Life Lessons #1

I am going to write a series of blogs chronicling my life experiences of the last 50 years.  Although I did not repent and believe the Gospel until I was 36 years old, I see God keeping His promise in Joel 2:25 "I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,...."  Kelley & I notice all the time that God used life lessons to help me understand God, to contextualize the Gospel to sinners, to relate to narcissistic people, to love lost and hurting people, etc.  Some stories will be fun, some tragic, some awful, some funny, some downright scary, some without clarity, some not redeemable about a man lost in sin without Jesus, but all part of who I am when looked at through the lens of redemption.

In 1979, I was a nineteen year old kid, and my dad lost his mind and sent me to New York City into Manhattan to help supervise a crew that was doing the cost estimation on building the entire cable television system into the entire NY metro area (all the boroughs) - about a $1 billion project.  This was my summer job between my freshman and sophomore years in college.  He sent me with a whiskey drinking partner and his own car, stating that if I returned the car without dents after driving there for a month, there would be a bonus in it for me.

The stress was unbelievable.  I did not drink in high school at all as I was a really serious basketball, but when I did not play much at the beginning of my freshman year (too thin and couldn't guard a kitchen chair), I figured, "what the hell, might as well fit in with alcohol and weed, not getting to live out my sports idolatry anyway." My morals were not as a result of God transforming me; they were circumstantial. Desire to be a great athlete - all about me - no drugs or alcohol.  Really kinda homely and too skinny - no sex.  So, back to the story, as we drove off the island everyday into Queens, the Bronx, or Brooklyn and back, taking almost two hours to go ten miles and then seeing the insane things we saw trying to do the job (another blog later), when my partner suggested a lot of bourbon as we ate dinner in bars to calm each day, I was in.  Even though I thought I was a Christian AND had led my church youth group, it was easy to fit into a Greenwich Village lifestyle of relying on anything but Christ to handle getting the job done and the speed of the city -- the stress.  The speed of the city was just a 'little' different than House Springs and even St. Louis, where I had grown up. Same nation, different world.

Those were some blatant negatives.  Some apparent positives were that my self confidence soared, I realized that I was very capable and talented, and that I could handle a lot of responsibility.  I remember jumping on the subway to find a street basketball game in the Bronx. I handled the city AND the game (the brothers had never seen a white dude dunk quite like that), and my opinion of myself soared. I found that while the job was difficult that I had enough natural talent to get it done. My opinion of myself soared as a I never gave a second thought to God. One day right before we were to return to Missouri for a couple of days and while on Coney Island in Brooklyn, we saw boats come in full of lobsters.  We found coolers and negotiated with owners of boats bigger than Leadington for a cooler full of lobster to take home to family and friends (who does that?). And, we worked in neighborhoods that more resembled war-torn Beirut at the height of war there than an American city. We never prayed over that - we just became street savvy and capable, once again presenting the facade that I did not need the power of God. The world loved me, cheered for me, paid me well. This only heightened my idolatry of self and drove me farther from the Gospel.

There are funny stories about accidentally straying into gay bars, not noticing that there were all men in the place until we had talked to at least 3 or 4 dudes, and into 'Devil's Kitchen' after dark that reveal the providential protection of God's sovereignty. I should be dead. Not from the gay bar - that was actually just very interesting, but from some violent places. I "escaped from New York" with a great sense that I was pretty awesome, and no sense of any need for God in my life because of my awesomeness.

God has used a lot of the life experiences here now though as He has redeemed the time. The Gospel makes us fearless, and by His grace, I am given some opportunities to occasionally preach the Gospel to Muslims and Hindus on THEIR turf.  If I have a moment of fear about that or boarding an in-country plane in India (not real confident in their maintenance programs), God has fun reminding me that he took care of me the day that when I was playing on a court that no sane person would have been on.  He says, "I was taking care of you when you were paying no attention to me. Be bold -- The Gospel eliminates fear - I got you."

10 Places God's Money Goes From The Bridge

We give because Jesus gives. Jesus is the ultimate giver, so if we going to be like Him, we must give also. Jesus gave His very life upon a cross to give glory to the Father by giving a way of redemption. We give not to impress God or attain any righteousness -- Jesus gift handled all that -- but, we give in response to what has already been given. I believe that a believer is way on his way to the Gospel working out a new heart in him, when this open handed generosity with our financial means becomes a 'get to' instead of a 'have to.' So, why do we give? What do we give to? Why do more people need to give? Why do we need to become more sacrificial, generous, and cheerful? I noticed that Mars Hill this week kinda gave some general ideas of how our financial giving assists God in the Gospel "growing and bearing fruit all over the world." Colossians 1:6 So, here are our ten in no particular order. Here is where the money that is worshipfully given and collected at The Bridge goes:  

1. New Christians
One reason that we plant new campuses and help churches plant churches that plant churches is that more people come to know Christ in new efforts. Money creates MANY venues where people can hear the Gospel proclaimed from missional communities (cell families), air war Sunday celebrations at church plants, Bridge Kids events, and missionary trips and church planting all over the world. We must preach Christ crucified, the Gospel, the resurrection as the only hope to a dying world. Churches that we support have baptized new believers on 3 different continents, the Caribbean, and Central America. It takes money to get churches planted and the Gospel to people who have not heard it.  

2. Our Families
We have a real passion for young families with young children. We budget and staff as much as we can to provide the Gospel in Bridge Kids and training for parents to do the real work of teaching their children the Gospel, then discipling their children in the Gospel. We deeply desire young regeneration, not just moral behavior. This happens by presenting Jesus Christ as the change agent to a beautiful life and eternal life for our children.  

3. People Just Across the Street
We invest heavily in staff and training for our cell families (missional communities). People come to Jesus where the Gospel is proclaimed in homes. People are best discipled to make more disciples when they are LEARNERS of the Word, SERVANTS of each other and people in need, FAMILY with a smaller body of Christ, and MISSIONARIES to their missional target. It takes money to send high schoolers or college students on mission even down the street because they don't have any.

 4. People Across the Globe
We support the taking of the Gospel 'to the ends of the earth.' Acts 1:8 We invest heavily in India where there are many people groups that have never heard the Gospel. We fully fund two pastors there of church plants in states where it is illegal to proclaim the name of Jesus. They eat and have a place to sleep only because we send money in the name of that same glorious Jesus. We help plant churches and support an orphanage in Haiti (James 1:27). We help bring the Gospel to Project Chacoente in Nicaragua. And, we have big efforts in the African countries of Liberia and Cameroon. The big news is that we are working at planting campuses of The Bridge in Bangkok, Thailand in 2013. "For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10:13-15 ESV)  

5. People Just up the Road  
'And, in Judea & Samaria.' Acts 1:8. We will continue to plant churches all over our region. Some of these will be campuses of The Bridge. Some will be like our assistance in helping to plant Journey Church in Herculaneum. But, we are going to plant churches that plant churches. This takes money. We will have partners on the endeavors, and the churches will eventually self sustain and start to plant churches themselves, but it takes faithful giving from established churches to get these started.  

6. The Music to Our Worshiping Ears
We have music that rivals the largest churches in American. The excellence (why would we do it any other way?) comes at a cost. We want to not only present excellent music that brings people into the presence of God, but we want to write and produce music that brings the listener - both the regenerated believer and the first time visitor that God has not redeemed - into that same presence.  

7. Technology That Takes Us to the World
Because we broadcast our celebrations live and then share them via social media, by the end of the year, thousands of folks have seen our broadcasts of the Gospel. We have accomplished this on a shoestring budget, but even though we have not overspent here, we have spent and will continue to spend. We will do just about anything short of sin to get the Gospel and the Glory of our Great God in front of people.

8. Teaching Church that Helps Other Churches
God has blessed us with excellent training in the Bible, so I think we teach it well. It was a joy to go and show pastors in India how the entire Bible is about Jesus and the entire Bible is God's story that He invites us into. Also, we are willing to do just about anything to help folks help folks meet Jesus. We can help guide a church plant. We can help a fledgling church in music and technology. We can help show what Gospel-centered and missional means. We can train about how cell families (missional communities) make disciples that make disciples. We have never charged any church for any training. We have a Kingdom view and so we joyfully give so that Jesus may be glorified in other churches. We want other churches to grow.  

9. Future Leaders Trained
The Bible is clear that God must have qualified leaders, and it is God's desire that all good churches have quality leadership. We are very intentional as we have invited men into elder track, women into discipleship training, cell family leaders into training, and folks from other churches into training in CA, missional community leader training, elder training, and church planting training that we are serious about doing this. We are very serious about planting churches, so we are using partnerships and many training venues to train up future church planters. Some churches try and make money off of these efforts. We give away all of training, so our generous giving makes this possible.  

10. Meeting Places and Spaces
We own some of our facility in Leadington (the bank owns the rest), and we rent facilities in Arnold so that the Gospel may be presented to as many people as possible. We are good stewards as all of our facilities are not showy, but are useful and simple.