Author Archive
Intimate, Persistent, Shameless Prayer
In our worship gathering yesterday, we began a series of teachings on prayer. We looked at Jesus’ words in Luke 11:1-13. I’m excited that we’ll be spending the next few weeks exploring prayer together as a church! If you missed Sunday’s message or if you want to follow along with the series, you can listen to the recordings on our podcast page.
As a “sending out” challenge, I asked that we accept Jesus’ offer to go to God in the intimate, persistent, and shameless way he teaches us in the Luke passage. As an encouragement to do that this week, I want to share with you some thoughts on prayer from Randy Orban, who’s part of our community. He sent this in an email a few weeks ago, but I thought it was especially timely:
God desires to have an intimate relationship with us; a love relationship that goes deeper and is fuller than the relationships we have with the ones we love the most here on earth.
Can you imagine having a deep long lasting relationship with your spouse, fiancee or good friend by only devoting 5 to 10 minutes a day in meaningful communication with him/her? Would you want to take the risk of raising your children by giving them sets of tasks and rules to follow while only spending 5 or 10 minutes a day devoted to developing their character and expressing your love for them?
And yet the average professing Christian spends only 5 to 10 minutes a day developing life’s most important love relationship. A relationship with our creator.
Are you praying 5 minutes? Try stretching it to 10. 10 minutes? Go for 15! The more time spent in God’s presence means the reward of being able to know God’s plan for your life while experiencing the joy and pleasures he has reserved for you.
Here’s a way to start: First, praise God for his desire to have a love relationship with you. Second, ask Him to strengthen your prayer life and deepen your relationship with Him. Third, ask Him to fill you with His joy, eternal pleasures, and knowledge of what He has made you for. Come before Him expecting to receive what you ask for!
Summer Reading: Galatians
If you do a Google search on “summer reading,” you’ll find a list of suggestions ranging from children’s classics to mystery thrillers. Amazon.com claims “everyone will be reading” The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Barnes & Noble offers Jane O’Connor’s Fancy Nancy for the kids, and Oprah’s summer reading list includes Dickens forgotten classic Dombey and Son. Whether it’s a full length novel, a magazine from the check-out line rack, or a set of short stories on your electronic reader of choice, summer is the season for people to “catch up on their reading.” The pace of the “dog days” of summer and the extended day-light hours make it the perfect time to curl up with a good read!
A few Sundays ago, I joined in with a “recommendation” of my own! The ancient letter to the church in Galatia, written by the Apostle Paul is my choice for this summer. It’s the kind of book you can read through in one setting, but it’s also the kind of book you can ponder and meditate on one passage at a time. I began teaching from this biblical book a few weeks ago (you can listen to that message here), and this Sunday I’ll be continuing this summer series.
Galatians 5:13 claims that we “have been called to live in freedom.” And what better subject for us to explore on this Sunday, July 4th than “freedom!” But it’s not the same kind of freedom you’ll hear about in patriotic songs or cable news documentaries on the United States’ independence. I want to invite you to gather for worship with The Bridge this Sunday and discover more about the true freedom offered by Jesus Christ – the kind of freedom that leads to giving your life away to something bigger than yourself! Oh, and don’t forget about your summer reading!
Worship Gathering Location Change
Hey everyone – the joys of building renovation continue!
Due to construction at the building, we will be going mobile for a couple of weeks!
We will gather for worship this Sunday morning at Mouser Custom Cabinetry, 2112 North Dixie Avenue – across from Kohl’s department store. They have graciously allowed us to use their large meeting room this Sunday, May 16 and also next Sunday, May 23. This is a great space for worship! We met here one Sunday in the winter when we were snowed out of the school.
Normal worship time, 10:00 am.
I hope you’ll be there as we continue our experiential learning exercise: God is not contained in a building!! Just kidding, this Sunday is a celebration of the ascension of Jesus – an amazing truth for us to encounter!
Please tell anyone you know who may have come, or be planning to come. Thanks!
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* By the way, this means we’ll have need for a set-up and tear-down crew for the next two weeks. Can you help out? Send me an email to volunteer. Thanks!–
Helping Our Flooded Neighbors
I’m writing to ask you to pitch in with what I hope will be a community-wide effort.
Colesburg and surrounding areas (Boston, Lebanon Junction) were flooded and experienced extreme damage from last week’s rains. A family who is part of The Bridge, the Langfords, have 3-4 feet of water in their house right now. Here are a couple of pictures from my trip out there last night.
Here’s how we can help:
- Join together with others working on the clean-up this Saturday. I’d love to see us form several work crews and ride out together to join in the effort. Because of the importance of helping both the Langfords and other victims, we will be shutting down all activities at the building this Saturday. (Renovations can wait!)
- Donate cleaning supplies listed below. The Nexus Building will be serving as a drop-off point for donations.
As the flood waters recede in the next few days, quick and proper clean up is critical.
Core Cleaning items:
- Buckets
- Mops
- Brooms
- Trash bags
- Scrub brushes
- Sponges
- Bleach
- Laundry detergent
- All purpose disinfectant cleaner
- Antibacterial dishwashing liquid
- Protective Cleanup Gear
- This includes goggles, boots and rubber gloves. If floodwater rises above your boots, wear waterproof pants or overalls.
Please help spread the word (Facebook, Twitter, email, phone, word of mouth). Let everyone know that the Nexus Building, 6746 South Wilson Road, is a drop-off point for supplies. Here is a link to a map.
If you have any questions on how to help, feel free to email me (wayne@bridgecommunity.org) or Rachel Burgess (rburgess@curnealhigniteins.com).
Introducing the Name for the New Building
The goal for the building we purchased last year is to be a central hub for ministry and also a “neutral place” – a building that’s marketable for lease space and isn’t a typical “church building.” As we’ve been working on renovations and preparing to move in, we realized we need a name for the building that reflects this goal. Calling it “The Bridge building” or the “old Roy’s Furniture” just wasn’t going to cut it!
So, we considered many different ideas and names.
After a long deliberation, we’ve come up with a name that is “generic” and neutral, but also communicates in a subtle way our vision for the facility.
The Nexus Building
Here’s the definition of nexus:
A means of connection; tie, link.
A connected series or group.
The core, or center …
Below is a sample image of what the sign at the road will look like:
I’m excited about the new look!
Please leave a comment below with your feedback.
Renovation Progress and a Few “God Things!”
As we enter into the fourth month of building renovations, I want to let you know how things are going and tell you about several exciting things that have happened!
We gathered for our first worship experience of the year in the new space. As you know if you were there, the building is still a work in progress! But, a lot of work has been done, and I want to thank so many of you who have given up Wednesday nights or part of your Saturdays to help on the work projects. Please stop by the building some day and see the progress, walk through and look at all that has come together so far!
A lot will be happening in the next couple of weeks. Sewer and plumbing will be going in, more walls will be going up, and (finally!), paint will go on the walls. We’ll be very close to moving in by the end of February! So, I hope you’ll all be a part of a Wednesday work night (7-9pm) or choose a shift on the Saturday work days (10am – 1pm or 1pm – 4pm).
I want to tell you about some good news! In the past month or so, amazing things have happened. In December, we received an anonymous gift for $12,000 – to go specifically toward the construction project. Then, a couple of weeks ago, the family of someone who’s been a part of The Bridge for awhile gave $6,000. And just this week, we received a “bid” from a local plumber named Keith Smith. Now, before I tell you what his bid was, let me tell you that the plumbing part of this project was one of the more expensive pieces – it had caused us a good bit of concern. Mr. Smith blew us away by offering to do the job for FREE! We only have to buy the supplies and fixtures, and all the labor is being donated. This works out to be a gift of approximately $15,000. Amazing!
As if that wasn’t enough, we received two other monetary gifts at the end of December. They totaled $3,000 and were designated for meals and benevolence. This is very exciting, because we have missed so many opportunities to help people with our “doors closed” since mid-October. I’m very much looking forward to establishing a strong, organized, well-supplied caring ministry in the new building as soon as we get occupancy. These gifts will go a long way to making that happen!
I hope you’ll rejoice in these bits of good news. A lot has happened and it seems God is honoring our efforts as we go along. Please pray for the continual safety of those who are working; for us to hear, understand and act in accordance with God’s purposes; and specifically for a leasing tenant for the warehouse in the back of the property.
If you have any questions about the project or want to say anything, please use the “Comments” below. Your question could be one that someone else has also, so please feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer or find the answer.
Peace WayneA Prayer for Our Church
Hey everyone, I want to share a prayer with y’all. This is both a summary of my sermon for tomorrow morning and a prayer for our community in the coming weeks.
Hope you’ll join in -
Lord, what a privilege it is to be your body! But God, we know that with that privilege comes the potential for fouling it all up. We confess that there have been times when the church has not been all that it should be. And although it may be our tendency to focus on how simply profound and complex your church is, I pray that you would remind us just how profoundly simple it all is.
Point us to authentic trust in the sufficiency of your son. God, you came and lived the perfectly faithful Christian life in a man named Jesus of Nazareth; Lord, do it again today – in us! We’ll be your faithful body!
Immerse us, by the power of your Spirit, into a body that reflects the God-ordained diversity of the parts, where we all function inter-dependently, where authentic love trumps selfish pride, and where God-given vision is the driving force behind the adventure that is church life.
Amen.
The “Mystery” of Christianity
I wanted to offer a follow-up thought from yesterday’s message. I hope this is an encouragement and challenge for us in the coming week!
So far, in our study of Colossians, the most obvious theme has been the “sufficiency of Jesus.” He is “all,” he is the head of the church, he is the image of God … and yesterday, we saw that he is “the mystery” of the ages. The hidden secret of the Christian faith is Christ himself! Jesus, living in you and me!
So, I want to encourage you this week to ask God to search your heart. Where are you adding to Jesus? Where are you taking away from Jesus?
In your spiritual journey, it’s all about Jesus and the fullness he brings!
Christ’s whole life in all its aspects must supply the norm for the life of the following Christian and thus for the life of the whole Church.
~ Soren Kierkegaard