Archive for Get to Know Us
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?!
Getting to Know The Bridge Community: Decentralized Ministry
This is Part 4 of a series of blog posts, “Getting to Know The Bridge.” In this post, Wayne writes about the simplicity of church. To read all posts in this series, click here.
It is our goal to be a relational place where all believers have the opportunity to join in the mission. This means the church will not develop competing activities at a central place. It is simply not our goal to have programs at the building every night of the week. Instead, we encourage everyone to simplify their lives and embrace the biblical functions of C.O.S.M.O.S. with others in “Community Groups.” And I hope everyone will embrace their role as disciples of Jesus, on mission, embedded with those you live with and work with. Sometimes, attending a neighbor’s cookout or your child’s ballgame with other families is more important than a Bible study at the “church building.”
It’s my prayer for our community that this missional way of life become part of a holistic, natural flow of life for us all – in the neighborhood, workplace, and family!
The role of staff in a decentralized ministry:
We are committed to a bi-vocational approach to leadership. Strategically, staff members and ministry overseers will seek employment outside the church for a portion of their financial needs. The Leadership Team exists to equip the church community to do the work of ministry.
The role of facilities in a decentralized ministry:
The church does not consist of a building; rather buildings can be tools for ministry. Throughout our history, we’ve always sought to use neutral facilities, like school gymnasiums and retail storefronts, because they eliminated barriers that may have kept some people away from “church.” And now, with our purchase of the Nexus Building, we will continue this commitment. We must hold loosely to the building and not get caught up in “ownership” of the space. Lots of good ministry and connection will still happen in homes. The building exists to be a “hub” to help facilitate ministry that requires a larger or public space.
Rather than being a destination, the building will serve as a launchpad for mission!
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 ArtsGetting to Know The Bridge Community: What is C.O.S.M.O.S.?
This is Part 2 of a series of blog posts, “Getting to Know The Bridge.” The COSMOS acronym is an important summary of our values and vision. To read all posts in this series, click here.
In John 3:16, we learn that God loved the whole “cosmos.” The Bridge believes that followers of Jesus are called to take their place in the ongoing story of God’s love for the world. We receive God’s love through his son, Jesus, and by the power of his Spirit we extend it to the world. By using the acronym, COSMOS, we acknowledge that this task is bigger than us!
COSMOS stands for:
C – Compassion O – Outward Focus: Local S – Serving M – Multiplication O – Outward Focus: Global S – Spiritual Formation[You can read more details about all of the elements of COSMOS here]
COSMOS describes biblical functions of the Jesus-community. These are not programs or departments within the church that people pick and choose.
It is our goal to be a relational place where we can pursue all of these six functions together. This means that the church won’t act like an institution, developing competing activities at the church; instead we will act like a family, encouraging everyone to embrace these functions in the course of their natural flow of life.
What are your thoughts? Do you have any questions about COSMOS and how it plays out in our community life? Please leave a comment below with your thoughts, ideas, or questions.
Getting To Know The Bridge Community: History and Mission
This is Part 1 of a series of blog posts, “Getting to Know The Bridge.” In this entry, we talk about the background of the church and our mission. To read all posts in this series, click here.
The Bridge Community began from a desire to glorify God by loving Him and others in ways that extend beyond the walls of a building. In the Spring of 2003, Wayne and Christy Cox moved to Hardin County with the vision of planting a church in between Radcliff and Elizabethtown. Having grown up in the area, they knew about the social, economic, and racial disconnect that existed between these two neighboring communities. So, a “bridge” between the two became the metaphor for their calling.
A bridge connects what is otherwise separated. And so, it’s our desire to be a bridge between our neighboring cities and also a bridge to God. We desire to be an authentic community – the kind of space where people can have a life-changing encounter with the God of the Bible. The Bridge Community has been, from the start, intent on creating a place to belong, and then, when you’re ready, opening the way to become a new creation!
As you get to know us, you find there’s not a lot of insider lingo, kum-ba-ya, or bad coffee! But there are real people like you, on a journey, searching for what it means to be truly alive, living for something bigger than themselves.
- We are a community that gathers – on Sundays for public worship in order to be formed in the image of Jesus, and throughout the week in homes to develop caring community.
- We are also a community that scatters – embedded in various work-places, neighborhoods, and families, we are being equipped to serve the Elizabethtown-Radcliff area and introduce people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus.
Simply stated, our mission is to be and develop disciples of Jesus in authentic community for the good of the world.
How we take this mission and make it part of our life is clarified in the acronym, C.O.S.M.O.S. If you’re interested in what we believe, you can click here.
Is there something about The Bridge you’d like to know? Any questions? Feel free to contact us or leave a comment below.
