Six Weeks

We are six weeks away! Six weeks from launching our fifth campus (fourth location)!

The Bridge really is one church, though we currently operate four campuses in three locations (Spanish service is organized as a campus).

Aren’t three locations enough? Why another one? “You’re just trying to make The Bridge famous!” Yes, I’ve been accused of that.

That actually makes me chuckle. No one in leadership at The Bridge has aspirations of becoming famous and we can’t even imagine how that could or would happen.

So then, why are we doing this?

Because there are neighborhoods and communities all across Chicagoland that need high-level Bible teaching, energetic and engaging worship, and ministry that strives for both sincerity and excellence. We’re doing this because people desperately need The Gospel. Can you ever imagine getting to the place where we say: “Ok, we’ve reached enough people. We’ve influenced enough communities. We’ve done all we need.”?

And I know there’s pushback. Our friends will leave our other three locations to plant this one, and it’s hard to see them go. The more locations we have, the harder it is to keep our arms around ministry and maintain the same standard of excellence in all matters: preaching, worship, kids, students, groups, etc. With more locations, some places will see less of me (not really a negative) and less of Junior.

While church is about relationships, from the beginning of the church in the Book of Acts it was also about sending people to new communities to plant more churches. We embrace personal discomfort for a greater cause, to connect more people with God. And yes, organizationally, growth creates more challenges. But those are not insurmountable challenges. As we’ve grown and added locations, we’ve actually demonstrated more efficiency and effectiveness in all of our ministries. And seeing less of me or Junior, I’m not kidding, is a good thing. We really believe that our church should not be personality driven. Our dependence is on God. Sharing the platform is good for us, and good for you.

The essence of our message will not change. The principles that we teach and operate ministry by will not change. The real change will be in the number of baptisms and worshipers. We pray those grow exponentially!

So…we are six weeks away! These are exciting times to be followers of Jesus and active members of His church. Please pray for the power of the Holy Spirit in this new ministry challenge.