Author Archive
Behold the Lamb of God, December 5th @ 3p in the Historic State Theater
We are entering practice for our 4th year’s 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: Mark and Nicole Melloan, Robby and Tricia Payne, Tara Steele, Matt and Joanna Black, and Josh Brown. In true Bridge fashion, there will be coffee served.
Behold the Lamb of God Documentary
Behold the Lamb of God will be on December 5th @ 3p at Elizabethtown’s Historic State Theater. The cost is $5 and half of the ticket costs will go to benefit Feeding America’s backpack program. 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.)
Update On Building Renovations and a Big ‘Thank You!’
Hey friends, here are some key thoughts to keep you informed and encourage you!
Progress
Once again we have had a great week of progress. Can you believe that we have blacked out ceilings in the cafe and hallway?! AIR CONDITIONING TOO! (Sorry to yell in all caps-can you tell I’m excited) Now we have finished grid ceilings in all of the classrooms and offices, Kidspace flooring is covered, and flooring is making its way across our cafe. In addition to this, we have a bit more parking as the old septic tank has been collapsed and filled in.
Thank You!
These things have all happened because of incredible people like you. We have come this far because of the time, money, and resources you have offered. If you have inconvenienced yourself in any way to help make this a reality, know that it has been the collective moments of many people like you who have made this happen.
Saturday is Clean Up Day!
This Saturday, and every Saturday for the next few weeks, will be focused on cleaning up to prepare for Sunday morning. If you’ve ever swept or vacuumed, you are overqualified : ) We will also be setting out chairs and setting up sound and projection for Sunday worship. Our space is large, so the more people we have present the better. If you have push brooms or shop vacs, please bring them with you.
Matt’s Deep Closing Thought!
If you feel like you’ve missed out on being a part of things, please know it’s never too late to jump in. We still have a lot of finishing projects to do. I personally have been rescued at times by a few of you who’ve not been able to come by as often but happened to stop in to see if they could help.
Just this week, I thought about how incredible it is to have been a part of constructing this space. We all have individual goals, homes to tend to, or maybe businesses to grow; but this space points to something bigger than ourselves. It’s quickly becoming an open resource for our community and a sanctuary or safe haven to those who are in need or aren’t connected to Jesus. I truly hope that each of you who call The Bridge “home” or “family,” will not miss out on the blessing of being a part of this chapter of our story. Even with all of our progress, there is still plenty of time to join in the work of finishing together what we began together.
If any of you have questions or availability on days other than Saturday, shoot me an email to find out what needs to be taken care of.
Thanks again and I’m looking forward to serving more with you!
Getting to Know The Bridge Community: Arts Ministry
This is Part 3 of a series of blog posts, “Getting to Know The Bridge.” In this post, Matt Black talks about the role of the arts in our community. To read all posts in this series, click here.
We value art and the artist in our community.
Our arts ministry exists to encourage artists within our community to step out in their gifts. We recognize that the role of the artist in the church has been greatly diminished in the past few hundred years. We hope to play our part in recapturing the artist’s role in the church to creatively communicate the gospel, encourage the body, and portray the world we live in. We will give anyone who has creative capacities freedom to grow, be used, and find accountability.
In our first five years as a church, the majority of our community’s artistry has been weighted in musical gifts and songwriting. However, recently we’ve been blessed to see some of our family involved in local theater through the Hardin County Playhouse. Many of these people will lead the way in our first dramatic presentation, “A Christmas Tale,” on December 27th.
In the future we expect to see more forms of art expressed both inside and outside the church as our community grows. I hope that many of you who are reading this may be encouraged to once again nurture some of those art forms that you studied in your youth. It’s tempting to put things aside when they are no longer deemed practical (especially when they may not “pay the bills,” or “send your kids to college!”). But it’s important to realize a lesson of Scripture, that not everything of real value is easy to measure by cultural or material standards. This value, even if we can’t quite put it into words, makes artistic expression worth it!
Everyone has been touched by creative expression. Consider a sunset, courtesy of the “Great Artist!” Many can attest that they’ve seen the realities of the physical and divine in a clearer way through art than through less elegant forms of communication.
If you have artistic gifts, whatever form they may take, please let me know. I’d like to talk with you about how we can feature these talents both within our church and in the greater Elizabethtown, Radcliff community.
Matt Black Pastor of Worship and ArtsBehold the Lamb of God, December 20th @ 3p in the State Theater
We are entering practice for our third year’s production of “Behold the Lamb of God: The True Tall Tale of the Coming King.” “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. Last year the show featured 18 vocalists and instrumentalists. It is truly a unique experience. We will begin the show with “Songwriters in the Round” a singer/songwriter showcase that will feature some very talented independent artists. In true Bridge fashion, there will be coffee and concessions at the event as well.
Behold the Lamb of God Documentary
Behold the Lamb of God will be on December 20th @ 3p at Elizabethtown’s Historic State Theater. The cost is $5 and half of the ticket proceeds will go to benefit a local community non-profit that will be determined soon. Hope you will be able to attend with family and friends!
Here’s a clip from last year’s performance at the Performing Arts Center:
Fundraiser for The Bridge Arts Ministry this Friday!
This Friday, November 13, we are having our second Bridge Arts Ministry Fundraiser Cafe event to help prepare for our upcoming Christmas events this year. This has been one of the most fun cafe events in the life of our community. You will have the opportunity to hear some greatly talented people from within our own community, as well as other artists who have partnered with our arts ministry in the past.
The event begins at 7p at Bethesda Ministry Center located at 2738 Ring Road Elizabethtown, Ky 42701. The cover charge is $5.
Hope you can join us for a night of music, coffee, dessert, and fun!
Want to Read the Bible Through in a Year?
I recently attended an arts and music conference in Nashville led by Artists in Christian Testimony with a few people from our worship team. We were all blown away by a speaker there named Brian Hardin. Brian has produced a bunch of Christian artists in Nashville throughout the years, but has since learned that God had something different and unexpected in mind for him.
In 2005 after a personal crisis he sensed God leading him to podcast the Bible in a year. This was strange to him since he hadn’t ever read the Bible through in a year himself! This urging never left him so he surrendered to do it. He thought a few might join in with him, and that maybe it would help him stick with his goal of reading through the Bible in a year. On January 1st 2006 about 245 people joined him, about 6 months later 250,000 podcasts were downloaded! Three years later that number has exceeded 20,000,000 downloads! Since 2006 The Daily Audio Bible has become more than an online Bible reading tool, it has become a virtual prayer community and more. The Daily Audio Bible is being downloaded and read in multiple languages-even in areas that aren’t allowed to have copies of the Bible-making this movement a huge missional force.
I’ve been downloading the Bible for a couple of weeks. I didn’t keep up the first week, but I kept jumping in on the right day even if I missed. Now that I’ve got a rhythm I’ve begun to keep up. It only takes 15-20 each day, and reading while hearing him speak helps me focus and stay on task. It doesn’t substitute for personal study, but it is a great help to keeping me in God’s Word every day. Just wanted to invite you to join me by visiting The Daily Audio Bible yourself. Hopefully having a group reading from The Bridge will help encourage me to stick with it as well.
Matt