Our History

Redemption City Church began with two families and a shared conviction: Rochester needed a church planted around the gospel, led by a plurality of elders, and shaped by the ordinary life of the Christian community. Jacob Tonak, raised in Lakeville, Minnesota, and his wife Rachel sensed a call to return to Rochester to plant a church, a vision Jacob's biography dates to the fall of 2015. Adam Pohlman, who grew up in southern Minnesota and spent twelve years as a civil engineer before pursuing pastoral ministry, shared that vision with his wife Molly. On January 12, 2017, the Tonak and Pohlman families hosted an open house dinner, inviting Rochester neighbors to explore the vision for a new church in the city.

Ten days later, that group began meeting weekly, and that July, twenty-two believers covenanted together to grow in the Lord and serve on his kingdom mission — in member discipleship, baptism, and communion. Two months later, the young congregation moved its Sunday morning worship gathering to John Adams Middle School, which served as its home for about two and a half years.

After a season of meeting elsewhere — including an interim location through the end of 2020 — the church purchased its current facility on July 19, 2021, establishing a permanent home at 1835 19th Avenue NW in Rochester. From that corner of the city, the congregation's aim has remained what it was at the start: to be a multi-generational witness to Christ's victory over death and his authority over heaven and earth, engaging the city through personal ministry in every part of life — marriage, parenting, education, counseling, vocation, celebration, and feasting.

Today, Redemption City Church is led by a plurality of eight elders — Jacob Tonak, Adam Pohlman, Justin Opperman, Matt Fisher, Joel Pacyna, Kevin Amundson, Kurtis Amundson, and Patrick Porras — with Brian Kettering serving as pastoral resident. The church's mission is to equip personally, engage locally, and expand globally, and its life together centers on Sunday worship, community groups, and the shared work of making disciples in Rochester and beyond.

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