We’re taking time on the blog this week to roll out four major things our elders believe God is calling us toward in 2012.  Yesterday, we hit an urgent emphasis for our church body HERE.  But the thing that will affect the DNA of The Bridge the most in the long haul is…

Both of these images represent churches (see the steeple?), but these two diagrams are VASTLY different.  The fundamental difference between the two is…

• The church on the left is oriented toward “getting” and “having”. It measures success by seating capacity.
• The church on the right is oriented toward “going” and “sending”.  It measures success by sending capacity.

IN THE BIBLE…

• Paul, the greatest leader the church has ever had, was NEVER alone. He always had other men with him he was raising up to send out.  Look at the first and last verses of every letter he wrote to churches in the New Testament and other men are with him (Romans 16, 1 Corinthians 1, 2 Corinthians 1, Galatians 1, Ephesians 6, Philippians 1, Colossians 1, 1 Thess 1, 2 Thess 1)

• Ephesians 4 says the role of church leaders is to “equip the saints for the work of ministry”.  It’s not simply the job of church leaders to “do ministry” – actually, that’s not even their primary job!  Their primary job is to attract, identify, and equip others to lead, pastor, shepherd, and minister well.

• The pattern of the New Testament is that healthy churches reproduce to plant other healthy churches.  You cannot reproduce healthy churches without reproducing healthy church leadership.  See the entire book of Acts for this.

• God is going to call many of you to significant leadership.  Yes, you.  God has SUCH a bigger vision for your life than “seat filler” in his kingdom.  Like Alan Hood, Lance Howerton, Shivonne Hood, Jennifer Williams, John Howard, Dennis Knisely, and many others, God is going to use many of you to take on significant roles in his church. Get ready.

• We’ll be launching structured, formalized theological training available to anyone who wants to be equipped for church leadership.  Right now, we’re looking into the Porterbrook Network for training to implement here.

• We may need people willing to house ministry residents who move to Spring Hill for a season of training at The Bridge.

• The top item on every staff job description is now “attract, identify, and equip leaders in all areas of ministry”.

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As a result, this is what WG’s have looked like this year, including three weeks we can think of off the top of our heads that visitors have left unable to find seats in a WG…

While our elders and staff firmly believe (and have seen in our body for the last few years) that God builds his church through the power of the gospel being preached, people’s lives being changed, and the activity of his Spirit apart from ANYTHING we do or build, our elders believe that establishing a long-term launchpad for mission and ministry is an urgent and necessary course for accomplishing the mission God has given us to lift Christ high.  The following things are making this such an important emphasis for our church body’s continued mission…

• At first, we hoped to delay a need to relocate by simply trying to expand around our current location. However, in recent talks with our landlords (who have been INCREDIBLY gracious and kind to us) we’ve discovered that they aren’t interested in selling the property to The Bridge.  Aside from the fact that there is little or no space around us in which to expand, this would put us in an unstable situation moving forward, making expansion financially risky and unwise.

• The clear calling of Scripture and God’s Holy Spirit on us specifically is for The Bridge to be a church that plants other churches.  In order for us to position ourselves to be able to train leaders and continue to grow so that we can send, we need to establish a long-term launchpad for our efforts.

• Space issues, specifically in our Kids’ Ministry (although often in WG’s as well), very obviously necessitate expansion.

• Although this is a much smaller issue, our growing staff needs office space for undistracted work, counseling, and unity.  While we will NEVER devolve into a structure where church leadership retreats from the community into the confines of a church building, offices are necessary as the staff grows.

• By God’s grace and after this years’ Gift for Christ offering, we’ve almost completely eliminated our debt. We’ll be begin saving money this year in wisdom to prepare.

• As we work with guys outside our walls with specific wisdom in this area and identify a course forward, we’ll be communicating that to the church body and begging for prayer. We do not – DO NOT – want to get distracted from the heart of our mission by becoming consumed with a building or property.

 

HOW YOU CAN HELP

• Pray without ceasing.  If you have a prayer list, put our location on it.  Pray that God will “open a wide door for effective service”, that he might open hearts to be generous toward The Bridge and possibly give us a location through a miracle, and pray that God will unify us and make us holy through the process.

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