The Church Scattered: Marcia Orban and the Work of Clarity
The church gathers and the church scatters. We are the church not only when we come together for worship, but also when we are sent out on mission!
Our church community is made up of an amazing group of individuals! So many of those who call The Bridge their home church are engaged in ministry outside the walls of the building. And this is the way it’s supposed to be! You are the church “scattered” into your unique world of family, work, and neighborhood, and family.
This is the first blog entry in a series focusing on some of the ways Bridge Community people are serving in the world.
I asked Marcia Orban to tell us about the work she does in Elizabethtown at Clarity … Solutions for Women.
What is Clarity…Solutions for Women?
At Clarity, our mission is to serve Jesus Christ. He has called us to serve Him by serving a very specific group of people; those facing (or at risk for) an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy.
We serve our clients through a variety of programs. Check out our web site to see some of the services we offer.
Sharing the hope and healing found in and through Jesus Christ is the center focus of this ministry. We pray with and for our clients. We share the truth of the gospel and help clients grow in understanding of what it means to truly follow Christ.
Clarity is a ministry of the body of Christ. We are financed completely by donations from individuals, churches, Christian businesses, and organizations.
If you would like to be a part of what we’re doing, here are some ways you can help:
- Volunteer! We need volunteers to answer phones and greet clients, act as mentors, stock and organize the resource room, work with men, clean, do maintenance and yard work, help with special projects and mailings, and many other things. Want to learn more? Email me.
- Pray! Many of our clients would like someone to regularly pray for them. Call us at 270-234-1122! We will be delighted to give you the first name of a client who desires prayer.
- Donate! We gladly accept donations of new or gently used maternity clothing, children’s clothing 0-4T, diapers, wipes, and baby equipment. We welcome financial donations.
- Walk! Our annual Walk for Life will be held September 18th. Join us for this fun, easy paced two-mile walk. If you can’t walk, sponsor someone who is walking! Contact Tracey for more information on how to register.
Have You Signed Up for the New Directory?
For just a few more weeks, we’re collecting information for the new Bridge Directory. We have set up a form here on the website that you can complete in a matter of minutes.
If you call The Bridge ‘home,’ we invite you to fill out the form. All the information will be compiled so we can have basic contact information. We want to take your feedback and create a plan for better, more efficient communication with the community in the future. So, please take a moment now and fill out the form!
Thanks
Youth Ministry at The Bridge: A Conversation …
For at least a few months, there has been a growing conversation echoing around The Bridge Community. We’ve seen an obvious void in ministry for a couple of years now. A group of incredibly important people are being missed: youth in grades 6-12!
A handful of people have sensed God’s leading to do something about it. What about you? Do you want to be part of something new?!
September 1 from 7:00 – 8:30, at the Nexus Building, we want to host a continuation of the conversation that’s already begun. We’ll have an open forum to talk about the needs of our kids and their friends and how we can reach disconnected youth. And we want to hear from you! Especially if you’d like to serve in this new ministry, we hope you’ll come!
The Bridge Podcast in iTunes
If you used to listen to sermon audio from The Bridge podcast in iTunes, then you know it has been out of date for some time now. Well, that problem has been fixed and you can now access the updated podcast!
Click here to go to the iTunes store. You can then subscribe and receive all new sermons automatically when they’re made available. Also, while you’re there on our podcast page, leave a review for others to see!
If you don’t use iTunes there are other ways you can listen to past messages.
Listen online. Past messages are always available at the podcast page. You can listen anytime!
Subscribe via email. Any time a new message is made available, you receive an email message with a link to listen online or download the audio file.
Subscribe to the RSS feed. If you regularly read blogs or listen to other podcasts, you subscribe to the feed of our podcast and access it through your preferred RSS feed reader.
If you’ve never used the podcast feature on our website before, why not take a minute and check it out, maybe even share it with a friend! A good place to start might be the recent series on prayer – all the messages in that series can be heard here.
A Look at the Renovation Work
A couple of Saturdays ago, we had a great work-day at the building! We accomplished a lot, had fun working together, and we also had the greatest lunch break ever! Check it out …
This Week: Ways to Serve and Connect
We believe the Christian life is not a spectator sport and it wasn’t meant to be lived solo, so here are a few ways to plug in and connect with others this week!
Outreach Event Saturday
This Saturday is the annual Heartland Festival at Freeman Lake Park. Our friends with Open House are doing a fun outreach that day. They’ll be walking around the park handing out free drinks and registering people to win a free iPad. It is $1 to enter to win and all the money is going to benefit the work of Warm Blessings, Inc.. You can read more about the event here.
Here are the ways you can plug in and serve:
- 1st Shift – 9am – 12:30pm
- 2nd Shift – 12:30pm – 3:30pm
Each shift needs 8 people: 4 people to run the booth and converse with people; 4 people to walk around the festival passing out bottled Gatorade and water.
We also need 2 people to help load up supplies at the Nexus Building at 8am on Saturday.
Please contact Mike Steele if you will be available to help during either time slot. More details will come to those who sign-up.
Fish Fry, Community Group Kickoff!
The Community Group led by Randy Ramsey will be starting up again after a summer break. Anyone who would like to connect with this Sunday night group is invited to a fish-fry at the Ramsey home Sunday night. Be sure to contact Laura to find out the details.
Hospitality on Sunday Mornings
We’re looking for a few more people to fill out the schedule for Sunday morning’s food and coffee table. Are you interested in helping make the space a bit more welcoming by setting up the food table, making coffee, or serving? Contact Shaun Brock to let him know.
Work Night, Wednesday
From 6:00-9:00 pm, we’ll be doing renovation projects at the building. We hope to finish the flooring in the hallway and knock out a few more “finishing touch” projects around the building.
Clean-Up on Saturday
From 10:00 – Noon on Saturday, we’d like to have a team of 4 (at least) come to the Nexus Building to clean and prepare the space for Open House (Saturday evening worship) and our Sunday morning gathering. If you’re interested in serving in this way, please email us. Thanks!
Friday Thoughts on Prayer
A guest blog post from Randy and Marcia Orban:
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Imagine, for a moment, knowing or raising a child who never begged for anything! Try imagining a child who never, ever asked for anything! As you contemplate that scenario, you might initially think, “that would be wonderful!’ However, it wouldn’t be long before you would be saying, “this child is really strange!”
Imagine for another moment, knowing or raising a child who would walk up to a total stranger, asking them to buy the food, clothing or toys they wanted. This just doesn’t happen!
Children ask from those whom they know and trust. Children ask from those whom they know will provide for them. So it is to be in our relationship with our Father in heaven.
Charles H. Spurgeon once said, “Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom.” God delights in our asking because we are His children.
No need is too small for God. Hebrews 4:14-15 tells us that Jesus is now our high priest who makes intercession for us before God the Father. He was tempted in all things and he sympathizes with our needs and weaknesses. All we need to do is honor God by taking all of our needs before his throne in prayer. We can know and trust Him! We can freely receive His mercy and grace.
………..
Please join us for a time of prayer this Sunday from 9:00 – 9:45 a.m. We will pray for our morning worship gathering, the leadership, and all who attend. Come join us if you are free to do so. If not, take a moment to lift up some of the needs below:
- Tonight, pray for God’s protection and blessing on our “Family Night” get together in Radcliff.
- For Saturday, remember the ministry outreach of Open House. Pray that lives are changed for Christ Jesus!
- On Sunday, Wayne will continue his teaching on prayer from the Word. Smother him with your prayers!
- Lift up Matt and all the worship team. Pray for our worship to be a fragrant aroma before God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
……….
Peace in Christ Jesus, Randy & Marcia
A Prayer for A Great “Turn-around”
“O God, as Jesus changed water into wine, turn our daily deadlines into lifelines of mission. When we are most bushed, make us most brushed by the breezes of your Spirit. When the bottom drops out & we don’t seem able to hold any ground at all, show us how to hold on to you to get to high ground. When our journey through life becomes one of walking on eggshells or walking in circles, show us how to walk on water.” Amen
From Leonard Sweet
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!
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!
