Biltmore Bible Church begins gathering for the first time at it’s 5020 N. 34th Street location on December 11, 1960 with Sunday School at 9:30 AM and a single service at 10:45 AM led by Dr. John L. Mitchell.

Ground breaking ceremonies were held at 10:30 AM Easter Morning on April 2nd, 1961. Present were Andrew P. Tell, George Jude, E. F. Corley, Perry Mehan, Bert Thorud (the architect), and D. John L. Mitchell (the pastor at the time).

Rev. James Borror, Th.M. Dallas Theological Seminary, served as the summer pastor of BBC at its 34th Street location while the chapel is completed in July.

A dedication service is held on October 1st, 1961 where Dr. Charles Woodbridge spoke to a congregation of 150 people.

In 1962, 13 people left BBC to establish Scottsdale Bible Church.

During this time, Dr. J. Grant Howard Jr. served as senior pastor at Biltmore Bible for about 3 years before the church leaders and members voted to organize a new church comprised of many of BBC’s staff and leaders called Camelback Bible Church initially meeting at Phoenix Country Day School on Stanford Rd before their building was completed across the street. Reverend Howard passed away in 2004.

Eventually, in 1968, William “Bill” Whitlow became the first residing Senior Pastor of Biltmore Bible Church.

“Complete Biblical Ministry” was used to describe the church in newspaper ads throughout the 60’s, 70’s, and early 80’s before changing it to “Interdenominational - Full Gospel” in 1987. At some point around that time, the church began operating under the name “Biltmore Bible Christian Center”.

Pastor Bill went home to be with Jesus on October 12, 2017. He and Donna Whitlow were married 64 years, and he served in his role from 1968 to ~2008.

Biltmore Bible Church remains an entity, but begins leasing its property to other churches and organizations as its operations cease.

Praxis Church, led by Justin Anderson, plants a new church called "Praxis Arcadia" which begins Sunday services at Memorial Presbyterian Church off 42nd St and Thomas Rd.

Like Dr. Howard before him, Lead Pastor Justin Anderson spends time Pastoring both Tempe and Arcadia each Sunday, traveling between the two campuses. Tyler Johnson also temporarily stepped in to lead Redemption Arcadia during this brief time in its early life.

Redemption Church Arizona is formed from the merging Redemption Arcadia (Praxis Church Arcadia), Redemption Tempe (Praxis Church Tempe) and Redemption Gilbert (East Valley Bible Church). It was comprised of one legal entity, operating in as many as 10 local congregations.

Much of our church DNA, culture, partnerships, church planting priorities and doctrine are established during this time by Tom Shrader, Justin Anderson and Tyler Johnson, along with many others.

The original mission statement was “Redemption AZ exists to glorify God by strengthening and birthing healthy local congregations.”

On February 1st, 2012, Redemption Arcadia calls its first exclusively dedicated Lead Pastor, Frank Switzer.  The Arcadia "site" begins its work to build infrastructure for Arcadia to become a "congregation."

Elders and Deacons are added as the church begins to stand on its own.

Pastor Frank and the leadership at the time successfully bid $1.2 million to buy the Biltmore Bible Church property from the still-operating Board of Elders. We are thankful that the Elders of what was Biltmore Bible Church made the pivotal decision to turn down bids by developers and sell the property to a Bible-believing church at a significant financial loss to them, but a win for the kingdom.

Debartolo Architects then started an award winning renovation to repurpose and refresh the property after raising another $850,000 to go toward the reconstruction.

Redemption Peoria and Redemption Scottsdale are planted with leaders sent from Redemption Arcadia during this time.

Redemption Arcadia holds its first Sunday service in its new permanent home on July 12. There were 574 people in attendance over two services.

On January 13, 2019 Tom Shrader, planting Pastor of East Valley Bible Church and Redemption AZ, went home to be with Jesus. He was a mentor and father-figure to Frank Switzer and countless others. He preached his last sermon at Redemption Arcadia in 2017 on the topic of aging in the church.

His presence is missed every day, and his influence goes on. You can listen to his archives by clicking here

Throughout 2023 the leadership of Redemption Church (including the local elders) went through a discernment process that resulted in the decisions that each of the congregations would transition to separate autonomous legal entities under the full authority of their respective governing boards.

The Redemption Network was then formed from seven of the now autonomous congregations.

August 1st marks the first day of operation as our own 501c3 entity, "Redemption Arcadia," having been incorporated March 14th of the same year.