Why We Need Each Other
New to The Bridge? Part 3
One of the things I hope you discover pretty quickly at The Bridge is that we don't want you to simply come to church. We want you to become part of the church. There really is a difference.
It's entirely possible to come on Sunday morning, find your seat, sing with us, listen to the message, and head home without ever really allowing anyone else into your life. In fact, that's probably easier than ever. Most of us have gotten pretty good at living independent lives.
But following Jesus was never intended to work that way.
When you read the New Testament, Christians are constantly being told to do things for “one another.” Encourage one another. Pray for one another. Bear one another's burdens. Forgive one another. Serve one another. Love one another.
You can't really do any of those things alone. And I think that's especially important when I think about where God has placed us.
The community around The Bridge is incredibly varied. Within a fifteen-minute drive of our building are people at just about every stage of life. There are young families and retirees, married couples and single adults, people raising children on their own, and a significant number of people living by themselves.
Of course, statistics can't tell you whether somebody is lonely. They can't tell you whether a marriage is struggling or whether somebody has anyone they can call when life falls apart. But they do remind us that there are a lot of different stories represented in the neighborhoods around us.
That's true inside The Bridge too.
On any given Sunday, you're sitting near people who have followed Jesus for decades and people who are still trying to figure out what they believe. There are people having a really good year and people barely holding things together. There are people raising kids, caring for aging parents, starting careers, nearing retirement, grieving somebody they love, looking for work, or trying to figure out what comes next. We need each other.
That's one reason we don't want The Bridge to become a church where people simply recognize one another's faces. We want to really know one another.
That doesn't mean everybody is going to be best friends. That's not realistic. It does mean that over time you should have people here who know your name, know something about your life, pray for you, notice when you're missing, and care about how you're doing.
And you should be that person for somebody else, too.
Sometimes that starts in surprisingly ordinary ways. You stay around and talk after church instead of heading straight for the parking lot. You come on a Wednesday night and participate in Bible study. You serve in our student ministries or DELTA kids clubs. You might find your place by helping at the food pantry. You pray with somebody. You learn the name of the person you've been sitting three rows behind for the last month.
It's not a magical formula...you just keep showing up. And when you do, special things begin to happen. Somewhere along the way, these people stop being the people who go to your church. They become your church.
I think that's much closer to the picture Jesus has given us.
Our mission at The Bridge is "Connecting Others to the Love of Jesus". We usually think about that in terms of the people outside our church—and we should. God has placed us here to love and serve our neighbors. But sometimes the person Jesus is calling you to love is already sitting across the room.
And sometimes one of the ways Jesus intends to show His love to you is through them.
It's entirely possible to come on Sunday morning, find your seat, sing with us, listen to the message, and head home without ever really allowing anyone else into your life. In fact, that's probably easier than ever. Most of us have gotten pretty good at living independent lives.
But following Jesus was never intended to work that way.
When you read the New Testament, Christians are constantly being told to do things for “one another.” Encourage one another. Pray for one another. Bear one another's burdens. Forgive one another. Serve one another. Love one another.
You can't really do any of those things alone. And I think that's especially important when I think about where God has placed us.
The community around The Bridge is incredibly varied. Within a fifteen-minute drive of our building are people at just about every stage of life. There are young families and retirees, married couples and single adults, people raising children on their own, and a significant number of people living by themselves.
Of course, statistics can't tell you whether somebody is lonely. They can't tell you whether a marriage is struggling or whether somebody has anyone they can call when life falls apart. But they do remind us that there are a lot of different stories represented in the neighborhoods around us.
That's true inside The Bridge too.
On any given Sunday, you're sitting near people who have followed Jesus for decades and people who are still trying to figure out what they believe. There are people having a really good year and people barely holding things together. There are people raising kids, caring for aging parents, starting careers, nearing retirement, grieving somebody they love, looking for work, or trying to figure out what comes next. We need each other.
That's one reason we don't want The Bridge to become a church where people simply recognize one another's faces. We want to really know one another.
That doesn't mean everybody is going to be best friends. That's not realistic. It does mean that over time you should have people here who know your name, know something about your life, pray for you, notice when you're missing, and care about how you're doing.
And you should be that person for somebody else, too.
Sometimes that starts in surprisingly ordinary ways. You stay around and talk after church instead of heading straight for the parking lot. You come on a Wednesday night and participate in Bible study. You serve in our student ministries or DELTA kids clubs. You might find your place by helping at the food pantry. You pray with somebody. You learn the name of the person you've been sitting three rows behind for the last month.
It's not a magical formula...you just keep showing up. And when you do, special things begin to happen. Somewhere along the way, these people stop being the people who go to your church. They become your church.
I think that's much closer to the picture Jesus has given us.
Our mission at The Bridge is "Connecting Others to the Love of Jesus". We usually think about that in terms of the people outside our church—and we should. God has placed us here to love and serve our neighbors. But sometimes the person Jesus is calling you to love is already sitting across the room.
And sometimes one of the ways Jesus intends to show His love to you is through them.
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