The service was great! We had 24 new people show up. The music went well and I think the message was received - I am sorry for how Christians have behaved. The apology was sincere and well taken.
There were two things I wanted to get across - first was I wanted the group to know that God is interested in a relationship with them, not in finding some reason to condemn them. Second I wanted the group to look past Christian's behavior to Jesus. Jesus never condemned the "sinner", rather He was loving with them and harsh with the religious leaders.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Sept 28
We had an interview with the Flint Journal and got an article in the paper. The response has been great! I look forward to meeting new people that are interested in what we are doing. I want to extend an open invitation to take you out to lunch. If you want to meet with me and hear more about what we are doing give me a call and I will set a time up to treat you to lunch or coffee.
I am excited about the weekend connection tomorrow! I believe God has good word for many people at this meeting. There is so much I want to say in the message, but I will stick to our point. I will post soon on how the meeting went.
Steve Bentley
810-217-8084
I am excited about the weekend connection tomorrow! I believe God has good word for many people at this meeting. There is so much I want to say in the message, but I will stick to our point. I will post soon on how the meeting went.
Steve Bentley
810-217-8084
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Preview
The first Preview service for The Bridge went great! We had over 20 volunteers working and over 60 people in attendance. The programs were in place for us to easily accommodate 250 or more in attendance. I, of course, hoped to have more show up, but I am very pleased with how everything went. The transitions from element to element in the connection time went flawlessly and many things went without a hitch. The changes we need to make are due to planning issues and not execution. Everything went according to plan - we will plan even better for the next one though.
The next service - Sept 28 - is getting setup. Come be a part.
The message at the first service was about what God wants from us - a relationship. That is what He truly cares about. Religion is all about rules, but God is all about relationships. I needed to extrapolate more on that in the message - about our relationships to others, but I think the point was received.
The next service - Sept 28 - is getting setup. Come be a part.
The message at the first service was about what God wants from us - a relationship. That is what He truly cares about. Religion is all about rules, but God is all about relationships. I needed to extrapolate more on that in the message - about our relationships to others, but I think the point was received.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
update
Tomorrow is the big day! We have our first preview service at 11 am at the Carman Plaza location - they agreed to reduced rent for the first six months. We are excited! There will be video clips, a relevant talk, and a large group of volunteers. We hope the guests out number the volunteers. I will post the sermon here next week. When this is all done we start to ramp up for the next one on Sept 28. I hope we seen you there.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Affirmation
I just realized I posted about our going to an assessment and never put the results up. It may have appeared the assessment did not go well since I did not talk about it again. That is far from the truth! We had a great time at the assessment - we made new friends, learned new things and got a great affirmation. We were fully and unconditionally recommended for church planting! This only happens for 10-20% of the people being assessed. Heading out there we definitely had a little voice whispering in our ear that maybe we are not qualified to do this. We have not done any testing for our ability or affinity for church planting before this, but we did do a lot of study. It really was affirming to have a group of church planters and psychologists say we were real candidates for church planting!
This official approval has given us the opportunity to meet with church planting groups that want to invest in The Bridge as a new church. We have two groups - Growing Healthy Churches and Green Lakes Church Planting - that are putting up matching funds and offering training and coaching. We will be giving back a regular percentage to these groups to "pay back" their investment and add to the original capital so more churches can be planted. We are very excited to be part of these groups! Our vision for planting more churches in the area is better equipped because of these groups, their resources, training and investment.
We just got back from a round table meeting in Green Lake sponsored by GLCP and GHC. We were able to meet with church planters at all stages - from not started yet to planting their 4th church. We also got time picking the brain of John Jackson - a church planter from Nevada that has figured some things out. God is good! He is definitely working in Genesee County. I ask that all of you continue to pray for us. God bless you!
This official approval has given us the opportunity to meet with church planting groups that want to invest in The Bridge as a new church. We have two groups - Growing Healthy Churches and Green Lakes Church Planting - that are putting up matching funds and offering training and coaching. We will be giving back a regular percentage to these groups to "pay back" their investment and add to the original capital so more churches can be planted. We are very excited to be part of these groups! Our vision for planting more churches in the area is better equipped because of these groups, their resources, training and investment.
We just got back from a round table meeting in Green Lake sponsored by GLCP and GHC. We were able to meet with church planters at all stages - from not started yet to planting their 4th church. We also got time picking the brain of John Jackson - a church planter from Nevada that has figured some things out. God is good! He is definitely working in Genesee County. I ask that all of you continue to pray for us. God bless you!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Faith
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. - Hebrews 11:1
Lets take a look at faith in this post. Faith is often illustrated with the light switch. You come into a room and flick a switch on with the full faith it will turn the light on. You may not even know how that works, but fully trust it will.
Look at Heb. 11:1b - "...certain of what we do not see." The first time someone ever uses a switch it is faith. Maybe the first month of using it is faith. At some point, rather quickly, it is no longer faith. This person has seen it work consistently every time. They have "seen" it. It is now knowledge rather than faith.
What does this mean for us? When God stretches us with something new we can respond in faith if we choose to follow Him. Tithing is a good example. Tithing is not a law that brings salvation, but a principle of God that can initially stretch us. To begin to tithe may stretch us in our faith. We can't see how this is possible to do. We may start at 1% and work our way up. What will happen over time is we will see God bless us and never miss the 10% we work up to - as long as it is cheerfully given. After a period of time tithing, we will "see" the truth of God's provision. It is no longer a faith act. Faith has become knowledge.
If we are to live a life of faith and not knowledge what do we do? This journey is not a static one. It is an adventure! Being called to faith is being called to something new - perpetually. As a follower of Christ we must be doing a new thing for God always or we are not living by faith. When the scary thing God called us to do, whether tithing or mission work, is no longer scary because we know God will provide, we must allow God to stretch us with the new thing He is calling us to do. This happens in small things - changing our attitude, smiling more or whatever He is challenging us to do - as well as the big things - go to China, sell your big house and downsize so you can give the difference to God, or whatever.
We must be doing a new thing for God to be living by faith. Are you living by faith? What is the new thing you are doing?
Lets take a look at faith in this post. Faith is often illustrated with the light switch. You come into a room and flick a switch on with the full faith it will turn the light on. You may not even know how that works, but fully trust it will.
Look at Heb. 11:1b - "...certain of what we do not see." The first time someone ever uses a switch it is faith. Maybe the first month of using it is faith. At some point, rather quickly, it is no longer faith. This person has seen it work consistently every time. They have "seen" it. It is now knowledge rather than faith.
What does this mean for us? When God stretches us with something new we can respond in faith if we choose to follow Him. Tithing is a good example. Tithing is not a law that brings salvation, but a principle of God that can initially stretch us. To begin to tithe may stretch us in our faith. We can't see how this is possible to do. We may start at 1% and work our way up. What will happen over time is we will see God bless us and never miss the 10% we work up to - as long as it is cheerfully given. After a period of time tithing, we will "see" the truth of God's provision. It is no longer a faith act. Faith has become knowledge.
If we are to live a life of faith and not knowledge what do we do? This journey is not a static one. It is an adventure! Being called to faith is being called to something new - perpetually. As a follower of Christ we must be doing a new thing for God always or we are not living by faith. When the scary thing God called us to do, whether tithing or mission work, is no longer scary because we know God will provide, we must allow God to stretch us with the new thing He is calling us to do. This happens in small things - changing our attitude, smiling more or whatever He is challenging us to do - as well as the big things - go to China, sell your big house and downsize so you can give the difference to God, or whatever.
We must be doing a new thing for God to be living by faith. Are you living by faith? What is the new thing you are doing?
Sunday, June 8, 2008
update
Katrina and I are headed out to Wisconsin for a Growing Healthy Churches assessment. We are excited about what we will learn and the potential help they can give us. What is even more exciting is that we can become part of this group and help plant more churches. I will be presenting our first sermon at this assessment and will post it here later.
The Bridge Ministry is moving forward. Our location is still in question, but that is not our biggest concern right now. We are continuing to expand our launch team and are looking for more people that are interested in serving God in this ministry. We are focused on reaching the people that don't like going to church, come from an unchurched background or are looking for a place they can serve God. Our Sunday service will be about connecting people to our Relevant God!
The Bridge Ministry is moving forward. Our location is still in question, but that is not our biggest concern right now. We are continuing to expand our launch team and are looking for more people that are interested in serving God in this ministry. We are focused on reaching the people that don't like going to church, come from an unchurched background or are looking for a place they can serve God. Our Sunday service will be about connecting people to our Relevant God!
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