Author Archive
Behold the Lamb of God, December 10th & 11th
We are preparing for our annual production of “Behold the Lamb of God: The True Tall Tale of the Coming King.” This is a great opportunity to invite your friends to a community event where they will hear the Gospel story presented in a unique way.
“Behold the Lamb of God” is a concept concert written by singer/songwriter Andrew Peterson. A concept concert is a collection of songs that tell a complete story. (A famous example of this would be Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”)
Behold the Lamb of God tells the story of the anticipation of Christ’s coming (Advent) and His birth, while foreshadowing His life, death, and resurrection. The style of the production mixes elements of acoustic folk and bluegrass, with American rock. We will begin the show with “Songwriters in the Round,” a singer/songwriter showcase that will feature these area artists: Jared Lyndsey, Lyndsay Taylor, Josh Brown, Rachel Bauer, and Bjorn and Tara. In true Bridge fashion, there will be coffee served.
Behold the Lamb of God Documentary
Behold the Lamb of God will be on December 10th & 11th @ 3p at Elizabethtown’s Historic State Theater. Doors open at 2:30pm. The cost is $5 and half of the ticket costs will go to benefit Lincoln Village Youth Development Center and enrichment programs. Hope you will be able to attend with family and friends!
Here’s a clip from a previous performance. (Dates and times on video do not apply.)
Food Supply in the Food Pantry
Did you know we have a food pantry at the Nexus Building?
We usually get a couple of opportunities each week to meet the needs of people who come in. Supplying food for people is one way we extend the love and grace of Jesus to our community!
As a result of this ministry opportunity, we have a recurring need for a few items. Any time you want to bring an item on the list below, we’re happy to receive the donation! So, think about these things and pick up a few extra next time you’re at the grocery. Send us an email or comment here on this blog if you have any questions.
We ask that all donations to the pantry need to be non-perishable, unexpired food items. You can click here for a printable list of these items.
Protein:
- Canned meat (ham, meat spread, beef stew, chicken, tuna, etc.)
- Canned nuts
- Peanut Butter
- Macaroni & cheese
- Dry beans
Milk Products:
- Evaporated milk
- Powdered milk
Fruits and Vegetables
- Canned fruits
- Canned vegetables
- Canned juices
- Canned soup
- Canned spaghetti sauce
- Dried fruit (raisins, apricots, prunes)
Breads and Cereals
- Pasta
- Cake mixes
- Muffin mix
- Cornbread mix
- Cry cereal
- Oatmeal
- Rice
- Rice cakes
Other Needed Items
- Coffee
- Baby products (diapers, wipes, powder, lotion)
- Household supplies (dish soap, laundry detergent, cleaning supplies)
- Paper products (toilet paper, paper towels, facial tissue, napkins)
- Health & beauty (toothpaste & brushes, shampoo, bar soap)
If you’d like to print out this list to post at your work-place, give to friends, or in your neighborhood please click this link for a PDF download: Bridge Community Food Pantry Items List.
A Challenge to Prayer
from Nathan FishHey church family, we’ve been praying for a long time in our Tuesday morning prayer time that folks within our worshipping community would gather together in prayer. Scripture tells us this is a critical component of our collective connectedness with God:
“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be[e] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:18-20)
From personal experience, I believe praying together also helps us to grow spiritually. I don’t think God wants any of us to miss the blessing of doing this. My challenge to each of you is twofold:
- Find 1 or 2 people to pray with and set a time/place to meet regularly. Make it a part of your planned schedule. You’re very much welcome to join us on Tuesdays at 7:15am at Nexus (we meet most weeks).
- Pray for our leadership – they need our support in this way and will be encouraged to know we are lifting them up. Pray for God’s blessing upon Wayne, Mike, Matt, Robby, and their families, and let them know you are praying for them. Lift up other leaders and potential leaders in our church, as well as missionaries and ministry workers that you know. Here is a link to a guide I like to use as I pray for them daily.
I am excited about what God will do through our simple act of talking with him!
Blessings,Nathan
Getting to Know The Bridge Community: Global Missions
This is Part 5 of a series of blog posts, “Getting to Know The Bridge.” In this post, we want to share our value of global mission work and how we help fund the effort. To read all posts in this series, click here.
As part of our understanding of the biblical functions of “church,” we are committed to an Outward Focus Globally. In the past, we expressed this commitment through a partnership and multiple visits with a church in Panama. Currently, we express this commitment through hosting missionaries at various times throughout the year and through contributing to the Great Commission Fund.
The denomination we’re a part of — The Christian & Missionary Alliance — has a great heritage of global missionary work. The C&MA has developed a reputation for its evangelistic efforts as well as it’s humanitarian efforts through Compassion and Mercy Associates (aka, CAMA Services). All workers in traditional missionary work as well as relief workers with CAMA are financed through the Great Commission Fund (GCF). Workers are not required to raise their own support.
So, the funds we contribute are critical. A percentage of all offerings to The Bridge Community go to the GCF.
You can read all about the GCF here. But here are some of the reasons we support this fund:
- Every four minutes, someone prays to receive Christ through the worldwide outreach of Alliance ministries
- Every hour, three patients, many of them ravaged by AIDS, receive physical and spiritual care through C&MA medical work
- Every day via 43 radio broadcasts, people who have had no gospel witness hear the good news
- Every week, nearly 3,000 new believers are baptized
- Every year, nearly 10,000 students are trained and equipped for ministry through 125 overseas Alliance theological schools
The GCF supports the most significant “cause” in human history. It directly supports the completion of Jesus’ great commission in Matthew 28:18-20. And it also does it in a way that is somewhat unique among world mission sending agencies. Here are some of the reasons we’re glad to partner with this unique approach:
- It frees up missionaries and international workers to concentrate on their ministries instead of on raising funds
- It places missionaries and international workers in their countries of service quickly
- It develops a stronger team spirit among missionaries and international workers on the field
- It insures that well-qualified missionaries and international workers (not just good fundraisers) are sent to the mission field
If you have any questions about our support of the GCF or any other question about how we spend money, send us an email. We’re always open to share “the books!”
What do you think about this way of supporting missions work? Do you see advantages for the missionaries and the ministries in foreign lands? Would you like to meet a missionary from a particular country or region? If so, where?!
Missionaries Visiting This Weekend
This weekend, we’ll have missionaries visiting with us. They will be speaking to our community and the people of Open House. In addition, there will be a couple of opportunities to meet them and interact in an informal, casual setting.
Erin Sabol is a missionary to Argentina and she’ll be here Friday night through Saturday. Friday evening at 7:00, we’ll be hosting her for dessert and coffee at the Nexus Building cafe. Everyone is invited to come hang out and hear from Erin about her calling and life in Argentina. There will be a Q & A afterward.
Don Plummer is a missionary to Russia and he’ll be here Sunday. Sunday morning, we’ll hear briefly from him about his work, and Sunday night he’ll be speaking at the Ramsey Home Community Group. Get directions here.
Both are serving with the Christian & Missionary Alliance and are supported by the Great Commission Fund. A percentage of our budget every year goes to this fund.
We hope you’ll come to meet these two people and hear about their calling and mission!
Prayer Breakfast and Work-Day This Saturday
This Saturday morning, we’ll have a time of prayer over donuts, bagels, and coffee. Everyone is invited as we’ll pray for the needs of our community and our neighbors in Elizabethtown, Radcliff, Fort Knox, Vine Grove, and Rineyville!
Then, for anyone who can stick around for a couple of hours, we’ve got a list of renovation and maintenance projects. Check out the list below and please know that you’ll be a big help, no matter your skill-level!
Here are all the things we know of that need attention this month. Some of them we’ll get to as a group on Saturday. Others will need to be addressed by volunteers throughout the month (if you can’t be there Saturday but would like to help with some of these issues, send us an email).
Projects for Workday, March 6:
- Fill trench with gravel
- Finish partitions in women’s bathroom handicap stall
- Grout tile in back hallway
- Finish wood and trim in back hallway
- Cove base around back door in back hallway
- Install trim around all doors to the multi-purpose room
- Install dimmers on light switches in multi-purpose room
- Mount TV and a/v shelf in preschool classroom
- Replace brass hinges on all interior doors
Maintenance issues for the month of March:
- 3 roof leeks on south side
- Sink leaking in front cafe
- Install j-channel trim around new glass door
Snow and Bad Weather Plans
You wake up on a Sunday morning to see a blanket of snow, or a sheet of ice … what do you do?! How do you know if we’re meeting for worship?
Here’s the plan:
Anytime we get snow or ice, the first thing we ask you to do is check your email or here at the website. If we make a decision to meet on a delay or to cancel the worship gathering, we’ll use our email list and the home page of the website to get the word out. If you haven’t signed up for the email list, now’s the time! Click here to fill out the very simple sign-up form.
If the power is out or you’re unable to access a computer, we will also leave a message on the church phone answering service. You can hear the details by calling 734-9003.
We’ll make a posting with all the local media outlets also, but the fastest way to find out will be email, website, or phone.
Work on the Nexus Building
We’re almost there! Just a few remaining projects stand in the way of us completing the initial stage of renovations.
In the next couple of weeks, there will be contractors working on the last of the plumbing, hooking up all the lights in the worship space, and (hopefully) painting the rest of the ceiling. With that work happening, why don’t we pull together and complete all the “little” jobs that remain?! It will be great to have this phase finished and be able to “relax” going in to the holiday season. So, here’s the goal: finish all the remaining tasks before Thanksgiving.
Can we do it? If we work together in the next 3 weeks, the answer is yes! Below, you’ll see a copy of all the remaining jobs and projects. Some are as simple as 30 minute, one-person jobs; others need a few sets of hands, but can still be completed in an hour or two. So, in the month of November, we’re scheduling a couple of work nights and at least one Saturday. If we can have a good turnout on these days, we’ll finish it!
The first work night is Tuesday, November 2, from 6:30 – 9:00 …
Take a look at the list of jobs below. How many can we cross off the list after Tuesday??
——-
Tasks to be completed:
* Updated October 25
- Install stainless steel shelves in cafe serving area
- Trim around doors – office, conference room, kitchen and mechanical room.
- T-mold transition piece in conference room thresh-hold
- Put down quarter round at base of front glass
- Cove-base (baseboard) in cafe serving area and around bottom of cabinets
- Cove-base in back hallway
- Install bottom piece (the “sweep”) to seal back door
- Install push bar door latch on back door
- Door pulls on main worship entrance
- Grout the ceramic tile inside back door
- Install reducer molding piece in worship side-entrance thresh-holds
- Back-splash tiles in women’s bathroom
- Caulk top of tile baseboard in bathrooms
- Finish partitions in bathrooms
- Install lock on mechanical room door in air-lock entry
- Paint door to mechanical closet in air-lock entry
- Paint two interior doors in KidSpace (mechanical room and passage to nursery)
- Paint door to mechanical closet in office
- Paint classroom doors and bathroom doors
- Tape and mud walls in mechanical room
- Finish drywall in front closet
- Tape and mud walls in closets
Youth Kick Off Party!
A message from the Youth Leadership Team:
We want to share with you some exciting news about youth ministry developing @ The Bridge!! We’re having a Kick-Off Party this Saturday from 6:00-9:00pm outside on the grounds of the Nexus Building. It will be a fun evening with games – ping pong, air hockey, foosball, and pool to name a few – hot dogs, s’mores and more!! We’ll have a fire pit for roasting marshmallows and hot dogs.
Youth in grades 6-12 are invited to come and bring their friends. Everyone who signed up to volunteer with the youth should come also. Let’s all get to know each other better!!
You’ll be hearing more and more about things happening in our Youth Community soon! Let’s make this first event a great time together!!
If you have any questions about the party this Saturday or anything else going on with middle and high school ministry, contact the Youth Leadership Team by email.
Fall Clothing Drive: The “Closet”
Preparations are underway for a great event this fall – we’re calling it “The Bridge Community Closet.” We’re doing a clothing drive, looking for donations of gently used fall and winter clothing. Then, on October 23 at 8:00am, we’ll open the doors of the Nexus Building to welcome anyone and everyone to get the items they need. And it’s all free!
A team of volunteers has organized the event and they are leading the way to making it happen. But, we need all the help we can get! How would you like to help prepare for the event, doing behind the scenes things like sorting and organizing clothes? Or how about spreading the word about the event and helping us get more donated clothing? We have flyers you can post at work or in your neighborhood or small informational cards you can give to friends and family to let them know how to give their un-needed clothes. Click here to contact one of the volunteer leaders and they can let you know how to plug in.
This Saturday, September 18 from noon until 4:00pm, we’ll have our first of two “drop-off” days. The Nexus Building will be open and people can bring their clothes to donate. The second drop-off day is October 16.
You can read all the details about the event here. If you’re ready to get involved or donate, fill out the form here.
As the days get shorter, the weather gets cooler, and you settle into your Fall “routine,” please consider how you can be a part of this special event. In the next few weeks, you’ll probably be making the transition from summer to winter clothes. As you do, set aside some of those items you don’t need and move them from your closet to our “Closet!”