“Doers” are really good at doing stuff. We can clean your house, mow your lawn or sew your skin back together. And there’s never an end to the stuff we could be doing. In fact, when I’m at home, sometimes I wander through the house just looking for something to fix, clean, move, etc.

But there are several instances in the Bible where “doers” get rebuked. You probably remember the story of Mary and Martha – the sisters who both loved Jesus but had very different ways of showing it. Martha was a doer, like me. When Jesus came to her house she was scurrying around the kitchen cleaning up and trying to figure out what to cook. Meanwhile, sister Mary (no relation to Jesus’ mom) was sitting with Jesus doing nothing – or at least that’s what Martha thought. Martha, indignant with her sister, rebuked her and Jesus comes to her defense.

Seems that doing is not a bad thing – but there are better things.

Jesus quotes the Old Testament prophet Hosea a couple of times in the book of Matthew, but this time he is rebuking the religious leaders instead of Martha. “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice’.” Seems like the religious guys were doers. They had their job down pat, knew all the tricks of the trade. Always careful not to touch someone who was unclean.

Sometimes in our spiritual lives, we can do it all right and completely miss the point. Especially in the south, we know how to do church and do Christian living. I can serve Christ out of my head with my heart being a mile from it. We must engage our hearts first before doing anything. Like Mary, we need to sit a bit more at Jesus’ feet and stay out of the kitchen until we are ready to serve up mercy – not sacrifices.

Jimi Williams
Worship Pastor, The Bridge

Technology is both a blessing and a curse. I can’t imagine functioning without a cell phone, but I did just fine for the first 24 years of my life. Now that I have it, I can’t live without it! Sounds like a love song, eh? It’s easy to become dependent on technology. Whenever we force our kids to turn off the TV and computers, they wander around like zombies and many times end up falling asleep, which isn’t all bad. Naps are good!

When it comes to utilizing technology in the church, sometimes you have to make hard choices. To reject technology altogether would be, in my opinion, rejecting the creativity that God has given those who create new things. Things like A/C, lighting, sound reinforcement, Facebook and our website allow us to reach out to people and share the Gospel in ways that were not possible 100 years ago. But these advancements are not necessity. The church has done just fine advancing the Gospel for a couple thousand years without any of these things.

So there is a fine line of balance we have to walk with technology. How can we make practical use of it without it controlling us? I’ve been around some church leaders who are always looking for the latest gadget they can use to wow their congregations. When I leave a church gathering like that I’m often thinking more “How did they do that?” than “Man, isn’t God awesome”.

At the Bridge, I want to always use technology to the glory of God. He has to be the One that wows the worshippers.

Jimi Williams
Worship Pastor, The Bridge

As the Bridge continues to grow, the role of Ministry Lead is becoming vital. In the last 2 years, the worship team has tripled in size (30 people!) and we’ve added a 2nd service. This is all cause to praise God for what He has done!

All this growth has created additional work that needs to get done every week. I’m so thankful to have Shivonne to help out.

I’m also thankful to have Shivonne as a role model and mentor to other female worship leaders at the Bridge. This is a real under-served area of ministry in many churches and I’m glad our young girls get to see someone like Shivonne on the platform each week.

So, congrats and welcome, Shivonne! Now, let’s get to work!

I’m not saying that we don’t need solid proof for our decisions, but that we often demagnify things when we reduce them down to a few examples of physical evidence, especially when it relates to God. Matt Redman calls this wonderful, mysterious side of God His “otherness”. It’s the sense that God is so matchless and unique that it’s hard to find the words (or pictures) to describe Him.

I’m amused and often turned off by some of the depictions of God and Jesus that you see in the Christian bookstores. God is often made to look like Father Time, Santa Claus or Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments. Jesus is often depicted as a GQ model in a toga, blue eyes and all.

I sometimes think how much easier it would be to share the story of God if I had pictures. Real pictures, not the flannel graph stuff we saw as kids. Maybe of God chilling before time began. Or of Him leading the children of Israel out of Egypt. Or maybe a video of Jesus horsing around with his disciples. I could say “Look! Here’s a picture. Now do you believe?”

But I think one of the reasons Jesus came when he did in history, was that God didn’t want us to get caught up in what we saw. But rather, “see” him with our hearts. Jesus spent much of his teaching trying to get us to lift our eyes from the temporal to the eternal. He told his disciples in John 14:7 “From now on, you know him (God) and have seen him”. The disciples hadn’t seen God. But they had seen Jesus. He was telling them to look beyond the obvious to the mysterious. In his encounter with the woman at the well, she was talking about H2O. Jesus helped her to see a water that was beyond a scientific formula.

So don’t be afraid to embrace mystery in your faith. The next time someone asks you to explain the trinity or predestination, you can say “I’m not sure how it all works, but isn’t it wonderful!”.

Jimi Williams
Worship Pastor, The Bridge

I’m being a little tongue and cheek here and I’m sure to hack someone off who either loves Harry Potter or thinks that J.K. Rowling is the anti-Christ.  Who knows what Jesus would do. Those who claim they do know, I wouldn’t trust.  So, we Christians have to navigate this mine field of sometimes suspect, sometimes benign culture.

I laugh when I think of the things we Christians have boycotted through the years. Here’s just a few:

-Teletubbies: Can we really say that Tinky Winky was gay? Hasn’t anyone heard of the man-purse? I think these are the same people who say Ernie and Bert are gay. What, so now any two guys living together are gay? The bigger question is if Ernie and Bert were kids or adults. Either way, there are questions. And what was up with the shape of Bert’s head?

-Lego Bionicles: I actually researched this one and decided on my own to boycott them. My kid just wanted to play with the action figures and wasn’t interested in the “God-like” powers attributed to each character. Probably a dad fail. I changed my position later on.

-Disney: Okay, ‘fess up. Every Christian over 40 probably tried to boycott Disney at some point. There were crazy rumors about Disney illustrators drawing lewd pictures into the animation and that gay people were working there. Imagine that. But I was a hypocritical boycotter. I agreed with my Christian friends that Disney was evil, then secretly I would watch the Lion King at home. Oh, that’s until I threw the Lion King VHS tape out because I was convicted by a fellow Christian about Simba talking to his dad’s spirit. I am not making this up.

-Rock Music. This is probably the most painful to me. When Christian (our son) was born, I chunked a bunch of my classic rock CDs for bad language or sexual innuendo (which was pretty much all of them) because I didn’t want him to be negatively influenced by them. It haven’t had the heart or the cash to replace most of them, so I listen to Jack FM on the weekends to get my hair metal fix.

All this to say, maybe I’ve let other people’s opinions influence my decision making too much. In none of these cases did I ever stop and ask “Jesus, what’s important to you?”. Looking back, I wish I’d spent less time speaking against things and more time speaking for Christ. Perhaps this is a lesson we can all learn.

So, if you see me at the Harry Potter movie, don’t judge.

Jimi Williams
Worship Pastor, The Bridge

I wanted to take the opportunity to brag a little on Shivonne Hood. Shivonne led the worship team last Sunday and did an amazing job. Seeing her leading worship now, you would never know that she was lacking confidence a little over a year ago. I almost had to make her sing!

My wife, Jennifer, says that Shivonne is like a beautiful butterfly that has transformed before our eyes. I agree. It’s amazing what a little encouragement and opportunity can do. Who’s the caterpillar in your life who’s waiting to become a butterfly? Maybe a friend, co-worker or child. Your encouragement and a little opportunity just might be the launching point for them.

I’m blessed to be a part of a church that appreciates and gives space for people to develop. There is so much joy in seeing others succeed.

Thank you, Bridge family. I love you all!

Pastor Jimi

So, I’m reading Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller. I’ve been reading through all of Donald’s books this summer starting with Blue Like Jazz. I would recommend any of his books if you want a different, and many times refreshing, look at Christianity.

SFGKW spends a good deal of time talking about the fall of man. And how all of our problems and struggles originate with that original sin. He points out in the book that how we treat one another is often counter-Christ. I like to think that I’m an “equal-opportunity” friend, that I’m not biased or judgmental, but I know in my heart that’s not the case.

Isn’t that the problem we all have? Think about it. The first 4 of the 10 commandments deal with our relationship with God. The last 6 deal with our relationships with one another. When those relationships break down, or are not honored, sin happens. I’ve said before that love is the main thing. The more I study the life of Christ, I see that he was truly the “Lover of our souls”. The problem is that our version of love doesn’t measure up to what Christ demonstrated for us.  I think sometimes it’s easier to love God than it is to love one another, except for the fact that one of the biggest ways we love God is to love others the way He loves us.

I need new eyes and a new heart. I need to see people the way that God sees them. I’m really trying to do that, but it’s hard. I see a jerk who cuts line at the deli or is impatiently riding my bumper. God sees a child who is hurting or is insecure. I see an angry mom who is yelling at her kids. God sees a frustrated child who wants more from life.

Anyway, I would recommend Searching For God Knows What to anyone. It is challenging my religiosity and unearthing things in me that I need to repent from.

Jimi Williams
Worship Pastor, The Bridge

1. Many hymns have rich theological content. The lyrical structure of hymns provide way more real estate to map out complex ideas and deep meanings. A typical modern praise song would have a couple of verses, a chorus that is repeated and perhaps a bridge section. Hymns can have 4,5 or 6 stanzas, which tend to be longer than verses of a modern song. This structure gives the author more words to say what is difficult to say.

2. Hymns build a bridge to history. There’s something solid about the idea of singing the same lyric and melody that Christ followers sang a hundred or two hundred years ago. This connects us historically to many church fathers and countless believers throughout the centuries. In addition, hymns build bridges to current history. If you grew up in church, chances are you sang hymns, unless you were born in the 80′s (Josh). When people visit the Bridge, we love them enough to sing a song that they might know.

3. Not all hymns are great. Just like there are a lot of poorly written worship songs today, there are poorly written hymns as well. Some are just downright hokey. This is not blasphemy as some may think. Hymns were the modern worship songs of the day, many of which were new lyrics put to old folk or bar tunes. So don’t get high-horsed on me. The great hymns have stood the test of time, but there were many, many more that thankfully did not make it.

4. Not all hymn language is relevant. Many of the hymns we sing are from the 18th century, so they contain a good amount of monarchical language. There are lots of references to crowns and diadems. Not necessarily language we use every day. So as we sing, we either have to avoid songs with this type of language, or understand it, so that we can place it in the right context. A good example is from last Sunday when we sang Come Thou Fount. There’s a line in the song that says “Here I raise my Ebenezer, here by Thy great help I’ve come“. Most folks have no idea what that means, but the reference is from 1 Samuel 7:12 and it means the “stone of help”. Samuel set up a monument stone and called it “Ebenezer” to remind Israel of God’s faithfulness and help. Our “Ebenezer stone” would be the cross, because it’s a reminder of what God did for us. Now that I know this, the hymn takes on a whole new meaning for me.

I’m so excited for our church as we push ahead into the new things that God is doing and at the same time, we are extending a hand backward to bring along more brothers and sisters with us in the journey.

Jimi Williams
Worship Pastor, The Bridge

Summer is also a great time to meet neighbors and build new relationships. Just tonight, Jennifer and I were two yards down at the home of some fellow Bridgers. Just some chit-chat, but really important stuff. In the summer, lots of people are outside. Unlike the winter, when everyone hibernates, hoping spring comes before the milk and bread run out.

So my point is, don’t miss it! Turn off the tube, get out of the kitchen. Cook some meat out of doors and practice community. Go introduce yourself to your neighbors that you’ve lived next door to for 3 years but have never met. Throw a Frisbee, catch a lighting bug, get some mosquito bites.

Whatever you do, just get outside! God could use you sitting on the couch, but He probably won’t!

Have a great summer and meet lots of people, Bridge family. And maybe you’ll want to invite them to church or over to have some of your meat that you cooked out of doors.

Jimi Williams
Worship Pastor, The Bridge

On the outside it would appear that God has abandoned the people of Haiti and that His wrath is being poured out on the land. But just underneath the surface there’s life. Like a fresh budding leaf straining its way through the charred earth, you have to look closely to see it. Haiti may be broken on the outside, but on the inside it is being renewed daily.

I was told by a missionary serving there that before the earthquake there were over 200 registered voodoo priests. Today, there are just over 60. There are many stories of radical salvations acc0mpanied by various signs and wonders.

No, God has not abandoned Haiti. In fact, there is much evidence of his power and grace.

I am in the process of creating a slideshow for this Sunday. In looking for music, I settled on the song “Beautiful Things” by Gungor. The lyrics really capture the beauty and pain that is Haiti.

Beautiful Things by Michael and Lisa Gungor

All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all

All this earth
Could all that’s been lost ever be found?
Could a garden come up from this ground at all?

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

You make me new
You are making me new

Jimi Williams
Worship Pastor, The Bridge