lengthy messages

Read an article (http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/138205-three-things-your-people-hate-to-tell-you-about-your-preaching.html) talking about things people don't like about our preaching.  The one point several commenters focused on was peoples attention span not being long enough to handle more than 30 minutes (current teaching says 20 mins).  The following is what I posted in response to those comments.  


The normal attention span is shrinking due to our culture today.  Comparing a lecture to a movie or game is really missing the point - movies have a story line that weaves through many scene changes and games have constant changes and both are presented from many angles and different people.  A lecture or sermon are one person attempting to engage and hold an audience.  The greats can do this for hours, but the people do not leave with a single unifying point to grow and change on.  This "sitting in God's presence" stuff is again really missing it - God's presence is only at that building on Sundays? (this is a very dangerous concept - we cant be in Gods presence during the week in our everday lives)?  Is the Sunday service supposed to be where people get their discipleship?  Are we to teach our people that all they need to know can be learned on Sunday and that is why we must talk so long?  Recognizing the people we are trying to reach will not sit for a 45 minute message we take all of our messages and break them down into series.  Same information spread over several different messages.  Everyone leaves each message with one concrete challenge to work on.  We also train our people to be in the Word during the week as well as joining discipleship groups.  Rather than teaching the people Sunday's message is the one time to pack all of your learning in, we teach a way of life that includes constant learning.  These comments seem to be reflective of a common trend in churches of railing against the way people are rather than meeting them where they are.  Jesus should not have had to die for us, but it was needed and He did it.  People should be able to tune into a message from Gods word for more than 20 minutes, but many can't so maybe we should meet them where they are.  With training we could get them to focus longer, but that will only happen with those that are plugged in long enough - what about the new person?  Are we focused on the already connected or on reaching those that are lost?

Love God, Love Others, Disciple All

Love God, Love Others, Disciple All - this is our purpose statement at The Bridge.  We have been working through a sermon series about this.  Digging into the Love God portion the first week we discovered many times when a reference in the bible is made to loving God it is accompanied somehow with a statement about loving others as the indicator, evidence or activity of loving God.  To love God we must apparently love His people.  Love others is nearly always referenced as an activity of meeting the needs of someone, never as an emotion.  Discipleship is a process of training we go through in the discipline of following Christ.  We are called to disciple all in the great commission - that means all of us are to be about training others in the discipline of following Christ.  The great commission was not to go be disciples, rather to go disciple all people.  This was a final instruction from Jesus and applies to all His disciples.

Knowing these are the purposes for which we exist The Bridge is focused on applying these to all of our lives.  Although we offer worship services to express our love for God our primary outlet for loving God is in the action of loving others.  Loving others is an activity of meeting the needs of people - social, emotional, spiritual and physical needs.  Discipleship is done through our small groups, peer guide program and a constant challenge to grow by reading, listening and questioning.  I am excited about what God is doing in our lives and through us in Genesee county!

Truth Project

We wrapped up the series on GPS - God Positioning System.  Really enjoyed this series.  Starting our new one based on the Truth Project now.  This past Sunday we looked into Veritology, the study of Truth.  The question was What is truth? and Do we really believe what we believe is really real?  Is there absolute truth out there at all or is it all relative?  Jesus said He came to testify to the truth when he spoke to Pilate and throughout His ministry often spoke of truth.  If that is what Jesus is all about it must be real and important. We defined truth as an accurate reflection of reality - reality as perceived by God because only He can see it perfectly.  Too often today people would agree to the "accurate reflection of reality" but then add the statement that each persons reality is different.  Although many people have differing views of reality, it is not a changeable thing.  Reality exists no matter how we perceive it and is unchanged by our perception.  The color of the wall in your room may be perceived differently by many people, but in reality it is only one color and that color is definable.  Next week we will be digging into Theology, the study of God, and truth in that arena.

GPS

Starting a new series on GPS - God Positioning System - in July.  Love this one - we developed this at the staff retreat and really liked it.  We will be using the story of Exodus to illustrate the principles laid out in this series.  Starting with Who Am I? dealing with the starting point in any journey, then Who Is God? dealing with the guide we will use on the journey, to The Destination dealing with where the journey is taking us or our purpose, then Prayer dealing with our connection to the GPS and finally Listening dealing with receiving the signal from the GPS.  Looking forward to this one - hope you can join us!

Father

Working through a Father series this month celebrating Fathers Day.  Talking about Father God, our example and perfect role model - Father Guardian, the role of the father in the family and any leaders role - Father Community, the fathers role in community - and Father Child, the fathers role with his children.  We have gone through a time in our society of the male role being looked down upon despite it truly being a critical role for our society.  This has nothing to do with male dominance rather everything to do with the interdependence of the genders.  Hopefully we will come through this series with the fathers and men in the group feeling empowered to use the tools being given to them and all to recognize how important it is to our society to get this right.

The Adventure

In our Adventure series now at The Bridge.  I truly believe it has been an adventure following Christ and living out of who God says I am rather than my past or what others say about me.  I have met more people and gone more places than I ever would have without being a follower.  Rather than being satisfied watching shows about people changing lives and living an adventure I have been involved in real life change and a real adventure.  Hope you all are finding your purpose and loving the adventure you are on!

Easter

 Great Easter service!  Lot of new faces, new record attendance and just a great time!  April was the first month we have averaged 400 in weekly attendance.  We have been steadily growing all along with tremendous increases each month for the past 5 months.  We are seeing God changing lives weekly.  Following is from an email I sent out to our prayer partners - this tells more of the story of what is happening at The Bridge:  My intern that is being prepared for church planting is now preaching our second service on Sundays and doing a great job.  We are adding an early service at 9 am on Sundays in a matter of weeks.  We are in the process of closing on the building, 33,000 sq ft for $275k with $130k down and interest free payments of $2417 monthly for 60 months to pay it off.  We have initiated a salary for the Lead Pastor and Childrens Pastor (pastors wife) for the first time.  This summer we have a program for kids during the weekdays to
serve the community by offering a type of daycare for free with an emphasis on breaking generational issues.  We have over 20 community groups meeting in our building weekly with another 10 Bridge Connection groups meeting each week.  Our average weekly attendance for the past 12 weeks is 321 and for the past 4 weeks 400.  Our giving has been up overall, but per capita is down due to the large influx of people over the past few months that are new to church attending and are just learning the blessings of giving.  Many new relationships with Christ each month and a constant trickle of baptisms to go along with that. We have our sad stories that occur as well - buried several people in the past few months that were needless deaths, but one of those was still a beautiful story and her family is still being ministered to.  We continue to operate in faith knowing this is all beyond our capabilities and can only be done by God.  We continue to work on fundraising to increase our abilities to help others and grow the Kingdom.  Thank you for your prayers!

Gospel of John

Working on a 2 part series in John.  The book of John is a great place to start studying the bible as it gives a  foundational  view of Jesus' ministry and what He was all about.  With that in mind we set up a Tuesday evening study in John for the next 8-10 weeks.

Getting real excited about Easter!  Trying to bring in over 400 people to hear about the Adventure God wants us to begin by accepting Jesus and living out of who He calls us to be.  Is your life mundane, boring or without purpose?  Come hear about the adventure Jesus has planned for you!

Man/Woman series

Working on this Men and Women are not Equal series.  Love this subject, but it is hard to do it justice in a sermon series.  I studied this a lot in college and after.  The real question is how to find the truth that crosses all the things said in scripture.  I believe God created us equivalent and there was not one in charge of the other at the beginning.  I believe the curse is just that - a curse, not a command to live by.  I believe Jesus meant what He said when He said "neither male nor female, jew nor greek..." etc.  The gender is just another aspect of who we are no different than skin color or family background.  What about Paul saying women can't speak and wives submit to husbands?  Next week we will look at the submission concept at least and address the NT view of women.  Chime in if you have any opinions.

Sunday's Secret

For the 2 of you that read this blog I am revealing a day earlier what the big news is for Sunday.

Last week we had a video about what the church is – it is the people that claim the name of Christ.  You are the church if you call yourself Christian. It is the job of the church to pay its way and reach out to the community. The Bridge is completely funded by the donations of the people in the seats.  All of our operations costs are covered by those donations – this includes rent, utilities, insurance, maintenance, salaries, books, videos, equipment, etc.  When we started 2 years ago we were able to raise $50,000 to cover start up costs – rent, chairs, sound equipment, utilities, books, advertising, etc.  That money has long been gone, but there have been a couple donations made to boost certain ministries or to help pay for renovations.  Other than that we operate on our giving by the people that consider this their spiritual home. 

Due to the efforts of Bob Ellery and his connections we were able to present to several investors, that wish to remain anonymous, our plans for future ministries here at The Bridge.  What we presented that we want to see occur over the next 1-3 years came to $498,000.  This starts with expanding our facility, particularly for the kids in the community, but also for the whole community.  The expansion we desire to do is purchasing the north end of Carman Plaza, 33,000 sq ft of empty space, and converting it to our uses. 

For the children we want to have an area for the kids in the community to come to in the summer for different activities, from summer tutoring to games to leadership training to outings.  We also want to offer classes for better parenting to help change the home life for kids and help parents find work or improve their work skills to find better work.  There will be year round resources and activities for children and families at risk. 

For the community we want to offer Life Coaching – this is a method of helping people find the next best step in their life.  We have a Christian Counselor, Margaret Cullen, that will be heading this up and we have a licensed therapist we consult with.  There are several people that will be receiving training and certification in Life Coaching this year as we establish this ministry for the community. 

We will be working on establishing transitional housing for people that have found themselves without a place to live or need a change in life.  This will be focused on teaching job skills, interpersonal skills, budgeting and life planning.  The classes offered through this ministry will be available to all, but we will also have a limited amount of beds for temporary housing for those that have no other place to stay until they can get back on their feet.  This will be different than a shelter – very focused on transitioning people, which will require people that are hungry and motivated to change their life.  Homeless shelters in the area we already support and will continue to support. 

All of this becomes possible by purchasing the building we are in with the adjacent 23,000 sq ft of empty space.  The landlord has thrown a price at us of $320,000.  We know it will take $40,000 to renovate the spaces.  The donors that we presented this to have committed to us $300,000.  We are not interested in taking this money and spending it all on the building so we are trusting God to come through again by getting the landlords to accept an offer of half that price.  Lets pray that God intervene and show the people that own this building the benefits of letting this building go for cheap.  This money will be going to expand our facility and kick off new ministries.  The purchase of the property will save us $2000 per month on rent which will offset the increase in utilities and maintenance.  There will be increased costs to cover the ministries we are starting, but as we have grown we have also seen increases in your giving.  All of this is possible due to your telling others about what you have experienced here and your faithfulness in giving.  There are many people that have experienced tremendous life change because of you.  Thank you for your support.  

Wasted life

A friend of mine just passed away - actually a couple of them did.  The friend that stands out is the one that was preventable.  Julie was a young woman with a future before her.  She struggled with addictions, but had gotten clean at times.  She suffered under the consequences of her actions while under the influence, but she was growing and stopping those actions.  At some point recently she decided to go out and use again.  Now she is dead.  I miss her and am angry at the waste of a great gift of life that God has given.  I know she was connected to her Creator through Jesus Christ and walks with Him now with a healed body, mind and soul.  A friend of mine says often "We have met the enemy and the enemy is us!" referring to our self destructive habits.  I believe that completely and hate the consequences of it.  I love Julie and look forward to one day walking with her again.  My other friend died of natural causes at an older age and it does not hurt as much - the gift of life God gave Rick was not cut short nor wasted.

I am not stupid!

New series for the next 3 weeks is about our financial intelligence.  Most of us are not stupid, but when it comes to money we make some very stupid choices.  If we are not that stupid then why are we broke, in debt and buy stuff we don't need or even want.  Using biblical principles we will be addressing these questions for the next 3 weeks.  Side note: Morning band is back for the 11am service!

Communion

What does communion mean to you?  Jesus did this ritual only once shortly before being crucified and told His disciples to do it in remembrance of Him.  Many make a big deal about the type of bread and if it was wine or juice, but it appears Jesus' point was that His body and blood was life sustenance for us.  He did not seem to concerned about what holiday they were observing or what type of bread or drink was available - Jesus seemed focused on the point that His body would be broken and blood shed for us and we needed to remember what He was going to do.

Later in scripture we find some more instructions regarding communion.  One in particular was to not participate in the ceremony in an unworthy manner - that it was not to be taken lightly, rather as a serious time of reflection about what Jesus had done for you.  It is clear that part of participating was a real relationship with God through Christ.  At The Bridge we take communion seriously as a time of remembrance of what Jesus did for us.  Because it is meant for the believer we do not offer communion during service times, but set up a special time each month for communion.  This way the first time attenders at The Bridge that may not have a current relationship with Christ will not feel excluded during the ceremony.

When we remember what Jesus did we most often gather in a circle, share in the bread and juice and then share what Jesus did and is doing in our lives.  It is a great time of bonding and fellowship.  Our current schedule for communion is at 12:30 and 6:30 pm after the services the week after the Dinner at The Bridge each month.  Hope you can join us some time.  Let me know what Jesus did for you!

God is Bigger

We continue with our theme of God is Bigger in all that we do.  He surpasses all of our problems, provides beyond our asking and is greater than any dream we might have!  Our new service times are Saturday at 6 pm, Sundays at 11 am and 5 pm.  Continuing in our growth.  God is Bigger!

Chain Reaction

New name for the new church being started on the East side of Flint is Chain Reaction!  Chain refers to the connection or link to our Creator made possible by Christ and the Reaction is about the movement starting in Genesee county.  It is starting with a small group of people, but the Chain Reaction will explode into the community and change lives radically because of God working through His people.  Tony and Traci will be great as the planting couple.  It is the very beginning - the launch team is still to be found, but the word is getting out.  I am excited about this next church launch and what is going to happen on the East side!  We have a potential planter in the wings for the future also - more on that at a later date.

Road trip

Heading out with the family for some R&R and some coaching from my church planting coach.  I love the time I get to spend with leaders that have done what I am attempting.  It is great to soak up some wisdom, get challenged on my thinking and grow because of it!  8 hours in the car with the family is a great bonding time as well.

wedding

Did another wedding at The Bridge today.  I love being a part of new beginnings - whether a new spiritual beginning or a marital beginning or kids.  It is a real privilege to be a part of such a significant event in peoples lives!  This couple chose to have their initials tattooed on each others ring finger as a symbol of their lifetime commitment.  I like that level of commitment!  Praying for them as they begin this new life together in a tough economy, tough circumstances (job and home) and a society that says honoring commitments is not as important as "feeling" good.  As long as they keep trusting God in this relationship they will peace, joy and love!

Our God is bigger

We sing Our God is Greater at The Bridge often. Love that song because it reminds me that God is always bigger and more capable than I believe. When I am confident He can do this much He can really do so much more. When I believe He loves me or others that much He really loves so much more. When I think He is calling me to this level of service He really is empowering me to do so much more! My God is bigger than anything that can come my way! This year I am trying to chase after God sized plans and dream - although I know I will fall short I would rather fall short of reaching the peak of Mt Everest than falling short of reaching the top of the local hill! What is your God sized dream?