Archive for Community Life
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.)
Back to School Block Party
We’re throwing a party for the community on the last Friday night of Summer!
On July 29th, we invite all students — from pre-schoolers to seniors in high school — to enjoy the fun. Free inflatables, games, and food! We’ll be giving away free school supplies to the first 300 students who register. In addition, there will be drawings throughout the night for backpacks, gift cards, and other special prizes.
You’ll be hearing much more about it as the day draws closer; but for now, we want to give everyone an opportunity to help out and prepare for the event.
Contact the planning team if you want to jump in and help with the organizing and behind-the-scenes prep work.
Want to make a donation? Here are the supplies we’ll be collecting:
Must Haves:
Crayons, #2 pencils, glue sticks, erasers, notebook paper, rulers, and scissors
Backpacks:
We hope to give away 100 new backpacks
Gift Cards:
Old Navy, Target, Wal-Mart … we’re thinking new clothes for back-to-school!
Grand Prizes:
We hope to have a couple of new bikes, maybe a Wii or XBox, who knows …!!
If you want to donate toward any of these, please bring your items to our Sunday morning worship gatherings in July or email us to arrange a time for dropping them off at the Nexus Building.
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
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
An Idea for Your Devotional Time in Advent
The season of Advent began yesterday and so we are officially in a time of expectation and waiting for the coming of Jesus! It is, as the songwriter said, “the most wonderful time of the year!” However, as you know, it can be a season that brings great anxiety, pressure, and even depression.
Last week, I encouraged you to “re-set” the rhythm of your life to the quiet waiting of Advent. Now, I’d like to offer one way you can put action to that. This is a great tradition you might want to try out during your personal prayer time in the next four weeks. It’s a great experience for families as well.
You can easily make your own Advent Candle to help focus your prayer and devotional time during this season. Get a tall, slender candle – something like a 12 inch dinner candle.
Then take a ruler and felt tip pen. Start about an inch from the bottom so there’s enough candle to stand up. Then mark all the way up the candle, twenty-six evenly spaced segments. The candle in the picture is, of course, store-bought, but it gives you the idea!
You can then use your felt tip pen to mark the dates. Starting at the top with December 1, all the way to 24 at the bottom.
Then, choose a time every day when you can burn one segment. A slender candle takes 10-20 minutes, depending on the length, width and quality of wax.
What to do while the candle burns? You could use the time to sit in silence, or read, or pray. You might make a family commitment to sit together silently, praying for one another. Advent is traditionally a time of waiting: perhaps you can pray every day for a person or place that is waiting for news, or peace, or healing.
If you’d like a daily schedule of scripture readings for Advent, here is a good list to work from.
I hope you’ll take the next two days to prepare for this “new” tradition! It’s actually very old, but it’s been a new experience for me and my family, and we’ll be doing it again this season.
If you have any ideas or suggestions for focal points or things to contemplate during the burning of each segment, please share them in the comments below.
Looking Forward to the Advent Season
This Sunday, November 28, is the first Sunday in Advent. It is a season of preparation, a season of waiting, and a season of expectation. It sets the stage for Christmas, but it’s important that we recognize it is not the same as Christmas.
Popular culture knows something about the true meaning of Christmas, but it knows little to nothing of the meaning of Advent. It’s a danger for the church that we end up in the same position. In our rush to the manger, we skim over the anticipation of Advent. We might want to fast-forward to “Joy to the World,” forsaking the plaintive cry of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
For centuries, the Christian community has viewed the experience of Advent as a way of preparing our hearts for Christmas morning. I want to invite you to be a little “counter-cultural” this season! When all around you are Christmas decorations and muzak-interpretations of the great carols(!), remember Advent. Beginning this Sunday, we’ll begin a four-week series of worship experiences designed around the themes of Advent. We’ll be talking about what it means to enter into the expectation and longing for the coming of Jesus. My prayer is that we all experience a spiritual “re-boot!” - that the rhythm of our lives will be recalibrated so we’re able to experience deeply the truth of God with us!
I invite you to the worship gathering this Sunday at 10:00am. Even more, I invite you to enter into the season of Advent every day, beginning this Sunday!
A Prayer for Advent
In this season of expectation
We prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, Messiah
Into the bustle of our lives
and the hard to find moments of solitude
We prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, Messiah
Into our homes and situations
along with friends and families
We prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, Messiah
Into our hearts, and those often hidden parts of our lives
We prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, Messiah
For beneath the surface of your story
is an inescapable fact
You entered this world
as vulnerable as any one of us
in order to nail that vulnerability to the cross.
Our fears, our insecurities and our sins
all that can separate us from God
exchanged by your Grace for Love.
We cannot comprehend the reasoning
only marvel that Salvation comes to us
through a baby born in a stable,
and reaches out to a world in need.
[Prayer written by John Birch]
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 Renovations at the Nexus Building
I want to let you know what’s going on at the building. Over the next two weeks, contractors will be at the building working on connecting the gas for heat (yes, it seems it’s that time of year!) and hooking up all the lights in the multi-purpose room, among other things. But, as it’s been throughout this project, most of the labor is going to be done by volunteers!
I’d like to ask you to take a look at the link below, please. It shows a list of jobs remaining to complete this phase of the renovation. The goal is to finish by Thanksgiving!
As you look down the list, you’ll see one or two things you could help with — I’m sure of it! If you can give any time in the next two weeks, day or evening, please send an email to info@bridgecommunity.org and let us know your availability.
There will be two more organized work days:
- This Thursday (11/11) evening from 6:30 – 8:30
- Next Saturday (11/20) from 9am – 2pm with lunch provided!
If you can come for either of these group work times, great – please send an email to info@bridgecommunity.org if you plan on coming.
But what if you can’t come on either of these organized times? Well, that’s where we’ll be flexible! If you can come and do a job or two – any time – an hour here or there – please let us know and we’ll do everything we can to make sure you have the tools and materials needed. Just send us an email with the times you can volunteer and we’ll set it up!
Thanks for all you’ve done so far! Look forward to working with you a couple more times before the holiday season begins!
Peace
Wayne
As a “PS,” I want to share with you just SOME of the things going on at the building in the next two months …
These are just a few of the reasons to put in the time to finish the space! Hope you can come help out!
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
