurgence held a weekend Bible conference that welcomed Dr. Bob Wilkin to speak on Free Grace Theology. It was the perfect way to start off the new facility, and Dr. Wilkin was a pleasure to have.

In 2012, Resurgence will be looking to write a Free Grace Vacation Bible School curriculum with a pirate theme for the children in the neighborhood. The people of Resurgence are committed to the integrity of the gospel and the inerrancy of the Scriptures, and are looking for God to do amazing things within and through the congregation in order to keep reaching the lost.

The Details:

Pastor: Jeremy Edmondson
Email: resurgencechurch@gmail.com
Website: www.resurgencecommunity.com
Phone: 812.453.4889

Location:
816 Jefferson Ave
Evansville, IN 47713

Services:
3PM Prayer
4PM Worship