Once we got into town we were welcomed by a lovely town of no electricity. With church in less than two hours we had lots of decisions to make. We decided to have service on a very simple scale. We had the piano and the small drum. It was pretty cool. We did not expect to have very many people but God had bigger plans we had 30+ people and still had our 3 kids! So it was pretty neat to have service without electricity.

After church the real journey began. We were all very hungry and there was no power anywhere in town so we began a drive to find something with power and with food. So We found an IHOP. I have never been to an IHOP before but this was not the most wonderful experience. We waited 1 hour to be seated and another hour to be served our food. So the whole thing took forever and was pretty crazy.

After a night of craziness the town is still out of power. When Monday arrived school was closed and my work had closed so it turned into a wonderful day of rest and running. If that makes any sense at all. LOL We had a pretty relased morning. Then at lunch time we decied that 1. we needed to cook the meat that was in our fridge so it would not spoil. 2. that we should cook out in the trailor park. It was pretty cool we fed many of the children and families in the trailor park with hamburgers and hot dogs. Then we got some chicken. Subway donated their bread and the lettus. Later a woman brought us some apples and a watermellon. It was wonderful just to see different people come together to help serve and feed those who could not cook because of the power outage.

Superheroes??

So not sure which of you that went to Baltimore had signed up for the newsletters from Embrace Baltimore. I did, and I occasionally take the time to read a few of the articles. This one struck me because it started out similar in theme to our Momentum Weekend.

"Gotham City had Batman. Metropolis had Superman. New York had Spiderman. But who will save Baltimore? The citizens of the third most violent large city in the country are looking for a hero."

The story continues and talks about church planting and new churches. About the differences between new churches and established ones. And the advantages that beginning churches have. I just want to share some quotes from the article that made me think...

“New churches are very people-driven,” said Jackson. “The bottom line is that relationships are the integral things that draw people into new and smaller churches. A new church plant has the ability to reach people not reached by other churches. That’s why it has such a great advantage.”

“We often tend to view church planting as a ‘job’ or a ‘task’,” Jackson said. “We have to remember that the job is people. The task is people.”

“Many churches are dead and either don’t know it or don’t want to admit it,” said Fred Dyer, senior pastor at White Marsh Baptist Church and moderator of the Baltimore Baptist Association. “That’s why church plants are needed. New plants seem to reach people more effectively. I think that’s because they’re more intentional and more targeted.”

Dyer said new churches that target specific groups of people are more effective than churches that use what he calls the “shotgun approach.”

“We can’t plant churches just to plant churches,” Dyer said. “We need to be very intentional in strengthening existing churches and planting new ones in order to reach people and meet the needs in our area.”

“It is not sufficient to start churches in Baltimore,” Bush explained. “Our commission from Jesus is to make disciples. Church starters must passionately, intentionally and consistently make new disciples.”

They may not have a flashy cape or superpowers, but church starters are stepping up to the plate to save a struggling city. It is difficult to argue with Mackey’s statement that “church planters are some of our heroes.”


Are we acting like superheroes? Are we here to bring rescue to people? Or are we here to serve ourselves?

Oxford has a much lower crime rate than Baltimore...but just as much desperation and confusion.

Numbers

First week we had 127
2nd week we had 67 (holiday)
3rd week we had 94

As of yet we have had approximately 75 new people (never been to the BRIDGE)

We count numbers to record what God is doing or has done not to say that higher numbers mean we are in the right or in the wrong. It all is dependent on what we are doing with those that have been given to us by God...are we disciplining, fostering relationship, or are we ignoring, and not encouraging? This is what matters. We want new people to come and to hear God's word and we want those who are here to grow closer in their walk or grow closer to having a "walk".

Momentum

Yea Momentum is OVER!!!! Here is a recap of the weekend...

Friday- We had a crazy day with the planning and preparation for the evening. I had to get the food confirmed and pick up the keys for the hotels. Decorate the room and load in the sound equipment, and other things that I am surely overlooking. We had about 50-60 people there it was smaller than we had expected but ultimately it was what God wanted and that is what matters. Adam spoke on Apologetics it was a good but I had heard some of the stuff that was presented. Our Pizza was gross!!! The Cookies and Brownies were great! We have tons left over yum. After dinner we had the scavenger hunt! Fun stuff the teams did pretty well it was pretty funny watching and judging the pics. The upper class teams dominated.

Side note I hate Drama!!!! We have great leaders and some that are ready to serve and lead but we have some that I honestly don't think they all have grown up...I hope they will soon!

Saturday- The staff slept in later than the Community Leaders. This might of been a first! We got to the session and had most of the people return from the night before. It was good. Lunch was super fun. We had hot dogs and hamburgers. And played wacky Olympics they were great fun!! Sorry Betsy. We got into a flower fight after the games. Then we had our final session. After our session we had ice cream and brownies on cook field and a great time playing Ultimate Frisbee!

Sunday- We had a good morning session with Adam and Andi before they headed home.

Past Sermons

To view past Sermons click the Link below!!!

Bridge Sermons

Yea! For technology!

Welcome

Welcome to the Bridge Blog!! So we all talked about this awhile ago and it has never really went anywhere. And I thought it would be fun and useful. I will for the most part try to update on some events but I think it would be a great way for us all to understand each others perspective, as well as to document the life of the BRIDGE!!!