Archives For The Bridge

The Rest of January

January 15, 2011 — 1 Comment

The rest of this month is going to be pretty busy as we prepare for our official launch/”Grand Opening” of The Bridge and spend time serving our community.  We will be hosting preview services, topping-off washer fluid for motorists at local gas stations, hosting a blanket giveaway, and, of course, launching!  In between we’ll be canvassing neighborhoods, inviting friends and neighbors, sending out postcards, and doing whatever else we can to get the word out to the community.

We have seen the Holy Spirit go before us in amazing ways, and in the next post, I’ll share some of the highlights of how he’s shown us his favor (it’s probably going to leave you speechless). In the meantime, we are asking you to keep the following events as points of serious prayer throughout the month:

  • Saturday, January 15 — Washer Fluid Top-Off (Exxon @ 7409 Saltsburg Rd, Penn Hills — click for map) from 10 am – 1 pm
  • Sunday, January 16 — 10:30 am preview service in our new meeting location (Grand Ballroom of 3 Lakes Golf Course)
  • Saturday, January 22 — Washer Fluid Top-Off (Sunoco @ 280 Hulton Rd, Verona — click for map) from 10 am-1 pm
  • Sunday, January 23
    – Final preview service (10:30am @ 3 Lakes Golf Course)
    – “Commissioning service” at Sandy Lake Wesleyan Church
  • Saturday, January 29
    – Washer FluidTop-Off (Sunoco @ 6500 Saltsburg Rd, Penn Hills — click for map) from 10 am-1 pm
    –  Blanket, Scarf, Glove & Hat Giveaway (@ Penn Hills YMCA — click for map) from 10 am – 1pm
  • Sunday, January 30th — LAUNCH SUNDAY! (1o:3o am @ 3 Lakes Golf Course Grand Ballroom, 6700 Saltsburg Rd, Penn Hills (click for map)).

Thanks for praying.  And thanks to to our committed launch team members who are taking an active role in seeing Greater Things coming to Pittsburgh.  This wouldn’t be happening without you!

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Day One

September 14, 2010 — Leave a comment

image: elleinad @ flickr

Yesterday marked a serious step into bi-vocational ministry for me.  I was able to get a four-to-six week temp position as a ‘personal care aide’ in a local facility for transitioning special needs students from high school to the ‘real world’ and yesterday was day-one for me assigned to a specific (and awesome!) student.

There are a number of reasons why this could be tough: I’m not sure I have the ‘makeup’ of someone who can successfully work a number of jobs, especially when one of them is of the consuming nature of church planting; I have a couple of health issues that mean exhaustion sets in easily; I’m going to be a new dad very soon and need to/want to be present with my family.  I may get to the end of this first stint at bi-vocationalism and realize I need to find a different, creative solution to our need, and I don’t think that would be shameful or out of place.

But there are also a number of reasons why this has the potential to be something really great:

  • Money: With some of our supporting churches not-yet sending in their promised amounts, and the uphill trek we’ve had to raising funding from individual and group sources, our personal support is running low.  Money helps us do things like eat and pay rent, both of which are awesome.
  • Delegation: working an additional job or two forces me to identify the things I’m doing that someone else should be doing because they can do them better and probably find more joy in them than I do.  Over the next few weeks, I’m going to have to be more intentional about giving ministry away–and that really, really excites me, not because of what will be off my plate but because it means raising other people up.
  • The future: if I can learn to hit my stride now as a bi-vocational church planting freelancer (:-)) while being a new dad trying to juggle life, ministry, and all the rest, it means I can develop a discipline that will allow me to keep working an additional job while planting The Bridge2.0–and that means more money for ministry/outreach in new ventures.

So, we’ll see how this next season of life goes, whether wildly successful or chalked up with ‘life lessons learned the hard way,’ I’m excited to see what God does.

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Preview!

September 13, 2010 — Leave a comment

The Penn Hills Library: Our Meeting Place

Part of our process in launching The Bridge involves a series of monthly ‘preview’ celebrations.  We’re hoping these monthly gatherings help build momentum while setting the tone for what will be once things are officially up-and-running.  They also help to figure out what connects well and what doesn’t work so well given the culture and context of Penn Hills.

Yesterday, we had our first monthly celebration–our very first public worship gathering, and it was a phenomenal experience.  Thanks to those of you who were praying for us before and during the gathering; we know that it is God’s Spirit who is doing the real work in Penn Hills and that he honors the prayers of his people.  We had a pretty healthy crowd of just over 50 (not bad for a first-go on a Steelers’ Home-Game Sunday!), but of the greatest points of excitement for us is that we’re beginning to see the answer to our prayer for a multiethnic, multicultural local church.  When your launch team is made up of a group of anglos from Western Pennsylvania, it can be difficult to help people see that though we may not look multiethnic or multicultural yet, we are.  It was awesome to see a great deal of diversity in our gathering yesterday.

Reflecting on what happened yesterday got me thinking about our future, as well.  Even though I know that The Bridge won’t stay in ‘church plant mode’ forever, there are a couple things I hope we never lose from these early days:

  • The sense–inherently part of a ‘preview’ service–that we haven’t ‘arrived’ yet: we’re moving toward something greater.
  • A culture of change: Elements of this month’s celebration, timing, and order may never happen the same way again–and that’s okay because we’re attempting a variety of things to connect with those far from God, help people get to know Jesus better, and send followers of Christ out to live as Jesus.
  • Permission to fail: as mentioned above, we’re experimenting to see what works, connects, communicates, and builds the Kingdom of Christ; the beauty of ‘experimentation’ is the freedom to fail at something but keep pressing on.
  • The safety to dream big: the more I journey, the more convinced I am that God calls us to dream big, as long as they are his dreams and not our own fabrications.  The dreams we have for what God can use The Bridge to do in Pittsburgh and the world are. huge.  At least to us.  And in these early stages it is still ‘safe’ to cast gigantic vision and grow in excitement about how ginormous our God is and what he can do, even with broken vessels like us.
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FunDay Follow-Up

August 29, 2010 — 6 Comments

One of our Fun Day participants... having fun!

We had a great day yesterday at The Bridge’s (free!) Family Fun Day.  We had a steady stream of attendance (an average of just over 100 people an hour from the community) and over 120 volunteers from our own launch team and other District churches who helped make the day an amazing success.  Some more photos of the day’s events are posted at facebook.com/BridgePGH.

Our District Superintendent also having fun 🙂

Here are the ways God answered your prayers for the day:

  • We asked you to pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit and we definitely sensed we were operating in God’s strength and by his favor.
  • We asked you to pray for safety and security and we had no serious incidents; we were able to leave the park in better shape than we found it.  There was one medical need that occurred immediately following the arrival of area medics who wanted to check in–the timing was amazing as God provided the right people at the right time!
  • We asked you to pray for deep connections and I believe these were made!  We had amazing conversations with people seriously interested in The Bridge, our ministry, and finding out about when/where we’ll be meeting.  Quality interaction occurred with people from a variety of backgrounds and religious histories.

  • Our DS's wife taking part!

    We asked you to pray that seeds would be planted and they were!  We were told by many people they couldn’t believe we would do such a high-quality event for free, that individuals hadn’t been around so many nice, caring people in a long time, and saw genuine appreciation for what was happening.  One individual from the community even asked if people had been praying for the event because they could clearly sense God’s presence on the grounds!

  • We asked you to pray for people to come to know Christ.  As far as I know, no one crossed the line of faith yesterday, but I am confident we built significant relationships with people who, as a result of interacting with followers of Jesus through The Bridge, will recognize Jesus as King and find new life in him.

The Holy Spirit is on the move and using all kinds of different people from many different churches as he grows his Kingdom and builds The Bridge in East Pittsburgh!

Thanks for taking part with us!

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Pre-Fun Day PrayerNote

August 27, 2010 — Leave a comment

image: tim cox

I sent a PrayerNote to our committed prayer partners earlier this morning asking them to take time to pray for our Family Fun Day tomorrow; I’m posting it here in hopes that as you read it, you would also pray for us and the event.  Things for tomorrow are shaping up nicely and we’ve been overwhelmed at the response of the community thus far (not to mention the 100+ people who have committed to join us as volunteers!).

Here’s the Note:

We know…that a great event without the activity of God’s Spirit is just a fleeting moment; with God’s hand at work and his response to your prayers, tomorrow can be more than the opportunity for good publicity for The Bridge–it can be the day eternities are changed as people meet Jesus.

To that end, we’d ask you to pray as you think of us today and tomorrow for…

  • …the anointing of the Holy Spirit on our volunteers, leaders, and prayer team — that none of us would operate solely in our own power.
  • …safety and security — a similar event in the community was discontinued due to vandalism and we certainly don’t want the same thing to happen here; our desire is for people to feel secure and to leave the park where we’re hosting the event in even better shape than we find it.
  • …deep connections — we want to build relationships and make meaningful connections with those we come in contact with tomorrow.
  • …seeds to be planted — what if the people we interact with find their hearts drawn and mind consistently turned to what they saw and experienced among the Christ followers who will be present?  What if a few minutes at a free event brings them to that place where they realize the ‘something more’ they’ve been seeking was seen in the lives of others who know Jesus?
  • …people to know Christ — what greater joy could there be than seeing people come to know Jesus?  Please pray that we are able to relevantly articulate the hope we have to those who are ready to receive it.

This is going to be a red-letter day for us, The Bridge, and our volunteers; thanks for being part of it!  I can’t wait to tell you how tomorrow goes.

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