Thoughts about IT!!

Letter from Jason

2011-10-22T14:56:00.001-07:00

Dear Bridge Family,
First, I want to say thank you for how much you have invested in my life. You all have ministered to me and my wife and kids so much that words cannot express how much I love you all and appreciate you. We came to as damaged goods and you guys have become the most important people in our lives.
When Ben & Tim sat me down at PC and said you were going to set me outside and not help anymore (1 Cor. 5, Matt. 18) if I did not repent, I became panicked because I love you guys that much and cannot afford to lose you. You have shown what real church is and been so good to my wife & I.

Please forgive me for letting you all down with ministry. You guys invested so much in me and trusted me with so much that when it folded, I had so much shame that I couldn't deal with everything that was going on. My marriage was failing, my kids were not being parented correctly, and I lost a crucial ministry all at one time period and I was crushed. It was 7 years that looked like a total failure and waste of time. I turned to drugs instead of God and became caught in sin that almost killed me and your love has rescued me from this. I am eternally grateful.

This place (Teen Challenge) is tough, but intense. We do weekly group studies and my very first week was on "growing through failure." It was a God send for me to try again. I will spend 4 months here and 10 months in Cape (Lord willing). Within 4 months here, we will have done studies on the whole New Testament (every book!) and about 40 scripture memorization verses. We also do this amazing thing called "character qualities" where we memorize different definitions and related verses for each, such as meekness, wisdom, perseverance, gentleness, etc. It is helping me tremendously. We have to have 20 done in 4 months.

Please thank everyone there who has prayed for me or helped my family in any way. Thank you all and I love you very much.

Also, if anyone wants to write, please send it in a Bridge church address, so I can correspond. I will write again soon, and I am healing well. This week's study is on anger and personal rights -- TOUGH!

Love,
Jason

p.s. Please watch Cindy and the girls for me. Cindy has been through so much. I love her more than words can express.

Couple of Hours with Mark & Friends - 6

2011-08-30T20:51:00.000-07:00

The past Saturday our board and staff had a retreat in Arnold mainly for the purpose of getting close to God, hearing from God. We were not doing much planning, even though there are a lot of plans to be made. You will hear more about it, but one real blessing of the time spent was that we were joined on Saturday by Mike & Lucinda Harrison. Mike is the pastor of Parkland Chapel and one of the great Bible students and teachers around. He took about 45 minutes and gave us a lesson on how to read the Bible and how to teach people to read the Bible themselves. He challenged us to read all the way through the Bible each year (takes 11.5 minutes a day, so this morning I took off and did 2 Corinthians and will read a bunch in Judges later today), AND to slow down and use some to slow down and really learn to read and study the Bible deeply (IBS, Inductive Bible Study) to really understand what the Bible is saying. This is really what we have been doing with our two hours with Mark, so I thought we might see how what he taught us can apply to our short read of Mark 2:13-17 this week. IBS is a three step process of observation, interpretation, and application. We teach around The Bridge to read, reflect, and respond - very similar.

1. Let’s start with observation. You are going to see very quickly that this process cannot be done with a large amount of Scripture. Mark 2:13-17 is the perfect size. Before you start, pray that the Holy Spirit (He is the teacher; I am just a mouth, and a big one at that) illuminate your mind. Remember, God wrote the book, so we need to ask the author for explanation. Pray with high expectations that God will minister to you and teach you. Then, as we read, we observe with these questions in mind:

A. Who wrote it? Who are the major players? Who is the author writing to?
We know this passage is written by John Mark. He is writing to primarily a Gentile audience, but many Jews (who would be targeted as the ‘religious folks’ in the story) would experience this book as well. The major players in this passage are Jesus, Levi, his scumbag friends, and the creeper Pharisees. If you are not familiar with those terms, go back and watch the sermon from Sunday at The Bridge -- http://vimeo.com/28293366.

B. What are the main events?
First, in vs. 13 Jesus walked out by the sea teaching. This seems insignificant at first glance, but you will notice that while Jesus does some teaching in the synagogue, He is always GOING OUT ON MISSION. As he acts as a missionary from heaven, as one sent, he goes OUT to the people. He does not sit and wait for them to come to him. What are the ramifications for us just if we are going to ‘incarnate’ our lives, as they become more like His? As we observe closely, we see that He is teaching the masses, not just the select few that He came train -- a public teacher for the crowds. Then, vs. 14 shows us that Jesus walked up, regenerated, saved, and called Levi in a moment, “Follow me.” The Greek word for follow here (akolouthein) leads one into a sense that he is requesting a lot and that it is the only possible response for faith (risk and cost). There was no dialogue to the call; Levi must respond solely to the authority of Jesus. Levi was sitting there doing what tax collectors do, jacking folks for their money. A study of these tax collectors shows that they were bad people, truly slimy as they betrayed the Kingdom and worked for the evil Romans. Levi would have been despised and hated. This man was not welcome in a Jewish home because his touch on that house would render it unclean.
So vs. 15-16 show us the reaction of the Jews to this apparently horrific act by Jesus. This was even more offensive than the touching of the leper because while the leper could not help his condition, the tax collector was ‘unclean’ by choice. We observe in vs. 16, that Jesus did not slow His offense, He actually metastasizes it by going to dinner at the ‘unclean home’ with more of the ‘unclean.’ An interesting observation for you at this point might be to look at the term ‘wicked’ that the Psalms allude to. These folks at Levi’s house being labeled ‘sinners’ by the religious lent itself far more to the term reprobate that we might use today. The wicked or reprobate don’t just occasionally violate the law, they LIVE AND EXIST OUTSIDE OF IT. A close observation of Jesus ‘reclining’ at the table and ‘eating and drinking.’ Jesus sent us a signal that He has solidarity with alienated, sick, and needy people. These, who are living and existing, outside the law are starving spiritually, and Jesus modeled bringing them relationship and the Gospel. We once again OBSERVE the offense taken by the religious folks to Jesus’ definition of the Kingdom. You might observe that the ‘sinners’ have invited Jesus to dinner (a party, a feast kind of like the one that the father threw for the lost younger son in Luke 15), and the Pharisees are horrified and will not join the feast (like the elder brother). Also, in observation, you might note that Jesus’ body positioning, the reclining, shows that he, not Levi, is the actual host of the party. You also might observe that while the teaching of REPENTANCE is never far from the minds of those who are listening closely to Jesus, it is not mentioned much in the book of Mark. Notice that Jesus establishes the relationship and His authority first in the minds and hearts of His followers, He build into them faith in Him, THEN, he will make sure they understand the obedient act of repentance in completely interwoven with the faith He has given. The scandal of this story to the ‘religious’ is that he does not demand moral repentance as a PRE-condition of his offer of grace, love, and acceptance. Rather, Jesus initiates eternal life changing relationship with these sinners as they currently existed. This is a fundamental observation, as the regenerated ones will not leave their life of iniquities (like Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10) to impress Jesus or gain his favor but rather in response because he loved them first. He told Zacchaeus, “I must stay at your house today” without invitation. He initiates the fellowship. What are the implications to our theology of salvation if that is the case? It scandalizes those who try and define the Gospel in terms of morality and causes people to think that they must ‘clean themselves up’ before a relationship with Jesus is possible. We can observe in this passage that he makes clean with His grace; then, we respond. We don’t know how many were made clean from the party because we do not see who has responded with repentance and belief, but what is important to observe is that Jesus has been the initiator of all relationship. This idea is summed up in verse 17. Notice the difference in the mission of Jesus and the mission of the scribes. They come to enlighten; He comes to redeem. Given that mission, it is as senseless for Jesus to shun the ‘sinners’ as it is for a doctor to refuse the sick. Discuss how the grace of God extends to all forms of human depravity and that in a way, the sick sinner may be more ready for Jesus to redeem than the religious zealot because the sinner are more aware of their need for the transforming grace of God. “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” (As I observed here, I did so with a commentary open from James Edwards. Sometimes to receive correct context of correct observation, a good outside source is necessary -- tg).

C. When was it written? Mark was probably written first of the four Gospels. Early 50’s AD. When was it received? Quickly, we believe that the other writers of Gospels had a copy of Mark as they put their works together, so John Mark recorded Simon Peter’s eye witness account and got it out quickly. When did it take place? This calling Levi in this this section happened very early in the public ministry of Jesus.

D. Why was it written? This particular passage is crucial because the selection by the Holy Spirit to have multiple authors record the selection of Levi shows us that it has significance.
Jesus is in the process of completely redefining the Kingdom of God by showing that we are to rub shoulders with the unclean (not be the unclean; we go to war with sin). This is a major theme of this section of all of the synoptic Gospels. JESUS IS FULFILLING THE LAW, not smashing it, but bringing it into focus and completing it. How has the Bible re-shaped your views in the difference between religion and the Gospel?

E. How is it done? How did it happen? How is the truth illustrated? Sometimes the answers to these questions force us to observe a parable, or a poem, or some figurative language. In our Mark 2 passage, we have straight narrative. Jesus was teaching the crowds. He regenerated and saved Levi. He called him to follow Him. Levi did. Then, the reformed thief becomes generous and throws a huge feast for his sleazy friends, so they can meet Jesus. In this case, we observe the events.

Observation includes attention to detail, so we might want to read in multiple translations. And, then re-read. We MUST focus on the immediate context. What happened before, in, and after the passage. There are items in the healing of the leper and the paralytic that affect over understanding of this account. Jesus will not allow His Kingdom to be defined by man. What about cross-references to use? We can even do a Greek or Hebrew word study which I did for you earlier.

Observation involves knowing the historical and cultural issues as well. We will discuss these in the discussion of the next passage as we finish chapter 2 and begin chapter 3. Also, observation involves meditation. “Blessed is the man whose delight is in the Law of the Lord, and on his law he MEDITATES day and night.” (Psalm 1:1) Therefore, we must have time to turn off electronic media, even put away commentaries, and reflect on the Word of God.

2. Interpretation
Interpretation is the science of discovering the author’s ORIGINAL meaning as he wrote the Scriptures under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
A. What did the passage mean to original audience? In our passage, the reaction would have been shock to the Jews and even some of the Gentiles.
B. How was this relevant to the original audience?
C. What are the key truths and/or principles?
D. Does your interpretation fit within the context of the passage?
E. Mike Harrison believes that there is only one correct interpretation, but many applications. I think I agree with him.

Does your interpretation harmonize with the whole of Scripture?
So, CORRELATION is using the whole of Scripture to illuminate, validate, confirm, and support an interpretation.
NEVER BASE DOCTRINE ON AN ISOLATED SCRIPTURE.

3. Application
This is embracing God’s truth and the “doing” of God’s Word.
A. How can you, or the church as a whole, apply to the original audience?
B. What are the similarities between them and us?
C. What are the theological principles of the passage?
APPLICATION MUST COME DIRECTLY FROM THE MEANING OF, OR PRINCIPLE(S) OF THE PASSAGE.
D. How can you, or the church as a whole, apply the scriptural truth to your life?
So, what applies to you from the calling of Levi??
-- Application is where the Spirit is most likely to do a personal work in you and through you and through you (impact others).
-- Without application, observation -- observation and interpretation are WORTHLESS.

"The List"

2011-08-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

I have had a lot of requests for "the list" from yesterday's sermon.
Here ya go.

JESUS LOVES SINNERS.

Therefore, sinners you are welcome here at The Bridge:
So, here we go -- to the guys that want to be girls and the girls that want to be guys,
To the drunks and druggees, to the weirdos, the porn addicts, the prostitutes, the adulterers, to the sexually promiscuous racked with guilt, to the sexually promiscuous not racked with guilt, to the thieves, the liars, the angry dads, the hormonal moms, to those who make their kids idols, to those who view their kids as a curse, the gluttons, the obsessive fans of movies about werewolves or transvestites, to the men who are 28 and living in mom’s basement who don’t have a job but can smoke Madden NFL or Gears of War on the XBOX, to the idolatrous computer nerds, to the whackjobs, nutjobs, the losers, the freaks, the geeks, the rednecks who drink a case of Natural Light, spotlight, and kill deer, to Star Wars groupees, NASCAR groupees, chain smokers (cigs or weed), to women who get paid in $1 bills, to people who text and drive, to radical Democrats and Republicans, to Mormons and any other religious folks that wear strange underpants, to steroid-pumping body builders, to people who wear biking shorts, Speedos and/or thongs, to Yoga instructors, witch doctors, potheads, crackheads, methheads, meatheads, and deadheads, even to tree huggers and PETA members,

AND to religious people who are upset right now because these subjects were not on the the Waltons, Touched by an Angel, Little House on the Prairie, or in their Christian home school curriculum and don’t think that Jesus drank REAL WINE, I have good news for all of you.

YOU ARE ALL WELCOME AT THE BRIDGE!

Couple of Hours with Mark & Friends - 5

2011-08-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

Week #5. Mark 2:1-12. Can you believe it? Kids are back in school. Does that help your ability to get these two hour study sessions in or not? Doesn’t matter -- we have to find time to prioritize the King.

A deep foreboding disturbance has crept into Mark’s description for us. We find that as Jesus ushered in the Kingdom of God that he disturbs both the irreligious and the religious. The dark clouds of venom from both sides are beginning to form.

1. Let’s start by noticing that some sections of the synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, & Luke) have the same story recorded for us. Give a quick read to Matthew 9:1-8 & Luke 5:17-26 and note any differences you might see. Sometimes there is just confirmation of events, and sometimes there are marked differences. I find these slight variations to actually confirm the inerrancy of Scripture as they do not really contradict facts, but they show that these writers worked independently in putting together their eyewitness accounts. In other words, what we would expect to see from independent research and not some copycat scheme. God directed, but human organized and written.

2. Let’s stir some thought up here and talk about crowds. Coming out of Chapter 1, crowds are obviously a big deal. Mark mentions crowds 40 times before chapter 10. We need to notice though that as Jesus moves from SHOWING what the Kingdom is like (healing, feeding multitudes, etc) to TEACHING what IT is like, we start to see the difference between the visible church and the invisible church. You want to be a member of the invisible church which are the people that God has drawn to Himself, has regenerated, and they have responded with repentance, faith, and all out commitment to Jesus -- the true believers. We will start to see that as Jesus begins to teach on the cost of following him, the visible church (those that like the food and the healing, but not the sacrifice, don't love the Father, the King, the Gospel) will begin to fade away. He cannot drive the invisible church away because there no task too daunting for the true believer. To illustrate what I am talking about, give a quick read of John 6 in your group and talk out the difference in the two churches. There are about 15,000 to 20,000 in church as he feeds them with a kid’s sack lunch. Then, he begins to teach and the teaching about life with Him being one of suffering whittles the mega-church down to a cell family of 11 -- the 12 plus the phony who would betray him. The point is just because the crowds are clamoring about him does not mean that they are following and believing in him. My prayer is that most who pass in & out of the doors our church are being moved by the Holy Spirit into the invisible church. Please stop and pray the same for your cell.

3. Go ahead and talk about the four men. Do you have community with other Christians to this degree that they would do anything to get you in front of Jesus? This is a great reason to be a part of a healthy cell. A whole lot of this roof would have been baked mud. There is some serious effort to carry a long distance and to hoist onto a roof. I wonder if some members of the invisible church helped them at any point because most people were I am sure clamoring to see Jesus for themselves because he could improve their world - their story. These men are giving a little glimpse of what it means to be a part of the invisible church, where the mission of God and the well being of others supersedes our agendas. This removing of obstacles for people to be able to see the Gospel clearly is a strong indication of faith. Are you putting up obstacles (religious preferences, sin patterns or lack of holy living, no time for people) or are you removing obstacles for people to see Jesus?

4. I spent most of my time in the sermon discussing the difference between what the paralytic and his friends were probably primarily concerned about as they encounter Jesus, and what Jesus considered the priority. They wanted the man healed (and that is very natural and a neat thing), but Jesus knows that it is VASTLY more important that we be healed in our relationship with him by having our sins forgiven than it is to have a somewhat whole physical body. Discuss your thoughts as you listened to that.

5. The surprise forgiveness of sins shifts the story from the paralytic to the scribes. What began as a heart warming healing has become a tense battleground for spiritual authority. This accusation of blasphemy is no small item as by Jewish law, it would have carried the sentence of death. So, Jesus has caused a “great disturbance in the RELIGIOUS here.” These men believed that THEY carried the true word of God and they are blind to the fact that they are staring at the WORD (the Logos) Himself. Religion always creates men who believe they can save themselves by their self-righteousness. Discuss how the Gospel disturbs that as It shows that their in NO righteousness outside of the blood of Jesus. Grace alone, Jesus alone, the cross alone is what saves men and women from themselves.

6. The Gospel (Jesus) also insults the irreligious because they want to be their own Gods and do whatever they want. They hate authority and reject Christ because He is the ultimate authority. Discuss the ability of people to accept the authority and turn from sin outside of the work of the Holy Spirit. We will find out in chapter 3 that these folks want Jesus dead just as bad as the religious folks that he has insulted. The Gospel offends the religious and the irreligious.

7. I used the words astonishment and awe. Look at this definition of awe -- ‘mixture of wonder and dread: a feeling of amazement and respect mixed with fear that is often coupled with a feeling of personal insignificance or powerlessness.’ Think about and discuss your feeling with this definition when you think about the wonders that the Gospel have brought to both your soul, your mental health, your emotions, your relationships, etc. These people were completely awestruck by the magnitude of what they saw Jesus do. Do we worship like we are awestruck? Why or why not?

Couple of Hours with Mark & Friends - 4

2011-08-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

OK. Sorry this is late. Surgery took a toll on me, but let’s dig deep for a few minutes. Mark 1:35-45

It has always astonished me that Jesus prayed. Why did He have to pray? At the same time, He is the son of God and 100% God. A little clue may be found in us. When I am at my busiest is when I am doing Christian ministry. Some days are running from deep study for a sermon, to meeting with someone about the church plant in Arnold, to meeting with a couple whose marriage is jacked and needs help, to family worship with Kelley, Justin, and Taylor. None of that is sin (like Jesus spending his day preaching, healing, exorcising demons), and it is what I have been called to do - fun neat stuff. However, none of it is just deep time spent with the Father, loving and listening, and maybe whining and praising. Jesus had throughout all eternity past had full access to the Father and the Spirit without a lot of distractions, but now he had put on one of these human tents and was distracted, even by good things. By going to a desolate place and praying, He was getting back to his favorite thing to do - hanging out with the One who is worthy to hang out with. This is more than a battery recharge; this is heading to the deepest purpose of all -- loving God one on one. This is more than duty; this is the deepest calling that the son of God had and that the children of God have.

In the last five years, this has been a great strength of mine at times, and just plain non-existent at others. I am a decent church leader, husband, and father when my prayer life is deep and not superficial. I am downright awful while when there is no time in just deep conversational prayer with a Bible in my hands (not to study and learn, but to hear from God).

So, this begs some questions for you and me:

1. How are you doing at this? Is this only for Martin Luther, or Mark Driscoll, or Jesus (Mark 2:35)? Or, is it for every follower of Christ?

2. Jesus is being a worshiper. His prayer life is vastly more about submission to the Father than a “battery charge” or a “to do” list. Are you a worshiper in your prayer life?

3. Read Romans 12:1-2. How does God say to become a worshiper?

4. Notice Paul’s urgency. “In view of God’s mercy” (NIV) or “by the mercies of God”(ESV) means that you have been regenerated. Now, he is saying, since that is true, with urgency, on a daily basis, present your bodies (which includes your minds) completely to God for His bidding. Does that sound like your prayer life? What was Jesus praying about for all of this time that the disciples were looking for Him? Probably He was talking through the Scriptures with the Father and submitting His body as a living sacrifice for the mission of God for that day and upcoming days, eventually to a cross. What would that look like for you?

5. Do you pray more to talk to God about your world or to listen to God about His? The disciple of the Lord Jesus will migrate to the latter.
Let’s practice this with the Bible.
If you are in cell, get by yourself for a few minutes. Hopefully, it is beautiful outside. Go to a desolate place (like Jesus in Mark 2:35). Open to the book of Colossians, chapter 3, and begin reading, but don’t read for understanding or study or try and figure it out. Go very slow -- you have 20 minutes here (Jesus and Luther would do this for hours). Let the Bible read you. Let God speak into you and then pray your response. Pray your confession, your admiration for Jesus, your submission to His will, your supplication for others, whatever. Praying from God’s heart makes you a humble listener first and then a responder to God’s grace. This makes you a worshiper. This will allow your prayer life to be something that God wants to talk about (inside his will and about living in His Kingdom) instead of your agenda, about your world, and your mission. You will actually be surprised that you will eventually get to what is bothering you or a personal need, but you will pray it from God’s perspective instead of a selfish one. Once again, are you a worshiper on God’s mission or trying to pack Jesus around on your mission? In Mark 2, Jesus models for us that even when we are doing things on God’s mission, we must take to time to be a submitted worshiper of God - a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing.

6. The scene with the leper starting in Mark 1:40 is just gripping. Leprosy was a sentence. A sentence of death eventually, but before that of ostracized (read Leviticus 13:45-46) isolation. This outstretched TOUCH from Jesus in vs. 41 which leads to his COMPLETE healing in vs. 42 is one of the great illustrations of the Gospel in the Bible. Discuss us being “set outside the camp” after the fall (Genesis 3) as we are now unclean. Discuss how the Gospel addresses THIS uncleanliness.

7. Jesus “sternly charged” the man not to tell anyone in vs. 43. Seems interestingly light to us that this man was was so intensely disobedient since he was SO excited about Jesus and what he had done. Jesus was serious (if you study this in the Greek, very serious) about protecting the veil of his messianic identity with this command, but it just seems so fun that the man goes and shares anyway. However, his actions imposed a burden and forced Jesus into desolate places. Can you think of anything that we do that appears to be positive for the Kingdom, but actually it gives an impression opposite of the true Gospel? I was recently with someone that was gravely and possibly terminally ill. A well meaning person came into the room and began to tell the family that because Jesus was the almighty God that he knew that God wanted to and and WOULD heal their child. He prayed fervently and expectantly in the name of Jesus that God do this for this family because he loved this family so much and God wanted ‘good’ things for this family. This was a case of a person being really excited about Jesus, but not in tune with Scripture or God’s will. I loved their excitement over Jesus, but as they talked and prayed, the focus was on what people wanted instead of what God wanted. I believe that God CAN heal this person (he is still alive and I would love to see it); God can do anything He wants. However, just because this man and this family desperately want it AND believe in the right Jesus does not mean that it is in God’s will for this healing to happen. God’s glory is always the end goal. God’s mission is always what is essential. Discuss how the best way to pray for this man would be.

8. Jesus then commands the healed leper to observe the Mosaic law (Lev. 14) and go show himself to the priest which would have been quite a tedious task because there would have been a lot of travel and time to do so. Given his track record of obedience following the healing, do you think that he did as commanded and went to the priest? There are other stories of interesting reactions after healing. Read Luke 17:11-19 and discuss if you think there was healing without regeneration for the nine healed lepers who did not return and worship Jesus. Notice that all ten are being obedient to go see the priest when the one returns to worship. Think about correlations with some of your lives where maybe in your younger years, you had an encounter with God and maybe even did what you were told and got baptized, but then became radically disobedient afterward as someone who practiced unrepentant sin. Do you see any similarities?

Have fun.

2 Hours with Mark and Friends - #3a

2011-08-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

Mark 1:21-34

1. One of the most striking things to me in this passage is that Jesus has become so well known for his authority over the natural and the supernatural that vs. 33 says this, “And the whole city was gathered together at the door.” Now, Capernaum was probably only a city of 50-100 people, but that is still astonishing that they were so enamored with the presence of Christ that there was not a person not attracted to the authority. Is it ludicrous to think that with enough prayer and surrender to the same Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we could not see a whole community basically crowding the doors of our churches because his power and authority had become so famous. Jesus himself said that we would do greater things than He did after he went away. Do we believe Him? We have seen evil spirits run out of people since we started The Bridge. We have seen people physically healed. We have seen marriages that were apparently not repairable get repaired. People are off drugs, not dependent on alcohol. The Gospel has made radical changes in many people’s lives. You may be one of them. Why has this not brought the entire city to our versions of Simon Peter’s door? Discuss the power of prayer and proclamation to this analogy.

2. PRAYER In Joshua 10, Joshua was given a task to perform to make the God of the Bible famous. As God was supplying him success in this endeavor, Joshua actually prayed that Jesus make the sun stand still in the sky so that he would have enough time in the day to complete his task. God responded in vs. 13, “The sun stopped in the midst of the heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.” What is your “sun stand still” prayer that might bring all of our community come to the door to see the Jesus that does such miraculous things? I have prayed that all churches in St. Francois County (and now Jefferson County) be such conduits of the power and authority of Christ that the entire community crowds the doors to get a peak at such things. Is that ridiculous? Why or why not?

3. PROCLAMATION I believe the second issue is proclamation. If you re-read Mark 1:21-28, something tells me that it was only a matter of minutes before the entire city had heard of the authority of Jesus’ teaching and the exorcism that took over the usually boring church meeting at the synagogue. How did that happen? PROCLAMATION. Proclamation about Jesus. Some who had been regenerated proclaimed the Gospel on a personal level. Think about (if you are doing this in private) and/or discuss (if you are in cell) how if God has performed miracles in our midst that our entire community has not heard about them. God’s authority and grace is spectacular and when proclaimed (not as fanatics, but as awe-struck worshipers) should attract the entire city to our homes and churches. What prevents this?

4. Christians are commanded to practice hospitality. Ben noted that Simon Peter’s mother-in-law began to immediately serve upon being healed because she could. Our taking care of the needs of others in love is a NATURAL outcropping of the healing of grace. Think and discuss how you feel about your service to others. Is there any? If so, does it feel obligated, like you owe somebody something, or does it feel natural and in a flow of your life in Christ. You are a new creation.

5. Read 1 Corinthians 9:5. We keep coming back to this deal about ‘radical abandonment’ and ‘take care of your family.’ I find it interesting that apparently Simon Peter’s wife must have also have abandoned all her agenda and followed Christ with her husband. Discuss how a one flesh marriage must go this way.

6. We learned that the Greek word for authority here (Mark 1:22) means, “out of the original stuff,” or “out of the origin.” This has ramifications in many different directions. Remember that through His partner in the trinity, the Holy Spirit, that Jesus wrote all Scripture. He is the author and perfecter of our faith -- the beginning and the end. This is fun. The use of this Greek word for authority also shows up at the end of the Sermon on the Mount as the scribes declared it about Him there also. Matthew 7:28-29. To finish up your 2 hours of study here, take off on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5-7 (which must have been given in a very close time proximity to the events of Mark 1). Reflect on our teachings and look closely how Jesus redefines (from authority) the Kingdom of God.

That will be more than two hours, but I have some more thoughts on this in an upcoming 3b.

Couple of Hours with Mark & Friends - 2

2011-07-31T20:40:00.000-07:00

A bunch of you ACTUALLY did this last week, so I thought we would try it again. Don't assume this. Some of you should be writing study guides like this.

1. Vs. 1 identifies the Lord as Jesus Christ (the gospel of Jesus Christ), not just Jesus. Most of the time, the Bible calls Him Christ Jesus, Jesus Christ, or the Lord Jesus. What is the deal? What is the significance of 'the Christ'? His last name? (kidding)

2. The people, as the Holy Spirit regenerates them, What is regeneration?

3. OK. Now, read Luke 3:1-10 again along with Mark 1:4-8 as the people are regenerated by the Holy Spirit as John preaches about the Kingdom of God and repentance. How significant is it that the people then ask in Luke 3:10, “What, then, shall we do?” Share stories with your cell members of remembering that moment when you saw your dirt and God’s holiness and knew that you must respond. What did you do?

4. Jesus answered their question in vs. 15 as he shows the response necessary for redemption, for salvation. “Repent and believe the Gospel.” Discuss this statement: 'Jesus not only proclaims the gospel (the good news), He is the Gospel.' Discuss what it really means to truly believe in Jesus (obviously much more than mental ascent).

5. The word repentance means ‘to change course, to turn around, to change direction. It would be like a 180 degree turn in our holiness (we walked in selfish sin, we now walk in Christ’s righteousness as a new creation). Most people think that repentance is just confessing sin when actually there are five stages to repentance. Deeply ponder and discuss in cell how deep you go in your life of DAILY repentance in these stages.
A. Conviction -- a role of the Holy Spirit is to convict of sin (Read John 16:7-11).
B. Confession -- this is agreeing with God that we have sinned. (1 John 1:9)
C. Repentance -- empowered by the Holy Spirit, we turn from the sin -- STOP. (1 John 3:4-12)
D. Joy -- there is joy that comes from moving from darkness to light. We should celebrate.
F. Abundance -- we move from struggling so much with the sin into helping others through it.
Note: Repentance signifies something to turn from (sin); belief signifies something to turn to (Jesus).

6. I think that the average Christian that hangs around church sees himself as vastly different as the disciples who were called to Jesus’ original team in Mark 1:16-20. They were awesome (walked with Jesus, performed miracles, authored Scripture, etc), but the spirit of this call is the same to us. “Drop your agenda,” Jesus says, “and follow me.” How does this play out with you personally. What does “drop your nets” look like? What does following Jesus on His incredible mission to a dying world look like?

7. James and John leaving their father Zebedee (we know that the disciples had lots of contact with family later) in the boat should remind us of some tough Scripture that Jesus tossed out later (read Matt 10:37-39, Luke 14:26). I think looking at these Scriptures together give an idea of how Jesus views our priorities. Balance these with Ephesians 6:2 “honor your father and mother” and 1 Timothy 5:8 which is about a man’s responsibility to work and take care of his family.

8. Share some of the mission that you think the Holy Spirit may be pressing you toward as a disciple. A true disciple is always developing another disciple. Do you have someone that you are developing in the faith? Who is investing time in you?

9. Israel had a notion of God as king (Exod 15:18, 1 Sam 12:12, and Ps. 5:2). God is exalted above His creation. Jesus affirms that notion as he begins this Kingdom of God talk. He is King, and he is going to define His Kingdom. Run through the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:3-?) as a quick refresher to some of the concepts of how different his Kingdom is to what we ordinarily think.

10. The verbs in the Greek for repentance and belief are in the imperative, so they are not temporary, one-time events; they are continuous, a condition. Also, both things cannot be applied only to certain areas of life, but they lay claim to a total allegiance of believers. Belief assumes the act of repentance. Grace and faith are given by God, but these are definitely imperative verbs of response to regeneration.

Couple of Hours with Mark & Friends

2011-07-25T08:17:00.000-07:00

Items for study and reflection this week that surround Mark:

1. This John that prepares the way for Jesus is an interesting cat. Read the Malachi prophecy about him and discuss his significance (Malachi 4:5-6). Do a little research and see if you can figure out why Malachi might refer to John as Elijah.

2. Read the Matthew account of John (Matt. 3:1-12). We get some more detail here as John boldly confronts the religious leaders and preaches strong judgments on those who do not believe in the One. Discuss the fact that this writing was focused toward a Jewish audience.

3. Read the Luke account of John (Luke 1:1-45, 57-80, 3:1-22). Why is God so meticulous in his preparation of things?? This whole ministry of John fulfills prophesy of a new Exodus -- where God's people will once again be delivered from a wilderness to the river Jordan -- really cool. (cf. Isa. 11:11–15; 40:3–11; 42:16; 43:2, 5–7, 16–19; 48:20–49:11; 51:10)

4. What does God stir in you as you consider that Jesus held John in higher esteem than any other man, but John models the lessening of himself and the elevation of Jesus (vs. 4-8)? In the Matthew account, you might recall that he said to Jesus, “I should not be baptizing you; you should be baptizing me” (tlg, paraphrase, Matt. 3:14) as he continually points us to worship Jesus, not man.

5. Do you walk around feeling as though the heavens have been torn open and the Spirit has descended upon your life, your world? If so, journal what that looks like, or tell your cell what that looks like. Our regeneration is not as big of an event in history as the baptism of Jesus (Mark 1:9-11), but the whole trinity gets involved with our salvation also, so it is pretty special. God has a plan for salvation, and then a plan for the mission of His church. Discuss the plans you feel that God has for you right now. Does it change to realize that the same Spirit that descended upon Jesus has descended upon you? How?

6. Read the Luke account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13). How significant is this event that Jesus, as a man, felt every temptation that we have ever felt, but did not sin? Discuss how much easier it is to sin when we are tired and hungry. Ever notice?

Bonus Time:

Read chapters 12-15 of Acts and look at how the early church leaders function. We see the author of Mark mentioned here as a part of the missionary journeys and a church fight. It is really significant to me that Paul reconciles with John Mark (Col. 4:10, 2 Tim. 4:11, Phil. vs. 24). It is also significant to me that these disciples were made because they were willing to hang around constantly with people who could pull them along in their faith toward their mission for God. John Mark hung around with Paul and Barnabas. We also know that he spent considerable time with Simon Peter and many others (see above Scriptures) to attain the information for the writing of His Gospel. Who is teaching you the ways of the faith, digging into Scripture, rebuking you when you do something silly, praying with you, and at the same time, who are you discipling?
As we can glean from this, the Bible teaches us how to “make disciples who make disciples.” This is the prophesied mission of the church -- prophesied AND commanded by none other than Jesus Himself. Are we as centered in our mission as John? He eliminated distractions and received blessings beyond measure. What distractions need to go, so that we could be counted as one worthy?

One last point. In a day where God’s love is defined as the prosperity that we will receive upon a relationship with Him in American terms (health, stuff, etc), do you find it interesting that the person (John, not the Apostle) that Jesus has esteemed higher than any other man goes to prison as soon as his mission is complete and gets his head cut off? God defines blessings and rewards and prosperity vastly different than we do. It is time to start getting some of that figured out.

Lessons from 4,000 Miles

2011-07-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

It is good to be home from a long vacation with Kelley, Justin, Taylor, & Randy & Connie (Kel’s brother and his wife) -- about 4000 miles of American beauty covered from Lake Tahoe, to the Tetons, to Yellowstone, to the Black Hills..

Saw many things, but had two serious lessons taught:
First, I got my patriotism stoked.
I probably need to clarify some things I said in a recent sermon. I think Christians are TOO cause oriented and spend TOO much time declaring what they are against instead of what they are for, and so I declared that disciples of the Lord Jesus are not called primarily into causes. What Christians are called into is the Great Commission which is to ‘make disciples who make disciples world-wide.” I was specific though that causes are not wrong though.
Let me be specific. I love my country -- I don’t love it more than Jesus -- but I would have been proud to defend the US from evil if called to do so at any point in my life. I remembered this at the 9 pm ceremony at Mt. Rushmore a few nights ago as they lit the faces of men who sacrificed greatly for causes. I had tears storming off of my face as they had all servicemen on the stage for the classy flag ceremony as I wished I could have pushed my father down there for that moment. The tears were partially from missing him, but also being reminded of how much I appreciate the sacrifice of many for the freedoms of my life. My dad got shot at by the Nazis for over 30 missions in the back of a B-17 as evil tried to storm the world, and I will NEVER forget that (Justin better not forget or let his grandchildren forget). I believe that true Christians who are called into a cause like that should use the opportunity to ‘make disciples who make disciples world-wide’ AS they do what is right. They simply shift mission fields as the cause does not override their commissioned purpose in this world.
We should vote as Christians, but we should not think that voting Christians into office is going to fix the world. Only Jesus, and His Gospel, is going to fix the world. Let's proclaim HIM!
We should support the American Cancer Society, but we should not think that humans are going to eradicate the curse even if He blesses us with a cure. Only Jesus, only His Gospel, is going to bring a day with no more tears and no more suffering. Let's proclaim HIM!

Second, I got reminded what a baby I can be. I was in a great, worshipful state of mind for the entire trip until the last day (I hope the others would agree with that), but we decided to wipe out the last 17 hours of the trip on that final day. So, had that gone smoothly, everything would have been fine. Sound familiar? Long story short, some 70 miles of I-29 is under the Missouri River, and what was going to be 17 hours and a 1:00 am arrival at home, became 20 hours and 4 am. Instead of having some compassion for the thousands of people affected by the flooding or realizing the detour was going to allow me to show the group my birthplace (Cameron, MO), I huffed and puffed like a baby because this inconvenience had affected the kingdom of me. Sin abounds when we are tired -- we need to stay rested. I finally did relax and enjoy a beautiful sunset, a Cardinals win, and a few more hours with my folks (even got a little nap in). But, for a minute, sin abounded. Glory to God who takes away the sin that so enslaves us.

Disciples making Disciples WORLDWIDE

2011-06-16T16:08:00.000-07:00

OK. Thrice is no longer coincidence. Months ago, as our missional cell family studied through Radical, I had a stark realization that I (and maybe our entire faith community) were not doing enough to directly bring the Gospel to people world-wide. Within a few days, God made two potential opportunities available for me to go to India and train & encourage pastors from the persecuted church and preach the Gospel to some folks who have never heard it. I am looking forward to making that trip with Mike Harrison (the lead pastor of Parkland Chapel in Farmington that is sponsoring MAN UP in July), who is also feeling pressed to get the Gospel out to the world into populations that are growing up and dying without ever having heard the Good News of Jesus Christ. So, this was encounter number one -- OK, Tim Gray, what are YOU personally going to do to get the Gospel to some people who have never heard it? Kelley and I are going to make a very difficult and dangerous trip to India in September to see.

The second encounter (which actually may have been the first) took place in a very quiet moment at the house as I was reading a book written in 1962 that was given to me by one of the pastors at The Bridge named Lance Smith about world missions. I don’t remember the name of the book or the author, but I remember the epiphany. As I read the description of the importance of ALL Christians being concerned with getting the Gospel to the ENTIRE world, I originally reacted poorly, thinking this dude was some whack dispensationalist who was trying to put some goofy things in motion that would try and manipulate Christ into returning. I have to confess that I am overly sensitive to things like this since we have whackjobs out there trying to funnel MILLIONS of dollars to the secular nation of Israel to get all of the Jews back home there and rebuild the temple because they mistakenly believe that Christ will not return until those two things happen. This Spirit-filled author though was giving a correct analysis of Matthew 24:14 which states “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” The author’s correct premise was that there were many people groups (obviously nations here mean people groups as nations have changed borders and names thousands of times since Jesus uttered these words) in 1962 that had not heard the Good News of Jesus Christ; therefore, our lack of attention to the commission of of Christ to preach the Gospel to the entire world, to make disciples of ALL PEOPLE GROUPS, had in effect made the fulfillment of this prophecy to be delayed. Jesus is clear that He will not return until all people groups have been exposed to the preaching of the Gospel. The church has a role to fill, and it has not gotten the job done. I immediately began praying for God to reveal the role of The Bridge in this mandate.

The return of Jesus is something that we should all pray for as John did as he closed out the Bible in Revelation 22 as he prayed, “Come, Lord Jesus.” So, I was still rolling around with the ramifications of this as I started reading Platt’s Radical Together, and here came punch number three. Platt brings up Matthew 24:14 again and declares that the disciples of God (all of us) MUST be daily concerned with not only discipling our families and our neighbors -- important stuff -- but with the Gospel being preached and disciples being made in every tiny corner of the globe. ALL OF US. Then, he had the punch in the gut. As Americans, we cannot imagine there being many people who have not heard of Jesus, but all of his research points to a fact that there probably about 6,000 people groups in the world right now that have not been exposed to the Gospel. And, some of these are going to be dangerous and TOUGH. The church worldwide is going to have to develop some true amazing disciples to get the Gospel into these places, and he brings back up the point that it MUST be the concern of all of us to do so. So, I thought immediately, “Is The Bridge Community Church, the church that I have the awesome privilege to lead, making the kind of disciples that will not only pray for this effort, but become actively engaged with resources AND personal investment into this commission?” Well, are we?

It was a great honor and privilege recently being involved on mission in Joplin, MO in the aftermath of the horrible tragedy there. We are called to serve people in need and the need there is great. It is the right thing to do, and I pray that Jesus will be made famous with our efforts. Upon returning though, I had a local church member (won’t say from where) telling me how glad he was that we went and did that because we were taking care of “our own.” I had to just walk away because I was livid -- downright angry. What is “our own?” Missourians? Americans? A quarter of a million people died in the tsunami in Indonesia - maybe near that many in the earthquake in Haiti! They are OUR OWN also! In Biblical terms, were their lives less important? How about Rwanda? Millions slaughtered by evil. The aids epidemic in Africa; the death of the real church in Europe -- the list is endless. Did this person mean that the American church had less mandate to bring the love of Jesus, the good news of the Gospel, to those situations than Joplin because the God-image-bearing people of those regions were less ‘our own.’ Different skin color - different nationality, what? This statement needs to be prayed over as it is not only offensive to God, but borders on downright racism sin. Look at this passage from Acts -- “Then Peter began to speak: ‘I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.’” (Acts 10:34-35) I am glad that we are able to help in Joplin because the need is great and its proximity allows for participation by a LOT of folks, and I feel hugely blessed by living in America. However, Missouri and the US are NOT our only mandate.

What has happened since God started blowing us up about this?
1. We have partnered with a church (TVCC of Paris, TN) to help plant a church in northern Haiti. This has also led to strong relationships with two mission/church planting organizations in the Cap Haitien area of Haiti.
2. Bridge members, Michael & Melissa Goldsmith, and their two children - Emilee & Seth - are headed to Haiti for the next month to work on these projects. We are not only sending money; we are sending people.
3. We have developed a relationship in India with CV Vadavana, the author of a book called Mission Fields (http://www.truthintlusa.org/page/page/7456871.htm), to help him support, encourage, and train pastors all over that country of 1 billion people that contains hundreds of the 6,000 people groups that have not heard the Gospel. This has been initiated by a blooming relationship with Parkland Chapel in Farmington. Kelley and I will be making our trip to India with Mike Harrison, the pastor there, and CV will be in the Parkland in July.
4. We have mission teams headed to Costa Rica and Nicaragua this summer.
5. We may have a couple beginning to work toward church planting with Stan Jackson & Ernest Ehabe in Cameroon, Africa.
5. We have planted multiple missional cells (home church missional communities) in St. Francois County this year.
6. We are supporting Journey Community Church in Herculaneum, MO and The Bridge Community Church in Nixa, MO as they plant missional communities in Jefferson County and Christian County.
7. Kelley and I, along with other current Bridge members, will be moving into the Arnold area starting in August (Kel & I will go in November) to start missional communities there with the intention of planting a full Bridge campus that would meet for its first worship celebration on March 18, 2012.
8. When the tornado hit Joplin, we sent teams in immediately and continue to have people go.
These efforts mean that we are involved in taking the Gospel and compassionate works to (Acts 1:8) Jerusalem (SFC, & surrounding counties), Judea & Samaria (Herky, Arnold, Nixa, Joplin), and to the ends of the earth (Haiti, India, Cameroon, other?).

I think we are getting it!
Disciples making disciples WORLDWIDE!

I started this blog (finishing days later) almost feel guilty as I sat 16 stories up in a high rise condo complex at Pensacola Beach, FL preparing to marry my niece. I looked at hundreds of people moving about below me like ants on the beautiful sand beaches that God has provided wondering if any of them are EVER concerned about the 2 billion people on the earth who have never heard the Gospel, let alone their friends and family that they profess to love. It was a good day with God, but I long for spending more time training up His people to GO and DO what He has really called us to do.

Heroes of the Faith

2011-05-07T06:51:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to take a second on this rainy Saturday morning as I wait for my last MAC graduation before retirement and THANK OUR HUNDREDS OF VOLUNTEERS who serve the LORD so faithfully at The Bridge. If you go over to the church this morning, the lawn has been mowed and weed-eated and looks great. The bathrooms are clean and carpets vacuumed. The Bridge Kids area is ready for hopefully 120-130 kids tomorrow. The music has been rehearsed. Lots of needy people in our community received financial support, prayer, and love this week. Cell homes were cleaned and folks prepared food to make our missional cells launching pads for the mission of God. Our teens were taught Bible and taught to go on mission by VOLUNTEERS. Tomorrow, hospitality folks will be up early to prepare food and drink for guests, our greeters will meet regulars and guests with a smile and a handshake, around 40-60 volunteers will put off an amazing morning of Bridge Kids (and we need 25 more as the children just keep pouring in), and our tech team will prepare to broadcast the magnificent Gospel of our Lord Jesus live to hundreds of people. Counters will have a very late lunch as they very professionally get God's money counted and deposited in the bank. Our prayer team will also have a late lunch as they pray over EVERY prayer request before they go home for a Mother's Day lunch. Volunteers have been to Jefferson County, the CSC, the county jail, and the Farmington to deliver Conquering Addiction and the hope of the Gospel to trapped people -- all this week. The entire building was constructed by the hands of volunteers. I could go on and on, and I know that I have missed somebody.

Happy Mother's Day!

Thank you and PRAISE GOD for you!!!

What does a local church look like?

2011-02-13T05:18:00.000-08:00

What should we be seeing in a local church that is filling the Great Commission of Christ?? Every individual believer and every local church are commanded to go and "make disciples who make disciples," baptizing them, and teaching them to obey God's commands. How do we really do that?

These are not in any particular order, but these are things that we should be seeing.

1. The local church should be developing foreign missionaries and FULLY funding their time in the mission field. These missionaries don't spend time fund-raising; they spend their time preaching and teaching the Gospel, church planting, and training pastors in the field. Their sabbaticals back home are to rest and study, not fund-raise. This is the one that God has been hammering me with. The Great Commission to the whole world is vastly more for the local church than sending a check to a denomination. Missionaries must be cultivated, trained, supported, and sent.

2. The local church should be developing ordained campus pastors to plant new campuses and churches in the United States. If we are Biblically discipling, a new elders should be raised up. In this pool of elders, some to lead new local churches should arise.

3. The local church should assist developing churches with resources and training to become Gospel-centered and missional. The Bridge is currently doing this with churches in Leadwood, Nixa, St. James, Kansas City, and Herculaneum.

4. The local church should be developing qualified elders to oversee this entire effort. GET THE MEN! GET THE MEN! GET THE MEN! These overseas missionaries, pastors, and missional cell (community) leaders will come out of a system of developing elders from 1 Timothy and Titus. I am believing that this level of training may be the key step in fulfilling the Great Commission.

5. The local church should be developing missional cell leaders (Biblical deacons) who will plant missional cells to redeem local communities for the cause of Christ. The Bridge - Leadington should be planting about 10-20 a year in St. Francois County and surrounding areas.

6. The local church should be baptizing about 10-20 percent of the average attendance a year as new believers. The Bridge nearly reached the 20% in 2010. Strong Gospel-centered teaching in missional cells if not-yet-believers are being invited to homes will help accomplish this. Preaching Jesus and the Gospel into primarily expository preaching will be a primary catalyst for the Holy Spirit to call His people also.

7. Developing women who actively making disciples who make disciples by being obedient to Titus 2:3-5. Our Spirit-filled women also should be filling many ministry roles around the local church and our missional cells.

Lots more to say, but I believe that is a good start to what it looks like to be Gospel-centered and missional in the local church. The keys of course are to developing Jesus Freaks (people who are absolutely blown away by the person of Jesus lifting high His name), and a commitment to doing all things according to Holy Scripture, and a massive commitment to prayer for the freeing of the power of the Holy Spirit of God to accomplish all these things. This is not a matter of human effort, but of submission to a powerful God who can make the impossible seem possible. Then, when submitted, we "GO."

2011-01-17T08:40:00.000-08:00

Thought you might like to see the responses that I put together to the directives of Jesus about what this fruit of the Spirit that is presented in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. These responses are just prayers to a Sovereign God for Him to bring us into line with his commands, so that we love instead of hammer as we use our spiritual gifts.

Love is patient. Response: Lord, make me patient with your gifts.
Love is kind. Response: Make me kind to difficult people.
Love does not envy. Response: Make me satisfied in YOU.
Love is not selfish. Response: Lord, make me a giver like YOU.
Love is not angry. Response: Keep me calm so that people will see YOU.
Love does not record wrongs. Response: Lord, help me to forgive like YOU forgave.
Love is not evil. Response: Protect me from the evil one.
Love rejoices with the truth. Response: Lord, fill me with YOUR truthful Spirit.
Love protects. Response: Help me use my gifts to protect, not destroy.
Love trusts. Response: Lord, help me to fight jealousy.
Love hopes. Response: When people see me, let them feel hope.
Love perseveres. Response: Lord, keep me at the table no matter what.

May the Lord Jesus Christ be glorified!

Missional Cell Prayer Challenge

2011-01-06T07:16:00.000-08:00

Just sent my missional cell a prayer challenge. Thought you might like to see if you have the guts to pray it with us.

I challenge you to do something immediately. I want you to stop and pray this right now wherever you are.

"God, we desperately need You."
"Oh God, we love you and are willing to listen to Your heart's desires."
"Oh God have mercy on us, the wretched sinners that we are." "Forgive us for seeking our own way."
"We love you for your Gospel."
"Thank you for Jesus." "We love you and worship you alone, Jesus!"
"We love Jesus and will serve Jesus alone."
"Bring the power of your Holy Spirit to bear on our daily study this week."
Pray it again -- "Bring the power of your Holy Spirit to bear on our daily study this week."
"If we discover that I am being disobedient in ANY WAY, give us the the faith the power to repent and obey your commands."
"We love you."
In the magnificent name of Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amen

Did you mean it? Do you want all of His Word? All of His desires? All for His Glory. Pray for more faith. He grants every ounce of faith that you have. You don't conjure it up -- that is why we worship HIM. Pray for more mercy. Repent and believe the Gospel. Really believe. Put it into practice. Give something away today that you don't think you can live without. Stop protecting your stuff -- you don't have any stuff. Pray that he reveal His gifts to you and that you POWERFULLY put them into practice today.
Some of you want to pray about all of your problems right now. Get the focus off of you and onto the One and Only, and your problems will minimize. You can address those problems with Him later. Look at Jesus right now; not your earthly problems.
Keep praying for the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT all week. You cannot say it too much.

Did I mention praying for the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?
We are weak. HE is strong. HE will give us what we need, not what we want. HE is all we need!

Aren't you glad I had some time this morning.

Love you more than you know,

tim

Time to get IT Done!

2011-01-05T11:56:00.000-08:00

I dream of a church that is so in love with Jesus that it sacrificially gives so that the church can give away 50-75% of its budget to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, take care of the orphan and widow, AND pay a Godly competent staff (to love on broken people) what it needs to live and give at the same time. Sound radical? We are headed there.

That was my Facebook post today. I don't know where it came from. I had not been sitting around thinking about this stuff. A whole bunch of Scripture verged, I think. Now, I am in a panic because if you are going to write something like that, you better be ready to model it personally -- because each of us, individually, make up the church that would willing to do such a thing. Each part of the body must do its part to bring such Biblical things to fruition. Yikes! Gotta get to work!

There is probably a Biblical model for church that makes this look calm. This would be a good start for The Bridge though.

I think we have gone from about 5% in 2006 and have gone up about 5% each year since. And, that was in the middle of a building program. As soon as we dump this mortgage, we will be on our way. To God be the Glory for the things HE has done!

New Year's Day Testimony

2011-01-01T11:02:00.000-08:00

The Bridge baptized a beautiful, young lady named Diana at our Christmas services. I thought you might like to kick off your 2011 with her testimony. I bet it sounds similar to many of you somewhere along the way -- sounds very familiar to me.

There's no way possible that this could be part of my plan. My heart is broken and the pain is unbearable. How can anything this horrific be part of some supposed 'beautiful plan'? That was me every time something went wrong in my life. If I knew then what I know now, I would have spent more time praising God in those 'horrific' times. Once you finally get it(and I don't mean just get it, I mean smack you square in the face kind of get it) you look back in awe. Everything finally starts to makes sense. All of the events from your past slowly start forming a huge puzzle. Sorting through each piece, you start learning the lessons and seeing the amazing beauty in each event.

I was raised in a small tight knitted congregation where almost everyone was related in one way or another. They all knew just the "need to know" stuff about each other, and were content with that. I don't remember ever hearing the weekly church gossip from the chatty elderly women. Everyone genuinely loved and cared for one another. I attended that church until I hit about 13. At that point in my life, God didn't seem as real to me than the life I was currently living. Boys started to look more interesting (and real for that matter) than Jesus did to me. Soon enough I began to dress a little differently, and before you knew it I started talking, acting and even looking different. My life started to take a turn at that point and people started noticing me. Although it may not have been in a positive manner, I still yearned for that attention. As the youngest of 4 children, you would think I would have gotten plenty of attention. I did, but it was never enough to fulfill this 'different' attention I was in search for. Eventually I would start turning to men to fulfill these needs that I had finally pushed to the surface. Those years were the hardest years of my life. At one point, I had actually named those years as some of my favorites. Today, they are no longer hard to look back on and I am blessed to be able to see the beauty in them. To my peers, I was the one almost always smiling and making people laugh, but on the inside, I was in deep pain. I kept searching for ways to fill this hole that kept getting deeper throughout my search for love from the world. Alcohol, sex and even drugs on occasion, seemed like the only way to make me think I felt good about myself. Every so often I would change my life and turn to God. I would briefly embrace God's Love and learn a little more each time He would bring me back. But it seemed that slowly my idols would creep into my life and I would run to them. I would then be right back into the lifestyle of searching for love from the world. I would think I found the love I needed in alcohol, male attention, and drugs. I see now that the pain I felt always seemed to disappear when I was on the narrow path, following God. But when I was walking down the wide path, the pain only grew deeper. The wide path was full of people wanting to help you ease your pain with a drink or a drug or in my experience, sexual attention. At the time the those idols seemed more fulfilling than trying to pray.. Those back and forth games I played with The Almighty Lord were what paved the way to my redemption. Every time I would have my 'good girl' act on I would retain more and more information that would eventually open my eyes to see what God had been doing all around me. Lately it had seemed that every time I would fall, the devil would pull me deeper each time. The last 'fall out' I had with God nearly led me right into the pits of hell. That's how I knew that God had different plans for me this time around. I was finally submissive enough to let Him completely into my heart. It didn't happen overnight though. I was given an amazing first-hand encounter with the presence of The Lord, but yet I still fell hard, once more. I still had to test it for some reason. I didn't trust in Him yet, much less trust myself completely. Slowly I started letting go and just letting Him catch me. The more I let go, the more peace, joy and love I felt in my heart. It was like I was the grinch before, and now my heart was growing. I started smiling at the little things that I had forgotten how to notice before. My relationship with my son was better than it had been in a long time. I genuinely started seeing the good in people and when I saw the bad, my heart longed to help them find this joy that I had been exposed to. My family seemed to take a whole new form right in front of my eyes. I saw how they all deeply loved me, and loved each other for that matter. Not the love where they feel obligated but the pure love that they had been given from The Lord. All these things began to flash in front of me and in an instant, I felt that Light flip back on in my heart brighter than it had ever shined. I am now aware that I am not in control of my life nor will I ever be. I know that when I fall, I need to turn to Him rather than the world. He is the only one who can save me from the darkness. Slowly but surely, I will be able to walk strong on my two feet but until then, I know that God will be delighted to carry me along beside Him. I know God has great plans for me and I can't wait to finally seal the door to my past and turn it into a window.
For a window is only for viewing and a door is to enter and exit. I know I don't want to use the door anymore. It’s time for reconstruction on my life, so that the walls in my heart are torn down and The Light can shine through. Never again do I want to hide that Light deep inside me.
Although I'm not sure where to start, I know He will pass his great carpentry skills on to me to assist me in building that window.

Diana's fiancee, James, was baptized at Christmas also. I see beautiful things on their horizon because of Jesus. I believe that they want to make Him famous. Time will tell.

Reflections of 2010 -- Part 1

2010-12-23T08:52:00.000-08:00

My Christmas break is busy. I like it that way. I am trying to hang around and serve my wife as her arm/wrist heals from a nasty break that required surgery. But, while I am doing that, opportunities abound. I am meeting today with some leadership from a large church in Southwest Missouri that is seeking some direction in becoming Gospel-centered and missional. That is exciting! But, I have also spent hours wading through the initial draft of a book called MOVE by Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson (Willow Creek). They have asked me to read and make comments before the book's next editing. This is fun, but also very time consuming. Good to see the process because I know that there is a book to author someday about God's blessings on The Bridge.

This morning though, I was starkly reminded of a neat fact as I read through the book's content. I know it sounds ridiculously simple, but the more time that we spend in private with the Word of God, meditating and praying over the living and active Word of Truth, the closer we will get to the Risen Christ! Their surveying of over 250,000 church goers proved that out again. The reminder though came very personal though because I made a commitment last January to read through the Bible in a year with the folks from The Journey in St. Louis and it was one of the best things I did in 2010. There is a stat out there somewhere that about 82% of the Bible reading and meditating that most pastors do is in sermon prep. That is a huge mistake and it causes us to neglect the personal development time with Jesus. The reality of this is that people will rarely outgrow their influencers, so it is essential that I (and our other elders, staff, parents, and cell leaders) be in the Word of God and growing with Jesus.

I want to thank The Journey for putting a lot of time into the program that I did because I think it has been a big influence in a great year of Bible focus at The Bridge. If nothing else, I am closer to Jesus because of it. Reading through the Bible in a year should not replace closely meditating on a few verses for God to speak to us, but man has it been great.

I challenge you to consider this for 2011. It took me an average of about 25 minutes a day. Here is the program if you would like to consider it. http://journeyon.net/engage/scripture/reading

How can we make disciples if we are not disciplined ourselves?

Who Are You Day-to-Day Responsible For?

2010-11-22T06:36:00.000-08:00

This coming Sunday is going to somewhat be about Judgment Day responsibility. We will give an account on the Day for those that we were RESPONSIBLE for their care and their spiritual well-being in the Gospel. You don't have to show this to anyone, but you might consider who God has put on your list and how well you are doing with that list. I have put mine into six groups because of my responsibility as a pastor, but you might only have three or four. You might want to share this at cell or just pray over it at home with your family, but this is worth your time. We can only day-to-day be responsible for about 30 people at most (15-20 is optimal). Here is my list as an example at a glance (don't be insulted if you are not on here because you probably are indirectly as my day-to-day care of some of these people trickles down to you). Notice that I do not have extended family on here. I am very close to my sister, but I am not going to be held RESPONSIBLE for these two areas with her (may be too hard-headed to let me influence her anyway -- haha -- we will see if she reads my blogs). The first 4 are day-to-day concern, prayer, and responsibility. Everyone should have their missional cell folks on here whether you lead the group or not, or you are probably not understanding the FAMILY identity of cell. Five and six for me are areas that I pray for and I am responsible for, but not day-to-day (would be impossible) Here we go:

1 -- Immediate Family
Kelley, Justin, Taylor, Mom, Juanita
2 -- Missional Cell Coaches
Ben, Lance, Stan Jackson
3 -- Mission Cell Leader Mentees (I coach this group)
Seth Durbin, Josh Massey, Bill Rawson, Brian Hurst, Stan Reiner, Jason Roney, Ken McIntyre
4 -- Board & Staff & Cell Family
Jerry Wallen, Roger Durbin, Tammy Durbin, Meg Reiner, Rob Pierce, Sarah Winch, Brad & Wendy Brown, Jeromy & Julie McDowell, Chris & Cheryl Guthrie, Bill & Amanda Simmons, Nathan & Melissa Bollinger, Paul Pinkston, Heather Jaco, Vickie Forsythe, Ronnie & Angie Buckingham (this group is fluid as some will leave to start cells and we will invite new folks in).

That is 36 people. And, I am failing miserably with some of these folks. I need to love them better. I need to more deeply engage their lives. I need to talk about Jesus more and encourage their Gospel-Centered lives. I need to be more intentional in going on God's mission with them. I need to love them better (yeah, I know that I repeated that one).

5 -- the entire Bridge community & not-yet Christian friends. I pray for and shepherd and love the entire church, but I must prepare and train others for the day-to-day care of this group. Also, I must rub shoulders with folks who do not know Jesus yet in a hope that He will reveal Himself to them.
6 -- the Body of Christ and my extended family. I love the church universal and want to see it grow and prosper. I mentor many leaders in the faith, but I do not care for them day-to-day. I love my family and want to see them in heaven.

Who is on your list? How are you doing with it?

Interesting, huh?

"NO" Can be a Holy Word

2010-10-23T09:23:00.001-07:00

Just a note about God reorienting and resetting our priorities from last Sunday's sermon. To make the move to the Gospel centering all areas of our lives and building a close knit Gospel community in a home environment, saying 'no' to a lot more to things that look really important becomes a necessity -- sometimes even to charity work or church work. Mission and community are our new main priorities. NO almost becomes a holy word. If you did not see the last two weeks on Gospel-centered missional community, you can check it out at this link.

http://vimeo.com/channels/11022

Inflamed with Passion? Pursue Godly Marriage

2010-09-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I preached from 1 Corinthians 7 that God says that if we are inflamed with passion “that we should pursue Godly marriage.” I want to be clear about that pursuit. I hinted at it in the sermon, but never came right out and said it. We should not pursue Godly marriage by counting on dating websites, singles ministries, or definitely while HOWS (hanging out with sinners), or other worldly wisdom avenues. We pursue Godly marriage by devoting all of our time to PURSUING GOD. Singles, inflamed with passion, easily step into idolatry (the idea of being married) and make sinful mistakes in this pursuit. Once again, it boils down to the ultimate questions in life, “Is Jesus sufficient?” and “Do I trust Him, that if I spend time with Him - getting close to Him, that a Godly spouse will show up on the horizon.” My experience in watching people walking closely with God is that as they discover His glory, His majesty, His power, they discover that the passion (the urges, the hormones) did not own them quite as much as they thought it did. To pursue Godly marriage, first and foremost, PURSUE GOD -- LOVE AND SERVE GOD. Flee from sin, flee from sexual immorality, go to war with worldly wisdom, and pursue Him with time, service, prayer, fellowship, resources, EVERYTHING. Trust in Him; watch Him work in your life.

Note: I am not against singles ministries. My observation is that many times they are filled with people in idolatrous pursuit of companionship over Jesus. That is unhealthy. There are many healthy singles ministries and many healthy Christians that attend them.

Labor Day Musings -- #2

2010-09-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

Had a car in front of me driving through town that had a big sticker that covered the whole back window that stated, "I will only be judged by God!!" In a sense, this is accurate and I am glad. We really don't want anybody except the perfect God Jehovah deciding who gets into heaven and who doesn't.

BUT, that is not really what the statement was getting at. This person was declaring to the whole human race, "Leave me alone; I will do what I want to do when I want to do it." The only problem with that is that it is not Biblical Christianity. The Bible designs the church to lovingly keep each other in check, and we Americans don't like it because that requires judgment. This person needs to study 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, and quite honestly the whole New Testament. Our wicked hearts are prone to wander without loving Spirit-filled hearts to bring them back into line with some judgment.

Labor Day Musings -- #1

2010-09-06T07:02:00.000-07:00

Growing and bearing fruit in the Gospel (Col 1:6) brings with it enlightenment. We think differently. I am reading through the entire Bible with The Journey (Darrin Patrick’s church in St. Louis) this year and this morning, I bumped into a passage in Proverbs 11.
When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes;
all he expected from his power comes to nothing. Proverbs 11:7

And, I had an epiphany. Before God straightened out my theology, I really used to think that there were three groups of people. There were: 1) the wicked people, the really bad people who do evil things, 2) the sinners, people who were basically good, but did not know Jesus, and 3) the born again Christians. I now know two things. That there are only those whose hope perishes when they die (we all have a wicked and deceitful heart), and those that Jesus has come and rescued from this hopelessness. And, at one time I was among the perishing wicked. I was not just a sinner that was basically good. Proverbs 11:7 was about me. But, I was washed, I was sanctified, I was justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11). So, hope rises this morning!

Finished

2010-08-21T17:34:00.000-07:00

As I was cleaning at The Bridge today, I kept noticing some things around our new building that are not quite finished. Our church is spectacular, but there are a few places that need some paint, some trim, etc. The upstairs bathrooms are not complete, and on and on. This is not a criticism; we will never have everything done. It made me start thinking that anything put together by human hands just never quite gets perfectly done. There are always imperfections and just a little more refining to do.

I began to worship because Jesus completed His work on the cross of atoning for our sins. He completed His Bridge. When He said, "IT IS FINISHED," IT was finished. The act of remission of our rebellious sin was complete for those that He calls and respond by repenting and believing the Gospel. A perfect act by a perfect God. Praise Jesus!

GAP'S EDUCATOR'S DINNER

2010-07-20T15:13:00.000-07:00

Attention all local educators!!!

Ready for some food, fun, and some great conversation? And it won't cost you a thing except an evening of your time.

On August 5, GAP (the Great Adventure Project, a Christian organization here in St. Francois Co.) wants to do something nice to honor our local educators and provide some possibly valuable information at the same time. We are personally inviting you and all of your administrators, teachers, and classified staff to a dinner at The Bridge Community Church in Leadington at 6:00. The dinner is free, and this is NOT a fundraiser. This is just an evening for you to enjoy with other educators as we eat, have some music, some (hopefully hilarious) drama, a couple of speakers, and hopefully just some time to hang out. The speakers will be three Constitutional law attorneys from the St. Louis area who will be giving a short presentation on what educators can actually do Constitutionally in terms of dealing with ANY religion in the public school setting. There will be a Q & A to follow which should be very interesting. I think that you will thoroughly enjoy the evening, and it is being provided without any cost to the first 300 educators to respond with a RSVP. Right now, we will not be able to handle spouses for the evening because we are expecting a big response from educators. Please include your e-mail address with your RSVP and let us know if you would like for your spouse to attend, and we will contact you if there are some seats left. Feel free to forward this invitation to anyone you know that is in education.

Please RSVP to Tim Gray, GAP, at timgray22@gmail.com. Or call at 573-518-1131. E-mail is better. On your RSVP, include your two favorite JOY-FM (99.1) songs. The live music for the evening will be the highest requested songs.

If you RSVP, please show up or cancel. Our food people need an accurate count. Money that we don't spend here will build a home in Haiti or turn someone's electricity on in St. Francois County -- that is the kind of thing that GAP does. The dinner will not be fancy as GAP does a tremendous amount of local missions in feeding the hungry, turning on necessary utilities for the poor, and handling transportation for educational opportunities, jobs, and addictions ministries, and there is a significant cost to those efforts. However, we think that spending some resources to feed the awesome educators that do such a great job with our kids in the community is well worth it. The evening will be well worth your time to drive over and hang out for a couple of hours.

Sincerely,

Tim Gray
The Great Adventure Project
573-760-4933

Clear Communication & Darien

2010-06-03T07:05:00.000-07:00

It was pointed out to me last night that I may have misspoken on Sunday. As I talked of the cup that Jesus told the disciples (and you and me) that they would indeed bear, what I hope was communicated was that they would later understand that he meant that their cup would bear an essence of the suffering and sacrifice of THE cup (the one and only atoning cup) that he cried out to the Father to remove in the garden, not that they were the same cup. Jesus was taking them from talking about his arrest, death, and resurrection (the one and only atoning cup) in Matthew 20:17-19 and with great intention uses cup as the metaphor, so they would know that true followers would have a SIMILAR, not the same bloody cup of atonement that only he could bear, cup that he predicts for them in verse 23. If I said they were the exact same cup, that was not my intent and I apologize because it would be heretical. There is one cup of salvation (Psalm 116) and only Jesus has drunk from that cup. However, we do have to be willing to bear and drink from a cup that contains the essence of its suffering and sacrifice. That was the point as He led us to understand the depth of servanthood -- that ours would resemble His which cost Him His life (vs. 28). Jesus said, “You will indeed drink from my cup.” So, the question that was posed is fair, “Are you ready to suffer and sacrifice for the sake of the Kingdom?”

While I am writing, I am trying to work through this Darien Black thing in my mind. Darien is the young man from Justin’s class who tragically ended his own life in the last week. I found out yesterday that there was a testimony given at his funeral that he had always told people that he got saved at a youth camp at The Bridge. This caused my mind to start racing. The first church camp of The Bridge in the summer of 2006 was in Eminence and there were some absolutely unforgettable events that took place there. Andy Sherrill’s talk along the river during the float trip on JOY (Jesus first, then others, then you), Derek Franklin getting bit by a poisonous snake and the frantic drive to the emergency room, and the youth band wowing us with their worship are all etched in our minds. Darien was a big part of that memory because he was the cow bell player in the band and he played loud and did not hit on the beat one time during the whole camp, but wow did he have a good time. It was fine and nobody said a word because he was new to church, and we were just ecstatic to see him so engaged. Somehow though, Darien got lost in the shuffle. He had not entered my mind for a long time until I heard of the tragedy. How can that be? How can people just slide into our frame of reference and back out again so easily. Apparently, he was dealing with things that nobody knew about. It makes me wonder who is in our midst right now that is dealing with things that nobody knows about, and maybe I am too busy to care? I pray that Darien’s family receive some peace from his encounter with the Gospel for a few days as he banged a cow bell way off beat.

Koinonia -- Missional Cell

2010-05-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

Check out this excerpt from the book Total Church:
The New Testament word for community is koinonia, often translated by the now anemic word "fellowship." Koinonia is linked to the words "common, sharing, and participation." We are the community of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 1:9) -- sharing our lives (1 Thessalonians 2:8), sharing our property (Acts 4:32), sharing in the Gospel (Philippians 1:5; Philemon 6), and sharing in Christ's suffering and glory (2 Corinthians 1:6-7; 1 Peter 4:13). The collection of money by the Gentile churches for the poverty-stricken church in Jerusalem is an act of koinonia (Romans 15:26; 2 Corinthians 9:13). Our community life is celebrated and reinforced in Communion, where we participate (koinonia) together in the body and blood of Christ: "Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf" (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).

I challenge you to study these passages before we take a special communion on Sunday. Let's show up to church on Sunday recognizing that we are a collection of communities sharing in all of these acts of Biblical community.

Are we getting it? The rugged American cowboy, the independent, private American was a neat concept, but it does not make for very good church. We have to do this together in community. Big community, smaller missional community, and groups of two or three will be the church that God wants to see and bless.

We learn about koinonia at places like the Walk to Emmaus and other conferences, but it just never seems to get put into practice. Get into a missional cell and just be open to all God wants to do through that and watch God accelerate your love for Him, and your love for others. Isn't that what we are commanded to do? Let's enjoy living out these Biblical commands in the natural rhythms of our lives.

Missional Cell

2010-05-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

Missional community (at The Bridge we call it missional cell family) is a must in 21st Century church. People really caring for people in our fast-paced lives must be intentional in a 'small-church community,' or it just really never happens. Discipleship is maxed out in these settings when the groups are on common mission for the Gospel. Also, church should be fun, and these groups have an absolute blast doing life together when they are functioning properly. The Bridge gathers on Sunday to worship the most high God and train these groups; then we scatter every day of the week with our MC folks and work with other cells (and other churches) to go on mission and care for needs.

Jim Belcher, the writer of Deep Church who I just saw in St. Louis a couple of days ago, tells a story in the book that proves these points. Jim's church is in a relatively upper middle class area of Orange County in California, and he told the story of Doug and Mattie who were rolling along in the American dream -- great jobs, a magnificent home, leather-seated cars, and lots of travel. Small problems, but life was good. They even went to church for good measure. They called it, "checking the box."
Then in January 2005, their world changed forever. Their son Nathan was arrested, convicted, and imprisoned on felony drug charges. Humiliation set in to the point that they had to put paper over their windows to get local media and neighbors out of their destroyed worlds.

Then, Doug & Mattie encountered missional community from a group based out of Redeemer Church where Belcher pastors. I want to emphasize that they did not come into the church through the front doors of a worship service. A couple that became aware of their need reached out and invited them to hang with their cell. They found the acceptance in the home environment exactly what they needed and they continued to come back (not exactly knowing why). Mattie said, "They immediately accepted us, loved us, and comforted us. They shared in our suffering. They prayed with us. It was incredible. They literally saved our lives." In some terminology that we use at The Bridge, all the folks involved became willing to "know and be known." The couple did not visit Sunday morning services for months after all that you are about to hear about. The church gathering on Sunday is not the story here. If they had walked into most larger church settings in America, those who cared would have 'put them on the prayer list' while others (who obviously don't care and have bad hearts) would have scoffed and gossiped about their failings as parents because 'good' parents don't have children in prison. However, the missional community group put their lives on hold for a couple they barely knew but grew to love quickly. This is the story, the difference maker, for the glory of God that can happen when MC is done correctly.

You might notice that this missional community was not pounding Doug & Mattie with the Gospel at this time. They were hearing the magnificence of the Gospel as they attended the home gatherings, but it was not directed at them. The turning point in the whole story happened through the group exhibiting agape love in a time of suffering and need. The prison was a couple of hours away from home, and due to limited visiting slots, to see Nathan on Saturday morning at 7 am, Doug & Mattie would have to leave the house at 12:30 am to get in line at 2:30 to receive one of the visitor's passes. It was a grueling, exhausting procedure week after week. Soon, they were physically and emotionally drained. However, one Friday a member of their missional cell told them to go ahead and go to bed and set their alarm clock. The member had discovered that he could go stand in line for them to receive the pass and Doug & Mattie could just show up at 7:00 am for the visitation. The group began to rotate doing this for them, so that they could survive the ordeal. "Who does this kind of thing?" queried Mattie. "What would motivate someone who barely knows us and has never met Nathan to reach out with such kindness and compassion?"

God really had their attention now, and they noticed as they studied Romans 3 that they had never heard terms such as justification and sanctification. Jim admitted that they had always attended church, but he "did not understand the depth and breadth of the Gospel. Over the years we heard lots of engaging pep talks on how to live better, improve our lives and serve God, but never was the Gospel clearly and consistently taught." Months later, as the Gospel was actively changing and transforming their lives, they began to attend worship services. Doug said, "We realized that the Gospel impacted every aspect of our lives. Our lives took on new meaning. It was and is exciting."

Remember, this all started with a couple (never named in the book) who was fully engaged in missional community reaching out to a broken couple and bringing them into the community with love and care. The story gets better as Nathan sees the change in mom and dad and is absolutely overwhelmed by the story of the people standing in line over night in acts of agape. Nathan heard that the hole in his heart that he had tried to fill with drugs and crime could only be filled with a restored relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He had his heart cut by the Holy Spirit and came to Christ, and now is leading a missional community that focuses on drug addiction and parole violators since his release from prison. He actually joined the church from prison (big picture of him on the screen in his orange jump suit with a smile on his face that only Jesus can put there and a recording of him confessing Christ and committing to the body).

This is what can happen in missional community and is what we have been trying to foster since the first days that we planted The Bridge in cell families. We have some stories like this one here, but too many people still want church life to be much easier than that. This missional cell that loved on Doug & Mattie invested DEEPLY into them. There was a cost in time, money, & self interests!! Agape love requires sacrifice -- and quite honestly, it appears that few have been raised by Christ to that level across the church landscape.

I wrote this blog because I received an e-mail for a prayer request for a couple who has been occasionally attending our Celebration worship services for a little over a year now. They have not connected with a missional cell. I don't even know if they have been approached by a missional cell -- if not, I am disappointed. Their list of needs blows away Doug & Mattie and the reason that they are hanging around is that they have heard that the people of our church care. Who is going to be the couple that does more than just pray for them (see Matt. 5:44-48, James 2:14-17), but reaches out and brings them in? Our people at The Bridge are doing awesome, but we must be more missional with the disconnected and marginalized. I watch our people in large gatherings and most us talk to the folks that we know well. That is comfortable and easy. Our version of Doug & Mattie have essentially been ghosts for over a year now. How long will they stick around? The staff could try and 'place' them in a cell, but that is not what works. What works is for someone to reach out and invite them to dinner with their group -- just dinner, so that they know somebody cares. Who will be in tune with the Holy Spirit and reach out and pull them into Deep Church?

Financial Rumors

2010-05-04T06:47:00.000-07:00

I have been in the middle of the public eye for almost 30 years now and have been the topic of coffee shop and beauty shop gossip many times. Gossip, rumor, and innuendo are some of strongest supports to the Biblical notion that we are all born with a wicked and deceitful heart. Passing on rumor and innuendo without checking out validity of facts deeply grieves God. So much so that he lists it in one Biblical passage right next to murder in a list of practices that bar us from heaven. Gossip within the Body of Christ is most often the greatest enemy to the Gospel. People who are living far from God can’t stand the way “Christians” talk about each other.
Ordinarily, when lies and rumors that have no credence have hit the streets, I have always had a standard policy. LET IT DIE; do not respond. I have not addressed these things because it usually only adds fuel to the fire, and lies, rumors, and slanderous gossip usually go away because there is no fire, only artificial smoke.

Well, I am about to break that policy. There is a damaging rumor about The Bridge that has hung around for over three years now and is rampant right now that is not true and must be refuted. Listen closely people --
WE DO NOT ASK PEOPLE FOR ANY PERSONAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION (I.E. W-2's, CHECK STUBS, TAX RETURNS) FOR THEM TO JOIN THE CHURCH. We never have and we never will. There is not one person in leadership that has any idea how much money any member of The Bridge has or makes. This is a malicious rumor that was started by some people who would like to damage our credibility AND IT MUST STOP. If anyone reading this is a Christian and you have talked about this piece of misinformation without checking it out, you are in deep sin and are maligning the Bride of Christ, His body, the church. That will not go well for you when you see Him face to face. If you are not a Christian, I would ask you also to do the right thing and check this out before talking about it with anyone. There are 130 active members of The Bridge that you can ask, and they will all tell you just how ridiculous this falsehood is.
We do teach about finances at The Bridge. We do this a lot because Jesus did. He taught more about money than he did heaven and hell, so He must have thought it was important. Therefore, we teach about it, and we ask people to be obedient to the Bible on the subject.

Here is the covenant that every member of The Bridge signs:
Covenant #6 – To fulfill the New Testament command (1 Corinthians 16:2) for Biblical giving to the local church and to learn that I am not to store up earthly treasures, but heavenly treasures, I am committing to CONTRIBUTE a set and organized financial amount.
______ % of my gross income will be cheerfully given to The Bridge each week.
$__________ is going to be pledged to Gideon 300 per month.
Name___________________________ Date______________

This covenant asks that the member prayerfully commit to a percentage of their income (that we have no idea how much it is). If this is 1% or 50%, the person is allowed to join the church (see below for some more facts about the Biblical teachings). Also, we ask each member to make a pledge to help us pay our building off in three years. That is what the pledge to Gideon 300 is about. Every church asks its members for commitments to time, talents, and treasures in some fashion. We just get a little more specific with those areas, but we have no idea about our members’ personal financial business.

Here are some of the discipleship teachings that we convey about finances:
1. We teach the correct Biblical concepts that we should be open-handed with God's money. The New Testament teaches that when we become Christians that we no longer possess anything; all of creation is God's. A realization comes to us of a fact that has been there all along -- God owns everything. He is simply gracious enough to allow us to steward HIS money and creation. We are to be wise and not greedy with material things. Open-handed means that we put ourselves in a position where when it is time to help those in need, we can and do respond. The Bridge has done so locally by turning on gas and electricity for people and provided food for the hungry of St. Francois County. The local open-handed giving has been nothing short of astonishing. We have also assisted in building a fresh water well in Chacocente, Nicaragua, sent medical teams to three continents (including one of the first to arrive in Haiti along with a fresh water purifier so that people could stop dying from bad water), and are currently assisting in building 25 homes for the 1 million homeless in Haiti. We are sending money for the materials, and our next team of selfless builders will arrive there on July 5 to build streets, dig latrines, and a community building so that the residents will have a place to go to school and church.
2. On giving to the local church, we teach that we should be organized and open-handed there at the same time. 2 Corinthians teaches us to be organized in our giving to the local church and set aside a percentage for worshipful giving to our body of believers. That percentage should test our faith; it should be sacrificial and hurt a little. We teach that the Old Testament concept of the tithe (a tenth part) is a good starting point for that testing of faith and worship, but it is not commanded. We agree with Dave Ramsey, Crown Financial, Randy Alcorn (The Treasure Principle), Rick Warren, John Piper, Mark Driscoll and many other great Bible teachers that the tithe is too limiting to our open hands. We should learn to be extravagant and cheerful givers to our local body and trust that the church will glorify God in its stewarding of what God's people entrust to it. As God blesses our finances by increasing our standard of living, we should increase our standard of giving as Randy Alcorn states. Giving to the church and to other Kingdom work should be sacrificial, worshipful, and an absolute joy. We are still immature or have not repented and believed if we are controlling and political with our giving. Not giving or not giving with the proper spirit is just plain sin.
3. The Bridge is very open with its membership about the church's finances. The members receive constant reports as to where every penny is spent and an independent CPA examines every receipt in a yearly audit to ensure complete accountability. There are no fewer than eight checks and balances to ensure financial integrity. Five of those are completely independent of the church itself (CPA, two banks, an investment firm, and ECFA).
4. The Bridge is very lean in its spending and always will be. We hate debt. I think God hates debt for His people. We have some debt, but we are STRIVING to eliminate it quickly, and we will not borrow again. Instead of constructing a building a that is glitzy and glamorous, we saved over $2 million dollars by building a Sprung building giving us 24,500 square feet of ministry space without destroying our ability to do ministry. Our staff salaries are lean, and we budget 10% of our general budget to missions.
5. Most importantly, how we treat our finances should point us to the Gospel. Jesus was the greatest giver of all. He set aside his spot on the throne, came down and took on a stinky body like ours, and GAVE 100% to us for our restoration from sin and death. If the Gospel is transforming us to look like HIM, we should mirror this extravagant giving. How can we be stingy and selfish with a God who gave enough to endure the cross? Love should beget love.

We do ask our members for strong commitment. If I am reading the New Testament correctly, that is what Jesus did. We are not weird; we do not do strange things like this destructive rumor. If people will just come and find out instead of sneaking around the shadows and just talking about what they have heard, the truth will be known. If you spreading this gossip, please stop.

More from Jacob

2010-04-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

The American church landscape is littered with three basic types of people. Since we often forget the Gospel as the centerpiece of our lives, the tendency for a long time now has been to teach and preach a kind of moralism or do-gooder mentality that has stripped the church of its First Love. This creates two of these groups of people. The first are the moralists who try to achieve righteousness on their own by doing better and trying harder to follow a set of rules. Then, you have the millions of people (most of which have left the church out of frustration) who despair because they can't seem to be good enough to follow the rules. The first group becomes legalistic and arrogant as the 'ones' who have it figured out. Jesus blasted these 'religious' people. The second group will never give the real church a chance because of their despair which comes out in many forms from anger to downright rebellion. The lack of Gospel-centering has driven both groups to extremes which are living far from peace and restoration.

Our look at Jacob in Genesis 32 showed us the answer to this problem. When Jesus initiates relationship, we should do what he did -- just hold on in meekness and humility and don't let go of your First Love. Listen to God speak through the prophet Hosea about this encounter between Jacob and God:

In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel;
as a man he struggled with God.
He struggled with the angel and overcame him;
he wept and begged for his favor.
He found him at Bethel
and talked with him there—
the LORD God Almighty,
the LORD is his name of renown!
But you must return to your God;
maintain love and justice,
and wait for your God always. Hosea 12:3-6

This says that Jacob WEPT (as a broken and contrite man) and BEGGED for the blessing of God. This is from one of the most selfish, self-centered men in history. Therefore, this should be our daily attitude as we are saved, are BEING saved, and will be saved. It is Jesus, the Lord Almighty - our first love, that brings us to daily repentance and then joy, peace, and restoration. It trying to follow a set of rules that leads to arrogance or despair. In contrast, it is holding onto Jesus and loving Him because He first loved us. Then, we stand up in humble power and love a dying and hurting world as ministers of reconciliation. This is the third group -- the deep and blessed group. Which group are you in today?

Kel's Health

2010-04-12T05:55:00.000-07:00

Update -- The cat scan report came in today and she has two more nodules -- one in each lung. One is 6 millimeters and the other is 4. We have to wait 3 months and pray that when they take more pictures, none of the 3 are growing. This is not what I would have chosen, but as usual, I am not doing the choosing. Thanks for all of the prayers and loving attention. Christ will be glorified. See below for the original post.

Original
Actually, here is the straight scoop on Kelley's health, so that if you have somebody asks you, just refer them to the blog. I have already heard some crazy distortions of this.

She has not been feeling well for about six weeks now, and we thought she just had a UTI (bladder infection). When she saw a urologist, blood was discovered in her bladder. It is automatic procedure now to do a cat scan when blood is found in the bladder. The results of that cat scan gave us quite a shock. The bladder is still a mystery, but a 4 millimeter nodule (pretty good size, easy to see) showed up in the bottom part of her lung.

That is really all we know right now. There is no evidence of cancer at this point. But, we are in a tortuous waiting game. She will receive another cat scan in three months. If the nodules have grown, surgery will take them out immediately to be be biopsied. If there is no growth (she may have had this for 20 years), we repeat that process for 2 years (cat scans every 3 months). If they come out and are benign (growth does not necessarily mean malignancy), we are done. If it is malignant, they will remove an entire lobe of the lung immediately (and I am sure other ugly things start). If there is no growth in 2 years, we are done.

She is feeling fine. She ran a 5 mile race in St. Louis on Saturday and hosted lots of people at our house yesterday. We studied the magnificence of God together last night as we starting the Crazy Love study in our cell. That was sweet. I have a feeling that we will do a lot more of that stuff as the two years creep by.

It is a major sin in my life that I have taken a Proverbs 31 wife for granted. She was widowed as I chased basketball championships, and maybe a little as we have gone nutso for Christ by starting The Bridge. She has just always been so solid and there while I was at times wildly chasing dreams. I will now be solid for her if Christ reigns and rules in me.

Here are things you can pray for:
1. That we both draw closer to Christ minute by minute through our ordeal.
2. That HE be glorified every step of the way no matter the news.
4. That the current nodules stay at the same size they are now.
5. That the doctors get to the bottom of the bladder issue. That is what is making her sick.

Thank you for your love and concern. May Christ be glorified.

Am I Regenerated (Saved)?

2010-03-11T08:05:00.000-08:00

Not long ago during a Q & A at a Sunday night Bible study called "The Story of God," someone asked a prolific question, "How do I know that I am saved?" Believing that our nation is largely one of false conversions, my immediate answer was a curt "wait a while." Yon Wibscov proceeded to give a very good answer about believing in the One who was sent and obedience and fruit and loving God and others, etc. But, I have been mulling and praying and reading since then and I thought I would share my thoughts. These are just kind of observations and Scripture rolled into characteristics that are both internal (things that you feel if God has redeemed you) and external (things that others see in you and probably make comment on).

Here we go in no particular order, but maybe some order:
1. Brokenness -- Psalm 38 & 51 -- I understand that I have deeply offended God with my sin. I am an unworthy slave. I have Godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10). On my own, I have no possessions or rights (except what God grants me after restoration, then I am called a child of God, a co-heir with Christ). I am dead, been crucified, and no longer live.

2. Full weight on (in) Christ -- believe and trust -- nor longer rely on myself for righteousness. God grants us the faith to place our entire existence in the Gospel, in the capable hands of the risen Christ. I know I am nothing without Him.

3. Willingness for obedience -- I do not fight God's commands. Desire to learn. Never perfect, but willing. He speaks; I obey. If not,

4. Constant repentance -- "all of life is repentance" (Martin Luther). When we offend, the Gospel leads us to change, to turn around -- to go to war with sin. Jesus said in His first words in public ministry in Mark 1:15, "Repent and believe the Gospel." Covered in #2-4. I know that I just shifted from first to third person. Salvation is intensely personal, but there is always a "we" that functions in community toward these ends as well.

5. Distinct Changes -- Lovers of God, Lovers of people, on mission (Great Commission at forefront of every day). Repentance is a gift from God, so we move from selfish to selfless and it is OBVIOUS. Not because we are trying (however we do also have a role in working out this salvation with fear and trembling), but because it now who we are.

6. Fruit -- Jesus was clear that without bearing fruit, we are useless and to be burned up in the fire. Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5 goes along with #4). There will become a long history of fruit. The changes are not temporary resolutions; they are supernaturally instituted by the Holy Spirit, so they REMAIN. Serving God and serving others becomes a way of life.

7. Deep Satisfaction -- People and circumstances do not change our deep joy and satisfaction. Our joy is in the Gospel -- not people (they don't make very good gods), and not circumstances (they tend to unravel at some point whether we are saved or not). The Holy Spirit is rooted deeply in us, and so "neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39)."

8. Love -- Kim Walker cries out in this video that, "WE ARE NEVER THE SAME AFTER WE ENCOUNTER THE LOVE OF GOD." CLICK HERE

I have a thousand other thoughts and I am sure that you do also, but I wanted to get these out there because I think people wonder about their status. These eight should resonate deeply with the regenerated man or woman. How did you do with the test?

As God Begins to Work

2010-02-23T19:56:00.001-08:00

A young lady entered our lives a couple of weeks ago in the GAP ministry. We have had the opportunity to love on her some and serve her by taking care of some needs. Her needs are many, and it has been a joy to get to know her as we present the Gospel. Rachel writes poetry. Here is some of her writing after experiencing some love from God, from God's people, and the Word of God. Remember, she has no church background at all.

A lost soul with no place to rest.
Racing thoughts flows the pen like
water does the body.
The tongue can not be still,
but my mouth is closed.
The many questions asked but receive
no answer.
The world stops,
time stops but only for a while
Chaos! Confusion! Silence!
Screaming thunder fills my veins,
one touch.
Vertical, horizontal, sinner, believer.
Calming waters from a gentle yet firm
voice.
Come my child,
for my pain is your pain,
my blood is your blood,
my beating heart is in rhythm with yours.
the door is open,
I am your answer,
I am God!

That is extraordinary! I see the Gospel throughout!
The vertical -- swapping love in relationship with God.
The horizontal -- swapping love with people washed with the Gospel.

Are we ashamed?

2010-01-30T11:26:00.000-08:00

Did you know that God is seeking men (and women) who will raise holy hands to Him in worship and prayer?
I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing. 1 Timothy 2:8 (NIV)
Lift up your hands in the sanctuary
and praise the LORD. Psalm 134:2 (NIV)

Let me be clear; this is not a Biblical command. If we do not raise our hands in worship, that is NOT sin. I am not insisting that people do this, but quite honestly most of you don't because you are more worried about what people think that what God desires. If you don't raise your hands in submissive prayer to God, have you analyzed why?

It could be that you are ashamed to raise your hands. You could be worried about what people think. We tell ourselves that we don't want to upset new visitors. Relax about that; visitors appreciate anything that is authentic. They can sniff out phony.

I had this in tomorrow's sermon and I took it out because the sermon was too long, so I blogged it instead. Personally, I raise my hands to the King of Glory because He deserves it. I love Him because He loved me enough to pluck me out of hell. He is my primary affection and I am vastly more worried about what He thinks than what people think. Jesus got pretty blunt about this in his discussion about who is a true disciple of his:
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. Luke 9:23-26 NIV

Am I ashamed of him? Unless you have a bum shoulder, let yourself go.

Don’t force it (you should not do something that you do not truly feel), but submit and try it.
We fist pump an Albert Pujols' home run, but won't submit our hands in prayer and worship. I have seen a bunch of you go crazy over AP; how about we show our appreciation to the King of Glory?

The Bridge -- Haiti Relief Plans

2010-01-14T10:07:00.000-08:00

OK. Here are The Bridge's response plans for the earthquake disaster in Haiti. I am hearing from a lot of you, so this must have really touched your heart as we know it has touched God's.

1. PRAY. Keep all of the efforts and the people who have been devastated at the forefront of your prayers, but mainly focus on your faith that God is capable of bringing order and Glory out of the chaos and heartache.

2. If you would like to give money that will go to immediate relief, we would like to make some suggestions of quality organizations that have people on the ground already there that can make a difference today. You can just go online and give with a credit card.
a. Medical Teams International @ www.medicalteams.org. This is the medical group that will be in there quickly that Jon & Lisa Bird (Bridge members) work with in medical crisis situations like this. Please pray for Jon & Lisa as they are discerning their role in this crisis. Others of you in the medical community might want to contact Jon and Lisa about the possibility of getting down there to help with immediate medical needs.
b. Compassion International -- https://www.compassion.com/contribution/giving/disasterrelief.htm?referer=105910. This is a great way to get immediate help to kids as Compassion has such a LARGE presence with the orphanages in Haiti. The money that is given to this section of the website goes to Haiti today. We have a working relationship with CI and we trust them.
c. All 11 of these groups recommended by the Desiring God people would be good also. They are there already working. http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/2188_11_charities_collecting_donations_for_haiti/

3. On Sunday, we will be taking a special offering for Growing Hope for Haiti which is run by Gerson & Heather Wickham (also some of the Bridge's own). This giving will be a little more long range as we resource our own missionaries to go take care of the people that they love so much. Gerson and Heather are here right now and could use a lot of prayer as Gerson does not currently know the health status of any of his family members and many others as you can imagine. Just make out checks to The Bridge and write Haiti in the memo. We will funnel the money to them.

4. Gerson and Heather are aware that many of you would like to go down there and physically help. They have agreed to keep us informed on how that may be able to happen. Probably will be a while as the immediate relief organizations have all of the top priority right now. I do think that it is beautiful that some of you are wanting to go. I am thinking and praying about it myself. If God wants us there, He will find a way to make that happen.

Situations like this are very challenging to our faith. Remember that sin and disobedience brought curse and disaster to this world, not God. And God must have some reason in His master plan to have allowed this fallen-world tragedy to have happened. Let's seek His face, rely on Him, and act as his ministers and missionaries. That requires sacrifice. Let me give an example -- if you give to the immediate need groups or to Gerson and Heather and then give less to your tithe at The Bridge or Gideon 300, what faith or sacrifice have you shown? This giving needs to be sacrificial (above and beyond) and God will respond both corporately and personally. Borrowing from one area of His Kingdom to serve another is not the way. We do that to Him with our time all the time. Think about that when you pay your satellite, cable, or unlimited texting bill and people are sleeping or bleeding in the streets of Port-au-Prince tonight.

Love you more than you know.

Connection Triggers

2010-01-10T13:10:00.000-08:00

OK. Today I gave The Bridge some of my connection triggers that move me into an experience or a connection with God. I talked about how showers remind me of the washing away of my sin, of baptism (the death of the old man and being birthed as a new creation), of the living water of John 4. Any experience with being in water, swimming, whatever moves me toward God. I also talked about eating, that eating brings me to communion -- the bread and the wine -- the body and the blood -- and I am in AWE (love that word) of the risen Christ. CONNECTION. I also mentioned stop lights triggering stop sinning, go to war with sin, stop cussing at the stop light. Nuff said. Noah -- rainbow. Abraham -- circumcision -- HAHA. I want to know what your triggers are. I want to hear from you. What brings you to a connection with our Creator? Hit the comment button and let me know.

Bible Reading

2010-01-09T06:14:00.001-08:00

I am a hypocrite. Right smack dab in the middle of preaching a sermon series on taking time to find God and rEFUEL in small things, I have started a LARGE Bible reading plan. I am reading through the Bible with The Journey church out of St. Louis and they are providing some excellent teaching videos and position papers along the way (like when we read Matthew 5 SOTM, they provide a paper on divorce and remarriage). All of this is very well done. You can look at it right here.

As we start the Story of God Part 1 tomorrow night, I want you to see these writings from the reading plan. Notice that the name of the class is not The Story of Me; it is God's story that we get to be a part of. Check this out from The Journey:
How do I read the Bible?
The Bible is not primarily a moral guidebook. The Bible, simply stated, is the greatest story ever told because it is God’s own story. Two guiding principles will help you as you endeavor to read God’s word:
1. The Bible is not primarily about you.
If the Bible is about us it becomes a
crushing burden, a set of moral
principles that we must, but cannot,
follow. Rightly understood, The Bible
is not a book of virtues; it is the story
of how God is redeeming his people
and all of creation through Jesus
Christ. The Bible is not primarily
about us. The Bible is all about Jesus.
2. The Bible is not about our search for
God. It is a story about God’s search
for us. This story has four basic
chapters: Creation, Fall, Redemption,
Restoration.

This is how we are going to divide up our study at The Bridge -- into these four segments. The first of these segments begins tomorrow night as we look at creation and the nature of God.

More on the four from the Journey's base writings:
Creation
The story does not begin with a God in hiding. God initiates the story by creating all that exists, including his prized creation – human beings – whom he pursued in relationship. What God created in the beginning was not just good, but perfect, whole, complete, lacking in nothing. He designed the Earth as an ideal environment for his creation to flourish.
Fall
Unfortunately, the first human beings ultimately chose to meet their needs apart from their perfect Creator. Moment by moment, we face the disastrous consequences of our rebellion. Created to enjoy God in loving dependence on him, human beings now face God’s wrath.
Created to relate with God in healthy community, we now hide from him. Once connected intimately to the power source for life, we now face certain death in our fallen world.
Redemption
The longest chapter in the story of God is redemption—about how God began redeeming and restoring his prized creatures. This story includes ancient covenants, the 10 Commandments, David & Goliath, and much more. But it culminates in the character of Jesus. Jesus, God himself,
demonstrated how God would rather experience the death we deserved than let go of his people. The redemption chapter is the climax of the story—God’s relentless pursuit of his people at the expense of his own life.
Restoration
This chapter is still being written, though the previous chapter plays the spoiler and tells us how it all works out. The final chapter is basically this: what God has set in motion through the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and through the gift of the Holy Spirit, will finally, one great day, be fully realized.

Reasons for What We Do

2010-01-05T12:13:00.000-08:00

Our three pastors had the opportunity to interview candidates for baptism last night. We heard stories. These stories are the reason that we have church. One person told us that they came to The Bridge actively seeking more relationship with God. God showed up. He blew her away. She has repented and believed the Gospel in a way that she did not realize existed. God has moved her to levels of love for Himself beyond her wildest dreams. She wants to express the death to self that has happened to a new creation in the Gospel. Another person told a story of having been involved in church as a teen, followed by years of rebellion, followed by God visiting during the Alpha retreat and removing the veil. She has repented and believed the Gospel. She is going to publicly profess her full faith in the Messiah, Jesus Christ in baptism. The third young lady told us a story of having never gone to church and begrudgingly coming to The Bridge in May and liking the music and being intrigued with the videos. So, she returned and two weeks later, she described what happened to her as, "I felt my heart get cut." "I was changed at that moment and I cannot shut up about Him. I want to shout IT from the mountaintops." She was regenerated and repented and believed the Gospel. We will celebrate that on January 24 in baptism. Can you picture that? People were stumbling along lost, God acted, the people responded and now people who were headed for judgment are now headed to heaven. That is why we do what we do; to God be the glory.

Then, today I got to have coffee and lunch with a young man whose life is in shambles. He has lost everything -- his job, his wife, his four kids, and on and on. There is nothing right -- quote, "I have no reason to leave this coffee shop. I have nothing -- no purpose." The reason that I was sitting with this young man is that he had called me and wanted to talk about his malady. How did he know me? On the Sunday of our Christmas services, I picked him up walking along the road in front of E-Hall because his wife has left him to walk from the Desloge Wal-Mart. As I took him to his truck in Farmington, I shared that God, through his Gospel, cared a lot about people just like him. I gave him my phone number doubting that I would ever hear from him. I did. He called and I feel God moving in the life of this 28-year-old father of four who feels like he is at the bottom of the barrel. I think we will see him and the 4 kids for Family Worship on Sunday. Pray for him. To God be the glory for giving us purpose.

2010 – Disciples who make Disciples – Part 4

2009-12-29T08:13:00.000-08:00

Concept #5 – Ministry Assignments and Challenges (Jeff's titles, so don't shoot the messenger)
EVERYBODY IS A MINISTER!
EVERYBODY IS A MISSIONARY!
Moms are missionaries. Teens are missionaries. Business people are missionaries.
Dads are ministers. 4th graders are ministers. Volunteers are ministers. All of these people are both. The Bridge is a training ground. We will make sure that you are grounded in Bible to handle your calling as both. And, training will be provided in the classroom. BUT, the best training will happen in the field.

Concept 6 – Intentional
Every disciple of Christ should be being developed into the elder requirements listed in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. This requires being INTENTIONAL! Since this is the earthly purpose of discipleship, leaders for new missional cells should constantly be being developed. The new groups that form could stay with the same mission or discover a new one.

Concept 7 – Ongoing
Don't stop! Stay with it! God will change people's hearts to make this happen if they just hang around long enough for the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to move. This perseverance that we are responsible for will reveal the reality of Christ in lives. People who have just added Jesus on to their list of priorities instead of making Him and the Gospel their prime affection will play games and not persevere. Whereas, people who are being transformed with true life change will persevere until they get their personal & familia mission figured out. WE MUST PERSERVERE AND FIND A CLEARLY IDENTIFIED MISSION.

Concept 8 – Holistic
Going on mission for Christ will transform all areas of life: Physical – less stress, more exercise (we will have energy from purpose and from God); Emotional – fruit controls emotions; Psychological – thoughts are Gospel-centered, thoughts are in tune with God – HEALTHY; Spiritual – DUH! These all come from our intimacy with Christ while on mission.

This whole thing boils down to discipleship, the becoming more like Christ that I hope that we all seek, comes in a flurry when we make His mission OUR mission!!

2010 – Disciples who make Disciples – Part 3

2009-12-28T20:31:00.000-08:00

Concept #4 – Discipling on Mission – Is there another way?

When I first got in ministry as a discipleship director of a mainline church, I was suspicious of overseas mission trips. I thought they were play toys for folks who wanted to “say” that they had worked with the “least of these,” but really did not have the inner fortitude (guts) to be a real missionary for the cause of Christ (the people who have been the real heroes of the Christian faith since the Apostle Paul). But, for some reason before I ever went on one, I put in a membership requirement at The Bridge that each member would would agree to go on a trip that he/she can afford and physically be able to perform. After having seen teams of Christ-followers GO TOGETHER on the junkets. I understand why God wanted this requirement in the package. I don't want to discount the work that teams do to help on projects around the world, but what we have seen is evidence as to what the Bible tries to teach. WHEN WE GO ON MISSION TOGETHER – DISCIPLESHIP SKYROCKETS. If our command from God is to make disciples who make disciples, we must go on mission together. Through the power of Holy Spirit, our Christlikeness, that develops by loving each well and eagerly studying and applying the Scriptures, explodes when that loving community goes on mission together. That mission field can be a neighborhood that a host home resides in, or an elementary school where a bunch of their kids go, or a day care center, or a drug treatment center with GAP, or world poverty awareness, or a local para-church organization like the Parkland Pregnancy Resource Center, or the homeless or women's shelters in Bonne Terre or many other options. We will start simple and slow, but anyone who thinks he/she is interested in discipleship, but not interested in mission, is fooling themselves. There is only so close that a person can get to Christ and become more like Him (fruit, gifts, power) without accepting His missional command. He said, “GO! And He said, “GO TOGETHER!” He said go and I will give you power. The general teaching is, “if you will make My mission your mission, I will make you like Me.” We are going to challenge every cell family to form around mission, and let's just see what God does with our discipleship.

This will not be easy! We must leave our comfort for the sake of the mission!

2010 – Disciples who make Disciples – Part 2

2009-12-26T06:35:00.000-08:00

Concept 3 – Familial Context
I see God teach this at five levels:

1.Immediate Family –
Men, your wives are your first treasure after Christ. I am in the middle of some major repentance here. Wives, your husband is your first treasure after Christ, not your children. Then, your #1 job together is to disciple these gifts (these children) that God has given. I am working on this one also. Teach them to make disciples; teach them Godliness. All other is secondary, including important things like education. WATCH OUT – sports, fine arts, and organizations (Boys Scouts, dance, etc.) can be positive venues to work on disciple-making and Godliness, but they quickly can become idols that replace Christ as our affection.

2.Missional Cell Family –
Going on mission together requires what I call teamwork discipleship (once a coach, always …). As we engage our culture together, the one anothers (how we treat each other, love each other, minister to each other) will produce FRUIT. Ask the people who have been to Chacocente, on mission together, what it did for their discipleship to work as a team.

3.The Rest of The Bridge –
Each of us must be on constant vigil to reach out and help members outside our cells. We must not only pay attention to our own families and missional cells. If we hear of a need and we can fill it, GO take care of it. Example: an individual is moving and nobody in their cell has a truck or young strong backs, another cell has a truck and still another has the bodies – we must change our schedules and make this happen – God promises to respond with blessings. ALSO, every member of The Bridge is responsible for getting folks connected who show up at our celebrations and start hanging around. We all need to get to know names of new folks, find out some things about them, and make suggestion of connection points. We can make suggest a missional cell family either in their community or one that is based on something that might interest them. Or, we can just invite them to Starting Point, or one of our many classes that will introduce them to the idea of community (Alpha, CA, SOG, Crown are all set in small groups of community).

4.The overall Body of Christ –
We are in a very large family called the Body of Christ. We want to partner with other churches locally and world-wide to deliver the Gospel to a dying world. WE MUST VIEW THIS RELATIONSHIP AS FAMILY. As we partner with other churches, our goal is not to enhance The Bridge, it is to extend this family. This is a real challenge because most churches view others as the crazy uncle (they do things so weird over there) or as the competing brother (we have to WIN). Do you remember hating to lose to siblings? These thoughts must go away from the church – capital 'C.' WE ARE FAMILY whether we like it or not!!

5.Familia with the unchurched, the lost, the unregenerate –
This one is tough because the Bible has multiple commands about how familiar to be with the WORLD. Our war with sin means that there has to be some separation from the world. If we have people in our lives that pull us toward our sin cravings, we cannot hang around them, let alone make them family. There may have to be some contact because some of these folks may be in some of the other groups. But the lost cannot be people of INFLUENCE in our lives. On the other hand, we are encouraging everyone to have relationships with people who live far from God. Jesus did. We want you to hang out in coffee shops, malls, Facebook, etc – where people who don't know God hang out. We want you (God does too) to invite folks to hang out at all four of our other family environments. Invite them to your house to be with your family, to your cell to eat & hang out with that family, to The Bridge for special events (concerts, conferences, Night in Bethlehem) and Sunday morning worship celebrations. We also have a lot of community church familia-wide events like BBQ's, bowling, or trips that your unchurched friends and family can join.
Just to conclude, we will all find out very soon that MISSIONAL CELL is ALL ABOUT opening up your familia to folks who live far from God.

2010 – Disciples who make Disciples – Part 1

2009-12-25T18:24:00.000-08:00

Discipleship is all about the Holy Spirit transforming us as we experience 'life on life.' God, with us doing our parts, doesn't make disciples in nice tidy environments. It is messy and it is in community. Teaching and worship happen in the BWCK (Big White Chocolate Kiss, our building), comfortable and safe; on the other hand, discipleship – growth in the qualities and nature of Christ – happens mainly 'life on life.' IT happens DOING LIFE TOGETHER.
I am going to spend the few days writing responses to eight different concepts about discipleship developed by Jeff Vanderstelt of Soma (Greek word for body), a collection of missional communities that is very Biblical in its development of disciples. We will all be experiencing a lot of SOMA training over the next year, so here we go on a ride of Biblical fun, adventure, and chiseling (thank you Brian & Ronnie for the unbelievable Christmas Eve skit).

Concept 1 – Faithfulness
“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to RELIABLE men who will also be qualified to teach others.” 2 Timothy 2:2 (NIV)
Watch your life. Put sin to death. Develop people who want to watch God move powerfully in your life – who want to and are willing to do whatever it takes to help you be faithful. This includes both rebuke and encouragement. This will develop both of you. One person is great; a life coach, a mentor, a partner is necessary. A family is also necessary. Until you have decided that your faith in God is the most important thing in your life – FAITHFULNESS – making disciples who make disciples will not happen through you.

Concept 2 – Community Context
The 'one anothers' (Click Here to see them all) must be lived out in authentic community. This cannot be done to any effective degree in hundreds of people. These must happen in our immediate families or the Bible calls us the worst of sinners. But also, we with intention must build missional cell families. This community context will build disciples most effectively. What we cannot do with hundreds, we will do with a few faithful to the King and dedicated to one another. This the THE THING at The Bridge.

Tomorrow, we will only look at Concept #3 – the Familia.

More Thoughts on Biblical Church

2009-11-29T19:54:00.000-08:00

We have been talking about how little the Western church looks like the church that we see being formed in the New Testament. The Forgotten God, the Holy Spirit, brings about radical transformation in our lives to make the church look a 'lot more like love.' This will be OBVIOUS in the way that we treat each other inside the Kingdom (and out for that matter). The Bible gives us a list of commands that we call the 'one anothers' that will show us what this love should look like. Here they are:
The Biblical One-Anothers
1.Accept one another -- Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Rom. 15:7)
2.Admonish one another -- Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. (Col. 3:16)
3.Bear one another's burdens -- Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Gal. 6:2)
4.Bear with one another -- Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Eph. 4:2)
5.Build up one another -- Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification (original=build up one another). (Rom. 14:19)
6.Care for one another. . . so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. (1 Cor. 12:25)
7.Comfort one another -- Therefore encourage each other (original=comfort one another) with these words. (1 Thess. 4:18)
8.Confess faults to one another -- Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)
9.Be Devoted to one another -- Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. (Rom. 12:10a)
10.Encourage one another -- Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. (1 Thess. 5:11)
11.Forgive one another -- Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Eph. 4:32)
12.Greet one another -- Greet one another with a holy kiss. (Rom. 16:16)
13.Be Honest with one another -- Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices . . . (Col. 3:9)
14.Honor one another -- Honor one another above yourselves. (Rom. 12:10b)
15.Be Hospitable to one another -- Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. (1 Pet. 4:9)
16.Be Kind to one another -- Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Eph. 4:32)
17.Love one another -- Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another . . . (Rom. 13:8)
18.Members one of another -- So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Rom. 12:5)
19.Pray for one another -- Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)
20.Be of the Same Mind with one another -- May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves (original=same mind among each other) as you follow Christ Jesus . . . (Rom. 15:5)
21.Serve one another -- You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature ; rather, serve one another in love. (Gal. 5:13)
22.Spur one another on -- And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. (Heb. 10:24)
23.Submit to one another -- Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Eph. 5:21).

Good News / Bad News

2009-11-26T20:38:00.000-08:00

Not long ago I blogged that a doctor had diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia. That doctor was wrong. That is the good news. For that I am thankful for on this Thanksgiving night.
The bad news is that I do know that I have a correct diagnosis of a debilitating disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). I have a very tough road in front of me. For that I am thankful for on this Thanksgiving night. Humility should not be a problem in this fight. I will let you google it if you like to check out my future. Here is the Mayo Clinic's description -- Press here Wikipedia -- Press here

I guess good health has been an idol for me because I have not done well with this diagnosis this week. In my mind, I have always thought I could handle a decline in health with a good attitude understanding that we are to suffer with Christ in this life -- that what I deserve is a cross and every breath spent with Christ is a blessing. My heart must have been a little idolatrous with this because I am struggling. I was an athlete and have always been able to pull off about anything I wanted physically. Limited ability to do a bunch of things over the last 4 years that really frustrated me now makes all kinds of sense. I thought I was just nearing 50 and my body was slowing down. Turns out, it was much more.

Honestly, I am feeling a little defeated and don't feel up to the fight today. But, Christ and my body of Christ family will not let me stay there. I know that God has a plan and something in mind with this, so let's get started.

Abiding

2009-11-23T05:55:00.000-08:00

Thought for the day -- Prayer always attracts the Holy Spirit! (TT)
Ben kept using the word 'abide' yesterday as the key to developing the fruit of the Spirit, and I was thinking about what that means. One definition of the word is 'to dwell, to remain in a place.' I think there is kind of this cool little triangle where Paul says, "pray without ceasing." THAT is abiding in the vine (John 15). We spend our time in the presence of God. That is abiding, remaining in a place -- that is praying without ceasing. As we work, His presence is overarching. As we study, His presence is overarching. As we parent or play, His presence is overarching. As we seek him in this prayer - this abiding, it always attracts the Holy Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit is present, He is working -- working to develop fruit. God says abide in Me (allow Me to be preeminent in all your doings), and I will abide in you. God's abiding in us has to change us.
It is when we go it alone that we lose our patience.
It is when we go it alone that we are not loving (high view of self instead of others).
It is when we go it alone that we feel no peace.
It is when we go it alone that we feel no deep sense of satisfaction regardless of our circumstances (no joy).
It is when we go it alone that we are not kind, not gentle, not faithful, and not full of self-control.
The GROWING IT of our Christian faith is about abiding -- inviting God to reign and rule and teach all truth 24/7 -- to remain in that place.
How attached to the vine am I this morning? You?
Jesus says, "Apart from me you can do nothing." That is pretty plain.

Is Your Church 'Charismatic?'

2009-11-14T07:24:00.000-08:00

Many of you may not be aware that we have an FAQ section on our website (Click Here) that answers a lot of questions that folks may have concerning The Bridge. Since we are studying the Holy Spirit, I thought I might point out this one.
One of those questions states, "Is The Bridge a “Charismatic” church?

The answer is ‘yes and no.’ Yes, if you mean do we believe that all of the spiritual gifts of the Bible still exist today. No, if you mean that we place a major emphasis on the gifts of tongues, healing, and miracles in our celebration services.

The reason for taking that stance is, as always, one of Bible. The Bible says that the public display of these gifts will ALWAYS, and I emphasize always, be orderly and edify the entire body (1 Corinthians 12 & 14). God uses these particular gifts in the Bible to bring an EXTRAORDINARY, NOT COMMONPLACE, NOT EVERY DAY, NOT EVERY SUNDAY, message that the existing language just cannot communicate strongly enough. Our church is made up of probably 45% folks who grew up Baptist, 30% mainline (Methodist, Lutheran, etc), 15% Catholic, and 5% Pentecostal and 5% completely unchurched. How would a prophetic public message in tongues EDIFY, OR BLESS, that entire body? It would not; it would throw us into mass confusion. God ordinarily does things that make sense. I might add that if we don't believe that the Holy Spirit stills gifts the world with miracles and healing, once again, we should close the doors.

However, our current status is that God has not blessed one board member, pastor, staff member,or elder with these gifts; and He has not introduced these gifts into any of at least 1000 different spirit-filled events that we have hosted at The Bridge in almost 4 years. The Bible is clear that not everyone gets the same gifts. Now, I believe we have about 5-10 (maybe more) members of our 135 who have been given these gifts by God, and they all agree that prophecy presented at The Bridge in English is most beneficial and quite sufficient -- this language does just fine to edify this body. Quite honestly, people are capable of ignoring God in any language. And so these beautiful people keep the gifts private and edifying for smaller gatherings. I want you to understand that I believe I have heard legitimate tongues and the following interpretation in my life, and I believe that they were real. I want you to know that God heals people physically, sometimes miraculously, but much of what we see of that publicly is put on by charlatans and is false. So to answer the question, this church is charismatic; it has the Spirit -- just not in the sense that some people are seeking and that is fine. I believe that the Holy Spirit reigns and rules this place -- and if I did not, I would quit and go do something else with my life quickly. God may find a reason to publicly display tongues and interpretation of tongues in a this place sometime, but that will probably only happen if my English version of prophecy is so bad that HE has to make a big deal out of correcting it.

One more note of interest. When God plants churches of significance, He does so because there is a niche in the Body of Christ that needs fulfilled. In my very unofficial and incomplete research, I believe that there are total of three independent churches (not affiliated directly with a denomination) between St. Louis and Arkansas and none in St. Francois County that are not 'charismatic' as being defined as the presentation of these supernatural gifts in public worship gatherings. There are literally hundreds of independent churches (dozens in SFC) already filling the niche of being 'charismatic' in that sense. I believe that called us to fill a niche that he has called many other powerful churches to around the world -- an independent church that He has not chosen to present those gifts in that way. We pray that Christ be glorified in the churches that have been called to focus their ministries in that way, but that is not what He has called us to do.

Even Worship is Missional

2009-11-09T20:07:00.000-08:00

Preparing to worship on Sunday morning is a big deal to me. I try and stay in a spirit of prayer and communion with God each moment of the day, but I anticipate corporate worship with you and begin to prepare for that about Friday of each week. I begin to plan rest and spiritual preparation because I love the fact that God is honored, glorified, enthroned (Psalm 22) on the corporate praises of His people. I make sure that I know the songs; I learn the ones that I may not even like very well. I can't sing, but I practice. It is important to me. I wake up early on Sunday and spend serious time in prayer that God enjoy the singing of His praises, the prayers of His people, the teaching of His Word. It is like the old days of basketball pre-game. I prepare. Did you know that the unbeliever who shows up to church is watching the authenticity of our worship? They are watching to see if we are involved, if we are joyful, if we are engaged with a God they don't even know. We should not fake worship, but we should prepare to engage our Savior, our Lord, with enthusiasm and joy. The doubters are watching. Check out this blog on the subject.

Worship & the Visitor
By Gerrit Gustafson

I will praise You, O Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples. Psalm 108:3

An American church planting pastor in Japan told me this story. Two Japanese, who had never had any previous contact with Christianity, came into a tiny Christian gathering. The worship that day, he said, was especially good. After the meeting, the two visitors eagerly approached the pastor with this question: "When you were singing those songs, we felt something. Was that God?" The pastor was able to explain how God dwells in the praises of His people and how they could know Him personally.

The Universal Itch
People are looking for spiritual reality. In previous decades, a secular rationalism created antagonism toward spiritual expression. Currently however there is a broad reaction to that worldview and an unabashed hunger for spiritual experience. For the most part, however, the Church is surprisingly uncomfortable with its transcendent nature.

In his book entitled The Contemporary Christian, John Stott makes this observation:

This quest for transcendence is a challenge to the quality of the church's public worship. Does it offer what people are craving — the element of mystery... in biblical language 'the fear of God'... in modern language 'transcendence'? My answer to my own question is 'Not often'. The church is not always conspicuous for the profound reality of its worship... No wonder those seeking Reality often pass us by!

We shouldn't assume that the visitor is incapable of apprehending spiritual phenomenon. After all, each one is made in the image of God, and, as Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, He has "set eternity in the hearts of men." The worship experience corresponds to that universal "itch." That explains the finding of the largest study of American congregational life ever undertaken — the FACT report conducted by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research: "vibrant worship is at the heart of church growth."

Let's look at two principles of how genuine, hearty worship can help our fellowships and congregations communicate the Christian life to visitors.

Principle #1 - Worship gives a picture of kingdom life
A man I met at a conference told me this story. At a time in his life when he was far from God, he was hurrying through a hotel lobby when he happened to catch, in the corner of his eye, a television broadcast of a large gathering of people worshiping. Less than a minute later, he stopped in his tracks, went back to the TV and watched intently through his tears, knowing that God was drawing him back. God apprehended this man through a picture of worship.

Jesus said in Mark 12 that loving God totally and wholeheartedly is the greatest commandment. Christian worship should be living pictures of the society of those who have exchanged self-centered living for God-centered living. The act of corporate worship beautifully demonstrates this new life style where God is the center. The visitor needs such pictures.

Principle #2 - The visitor is not just listening to your words
The biggest hindrance to visitors is not that they encounter something they don't immediately understand; it's encountering something that is not genuine. Mahatma Gandhi, after several years of studying in London, said he would have become a Christian if he had ever met one. Whatever version of Christianity he saw, he apparently didn't see the real thing.

One study concluded that 55% of all communication is nonverbal. The visitor is not just listening to what you say. He is intuitively observing how connected you and your group really are with what you espouse. He's looking for emotional and intellectual honesty, depth of conviction, and heartfelt compassion. How we worship reflects these things — or their absence — more than we know.

The discipline for worship teams to learn is to mean what we sing and sing what we mean. This will affect not only what we sing, but how we sing it. Worship leaders, choose songs that are appropriate to your group's experience — there's no place for meaningless expression. And learn the songs so well that they are literally part of you.
Encourage and train the worshipers you lead to be sure to connect the outer acts of worship with the inner realities of the heart. Anything less is unfair to the visitor.

Do unto others...
Why is it so important to me that we not try to hide our worship from the visitor? It's because I was once the visitor, as you probably were too. I can still remember that meeting in Tallahassee, Florida when I, for the first time, saw people abandoned to God in worship. It awakened in me a deep sense of hope and destiny. Like the Queen of Sheba in II Chronicles 9, when she was the visitor observing Israel's worship, I was "breathless." I'll really never be the same.

Don't you think that those who visit us should be given the same privilege?

Advent Conspiracy 2009

2009-11-04T06:58:00.000-08:00

Americans spent $450 billion on Christmas last year.
The average family in St. Francois County spent over $1,000 on Christmas with over half of that going onto credit cards that still have not been paid off here in November.

If you have been a part of The Bridge community, you know that every year we attempt to put the focus of the Christmas season squarely back on the Gospel, the great story of redemption that comes through Jesus Christ. Advent Conspiracy has taught us to worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all. In 2007, we sent $12,990 to Chacocente, Nicaragua to help them pay off their water source. In 2008 you gave $14,756! We sent 1/2 to Chacocente and set 1/2 aside for another international outreach that has been delayed. This year we are going to do it AGAIN!
-- We are going to worship Jesus with more fervor than ever before during the Advent season. -- Also, we are going to encourage you to spend less on culturally material gifts and offer more gifts of time and effort to the ones we love.
Pay close attention, this is something new -- if you do choose to spend money on a gift, the Advent Conspiracy folks are trying to encourage people to buy their gifts in ways that help to bring people out of abject poverty with the Trade as One or Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee ministries. This seems like such a beautiful win/win situation. We purchase some gifts to give away for Christmas (there are some people that we must buy for) while supporting a business in an area of horrendous poverty instead of just sending money.
-- As usual, we are going to have a special offering on December 20 to give more to the Kingdom and whatever is given that day will go to Gideon 300. Your gifts to Gideon 300 will enable us to focus on Kingdom mission here at home where we fight against a poverty of a different kind -- that of the soul. Or, you can give more by going online and supporting Advent Conspiracy's Living Water International, or the other two ministries directly (see below).
-- And, we are going to love all by partnering with these ministries that make a difference in lives, both in St. Francois County and all over the world during the Advent season.

You can check out more about worship more, spend less, give more, love, and Living Water International at Advent Conspiracy's website at http://www.adventconspiracy.org/.
You can help with world poverty by doing your Christmas shopping at https://tradeasone.com/.
Another suggestion to help with an Advent Conspiracy on an international level is to by some bulk bags of coffee from Thousand Hills Coffee and give it as a gift or donate it back to the church. You can check this one out at http://www.landof1000hills.com/.

Watch the video on the Trade as One website. I think this can be our greatest Advent Conspiracy ever. We can support some folks battling world poverty AND set a goal to wipe out about 15 units (clay pots) in Gideon 300 here at home. This would be over and above our regular giving and Gideon commitments. Ask God's Spirit to MOVE your family in this season. Rely on Him to the point that you and others are STUNNED by what He does to make this happen for His glory during season that should be simply about His GLORY!

Starting Point for Gospel Centered and Missional

2009-11-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

A Gospel-Centered Missional church doesn’t first ask the question, “What works best?” Instead, it asks, “How do we fulfill the mission of Jesus to make disciples who believe and live out the Gospel by displaying and declaring who God is and what He has done in and through Jesus Christ, teaching and training others to do so as well?” (JV-SOMA)

Gospel Centered and Missional

2009-11-02T04:43:00.000-08:00

A Gospel-Centered church is defined by what God has done and is doing, not by the activities of people.
The Church is God’s People (who we are) saved by God’s Power (what He has done and is doing) for God’s Purposes (the good works he created us in Jesus Christ to do)-- (JV-SOMA).

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous
shall live by faith." Romans 1:16-17

We center all of our activities around the workings of Christ and the Gospel to provide God glory. That is why we were created. Our goal is never to convert people to The Bridge. Our goal is see people converted and discipled by the Gospel and play a role in them living out God's purposes on mission. They can, then, BE THE CHURCH on mission with the Gospel in every aspect of their lives.

Are you at war with sin?

2009-10-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

Obviously, there is nothing we can DO to earn salvation. It has been DONE for us by Christ's substitutionary atonement on the cross and is a gift of grace. But, once regeneration and conversion have taken place by repenting and believing the Gospel, we have a huge role in the "what now" part of our life -- our being made holy in sanctification. Christ defeated sin at the cross, but we still have to fight our sin nature until glorification. The Bible essentially asks us to 'go to war' with that sin nature. Martin Luther said that repentance from sin was a daily fight. I thought I might give you an idea of what that might look like after the challenges of the 'games that we play' over the past two weeks. If God is pressing us on a sin area (the barn in the next county), what do we do? Do we play a game or do we go to war with sin. True REPENTANCE!

You know that you are at war with sin if you are willing to do whatever it takes to get it out of your life. Sanctification and spiritual maturity come from being submitted to an intimate relationship with Christ and at war with sin. We are to allow God to go deep in our being and reveal everything that is in opposition to His will. He does all of the heavy lifting and transforming, but we have a huge roll to play in this war. There are too many 'to do' verbs in the New Testament to ignore. Watch, test, flee, submit, obey, offer, 'do not conform, hate what it evil!' Summary: Submit to God's authority -- Put sin to death! Go to war!

Remember the Summer on the Mount, so says Jesus:
"If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell."

How about Paul (which he repeats about 5 times in other Epistles)?
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. Romans 6:11-14

Christ has freed us from sin and death. We are forgiven yesterday, today, and tomorrow, but for us to be used powerfully in the Kingdom, on the most exciting MISSION ever given, and full of deep inner satisfaction and joy, sin must go. Go to war with it. Invite God to reveal it and then with His power and might, put it to death. No game playing.

Are They Already Gone???

2009-09-26T17:50:00.000-07:00

Most of us who have been hanging around church very long are very aware of the incredible statistics of kids who have grown up in the church (very involved in children's ministries and youth groups) and upon graduation from high school never darken the door of a church again. They have answered altar calls and gone through confirmation classes and been baptized and, then, for a significant period of time or maybe forever, they live as pagans. I was one of them.

We have always kind of thought that the problem was that the lure of the culture when they go to college or out into the world of work was too strong and they basically abandoned their faith for culture. I agree with a book that I am reading right now called Already Gone that proposes that the kids have actually basically shut the idea of the Gospel and the church down often by the 5th, 6th, 7th grade, or high school and not when they leave home. They are 'already gone.' The church has taught kids some basic lingo about 'Jesus living in our hearts' and taught them some moralism -- that they live out their faith by not drinking, smoking weed, or having illicit sex. So, we have teenagers walking around with a complete misunderstanding of what a life 'in Christ' really means. I understand this is a huge generalization as we see young people who also have truly been regenerated by God and have repented and believed the Gospel at many ages; however, for the most part these college age kids are not abandoning a true faith, they actually gave up the charade of a false conversion a long time before we thought.

What is going on? The American church has, for the most part, not taught parents or the children Biblical Christianity. We have not preached and taught the Gospel and/or repentance from sin. The reason I mention the parents is that it is a Biblical mandate for them to be the primary teachers and models of a Gospel-centered life. The church has not done its part in producing quality adult disciples who then pass that life of Jesus being the center of every area of their existence to their children. I think we have a defeatist attitude that says that 18-19 year olds are going to party and have sex outside marriage, so we quit trying -- we quit believing the power of the Gospel and the power of the transformation of the Holy Spirit. And I think we underestimate what 8-14 year olds can understand about the Bible.

I love what our Bridge Kids and Youth are doing for the young people of our church, but this topic is bothering me. I am driven to challenge our ministries to fight this trend with every fiber in our beings.
Two initial things must happen to get a start in the fight:
1. We must preach and teach the inerrant, authoritative Bible to parents and kids alike. The source is Jesus Christ; we must do our part to develop Gospel-centered lives.
2. We must continue to emphasize that the children's understanding of a Gospel-centered life is the primary Biblical responsibility of parents - not the church.
The life must be taught and modeled. This is no game. Parents #1 responsibility on this planet is to develop the Lord Jesus Christ in their children. Sports are neat -- I played them, coached them, still love them, but if they take priority over the Gospel, we have sinned. Music and dance are great, same deal. Even academic achievement can be set above Godliness. To sum this up, the world has taught us that our kids should be molded by 50 different things and we run them ragged to cover them all. We prioritize lots of things ahead of the Gospel; then, we are shocked when our kids are 'already gone' in middle school or high school, and completely gone from the faith and from church in their 20's, many never to return.

Equal With Roles

2009-09-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning prayer musings --
On our "What We Believe" page at The Bridge it says this, "We believe that Jesus Christ, while existing as the Son of God, is also God; he is co-equal with the Father." Later we state, "The Bible is clear that this one and only God is revealed in three eternally distinct persons. God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are equal yet distinct within the Holy Trinity." I believe that the preponderance of Holy Scripture supports that fact that the 3 members of the Trinity are equally God -- none superior, none inferior (John 1:1-18). So, as we read in the Gospels that Jesus willingly submitted Himself to the Father, we arrive at an interesting notion that although the three persons of the Trinity are completely equal, they have roles. Jesus prayed to the Father, worshiped the Father, and submitted to the Father. {Luke 10:21-22 John 4:34 John 5:19-28} The Holy Spirit was sent; He was obedient in His role. They are co-equal, but fulfill roles for the benefit of the Kingdom of God -- for the Glory of the God-Head. Jesus was not submitting as an inferior, but as a willfully submitted co-equal (Philippians 2:6-8).

So, when Christ asks us to fulfill our roles in marriage or in the local church as willfully surrendered servants to the Kingdom of God for the glory of the Kingdom, we just take that on with a Christ-like humility. The one that I have been given to love Kelley as Christ loves the church is a bear; as a matter of fact, it is impossible, but with Christ the impossible becomes possible. Headship is never for selfish gain, but for the edification of all. Headship never means superior. It is a role that if abused will carry some of the strongest punishments in Scripture. Accepting roles is just another sign of maturing along the path of sanctification like accepting that I have no rights or possessions.

Missional Church

2009-08-22T13:48:00.000-07:00

We use the term 'missional church' around The Bridge all the time. We are about to use it a lot over Labor Day retreat and in the Sept. 13 sermon on "Where does The Bridge go from here?" We have defined it before, but I found this definition on Jonathan McIntosh's blog and it does a better job than I could, so here you go:

A pastor told me the other day, “I realize that we are not a missional church.” What did he mean?

Simply that, at some point, the church let something get in the way of actually bringing the transformative message of the gospel into contact with people.

Mission drift happens when a church lets something else take over: a building project, an unstated theology of “people should come to us,” or sometimes simple laziness. Often an unspoken attitude hangs like a cloud over the entire church; an attitude that those who don’t look like us, dress like us, vote like us, have the same skin color, or come from the same socioeconomic background are not really welcome here.

And the church stops. Reaching. People.

People.

Real, living, sweating, broken, sinful people.

People need hope. They need God. They need the light of the gospel. Please, for all our discussions and books and conferences and postulating and sermon prepping, let us not forget this.

And we won’t forget if we understand something simple yet surprising: God was a person (and still is!). The incarnation – God as a person – helps us understand and relate to people.
The cross provides the framework for our theology (what we believe about and how we relate to God). But it’s the incarnation, that provides the framework for our missiology (what we believe about and how we relate to culture).

The cross is our message.
The incarnation shapes & informs how we communicate that message.

And what do we see in God as a person?

We see Jesus.

And we see him loving people. Spending time with people. Sharing his life with people. We see an outcast ministering to outcasts. We see grace offered to a prostitute. An adulterer. A tax-collector.

And he looks out at them and he is absolutely moved with compassion because he sees that they are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” And he says I am here. I am here to “seek and save that which is lost.”

A missional church sees that people and culture are not enemies of the church, but broken treasures that God is restoring.

Because of this, a missional church is committed to:

• Cultural exegesis – becoming humble students of the varied people & cultures surrounding the church.

• Faithful contextualization – communicating gospel truth in ways the culture understands.

• Producing missionaries instead of consumers – equipping people to live out the gospel through their daily lives and work.

• Building a great city, not just a good church – the goal being more than a full church, but a transformed city.

• Social justice – healing real wounds and righting injustices in the community around them.

• Church planting – multiplying to new towns, cities, states and countries by starting new local churches.

Interestingly, however, Philippians 2:5-8 indicates that God came in human form so that Jesus could humble himself “by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” The man who was God was headed somewhere. The cross.

It is not enough simply that God lived among us. He also died for us.

Being “missional” is not enough. Mission fails if it does not point to the cross. The message that we are translating for culture must be “Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

Of course, many churches that supposedly “get the gospel” fail to properly live out that gospel for their context; for them it is gospel in theory, not gospel in practical reality.

Because Jesus’ death has bought us life, we are now messengers of a new reality. We will faithfully proclaim and lovingly incarnate this new reality: to tell & live it for the hope of the world around us. This is the essence of mission.

So, as you can see, missional church is vastly more than just sending checks to some missionaries or even just being involved in international mission trips. The Bridge is committed to whatever it takes to be missional. HE is worth IT!

Reality

2009-08-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

I am sitting here at MAC looking out at my beautiful surroundings and focusing on the parts of God's creation that are healthy for me to look at. I head to Farmington prison to speak tonight and I am contemplating what I can tell those men that might make a real difference in their hearts and minds as they go through their days inside the fence and then what will happen when they come back out. I will probably do what I always do -- give them the real truth about the condition of their hearts as Jesus looks at them. I will give them reality. I will tell them that they have same spiritual heart that I have (had) -- wicked, deceitful, and evil. And the only thing that can make that wicked heart righteous is the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It is difficult to make that believable and be very sweet. It also will only work if I make a connection with those men -- if they think I am real and I care. I will attempt to do so by showing that I have the same heart that they have. The only difference in us is that I have been law-abiding as I sin against God.

Just a few minutes ago, I finished reading an article in USA Today about why television had to shift shows away from "Leave it to Beaver" toward "Sex and the City" and "Grey's Anatomy." Everyone thinks it is because our society has gone to 'hell in a handbasket' in morals which may be a PART of it. But, the basic reason is that all post-boomer generations have no interest in their fiction showing a phony perfection. They require authentic; they require real. If "the Beav" was going to be redone today, it would never make it out of pilot unless we sense that Ward is struggling with the things that men really struggle with -- affirmation, fulfillment, proficiency in career, sex, and relationships. June would need to show her weaknesses as she fights the demons of aging and raging hormornes, not vacuuming in high heels and pearls. And Wally and the Beav would be considering dark thoughts as they were accepted or not by their peers.

These generations want the same things from their church. They do not have any interest in being a part of place that does not express authentic leadership and community. It is no accident that these generations respond well (I think) to my teaching, preaching, and leadership. I have always been one to lay out the whole package in everything I do. Should we not teach (including humor) about all subjects and not just the 'comfortable' ones? Should we not preach the perversion of the community at Corinth (Christians Gone Wild next summer maybe) as it relates to the current American culture or not preach the sexual intensity inside marriage from the Song of Solomon. I think we should and I am not afraid to. But,that feels weird to folks who really think that there are just some things that should not be opened up in public. So, on occasion, there are folks who think I go overboard in humor or subject material. They are probably right, but the "Leave it to Beaver" church almost destroyed the American church because it drove sin underground. Let's get it to the surface, so that we can truly 'repent and believe the Gospel.' Let's create authentic church, so that these generations may be saved.

A Great Teacher?

2009-08-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

It is interesting as you encounter people from other cultures and other religions that they consider Jesus a 'prophet' or a great moral teacher. Well, the prophet thing always goes away when you point out that the definition of a prophet is 'one who speaks for God.' I had two Muslim basketball players from Bosnia that backed off of their 'Jesus is a prophet but not the son of God' stance when learning of the definition. I have been thinking about the 'great moral teacher' one today as I have been working on the Sermon on the Mount. These passages of Scripture from Matthew 5-7 are where people always think Jesus qualified himself as a moral instructor. This is just another cop out of avoiding his deity. While there is moral instruction to the SOTM, that is not its purpose. Its purpose is to drive a man or woman to the Kingdom of God as defined by God himself.

Let me give you an example. The general public thinks that the so-called Golden Rule found in Matthew 7:12 (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you) is maybe the great moral teaching ever uttered. While that may be true, that is not the main purpose of the passage. Due to our wicked, selfish hearts, it is impossible to perform the teaching, so its purpose is to show us our need for Christ. It is impossible, so it condemns us. Only being indwelt by His Spirit would allow us to be able to truly fulfill this command.

But, the Lord did not issue the command for his people to comment on it; he issued it for it to be carried out.

Thorn in the Flesh

2009-07-28T07:35:00.000-07:00

I do not think that I am the Apostle Paul, but I understand some more about him these days since my physical health has just hit the toilet. This has been the lost summer with 3 surgical procedures and around 20 tests, and I am a little envious of folks who have really been able to get out and enjoy the fabulous weather that God has blessed us with. I can assure you that I do not have "an Apostle Paul complex;" my wife says that she has never seen me laid lower or more 'impoverished in spirit.'
Three years ago, I was told that I had fairly significant blockage in 4 major arteries around my heart. That affected everything that I do (diet, exercise, stress) or was supposed to affect everything that I do. Now, a new culprit has shown up on the screen -- connective tissue disorder (some form of fibromyalgia). This is my version of Paul's "thorn in the flesh." Long story short and no list of the symptoms -- I can no longer do physically what I want to do when I want to do it. Pain and fatigue are a real deal here.

God has won two battles by allowing in this thorn in. I have a reduced problem with arrogance. As a matter of fact, I am fighting to stay excited about all of the incredible excitement around me. Second, I have been forced to Sabbath. That has always been my most evident sin, and now there are times when I just have to stop and rest.
"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
2 Corinthians 12:7-10

I have asked in faith that He take this away, but He knows vastly more about what is best for me than I do. May His blessings flow as we seek His will.

Cardinal Culture

2009-07-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting day for me. My life has always been very intertwined with baseball and the Cardinals. My first memory of this was in 1963 when my dad, upon hearing that Stan Musial was going to retire, threw me into a car and we got bleachers seats at old Sportsman's Park so that I would see Stan play before he retired. You see that is just kinda what you did in the Gray family. My Grandpa Lester took my dad, Lester Junior, to see Dizzy Dean, and the rest of the Gashouse Gang in the early 30's. My Grandpa Lester played on a traveling team with Mort & Walker Cooper who were the stars of the 42 & 44 World Series champion Cardinals. He claimed they were good buddies, who knows? But, his passion for baseball was ingrained into all the Grays. We were in St. Louis on the weekend that the Cards traded Ernie Brolio to the Cubs for Lou Brock in 1964. We had been to the game the night before and Mike Shannon had thrown a ball from second base and smashed some of the neon lights out of the giant 'A" over the left field bleachers. What an arm -- he must have won a bet! Some of the glass fell on my shirt. Dad wanted to see if this Brock kid was any good, so I saw his first game as a Cardinal. Later in the year, dad wiped out two full beer cups to garner a home run ball by Brock. We almost fought that night; luckily, for those guys the fight did not happen. Lester hit like Roberto Duran. I knew the batting averages of every Cardinal from Bill White to Ken Boyer as the Cards won the WS in 64. Which brings us to 1966 and why this is an emotional day for me. The Grays bought 22 tickets to the 1966 all-Star game at the new Busch Stadium. I just knew that I would be going since there was no bigger baseball fan on the planet. After all, I had emptied my mom's baking flour from the pantry to re-create the batter's box of the new stadium in the yard. A spanking led me to learn about buying some lime at the local Ace Hardware. After all, I had Juan Marichal's leg kick down perfectly, and Carl Yastrezemski's high batting stance, and Luis Tiant's shimmy of the ball as he pitched from the stretch. I could imitate them all. All of a sudden it was announced that one of the adult cousins had made it into town and there wasn't a ticket for any of the kids. Wow! My chest heaved as I tried to look excited for everyone else. I was told, "We promise that the next time the all-Star game comes to St. Louis, we will buy you a great ticket and take you to the game." Well, that was 43 years ago and the promisers are not around. That day is today. The game has finally returned.

The tickets that day were $8 a piece. I had an opportunity to continue the Gray tradition to experience the love of baseball and take Justin today for the cool price of $1400 for the two tickets. That would be dumb. I chose to send someone to Nicaragua to help some people who eat out of garbage bags on top of the city dump instead. I forgive my promisers also -- may they rest in peace!!! I am glad they all got to go before they went. I will be watching on TV! Go Albert! I will cry when they introduce you tonight!

It's the Word!

2009-06-05T06:40:00.000-07:00

I felt for Ben Durbin last Sunday as he was trying to work his way thru my notes and deliver a sermon completely unfamiliar to him. He was absolutely fabulous. I went back and watched it on livestream.com. But, I want to share something with you that he could not have shared with you because this was not in the notes. This is going to be more extensive because you will get the whole thing. One of the great treasures of the Christian world in the 20th century was Ed Cole ("the only scriptures you believe are the ones that you obey"). Right before he died, he wrote the forward to Steve Gallagher's At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry, and I want to share some highlights from this gem with you. His premise is that EVERYTHING about the Gospel being THE TRANSFORMING FACTOR in EVERY aspect of our lives is revealed in the WORD OF GOD. See how many times he refers to THE WORD!

Ed Cole writes,
"The solution of course, as in every thing with the Lord, is in the Word of God. God's Word is where every solution is found to every problem or issue that a man or woman faces. There is no place for help like the Word of God. All God's healing work begins with His Word.
The subjective emotion and thinking of the addict is, "I'm too unclean, too unworthy, too unholy, too undeserving to read the Bible." That is a lie! God's Word is written for such people, to show the way Jesus Christ has made for them to get out of the pit or hole they dug for themselves.
Or they say, "I have failed so badly. How can I ever be good enough again so God can hear me? You don't get good and get to God, you get to God and God makes you good. (Tim: there is one for the bottom of your e-mails) Getting to God is getting into His Word.
The Word does the work!
Read it when you feel guilty; read it when you don't get anything from it; read it in the face of the devil and his accusations against you; read it when you are not even sure you believe it, just read it!
The Word does the work!
The Word of God washes the mind as soap does the hands. The Word is like soap in that it only effective when used.
All you have is The Word!
Life's greatest failure is not your sin, but in failure to read the Word.
The only only way the Word can wash your mind is when you read it. Reading the Word is the only way God can do His work in your life.
Christianity is not difficult to live, it's impossible. It is Christ living in you that is real Christianity. That is where the life of Christ is. Not what you try and do, but what he does in you.
The Word pays no attention to your sin, emotions, or actions; it merely does its work when you read it.
God's Word never changes, we do.
It doesn't make us feel guilty, we do that to ourselves. It gives us a way out of our feelings, habits, desires, and wants. God's Word is our source of life and blessing.
But if we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us and cleanse us from every wrong. [And it is perfectly proper for God to do this for us because Christ died to wash away our sins.]
When you do your part, God will do His. You can't do His part, and He won't do yours. Yours is to act on His Word, and let His Word do the work.
The Late Dr. Edwin Louis Cole

My suggestion for you is to put that quote about His role and your role on your refrigerator (I know you will see it there) and look at it all the time. And then pick up your Bible and let God complete the work that He has started in you.
Did you hear Dr. Cole?
IT'S THE WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The "Gay Accepting Church"

2009-05-26T04:21:00.000-07:00

At The Bridge Community Church, we are now broadcasting our services live on the internet, and then rebroadcast on demand all week on livestream.com. This is amazing as we have invested no money into this at all. A couple of cameras and techie items from E-Bay and the little ole Bridge is running with big dogs. Livestream is completely free for us because we allow them to run Google ads across the bottom our broadcast 24 hours a day. This gets interesting sometimes as Livestream is not a Christian organization. You can check this out at www.bridgelife360.com.

For 12 hours last week, Google's ad at the bottom of our broadcast read, "Gay Accepting Church." Anyone who came across that unaware of how Livestream works would have thought that this ad pertained to our church, and I wondered how people perceived that. Let me start by saying that this writing is not going to focus much on the homosexual issue (the ad could have said 'Heroin Accepting Church' or 'Extortion Accepting Church' or 'Premarital Sex Accepting Church' and the conversation would be the same). Someone watching could have had many thoughts. If they thought to the extreme -- this church believes that a person can be a practicing homosexual and go to heaven; as a matter of fact, the pastor or priest could be gay and be ordained. Or the observer could have thought -- they believe that homosexuality is not a sin and they are actively recruiting people who believe the same. Or they could have thought -- this church is a 'hospital for all sinners' and the homosexual would be welcomed in their midst understanding that he/she must repent, turn from his/her sin, and believe the Gospel. There are many other possible scenarios, but of the three, the latter most accurately describes The Bridge. Quite honestly, we go to the Bible for our stance.

First of all, homosexuality is a sin. Abusing our body with heroin is a sin. Extortion is a sin. Premarital sex is a sin. All of these things separate us from a perfectly holy God and are incredibly offensive to Him. Nobody should lead in God's church while actively practicing any of these sins as though they are not an offense to God. They are an offense to God. However, all sinners are welcome at The Bridge!!! Anyone who is practicing sins that could harm our people or especially our children would not be allowed to attend our public celebrations, but we would find somewhere safe for violent or dangerous folks to hear the Gospel. But, all others will find tremendous hospitality and love as they hopefully seek the truth of the Gospel. And the Gospel message is clear that sinners can be forgiven if they repent (turn from their sin; stop sinning) and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Only the repentant, forgiven child of God, who still slips up and sins on occasion, can lead at a healthy, well-balanced church like The Bridge.

I can sum this up in a story of a test I received within just a few weeks of becoming the lead pastor at The Bridge. We had two young ladies (one of them with a small child) who began attending our church and they communicated on their Connect Card that they were gay and wanted to visit with me about my feelings about that. We met after church one Sunday and I told them that I loved them very much and I hoped that they had felt welcomed at The Bridge because I hoped that they would continue seeking God at our church. They very gently, but boldly, asked my opinion about their relationship. I, lovingly but directly, told them that I would have the same answer for them if they were a man and a women living in a sexual relationship outside of God's plan for His people and that answer was that they were practicing sin and they would have to repent to be forgiven by God. I told them that my job was not to judge them (except about their roles in our church), but that my job was to love them and proclaim the Gospel to them. I explained that I hoped that they would stay and experience Christ with us for a long time to come, but they would have to truly become convinced of a need for change before they would be allowed to join the church. However, they were looking for a different kind of "Gay Accepting Church" than the one I described. Very respectfully, they explained to me that they had gone to Bible college and that the Bible did not teach that homosexuality was a sin and that a good church would agree with them. I knew at that point that I would not see them again, but I was not angry and I hoped that I would and I still hope to see them this Sunday listening to the teaching on the Sermon on the Mount that requires us to set aside our human pride and with humility accept God's plan for life.

Summer on the Mount

2009-05-17T04:27:00.000-07:00

Whew! I have the first sermon written from Matthew 5 as we are going to delve into the SOTM throughout the whole summer. This is going to be really challenging because I do not think that there is a stronger example of God's teaching that OUR ways are not HIS ways. Every week is going to be this brutal awakening that we actually have been taught by the human race to live far from the way God thinks. The question is: will we be willing to change?

What I thought I would do as I study to present this challenging text is to blog some of things I learn that there will be no time to present. So, this morning's topic is the Talmudic law. As Jesus begins speaking on the hillside that morning, one set of his listeners was the Pharisees. They had created the Talmudic law because as they became more and more self-righteous, or depending on their abilities to keep law, instead of a dependence on God, they realized what a miserable failure they were. As a result, they started whittling down the law into manageable traditions. Instead of putting their whole weight on God (Commandments 1 & 2), they became RELIGIOUS with the legalistic following of some man-made fence laws that were much easier to show off with their 'outside-of-the-cup' efforts. As they scream about protecting God's law to Jesus, what they are really wanting to protect is their peripherial efforts that looked good to the public while actually they were terrorizing God's true law. We don't do that today, do we?

Yes!
God's #1 command is to love him constantly by being obedient. We lessen that immediately by claiming that we don't steal (but we covet), don't lie (that's a lie), don't commit adultery (never lust?) while we spend large portions of our day setting aside the Gospel, setting aside the cross, setting aside Christ and doing life in thought, word, and action on our own. You know what that is called? IDOLATRY, and it makes us no different than those who killed Jesus three short years after having their world first challenged on the side of that hillside. We have whittled down what is acceptable to God from, "Do, think, and say everything from a wellspring of the Gospel" to "I am a law abiding person most of the time." The American church has developed its own Talmudic law because we don't like the difficulties of Scripture. We must repent and believe the Gospel. Only God can empower such change from the wicked deception that we have been taught.

I Apologize...

2009-05-12T05:34:00.001-07:00

...for not having written anything in a while. My life is always on the accelerator. I am always in overdrive. I have really enjoyed my job at MAC this past year -- relationships have been developed and I have really been trying to do my job there "as to the Lord." But it has taken away from some of my teaching opportunities such as writing to you on this blog. I am not going to teach much today either. I am blind in one eye and I have not been able to study much recently. However, I have been reading At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry by Steve Gallagher. This book is worth getting simply to experience the forward which is written by the late Ed Cole ("The only scriptures that you believe are the ones that you obey"). But today, I am just going to share with you a letter. Meg Reiner wrote the forward to this magnificent letter, "The Bridge Community Church has received a special letter from one of our friends at the CSC. We began our relationship with Scott last December, and he has become a part of our lives. His neatly penned letter was given to us on his birthday. Thank you, Scott - we love you too!"

Dear Bridge Members,

You may not see the progress that I’ve made throughout the last few months, but you have all made an impact on my life, which means the world to me. The little things that you all continue to do has helped me change my outlook completely. I know that God is working in my life through you. I had given up all hope and was ready to die when I started attending the Bridge months ago. Nothing seemed to matter to me but everyone, and I mean everyone, offered their love and God’s unconditional love to me, even the wreck that I am. You have shown me hope and helped me in ways that my family wouldn’t help any more because they had given up on me. At times I felt worthless, but even through my dark times you stood beside me and loved me as God would want and I want to thank you all for everything that you’ve all done. Every one of you has helped save my life and I love you all for it. May God Bless you all.

Thanks and love you
Scott Joseph

Check out more about GAP and CA here.

Quite a week, Quite a God!

2009-04-15T04:41:00.000-07:00

I stand amazed the in presence of Jesus, the Nazarene -- and wonder how He could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. How Marvelous, How Wonderful! Easter is anything but a holiday for a lead pastor of healthy church. I have not blogged in a while because I was just hangin' on for the ride. I was just downright proud of our youth over the last few weeks as they went from hesitant and self-concerned as we challenged them with the human video to confident deliverers of the Gospel, the greatest story ever told. People who came to Easter services have a memory and a reference point to the Gospel that I don't think they will ever forget. The kids told the story as it appeared 'according to the Scriptures.'

To make sure that I kept things in perspective though, two deaths blasted their way into my world. At 12:05 Sunday morning, my cousin Roger went to be with God after battling cancer. Roger was a minister for cause of Christ so the Resurrection is a comfort. But he was just 55 years old and his daughter was to be married this Friday. Please pray for our family.

I don't even know what to do with the second death. BJ was a narcotics addict who had been brought into our lives through our work at the CSC and had attended our Conquering Addiction 12-step program. BJ had been sober while living in the CSC and was release just a couple of weeks ago, but the last time I saw him I was really put out with him because he was obviously high. Our friends who struggle with addictions many times do not do well on the outside of a highly supervised environment. So this last sit down with BJ was the combination of rebuking him for his sin, praying with him to repent, and listening to him talk about how much he loved The Bridge and its people who had accepted him, flaws, tattoos, and all. Well, I am struggling with whether BJ had been changed by the Gospel because BJ is dead. I am leaving this in the hands of a sovereign and just God, but I am shaken as I am sure other members of our GAP team are as well. I left BJ that last time knowing that he needed more help than I could give him; man, was I right. I am glad God knows what is best because I feel really small.

Wanna Know What's Real?

2009-03-27T19:42:00.000-07:00

Check out this poem written by a young lady from our GAP ministry:

My name is Meth,
I destroy homes, I tear families apart,
take your children, and that’s just the start.
I’m more costly than diamonds, more precious than gold.
The sorrow I bring is a sight to behold.
If you need me, remember I’m easily found,
I live all around you - in schools and in town.
I live with the rich, I live with the poor,
I live down the street and maybe next door.
I’m made in a lab, but not like you think,
I can be made under the kitchen sink.
In your child’s closet, and even in the woods.
If this scares you to death, well it certainly should.
I have many names, but there’s one you know best,
I’m sure you’ve heard of me, my name is crystal meth.
My power is awesome, try me you’ll see,
But if you do, you may never break free.
Just try me once and I might let go,
But try me twice and I’ll own your soul.
When I possess you, you’ll steal and you’ll lie,
You do what you have to just to get high.
The crimes you’ll commit for my narcotic charms,
Will be worth the pleasure you’ll feel in your arms, your lungs and your nose.
You’ll lie to your mother, you’ll steal from your dad,
When you see their tears you should feel sad,
But you’ll forget your morals and how you were raised,
I’ll be your conscience, I’ll teach you my ways.
I’ll take kids from parents and parents from kids,
I turn people from God and separate friends.
I’ll be with you always, right by your side.
You’ll give up everything, your family your home,
Your friends, your money then you’ll be alone.
I’ll take and take till you have nothing more to give.
When I’m finished with you, you’ll be lucky to live.
If you try me be warned, this is no game,
If given the chance I’ll drive you insane.
I’ll ravish your body, I’ll control your mind,
I’ll own you completely, your soul will be mine.
The nightmares I’ll give you while lying in bed,
The voices you’ll hear from inside your head.
The sweats, the shakes, the visions you’ll see,
I want you to know, these are all gifts from me.
But then it’s too late and you’ll know in your heart,
That you are mine and we shall not part.
You’ll regret that you tried me, they always do,
But you came to me, not I to you.
You knew this would happen, may times you were told,
But you challenged my power and chose to be bold.
You could have said no and just walked away.
If you could live that day over, now what would you say?
I’ll be your master, you will always be my slave.
I’ll even go with you when you to your grave.
Now that you have met me, what will you do?
Will you try me or not? It’s all up to you.
I can bring you more misery than words can tell,
Come take my hand and let me lead you to hell.

WOW! Are you kidding me? These are the people that we have been commanded to take care of, to preach the Gospel, and just flat out love. Let's love them well!

Bad Singers Unite

2009-03-27T06:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who showed up last night to worship and who performed volunteer tasks that made our Grand Opening an event that I don't think people will soon forget. Plenty of folks showed up and did their job with style and grace.
Parallax View was outstanding. Fee was Fee. And our great big white chocolate building performed magnificently as our God was glorified.
I just cannot believe that nobody bought me a "Bad Singers Unite" t-shirt. I am the leader of that choir -- HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Interesting Encounter

2009-03-16T05:04:00.000-07:00

One of the strongest pieces of direction to pastors and leaders of churches is to protect the flock from false teachers and wolves who try and devour the sheep (1 Timothy 3 and Acts 20). I had an interesting encounter yesterday about that subject in between our two services at The Bridge. I thought the first celebration brought glory to God as Seth Durbin led worship for the first time and the study from Daniel 3 was strong and evident. But afterward, a lady that I had never seen before approached me off of the street with immediate questions. Her first question was: "Does your church support the 'word of faith' movement?" Assuming that she was asking me if I supported the prosperity teachings of folks such as Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, and Joel Osteen, I answered her quickly but gently, "No." Her second question was: "Does your church support the ministries of Kenneth Copeland?" Having studied his teaching quite a bit, I answered, "No." She did not like these answers and challenged me strongly on them. I really wanted to go rest for the second celebration, but she had many questions. I informed her that I did not presume to know about the salvation of these men and women who teach 'word of faith,' but I, with gentleness and respect, answered all of her questions about what I personally had heard them teach that I found troublesome and even gave her directions to a church that had a speaker in recently from the Copeland Ministries if she would like to go there. She left the building three times and came back 3 times to challenge me some more (after the events of last week, I confess that I wondered if she came bearing more than questions and challenges).

Here are some things specifically that Kenneth Copeland teaches that I have a problem with:
1. He is very passionate about saying that Jesus never claimed to be God. Jesus did claim to be God; that is what got Him crucified. To say that he did not claim to be God is heresy and requires very bad hermeneutics to even come up with the idea in the first place.
2. He teaches constantly that Jesus had to descend to hell during the three days in the tomb and fight Satan for the keys to life and death. This is a heretical teaching for many reasons: #1) the issue was settled on the cross (there was no further work needed), and #2) Jesus has always possessed the keys to life and death. He is the sovereign God of the universe, so He would never need to take something from Satan because He has ALWAYS been in control of such things.
3. He teaches a prosperity Gospel. He does not understand the basic nature of God. He thinks that God is our cosmic servant. John McArthur calls it a "genie in a bottle" theology, or in other words, we rub the bottle, call up God our genie, and he fulfills our wishes (you demand healing, you demand money prosperity, you demand a new job all under the guise of faith). It is "give to get," and it is a man-centered theology that has no basis in Holy Scripture or reality and is very destructive. It always ends up that if these things do not happen for you that you just did not have enough faith. God's sovereign will is basically tossed to the curb. The truth is that God cares so much for us that he would never allow our weak hearts and weak thinking to rule what is best for us.

This lady told me as she left that she would pray for me, and I appreciate her doing that. I am also praying for her (she is welcome anytime) because I am afraid that she has passionately committed to something that sounds great, but only tickles the ears of a wicked and deceitful heart.
I could go on and on about these bad teachings, but let me finish with this. There are people locally that think I am arrogant for taking such stands (like The Bridge is the only church that has correct doctrine). That is a false accusation. I believe that there are many other churches that are healthy and have truly surrendered leadership teaching great Biblical truths and doctrines. However, when bad teaching is present and I am asked to comment on it, I will always point out the bad teaching -- I am commanded by Scripture to do so. The three things I listed above are as bad as it gets, and I will always point these out to the flock -- not to glorify me or our church or to demean any human being (only the teachings, not the teacher) -- but to glorify the One who is in charge of all things. His name is Jesus Christ and He is our God.

Third Anniversary

2009-03-02T05:55:00.000-08:00

I bet there were some awesome naps taken yesterday afternoon after our Third Anniversary Celebration in the Sprung building. Our volunteers did an amazing job of getting the facility ready for bringing Glory to a Magnificent God. At 10:00 Saturday night, there were still no drain pipes on the bathroom sinks and there was no nursery whatsoever (no dropped ceiling, no carpeting, no nothing). Men and women of God got all of that done about 2:30 Sunday morning (and we just thought we were finished with early Sunday mornings), and then the band arrived from Jeff City at 3:00 am and just stayed up through the night getting the sound and video right.

Our building was completed mostly with volunteer labor. We subbed the concrete, the heating and cooling, the plumbing, and the tape and mud. Other than that, it was all God's people acting like God's people. It is quite a story that we now have 18,000 square feet (soon to be 23,000 when God gifts us with some more money to finish the second floor) that was all built for less than a million dollars. Our federal government could learn some lessons about rolling up their sleeves and really working rather than spending. This facility would have cost more than 3 million dollars if we had used tradition building styles and just hired it all done. I am very proud of what God has done. Pride is usually a bad thing, but I don't think so this time.

Everything came off without a hitch yesterday except me. The 9:00 service was a train wreck during the sermon as I missed my cue and forgot to let the 'Fearless' video run before I stood up. Then, when my battery went out on my microphone and we did an audible, I came back up from the "melt your face" guitar solo and left almost 3 pages of notes out of the sermon. People were sweet and said that it made some sense; only God could have made sense out of that debacle.

It is an honor and a privilege to serve this church as lead pastor. I don't feel qualified, but look what God did through 'knees knocking' Gideon -- maybe He can ever use a messed-up dude like me.

Here we go church. Year 4 with our own facility -- this is going to be quite a ride for God's glory and your health.

Time to Set Priorities

2009-02-21T19:51:00.000-08:00

I know I know --
The Gospel is our life -- our hope!
The opening of the Sprung is exciting!
God is changing lives daily!
Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter are healthy! HAHA!

Sorry, that I haven't posted in a while.
Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so.

Last Sermon in E-Hall

2009-02-02T05:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday felt like it was an explosive day spiritually for The Bridge. Here are my top five memories of what could have been my last sermon in E-Hall:
5. "Correct doctrine is important, but it is not doctrine that saves you; it is a right relationship with Jesus Christ that saves you."
4. On eternal security, "I don't believe that someone who has truly been cut through the heart probably can forfeit his salvation, but he should live as though he can."
3. Powerful movement of worship through the music. We still have many people standing around talking or being busy instead of engaging the Holy Spirit in music, but the percentage of those who got ready to do business with God (especially at 9:00) was high.
2. Busting out hair (or lack of) jokes on Matt Pratt and Krishna. Sorry Matt.
1. Seeing Steve (the floor stainer from Springfield) flat out broken before Jesus Christ. He thought he came for the weekend to get our floor in the new building looking great and he ran headlong into the King of Kings. He was not the only one in the building that had a big day with God; many others came clean before the Lord. His Word is powerful, and His glory matchless.

Quote from Steve: "I have never seen a church like this, never seen people like this. It is over 3 hours from here to my home, but I would consider driving that far every week to experience what I experienced today." I really think that what impressed him was the God that made the day so special. Both he and Curtis (the boss of the floor crew) are bringing their families back to worship next weekend if we are in the new building. Praise be to God and thanks to God for making yesterday very special.

By the way, the Super Bowl was much better than the commercials. Great athletes playing at a very high level -- it was good as sports gets. It would have been a cool story to see Kurt Warner get another ring, but he cemented his place in the Hall of Fame. Way to go, Kurt. You know as well as played though, it was not nearly as important as the fantastic talk he gave last summer to a few thousand men at The Men at the Cross about King Jesus.

Mark McGwire's Brother -- Jay

2009-01-22T20:09:00.000-08:00

Listen to this language that Jay McGwire uses to describe why he exposed his brother's steroid use:
"My bringing the truth to surface about Mark is out of love. I want Mark to live in truth to see the light, to come to repentance so he can live in freedom -- which is the only way to live. " Source: ESPN
That sounds like the theological teaching that we would espouse about repentence with Jesus Christ and walking in the light of the Gospel on a Sunday morning at The Bridge or even moreso at Conquering Addiction on Tuesdays. WOW!

Membership Covenants

2009-01-22T09:05:00.001-08:00

When we designed our membership covenants at The Bridge, we had not ever heard of The Village (Matt Chandler's church in the Dallas area). I, personally, feel that The Village is the top church in American at developing sincere disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have been spending the last 3 years redesigning their membership covenants and they unveiled the new work this week. I suggest you read through and notice the similarities and differences to ours. The ones that we address in membership classes such as marriage, church discipline, walking in the light (confessing sin to fellow believers) and authority of the pastors and elders are to be especially noted. Notice the first one which is the authority of Bible -- do you hear that a few times a day around The Bridge?

I covenant...
• to submit to the authority of the Scriptures as the final arbiter on all issues (Psalm 119; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21).
• to pursue the Lord Jesus Christ through regular Bible reading, prayer, fellowship and practice of spiritual disciplines (Luke 18:1; Acts 17:11; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Ephesians 5:1-21; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22).
• to follow the command and example of Jesus by participating in the ordinances prescribed to His Church:
° by being baptized after my conversion.
° by regularly remembering and celebrating the person and work of Christ through communion.
• to regularly participate in the life of The Village Church by attending weekly services, engaging in biblical community and serving those within and outside of this church (Acts 2:42-47; Hebrews 10:23-25; Titus 3:14).
• to steward the resources God has given me, including time, talents spiritual gifts and finances. This includes regular financial giving, service and participation in community that is sacrificial, cheerful, and voluntary (Matthew 25:14-30; Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8-9; 1 Peter 4:10-11).
• by God’s grace through the power of the Holy Spirit, to walk in holiness in all areas of life as an act of worship to Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13-16, 4:1-3). Believers should strive to put certain attitudes and actions to death, while stirring and stimulating love and good deeds through the Spirit. Below are a few examples of actions addressed in the Scriptures:
° I will practice complete chastity unless married and, if married, complete fidelity within heterosexual and monogamous marriage. Complete chastity and fidelity means, among other things, that regardless of my marital status, I will pursue purity and abstain from sexually immoral practices such as adultery, premarital sex and pornography (Romans 13:11-14; 1 Corinthians 6:15-20, 10:8; Ephesians 5:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8; Hebrews 13:4).
° I will seek to preserve the gift of marriage and agree to walk through the steps of marriage reconciliation at The Village Church before pursuing divorce from my spouse (Matthew 19:1-12; Mark 10:1-12; Luke 16:18; 1 Corinthians 7:10-11; for the role of the church in the process of divorce, see Paul’s concern for the resolution of legal matters within the assembly of the church in 1 Corinthians 6).
° I will refrain from illegal drug use, drunkenness, gossip and other sinful behavior as the Bible dictates (Romans 1:28-32, 13:13; Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:18; James 3:3-18).
• to refrain from such activities that the Scriptures would deem foolish (Romans 14:14-23).
• to take seriously the responsibility of Christian freedom, especially actions or situations that could present a stumbling block to another (1 Corinthians 8:1-13).
• to submit to the discipline of God through His Holy Spirit by:
° following the biblical procedures for church discipline where sin is evident in another -- the hope of such discipline being repentance and restoration.
° receiving righteous and loving discipline when approached biblically by fellow believers (Psalm 141:5; Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5:9-13; Hebrews 12:5-11).
• to do the following when I sin :
° confess my sin to God and to fellow believers .
° repent and seek help to put my sin to death (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5; James 5:16; 1 John 1:6-10).
° to submit to the elders and other appointed leaders of the church and will be diligent to strive for unity and peace within the Church (Ephesians 4:1-3; Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 5:5).For more information, e-mail membership@thevillagechurch.net.

Schedule of Building Progress

2009-01-16T11:07:00.000-08:00

Monday, February 2
Concrete stain worship area (everybody out)
Tape and mud continues in BK area
CT cabinet arrives at Butler Supply

Tuesday, February 3
CT cabinet is set ready for wiring
Floors are finished
Govro finishes main bathrooms
Missouri Natural Gas sets meter

Wednesday, February 4
Ameren pulls wire, sets transformer, and hooks to CT cabinet
Govro sets toilets and dividers
Carpeting on risers, back hall, coffee shop

Thursday, February 5
Govro does bathroom sinks.
Crystal fires up our heating units.
Savage Electric fires up our lighting system
Trim goes on all walls
Small detail work and preparations on stage

Friday, February 6
Dozens of details like mounting paper towel dispensers, toilet paper racks, etc.

Saturday, February 7
Dozens more details. You can help.

Sunday, February 8
God is in business!!!
9:00 Rob Pierce preaching debut on John 10:10
10:45 Ricky Horton of the St. Louis Cardinals
12:00 MAC athletes eat at E-Hall.

Is this crazy? YES
Is it possible? Philippians 4:13

Answering Questions #4

2009-01-11T20:19:00.001-08:00

Our interesting question about the faith this weekend is "What is the 'unpardonable sin?' The Bible talks about the unpardonable sin being "blaspheming the Holy Spirit." (Mark 3:29) When we look at that vague scripture in light of other Scripture, "blaspheming the Holy Spirit" must be a complete and utter rejection of Jesus Christ. Instead of being a singular act which has been improperly preached for a long time, it is an ongoing rejection of the Redeemer, the Messiah -- Jesus. That is the only sin which cannot be pardoned. If we die without knowing Christ, we are bound for hell -- the blood of Christ is our pardon.

The Holy Spirit testifies about the truth of Christ. If we refuse that testimony, we cannot be pardoned. That is an ongoing refusal until our death, not a singular act. Stop walking around wondering if you said something bad one time when you were 14 that insulted the Holy Spirit. Accept Christ on His terms, and no matter what you have done you will be pardoned.

The Shack -- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2009-01-01T12:55:00.000-08:00

One of the most popular books in America right now is the The Shack by Paul Young. Just a couple of quick comments.
The Good -- Strict orthodox evangelicals hate this book because they think it plays with things that just should not be played with. I want to point out a couple of positives. As a professor of literature, I have to say this is a magnificent piece of writing. It is of epic proportions. That being said on a worldly level, on a spiritual level, the book does use its creativity to show a warm, delicate relationship between the persons of the triune God. Also, it does provide hope to people who have experienced the unspeakable horrors of a fallen world. The only hope is Christ Jesus, and on this fact the book is correct.
The Bad -- There is just inherent danger in speaking dialogue through fictional characters that represent God. Every word must correctly represent what we know God would say, and, quite honestly, we just don't know God that well. Mr. Young's fictional statements from God through the mouths of the characters who are the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are going to be gone through with fine tooth comb because they must. Mr. Young fails on occasion.
The Ugly -- These failures of Mr. Young are heresy or border on heresy. This makes jumping up and down and recommending the book impossible. Even the most trained eyes can miss the heresy and develop some strange notions about God. It is just a much better idea to get our ideas about God straight out of Scripture.

Unless you feel very comfortable that you can enjoy the literary masterpiece that is The Shack and ignore it affecting your understanding of God, you should leave it on the shelf. Probably just ought to leave it on the shelf.

Answering Questions #3

2008-12-25T19:34:00.001-08:00

Question #3 in this series has the potential to stir all kinds of emotion as we discuss it. It is one of 'those' subjects that just tends to rile people up. Here is the question: How do you approach someone living in a life of sin (homosexuality) that talks like they believe in Christ and are alright (in their mind) with their salvation? Let's start here -- First of all, The Bible is clear that homosexuality is sin (see Romans 1). Also, The Bible is clear in places like Galatians 5 that, regardless of the sin, anyone who is blatantly rebellious to God's law by practicing sin in an unrepentant manner will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Therefore, while I do not claim to know who is in or who is out, I fear greatly for someone who justifies their sinful lifestyle and claims that their "belief" in Christ will allow them in the gates.
At The Bridge, we take Jesus at His word that salvation comes to those who "repent and believe the Gospel." To really believe in Jesus, we must have the correct Jesus identified. The Messiah, the King of the Universe, has given His all to bring the good news to us; therefore, he deserves our obedience and love in whatever He asks of us. If we have been involved in a lifestyle of sin when we come to faith, we have one choice -- leave it. To refuse to do so denies Him as God and proves that we never believed Him on His terms to begin with. That does not mean that this will be easy, especially in the case of homosexuality, but "all things are possible" with God.

I have a feeling that the unrepentant homosexual in the question would possibly agree with all of that. His or her problem is that they have not recognized their sin as sin. While we can, with gentleness and respect, point out that Bible does declare homosexuality as an abomination before God, the Holy Spirit and the 'never comes back void' Word of God will have to do their thing for this person to identify himself/herself as an unrepentant sinner. While we have a role to play, God is the one that comes and 'cuts to the heart.'

A further note on homosexuality ==
I can assure you that as the lead pastor of a quality, Biblical church, I have no 'homophobic' bents. Homosexuals are welcome in our church or in my home anytime. Also, I will admit that the immature church has terrorized this sin more than others, so some of the bad feelings about the church by the gay community are warranted. However, to be clear I view this sin as no more egregious than others, but the activists, even inside the church, make it seem that it is picked on. The reason for this is that this is the only group of sinners that I know of that are organized. I am not aware of the "adulterer's rights groups" or the "extortionist's church organization." Only the homosexual community lobbies Christian denominations and churches for acceptance. This comes from the fact that these folks have been deceived into believing that their sin is not sin, and, therefore, they believe that they should be pastors, teachers, and elders within the church. I love these folks, but on those points we will never agree, and that will not happen at The Bridge.

Answering Questions #2

2008-12-24T12:50:00.000-08:00

Sitting in front of a warm fire on Christmas, I am flipping through some fantastic questions that our church has given the pastors to answer. The one that has caught my eye is this one because I will be preaching the answer from Luke 18 in just a few weeks. Here is the question: If God has a plan & will (He is sovereign), why do we ask God to heal (etc.) if He is going to do what He wants anyway?
I hear this person asking if everything is pre-ordained or if we can sway God to intervene by praying. Let me answer this with scripture; Jesus speaks:
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'" And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" Luke 18:1-8 ESV
Previously in the Bible, persistent prayer by the saints had changed God's mind, so my advice to the current saints is to petition God with great boldness and persistence about what you need. Behind the question, I hear some possible frustration that this person maybe prayed for a loved one's healing and God did not act. Maybe He did act -- He asks us to trust Him that He knows what is best. That can really test and grow our faith.

What God wants is our company, our attention. I think he loves spending time with us. We must spend time in earnest prayer. God is faithful; it is His good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. His giving of the Kingdom may just not always look like we want it.

You May Have Not Seen

2008-12-20T06:07:00.000-08:00

I try and make myself an open book so that people who I do church with see just how whacko I really am. I posted this on Halloween at Tim's Journal.

Conquering Addiction is unbelievable -- the single best discipleship tool that I have ever seen.

Answering Questions

2008-12-18T06:05:00.000-08:00

I have decided to take some time over the holidays and blog some answers to these questions that Ben has coming in from our church that are pressing on people's minds about their faith. Since I know that there are more people nationally and internationally that read my blog than my own church, I am not worried about messing up the sermons that we are going to do from these questions. Here we go: Is it okay to drink alcohol on occasion? The quick answer to that is "yes." Otherwise, Jesus sinned because we know he drank wine and we know that he was sinless. I am very open with my personal stance on this. I have an occasional glass of wine with a meal like authentic Italian chicken Marsala that just calls for the perfect wine to compliment. If you are eating chicken Marsala and not cooking a beautiful white wine into the sauce, you need to call it something else because that is just wrong. Flat out, a sip of an alcoholic beverage is not a sin.

Let's go just a little deeper though. The Bible states on multiple occasions though that drunkenness is a sin, and we are to put sin to death. Often, when people come to Christ, they continue drinking to the same degree that they drank before their regeneration. That is a problem. I believe that God teaches us that he wants us to be clear-minded for a couple of reasons. The first is that we are to be focused on Him. If Biblical Christianity is truly a call to 24/7 worship, how effective of worship can we engage if our mind is clouded by alcohol? We cannot pray without ceasing and make the Word of God a jewel of our mind if we have just knocked down a six pack. Have you ever tried to let the "Word of God dwell in you richly" after too much to drink. It cannot be done. We are to be clear-minded in our worship and sanctification. Alcohol limits our correct, intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit.

The second reason for have a clear mind is so that we make good judgment in avoiding sin. I am a little more likely to linger on the "Victoria Secret special" on TV after a little too much alcohol than not. That gives the devil a fertile playground. I am a little more likely to say things that do not honor Christ when drinking. Just think into your past and think how much you would have limited the major sin in your life if you had not drunk enough to fog your judgment and you had gone to bed (by yourself) at 10:00.

I, personally, do not drink in public because our slightly misguided western Church-world frowns so hard on anyone who drinks alcohol saying anything on behalf of God. Misguided or not, if someone grew up in a Baptist or Pentecostal background sees me drinking one glass of wine with my dinner in public, they have probably written me off as someone who can speak on the Gospel with them. I want to have voice so I respect their feelings and just make it a non-issue. I also do not want to cause a "little one to stumble." This stance is not hypocritical because I never say that all drinking is wrong and then have a glass of wine at home.

I do not believe that most church-goers do a good job with temperance on this issue. If they bring their pre-conversion attitudes about drinking with them into the new relationship, repentance is probably needed.

Harsh Stands for Christ?

2008-12-15T07:27:00.001-08:00

Sorry, I have not posted in a while. Preparation for Conquering Addiction is a lot of work and we have had little things like ordination, baptism, membership, building a building, and finals at MAC taking a bit of time as well. Fun stuff though. Some of us have been discussing how harshly to take on the public in the name of Christ. I think sometimes while Christians are protesting abortion clinics, there are 3 young teenage girls in their immediate circle that are pregnant or living a lifestyle that could cause pregnancy and the protester is so busy protesting that he/she misses creating a relationship that could love these young ladies toward Christ and some Christ-like decisions. I am not saying that we should not make large public declarations on behalf of Christ, but we should not do so at the exclusion of paying attention to the OTHERS that we supposed to love from the Great Commandment. Maybe this story will provide my point:
About 4 years ago, MAC took a stand about not letting any churches use their facilities, not even to rent like the regular public is allowed. This was explained as separation of church and state. It is a horrible misread of the constititution and had I took a harsh stand representing all churches, I would have won in court. Instead, I protested very softly and then went about my business. In those 4 years, the Bible has been openly discussed in the athletic department, I have counseled many faculty members as they have experienced pain and difficulty, about a dozen students have come to know Christ, and the school donated $30,000 worth of seats to our church the other day, and GAP was actually allowed to use a room for CA -- none of which would have happened had a taken a hard line and brought in the ACLJ and sued the school for violating constitutional rights because they would have been watching their 'enemy' like a hawk. Sometimes it is better to drop the hard line and focus on people instead.

Jesus does not aak us to win every battle in His name; he asks us to love Him and others more than ourselves. A court case here would have been done in my name and for my pride's sake much more than for His. There are times to step up and make history in Christ's name; I just did not think this was one of them. And I think He is honoring my decision.

However, when I retire....

Don't forget to invite folks to church Sunday and let's honor Christ in a big way on His birthday.

Ordained

2008-11-27T08:22:00.001-08:00

Ben, Andre, and I are going to be ordained on December 6. Interesting stuff considering I have never considered myself very pastoral. I found this article that says a pastor's life is only worth $250 to a Hindu extremist. Click Here --
$250

Crazy Love

2008-11-26T12:52:00.000-08:00

Are you frightened that I think like Francis Chan? I stole these quotes from Chan's book Crazy Love off of Perry Noble's blog. By the way, if you don't know who Francis Chan or Perry Noble are, you are watching too much TV. Turn it off and check out our recommended blogroll on The Bridge website. Do some reading.
Here we go:
-- “His perfect holiness, by definition, assures us that our words cannot contain Him. Isn’t it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate?” (DANG!!!)
-- “Could it be your arrogance that makes you think God owes you an explanation?”
-- “I quickly found that the American church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity. The goals of American Christianity are often a nice marriage, children who don’t swear, and good church attendance. Taking the words of Christ literally and seriously is rarely considered.”
-- “Jesus’ call to commitment is clear: He wants all or nothing. The thought of a person calling himself a “Christian” without being a devoted follower of Christ is absurd.”
-- “Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” (DANG!!!)
-- “But we need to realize that how we spend our time, what our money goes towards, and where we will invest our energy is equivalent to choosing God or rejecting Him.”
-- “…you have to stop loving and pursuing Christ in order to sin.”
-- “Having faith often means doing what others see as crazy. Something is wrong when our lives make sense to other believers.”
-- “We like finding refuge in what we already have rather than in what we hope God will provide.”
-- “If a guy were dating my daughter but didn’t want to spend the gas money to come and pick her up or refused to buy her dinner because it cost too much, I would question whether he were really in love with her. In the same way, I question whether many American churchgoers are really in love with God because they are so hesitant to do anything for Him.”

I think that people think that there are requirements of the heart for Francis Chan, or Craig Groeschel, or Tim Gray and a different set of requirements for your heart in terms of your commitment for Christ. I am afraid that the Bible does not allow for such a thing. Our personlities and callings may look different (Praise God for you), but the commitment of the heart is no different. I hope that makes you uncomfortable. I hope that I look crazy to you.

By the way, if you are married Perry just posted some great sex suggestions on his blog.

Word of God Speak

2008-11-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

God tells us in His Word (Isaiah 55) that His Word never comes back void. What does that mean? That means that when IT is read and / or correctly interpreted, IT will produce a change of in the hearts of the listeners. That is an amazing phenom. We saw it today. Lot's of Bible -- lot's of movement among the listeners.

People are being pursued by Christ because He loves them so much. I love this!

Send IT -- Missional

2008-11-12T19:53:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday I mentioned how missional our church is in SENDing IT. I thought you might like to see a list of the mission SENDing IT the people of The Bridge have done. This is AMAZING!
Melissa James -- twice a missionary to China and also to Chacocente, Nicagaragua.
Jon Bird -- Currently in Honduras (his 12th trip there) on a medical mission for Christ, also has served in Indonesia after the Tsunami, in Chacocente, Nicaragua, the Darfur region of Sudan, in Uganda, in El Salvador, & Kenya
Lisa Bird -- leaves for the Congo on Thursday; Chacocente, Nicaragua; Uganda; El Salvador; Kenya; 5 times to Honduras
Duane Rosener – Chacocente, Nicaragua
David Werning-Board Member of Latino Life Ministries-served in Mexico several times & built a church in Colosio, Mexico. Helping to build the sprung for The Bridge.
Lisa Werning-Board Member of Latino Life-built church in Colosio and continues to serve in Mexico (planning a trip this winter to oversee some work on the church). Worked in an orphanage in Nicaragua, World Changers in Canada, served as a Bible study teacher in State Women's prison (Memphis, TN) for 6 years, Table leader for Conquering Addiction class.
Heather Nozea – Full-time missionary in Haiti
Brian & Natalie Hurst -- currently foster parents for a Bridge attender as she allows Christ to focus her life; preparing to go back and serve an orphanage in Mexico; Chacocente, Nicaragua
Juanita Gray -- served in Mexico; currently taking care of many widows and orphans as Biblically commanded; co-founded GAP.
Ben Durbin -- served in Chacocente and Honduras; co-founded GAP
Cheryl Guthrie - prepares food for the hungry at a moment's notice.
Chris Guthrie -- set his business aside for a month to supervise the building of The Bridge.
Meg Reiner -- helped to set up the Walk to Emmaus program in Kenya; helped to build fresh water wells in El Salvador; Chacocente, Nicaragua; co-founded GAP; board member of Project Sunshine
Sarah Winch – Chacocente, Nicaragua
Roger Durbin – Did mission work in 21 states from a traveling bus.
Lance Smith -- ordained pastor, member of The Bridge -- preparing to plant a church in Bangkok Thailand, this will be his second church plant in that country.
Andre Ong -- ordained pastor, member of The Bridge -- preparing to be sent into mission as a US Army chaplain. Takes care of dozens of needs with free Biblical counseling.
Angela Ong – takes care of dozens of needs with free Biblical counseling.
Jerry Weems -- does Prison Ministry worship services at the Farmington prison.
Kathie Nelson -- formed Maple Street ministry; Chacocente, Nicaragua
George Vessell – on-line ministry site that gets hits from all over the world
Stephanie Jenkins -- Ontario, Canada; Pine Bluff, AR; Desloge, WC Coordinator; Steeleville, MO
Chris Holmes – Chacocente, Nicaragua; Ukraine
Judy Schubert – Chacocente, Nicaragua; PPRC in St. Francois Co.
Marcia Buckley – Honduras
Tammy Durbin – has met hundreds of “least of these” needs thru the St. Francois Co. Partnership; co-founded GAP; joined Roger in that bus.
Joe & Tina Hogan – started a food drive ministry
Julie McDowell – Chacocente, Nicaragua
Mike & Tammy Bracken – mission work to the Farmington Children’s Home
Tammy Holmes – PPRC
Tracy Upchurch -- Chacocente, GAP
Lana Wickham – Haiti, Ministry that collects shoes and clothes for overseas missions
Peggy Lee Porter – Haiti
Barb Sharp – Mexico
Kelley Gray -- Chacocente, Nicaragua
Tim Gray -- Chacocente, Nicaragua

Sunday Nights Thoughts about IT

2008-11-09T17:40:00.000-08:00

What am I thinking?
-- Building a building is tough. Some of our neighbors don't like us much. In a way, I don't blame them. They had a nature preserve with beautiful deer and wild turkey coming up and eating in their yards. I hope that they will have a realization that we are a positive factor for our community and for the Kingdom of God. We need to pray that God heals hearts there. We did not try to hurt these folks, but they are feeling that way right now. We need to keep reaching out to them. Keep loving them. Christ's love will prevail.
-- Two major stumbling blocks to completion. We must run 3-phase electricity to the facility. That is a difficult (possibly expensive) process. Please pray. Also, the heating and cooling has been a difficult matter. Looks like we are close to a solution there. Please pray.
-- Now on to stuff that matters. One reason that completion of the building is so crucial is that there must have been 100 children under 10 years old in the two services today. And they were VERY well behaved. I did not notice them at all as I preached. But it is time for them to have their own space so that they can develop their relationship with God.
-- More stuff that really matters. God has been unbelievably clear with His teachings through this study of Luke. He is teaching us the true Gospel -- the Gospel that takes our heart by storm. I hope that our people are really hopeful because that is what the tough teaching from Scripture really provides -- HOPE. I think that some of the sugar-coating that goes on out there provides some false hope. The Word is amazing because I am seeing people who look more like Jesus all the time. I can't wait to hear from Ben on Luke 15.
-- I had fun today. I feel comfortable that I am not a Pharisee. My heart cries out for all of the folks who are living some moralistic outer shell "Christian" experience, but it is just plain fun to watch God truly change hearts
-- I love Jesus. I love leading in His Kingdom. I want to follow Him.

Making Christ-Centered Disciples

2008-10-31T20:10:00.000-07:00

I asked my cell family last night what they thought as they heard the Ephesians 5 commands to husbands and wives. Here is the response from one of the members:
"Christ surely died for the church as I would for my wife. Sometimes it is a lot harder to live for my wife than to die for her. Christ did so much for us with his life as he did with his death. In my opinion.what he didnt do was lie, cheat, hide from or abuse the church. I haven't read a thing he did for himself. At age 12 he sought his father's will. Loving my wife as he did the church is a tall order. I can love her more than just dying for her; I will love her with my life and honor our God. I will try to love my wife as Christ loves the church."
I think they are getting it!

That is so honest to admit that sometimes it is easier to die for someone that to live for them. Interesting stuff!

Satire in the Church

2008-10-29T04:26:00.000-07:00

In their drama at our Worship Celebration last Sunday, Mike and Tammy Bracken introduced us to the folly of our marriage relationships using satire. The definition of satire is "a literary work in which vices, follies, etc. are held up to ridicule and contempt." In other words, like with any figurative language, a person who saw that drama should not take any particular thing done or said too serious except the overall theme that we are really dumb in the ways that we handle our interpersonal relationships in marriage.

In Tammy's script we have no problem seeing the satire in Mike saying that she had never been in the kitchen in seven years (I am sure that she snuck in there a little), or that he had NO idea what a submissive wife looked like. But when the satire turned to 'running to a beer cooler' or 'where to stick a thermometer,' we want to jump back into the literal world and think that maybe they should not have said that. The WHOLE thing was satire and so no one should think that Mike and Tammy or The Bridge support drinking beer in excess or using thermometers as weapons in a marital dispute. NOTHING in that skit was meant to be taken seriously because it was ALL satire. The question is, "Were we irreverent?"

In the midst of creative fun that has a point, we have to be very careful not to disrespect God. God is to be revered; He is to be 'set apart.' We are to be "Holy as He is Holy." The Bridge will never take lightly how serious God is about His Kingdom. The question is, "Did the satire cross the line into disrespect?" If so, we humbly apologize. That was never the intent.

The use of figurative language is always a little dicey. Jesus used it a lot. I cannot tell you how many bad sermons I have heard trying to explain the "camel through the eye of that needle" because the preacher did not understand Jesus' use of figurative language. He directly meant through his hyperbole (exaggeration) that it is impossible for a rich man to set aside his wealth and give a full commitment to Christ to get into heaven. However, at the same time, he shows that it is hugely possible for the rich man to get into heaven because with God all things are possible. These preachers who over exegete that text are really struggling with Jesus use of figurative language. Ken Davis goes so far as to think that the disciples roared with laughter because they understood his hyperbole and his point and probably thought the image of that camel was very funny.
One could make an argument that satire has no place in the church because a "little one" might not get the figurative language and think that The Bridge supports drinking, etc. They just don't understand the satire. That could be a valid argument, but where does that stop? Do the drums whose beat create "sexual passions" come out next? Some think so.

IT Thoughts on Biblical Submission

2008-10-26T18:45:00.000-07:00

Five Biblical Principles Concerning Wife's Submission from The Excellent Wife by Marcia Peace

1. A wife is to be submissive to her husband in all things unless her husband asks her to sin.
2. A submissive wife is not afraid to do the "right thing."
3. A wife is to be submissive even if her husband is not a Christian. Editor's note: See #1.
4. A submissive wife does not dishonor the Word of God.
5. A wise wife will seek training and counsel on submission from a godly older woman.

Examples of #1 (must respectfully disobey due to asking wife to sin):
"I forbid you to go to church."
"I forbid you to talk to the children about God."
"I want you to participate in immorality / pornography."
"I forbid you to reprove me."
"Do not tell anyone about my sin. I want you to lie for me."

Comments on #3 as promised:
"When a Christian woman is married to an unbeliever, her responsibility is to live a godly life and respond to her husband with respect. Her attitude should be one of being for him and not against him."
"Sometimes, a wife with an unsaved husband is miserable and frustrated because she may have an idolatrous view of what she thinks her marriage should be like. she might say to herself, 'I'll never be happy unless he becomes a Christian.' Her frustration may be the result of not getting what she wants. Instead of being frustrated, her heart's devotion should turn from her idol of wanting a Christian marriage to devotion of the Lord Jesus Christ in worshipping and serving Him. He alone knows if, when, and how her husband will become a Christian."

Tim's Comments: I usually counsel that there is relatively little chance that an unbelieving husband will call on the Lord by his wife bashing him or trying to coerce him into becoming a follower. However, she can play a huge role in leading him to the Lord by allowing her transformed godliness love him and nurture him well. We must remember that love includes loving Biblical rebukes, but smashing the husband's face with a Bible only makes him bleed while his soul is in danger. The wife should graciously prioritize her schedule to go places with him and his friends. However, she should always draw the line at participating in any personal sin. Even this should be done with respect. The Bible is clear that our love to our unbelieving spouse is a key to them possibly repenting and believing the Gospel. Obviously, basically these same principles are true for a husband that has unbelieving wife.

Maybe later this week, we will provide some tough teaching for the husband from The Complete Husband.

Christ Centered

2008-10-20T06:03:00.001-07:00

The Reveal study was all about trying to figure out what creates Christ centered people. I think the #1 flaw around the American church is that after conversion, most churches teach and believe that it takes a long time for someone to become Christ centered. This may be a matter of semantics because , at The Bridge, we define a Christ centered person as someone who has placed their full faith and trust in Christ or is WILLING to do whatever Christ asks of him/her. They have truly repented (turned from their wicked, selfish ways and are seeking God with all they have). This person may not know where to find the book of John in the Bible yet, but when they find it, they will be obedient to God's teaching. The Christ centered person may fail a lot, not know everything, and may not be ready to teach, but are failing less, are teachable, and willing to mature quickly toward high levels of service.

The Bible does not allow for two calls on our life -- one for salvation, and then a later call to be a Christ follower (which I see as synonymous with Christ centered). There is one call -- to repent and believe the Gospel and to drop our nets of self-centeredness and follow Him. Then, the repentant, teachable man or woman sets out on becoming more like Christ day after day -- open to God's incredible transforming Spirit and working very hard on their own to study, learn, and serve. Admirers of Christ do not mature because they have not yet been cut to the heart. Followers of Christ (disciples) mature because they are working on Christ's agenda and not their own.

Willow Creek Plans

2008-10-09T13:35:00.000-07:00

Okay! I am officially a little nervous about speaking at Reveal. My section is a part of a 45 minute interview format that two other pastors (one from Pennsylvania and one from New Jersey) and I will speaking about how we grow Christ-centered disciples by going out and BEING the church instead of people coming to church. In other words, we give the church leadership away as every member becomes both a minister (a priest) and a missionary. I am the middle section of the interview and mine is the longest (these folks cannot believe how our cell families function as small churches). Mine being the longest is not necessarily good because we do not have any notes with us, and I am getting old and cannot remember long sequences of thought anymore. I am excited though because I get to mention the magnificent Gospel of Jesus Christ to thousands of people. Surely I won't mess that up! They get a kick out the fact that we have twice as many people come to church as live the little town that our church sits in. We are the only portable church that was selected also -- the only church dumping beer and cleaning just so we can have church.

It has been fabulous interacting with the tremendous staff at Willow Creek and these other 12 pastors are unbelievable. What creativity -- what passion for God and His Word. I have learned a lot from just all the preparations to go. All of the churches have had to work as a team -- what a novel idea -- the church functioning as a team. I do hope that I remember that one crucial thought that I have had is that I have noticed recently different cell families working well with each other to accomplish taking care of people in need. If you understand how our church functions, that is like different churches coming together to help someone. That is a model for what Christ wants to see in ALL churches. This territorial crap has to stop.

Our team that will be attending is up to 8 as Milford and Nancy Gibbs have decided to join us on the trip. They will join pastors Steve Tousseau of Community Covenant and Kendall Hughes of First Church of God in Leadwood (both of them serve on our oversight team), Kim Massey, teaching pastor Ben Durbin, and of course Kelley.
If you would like to pray for me, I will speaking at 11:00 on Wednesday in the Big Auditorium at WC. I sure would appreciate it because this is quite an honor, and I am not sure if this washed-up ball coach is up to the task. What is really exciting is that I get to talk about the fine folks of The Bridge and the great job they are doing at following King Jesus. That is what people want to hear about.

The picture above is at Catalyst today. It shows our fine young leadership on the couches of the front row getting ready to worship with Steve Fee and hear from Andy Stanley, Steven Furtick, and Craig Groecshel. Good stuff!

Thoughts on a Friday Morning

2008-10-03T06:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry that I have not blogged in a few days, but I have been rewriting all of the church documents and getting them approved by the our Board of Elders, rewriting all of our membership classes, and writing our Board of Elder and Pastor Ordination interview questions. That may not sound like a lot of fun to you, but I have really enjoyed it as it has afforded a lot of time in the Bible (since we can do nothing that does not have Biblical warrant), and a lot of time thinking about the best ways to help our people to Believe IT, Grow IT, Send IT. I recommend to all of you church leaders out there to periodically look at your documents, your trainings, your vision statements and see if they are current with what God wants you focused on. We have changed our website, so you can easily see a lot of the updates at www.bridgelife360.com.

Ben and I have been wrestling with something for quite a while now. We know that to truly help change our community, to truly be salt and light, to truly wipe out some of the pressing issues, we need a strong working relationships with other churches. We have that with 3 or 4, but there are 118 in the county. We want to partner with them, but we don't think that they have a high view of us. We need for you to pray that the hearts of the pastors and leadership will have their heart softened toward working together to really impact St. Francois County for Christ.

We know that we are brash and bold with our vision, but that does not mean that we have not approached our assigned task without humility. The Apostle Paul was successful in spreading the Gospel because he was powerful in the Holy Spirit while he was personally humble. I am asking the Lord to make sure that we have that combination right because our church can only make a dent in the serious problems of our community, but many churches together can win the county for Christ. That is all we want to see happen.

We had a tremendous cell family meeting last night. There were lots of laughs and lots of Bible moments. There is nothing like authentic community. So authentic that I got flipped off by a church member last night. Wow!

It's All Because of Jesus

2008-09-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

I have to be really careful in the upcoming weeks. There are so many exciting things coming up that I am dizzy. The Bridge just this month will kicking off the Great Adventure Project at the Community Supervision Center, our 22,000 square foot building will rise into the skies, and I will have the opportunity to tell the world about the discipleship of our church to thousands of church leaders at the Reveal Conference in Chicago. Wow! Plus God has brought us literally a hundred new folks in the last few weeks to get to know, tell about the Gospel, and start helping them grow in their faith.

As exciting as all of that sounds, I have to be careful. I must continue to seek the Lord while He may be found, to focus on His word, and to remember that while I was yet a sinner, the spotless lamb out of sheer love took my sin and bore it for me. I must remember to abide in His presence. I must remember that I have been loved and are loved to degrees that I cannot even begin to understand. I must remember that my response must be one of humble obedience and a passionate return love. I must remember to love others. I must remember that all of the above excitement is caused by Jesus and is about Jesus.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Colossians 1:15-23

Lance Smith from Sunday

2008-09-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

I thought that God showed up in a big way through Lance Smith on Sunday. He had some of the best lines I have ever heard in a sermon such as:
"They are subject to a Kingdom that they cannot see, and
they serve a King that they do not know."

and

"It is good thing that Moses and God never got mad at the Israelites on the same day."
Moses would get mad at them and step aside and say, "Go ahead God, they are maddening -- smoke em." God said, "No, no Moses." On other days, God would ask Moses to get out of the way because he was going to wipe them out due to His frustration with them and start over, and Moses would say, "Please no Lord, our enemies will scoff." Good thing that they were never mad on the same day.

IT at The Bridge -- Laser Focus & Community

2008-09-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

In Chapter 4 of IT, Craig Groeschel says that IT churches are focused on a “limited set of targets.” IT churches do not try and do everything – they have laser focus. They know what they are called to do, and they go after IT with tremendous vigor. God blesses faithful churches with IT – “His mysteriously awesome presence, power, and peace."
He then talks about the dangers of ministries losing IT because they get arrogant and focus on something (too many things) other than what God is blessing. Sometimes that happens. Leaders figure that if God blessed the small focus, surely He will bless a bunch of new ministries. They get distracted and IT slips away. We will have to make sure that we do not attempt to do everything. In Luke 10, Martha is trying to do everything when Jesus visited. Jesus rebuked her for being worried about everything. Mary had laser focus and that was what Jesus was looking for. If our church is interested in not having IT, we will take on everything.

At The Bridge we will always only have five ministries: 1) hopefully, the best Sunday morning worship CELEBRATION around, 2) hopefully, the best children’s ministry around (Bridge Kids), 3) hopefully, the best youth ministry around, 4) a CELL ministry that creates disciples, 5) a GAP ministry that fills needs in two international ministries and our target ministry in the local area. That is it; that is our laser focus. There are hundreds of other ministries that have validity, and some of our cell families may become involved in them on the side, but as The Bridge, those are the five that we will attempt to do very well for the glory of God. We will help other churches start men’s ministries, women’s ministries, singles ministries, car ministries, etc., but those five are all that we will ever sink money and staff into. The clearer our vision becomes, it is easier to guard what God calls us to do. To be great at a few things and experience IT, we will have to say ‘no’ to many quality things.

Ministries that have IT, enjoy IT together. There is an unmistakable camaraderie. If the leaders do not have IT, IT will have to be faked. Friendships matter. Staffs need to enjoy each others company and be committed to each other and trust each other. They must be friends. They cannot just put up with each other. Cells must get close and trust each other. Laughter is huge! Staffs and cells with IT love each other. They do life together. Are you meeting with people that you are doing life and ministry together with in social settings? You should go shopping together, to sporting events together, to trainings together. The development of team IT takes time. Craig suggests that you should give refrigerator rights. That means someone can walk in your house and eat out of your refrigerator without asking. Teams from other walks of life should envy our refrigerator rights. Doing life like this creates IT.
There is a problem because America wants to be independent. People do not think that they want to be interdependent. There is no IT in independence. God intended for us to rely on Him and to rely on each other. Not doing either kills IT. Read Ephesians 2:19-21 and see what it says about our interdependence. Read it in the New Living Translation – what does that say to you?
You cannot experience IT alone.
God wants you to share IT.
You will experience IT best when you live out authentic community with God’s people.

Some staffs and some CELLS have IT. When staff members only focus on their particular area of ministry, they kill IT. When a cell family ignores the other members of its cell or worse yet all of the needs of the other cells, they kill IT. Read 1 Corinthians 12 and see what God says about interdependence.

Saturday IT Thoughts

2008-09-13T05:52:00.000-07:00

This has been quite a week as our excavation for the new Sprung building has really taken shape over the last few days, and I am really excited to hear Lance Smith speak from God's Word over SEND IT and the Suppan Suwaan church in Thailand tomorrow. We finished up a very spiritual, Biblical set of Elder interviews this week with our current Board of The Bridge. I am extraordinarily impressed with how far these people have come in their discipleship with Christ in the past three years.

Then, on Wednesday night, I attended (with the Board, Jon Bird, and Murphy Thomas) the debate between Christopher Hitchens and Danesh de Souza at Powell Symphony Hall on the existence of God (God on Trial). The crowd was split rather evenly and Hitchens was a superb villain as he is passionate about his distaste for Christianity and all that it entails. Danesh was brilliant and witty, but the evening was not a stunning knockout. The secular humanists that were present to support the atheist Hitchens are deep into "for although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images...Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not be done. They have been filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity" Romans 1:21,22,28,29). There was very dark thinking present in the room, but Danesh shined some light through the darkness with the true Gospel. Hitchens main attacks came against some of the historical failures of the Catholic church which have some validity, but these failures do not hold the true Church in contempt. Danesh is Catholic, and he is obviously one of the Catholic church's successes. I did find myself appreciating Hitchens though because at least with him we know what we are dealing with. He is very outspoken in his opposition to the true Gospel of Christ. Many of these midwestern chair 3 Bible-belters who think that they are in the Kingdom make making disciples quite difficult. The secular-humanist's rejection of the Gospel is angry and misguided, but at least it is overt and honest. It was really interesting to see liquor served by PSH at this event and many delving deep into it before the debate began. There were many of the seculars drinking heavily (and probably some closet-Baptists pretending to be atheist - HA) before the debate. The atmosphere was tense and spiritual warfare was thick, but I do not think the presence of IT was recognized except by those who came with IT. However, the Gospel was presented and IT never comes back void, so who knows.

Secular-humanists can recognize IT when there is time to develop a relationship. Kelley, Justin, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading Isaac Grimm's blog last night as he described how he and his travel partner (the beautiful Melissa Sandoval) perceived their encounter with our Chacocente team. Isaac is a magnificent writer, so I suggest that you take your time and read his blog on their trip experience where they ran into the "Missourians." Isaac's Blog on Chacocente.
Isaac's Blog on Bridge Medical Clinics. Isaac & Melissa were blatant secular-humanists from the east coast who outwardly denied the Bible as truth when we first meant, but who knows what effects IT has had on them now.

IT Stuff from Craig Groeschel -- 2

2008-09-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

Craig cut to the chase by giving the best explanation that he could, IT is what God does through a rare combination of these qualities found in his people:
 Passion for His presence
 A deep craving to reach the lost
 Sincere integrity
 Spirit-filled faith
 Down-to-earth humility
 Brokenness
Wow! Did you see yourself in there?

In Chapter 4, Craig discusses how foolish it would be for a church to have no vision. “Without a God-given vision, our ministries will never have IT.” It is exhausting to serve in a vision-less church. People are busy, but no IT business ever gets done. MINISTRIES THAT HAVE IT ALWAYS HAVE A CLEAR VISION. The people know the vision, believe the vision, and live the vision. Has our church clearly defined our vision?

Craig proposes that there are three levels of vision buy-in:
1. The people believe in the vision enough to benefit from it. Consumer mentality. People come to church because they like it. Church is for the people.
2. The people believe in the vision enough to contribute comfortably. People will contribute as long as it is easy. Happy to help if it does not interfere with their other priorities.
3. The people believe in the vision enough to give their lives to it. These people realize their lives are not their own. They belong to Jesus. They understand that they are a part of greatest cause on earth.
There is no IT in #’s 1 & 2, but IT flourishes in #3. The cause of Christ is the greatest cause on earth.

So now we have chair 1, soil 4, and vision 3. That is where you want to be!!!!

IT Stuff from Craig Groeschel -- 1

2008-09-02T18:02:00.000-07:00

Craig Groeschel says in Chapter 1 of his book, IT, that IT is caused by off the charts excitement about Jesus. When they started their church, LifeChurch.tv, the initial meetings were held in a garage with 75 green felt-back chairs, a closet for their children’s ministry (they would bring the kids out of the closet at some point in the service), an overhead projector, and a guy named Jerome that changed the transparencies that only had three fingers on one hand due to a drug deal gone bad. The whole production was lit with a floodlight purchased from the local hardware store for $19.95. However, they had IT, and so new people came by the dozens because they were attracted to IT, followed by hundreds, followed by thousands. That is a similar story to what we have experienced at The Bridge. At this point, from what you have heard about IT, and what has happened to IT at The Bridge, what do you think IT is?
Craig also talked about that IT sometimes seems to be random even among their own organization at their church. They have 13 campuses at LifeChurch.tv and there appeared to be explosive IT at times among some of their campuses. During the last year, all of their campuses experienced explosive growth and discipleship except one – the one that he taught at live. There seemed to be a randomness and an ebb and flow to IT. He pointed out that the good news is that: if you don’t have IT, you can GET IT, and If you have IT, you can lose IT. The former-Baptists can relax; he is not talking about salvation. There are saved people who at times appear not to have IT.

C.S. Lewis said, “The perfect church would be one we were almost unaware of. Our attention would have been on God.” It appears that some churches that have magnificent facilities, a lot of money, and every advantage do not have IT. Sometimes when we visit churches we feel like we are not dressed in the right clothes or whether we even qualify to receive a bulletin. There may be a lot of people there, but when we leave, we never experience IT. Sometimes the beautiful cathedral churches don’t have IT, but some small poorly lit, poorly equipped churches like Pastor Pedro’s in Nicaragua have huge IT. New, excited believers die if they stay in these places. Craig tells the story of the first time he experienced IT as a new believer. It was at a Bible study / prayer meeting at college that was simply built around an electric excitement about the majesty of Christ and the power of the Gospel. He, then, attended his first church with IT. The people were warm and ECSTATIC to express what was in their hearts. The preacher almost actually glowed; his words from scripture pierced hearts. This church had Craig at , ‘hello.’ They had IT. He wanted IT. He needed IT. And he got IT.

Paying Staff Well

2008-08-29T05:07:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to remind folks at The Bridge that we are in this thing for the long haul. Our goal has always been to create a Biblical community where long term relationships are essential as people learn how to love God and love other people. As I look around the country (and I do look), the best churches at getting this done keep their top staff people in tact for a long period of time. Matt Chandler is going to stay at The Village in the Dallas area for a long time (http://www.thevillagechurch.net/), Steven Furtick is committed long term to Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC (http://www.elevationchurch.org/), and I am in this for the duration at The Bridge. There are hundreds of others and it is important to note that these pastors are not in this to move to a bigger and better church. They believe that God has called them to revolutionize the communities that they planted churches in. These churches need to pay their senior leadership well enough that there should never be a day when that pastor is sweating how he is going to pay his bills. You might be interested in this article that shows the average amount that is paid for quality church leadership: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080819/church-pastors-pay-rises-to-more-than-80-000.htm.
While it is true that I have so far never accepted a nickel in salary so that we could get this church up and running with all of the ministries needed to deliver the Great Commission to St. Francois County, there may be a day when I will need to. But even if we are not talking about me, we must pay our God-supplied quality staff well enough to let them know that we want them here long term for long term growth and relationships. All of the leaders at the best churches in America share that philosophy. I can assure you that none of the current leadership at The Bridge is in this for the money, so we need to be diligent and take care of those who have been called to lead God's flock. We need to tithe faithfully and then be cutting edge in taking care of a quality staff. It is sure sign of a church that does not have IT for the membership to be constantly moaning about what any particular staff member makes when the people who set such things are doing so by Biblical and God-centered selfless attitudes. Our church has not done that, but we are going to have to up the ante here someday soon from a fledgling church plant to an established Kingdom factor in all areas including this one.

Reflection

2008-08-16T08:01:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking back to this time last year when God was really pushing us to set aside our personal agendas and serve others. Think about all of the amazing things that God has done through his servants since then. Remember Bridging Back where we took an entire week's offering and gave it away to our attenders just to give it away to people in need. Remember Advent Conspiracy where our attenders spent less on Christmas presents and focused more on Christ, then gave thousands of dollars to Project Chacocente. There have been dozens of electric bills paid, cars fixed, jobs found, prayers for healing lifted, and many other random acts of kindness here locally thru GAP. Then, 25 people put together enough money over and above their tithe and building gifts to travel to Chacocente, Nicaragua to serve some people in need that they had never met. We will have relationship with these people for the rest of our lives; they are siblings in Christ. Now, our big focus is to sacrificially give of our time and money to build a spiritual epicenter for our county, our Sprung building. People have already sacrificially given enough to buy 10 acres of prime land on the 67 corridor. Our epicenter will be located 11 minutes from every corner of St. Francois County and will be the perfect location to go and "feed the hungry, give cups of cold water, heal the sick, visit the prisoner, provide shelter to the homeless" -- all of the things that Christ commands in the Great Adventure of Matthew 25. It looks like the start date for construction will be October 1.

I believe that we are the quintessential missional church. Our Great Adventure Project that is about to get off of the ground in a big way (it has already been responsible for all of the above ministry) is going to be a model for the evangelical church world. God asks us to risk big for His sake, and so we are going to keep pushing the bar of risk to fulfill the mission that He has challenged us with in the Great Commission.

Matt's Poems

2008-08-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

My cell family is very diverse. We range from 83-year-old widows to 28-year-old ex-cons. We have married people, divorced people, joyful people, and downtrodden people. We have very spiritually mature and some that are not even sure about the existence of God. We have carpenters, pastors, social workers, welders, teachers, housewives, and folks retired from careers but not from the church.

Matt Phillips is one of this magnificent group of people. He went to prison when he was in the military and he wrote some poetry while he was there. I thought you might enjoy reading his work.

"His Hands"

In His hands,
Is a place of protection
to take away our fears.
A place of comfort
to wipe away our tears.

With His hands,
He provides us strength
to carry us through.
He gives us guidance
in all the things we do.

By His hands,
He created every thing
from His throne above.
He was nailed to the cross
to show us His great love.

His hands,
Redeemed us from the grave
and gives us eternal life.
Cleanses us with His blood
and makes us snow white.

"What I Went Through"

In my home town you rejected me,
My brothers were ashamed.
You tried to confine me
Claiming I was insane.

I did the works of my Father
Before your very eyes,
Yet you called it blasphemy
And thought I told lies.

I was chased from your towns.
My head, it was sought.
You wanted to imprison me
For the Word that I taught.

With a kiss on the cheek
You turned me over to the guards.
Thirty silver coins,
You claimed as a reward.

I was cursed at and spitted on
Sentenced by my own children.
Flogged many times by the whip
My body was stricken.

My hands and my feet,
To the cross were nailed.
While you laughed and joked,
Mocked me and yelled.

Crown of thorns on my head,
Blood soaking in my hair.
My chest was collapsing
While I gasped for some air.

Broken, battered, and bruised.
One step away from death.
I slowly closed my eyes
And took one last breath.

My love was much stronger
Than the pain I went through,
But the choice was all mine,
And I did it For you!

Matthew Phillips

Loved

2008-08-11T05:54:00.000-07:00

I feel extraordinarily loved by our Father today. I always know that He loves me, and I always sense His presence. His love is overflowing today.

I sat with a man last night that needs God's love very badly. He has made a wreck of his life with a series of bad decisions. The Good News is that Jesus Christ can wipe away that past and make him a new creation in a split second. I pray that God's grace and mercy fall on this man today.

Debit Card Machines in the Church

2008-08-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

OK. I am wrestling around with something weird today. That happens to weird people, I guess. I just read an article that 40% of the group of people that tend to come to The Bridge are headed to never using cash or writing a check in their daily lives. They basically will do everything online electronically. So, I am starting the conversation with our staff about putting a debit card machine in the welcome area of the new facility. This is a risky adventure because it is so cutting edge, but the study thinks that churches that do not provide this option may be costing themselves as much as 30% in their giving, and that number is going to skyrocket as checks and cash become more antiquated.
Since we do so much training thru the Treasure Principle and Crown to have people either destroying their credit cards or being ultimately disciplined with them, I am torn in my feelings about this issue. If we think and pray very carefully about this though, could our extensive training actually allow us to do this? Offering envelopes were a very controversial new tool in the 1890's, and I think that we will look back on this 30 years from now and laugh that we ever hestitated to do it. We are a cutting edge church that teaches strong Biblical concepts and that includes our worshipful giving to God. Could it not be just as worshipful to swipe a card as write a check? What is the difference really?
My sister gets criticism from her pastor about giving her tithe from her online banking account. She tells him that since we are commanded to give a certain percentage of gross income to the local church that this process helps her in the spiritual discipline and worship to do so. He is struggling not seeing the gift hit the gold plate that they pass, but why could it not be just worshipful to click a mouse as it is to write a check and plate it? Interesting question.
There is also the danger that the general public will be suspicious that we are only interested in people's money, but if they hang around and give us a little chance they will see that is quite honestly a ridiculous notion.
We will not be putting them on the ends of our rows of chairs or on the altar, but I am feeling like this probably needs to happen. Please pray about it, and let's talk real soon about what you hear from God. The WCA will put the $1500 technology in for us free, so there is no investment. I think that this is probably going to happen and it will feel strange for a little while, but then it will feel just like the envelopes that we no longer think anything about.