Joel is married to Lauren and has three children - Caroline (9), Natalie (6), and Georgia (3). The Brooks moved from Atlanta to Birmingham 15 years ago so Joel could attend Beeson Divinity School where he received his MDiv. in 1999. After graduation, the Lord led Joel to begin University Christian Fellowship (UCF). After serving nine years with UCF and as college pastor at Mountain Brook Community Church, the couple felt the Spirit leading them to plant a church somewhere in the city of Birmingham. For months, they gathered with friends in their home to seek God's heart concerning this possibility.  On March 30, 2008, Redeemer Community Church's first service was held in their home.

Dwight Castle hails from Winston-Salem, North Carolina and came to Birmingham in the fall of 2003 to attend Samford University. He graduated in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in Communication Studies and a Spanish minor. After working for a year in Birmingham, he felt the Lord leading him elsewhere. For the next year he was sent by University Christian Fellowship as a missionary to Ballymena, Northern Ireland. During this year, he and 3 others lived in a bitterly sectarian housing estate, forming relationships with the troubled youth who daily face the realities of jaded religious and political affiliations, broken homes, youth pregnancies, drug and alcohol addictions, paramilitary activity, and many other negative influences. Upon his return to the U.S. in the summer of 08, Dwight moved back to Birmingham and immediately immersed himself in serving this young church wherever there was need. Through this involvement, the Lord began to open the way for his current position, in which Dwight now provides opportunities for the body of believers at Redeemer to actively live out the Gospel, by meeting the needs of those around us.