Thank you God for today.  Long, incredible story short: The Bridge had its highest attendance ever, highest [normal] offering ever (which = more missions and more ministry), highest “dang-we’re-excited vibe” in recent memory and we kicked off an incredible Doubting Your Doubts series.

I’ve been looking forward to this series for about 5 months. Here’s the linup

Week 1 – What to do with our doubts

Week 2 – How could a good God allow suffering?

Week 3 – There can’t be just one true religion

Week 4 – The Christian church is responsible for so much injustice

Week 5 – Science has proven the Bible is a myth

Week 6 – The clues of God

Next week will be one of the most anticipated sermons we’ve ever had besides “The gospel and homosexuality”, I think.  Since we announced this series, a slew of emails and requests for the issue of suffering have come in.  We’ll also have national speaker and founding pastor of The Bridge, Rick Howerton (pictured below) tackling that one.

I’ll be out of town for the next few days so the blog is on a break.  I love my church!

Tears are on my cheeks as I type this after watching the video below.

Not always but every now and then someone will listen to our preaching at The Bridge or go through our New Member’s Class and kind of dismissively smirk at our theological emphasis.  Every other sermon series, we preach exegetically through a book of the Bible, we have little sayings for good interpretation of The Bible woven into our culture like “Context is King”, and one of our core values is being “Theological”.  In my experience, most Christians THIRST for this but every once in a while someone will roll their eyes at it and say something like “You’re just splitting hairs for no reason. All that’s important is that we love God.”  And sometimes I’ll start to wonder if they’re right.

Then I see something like this.

When I first saw this I couldn’t decide whether to cry, break my computer screen, or buy a plane ticket to Africa. I decided to write this blog post instead.  Here’s what we learn from this:

Careful attention to right Biblical interpretation and good theology ISN’T JUST ABOUT BEING RIGHT FOR THE SAKE OF “BEING RIGHT”. It’s about the glory of God in Christ, the eternal salvation of the nations, the healing of the world, the happiness of all marriages, the joy of all peoples, and a thousand-thousand other things.

Good theology is important because stupid and evil crap like that (see above video) happens when we don’t first carefully study to know what God approves and doesn’t approve.

Jana and I debated this yesterday over dinner. What is the best and the worst Halloween candy a kid can get?  In my opinion, any full or king-size candy bar is an absolute score.

On the other hand, both of us agreed that there is hardly anything worse than either circus peanuts or those generic orange and black peanut butter candies you only see at Halloween.

So we submit this to you in the name of Kid-dom everywhere: What is the best and the worst Halloween candy?

Yesterday was The Bridge’s Trunk-or-Treat. It was pure, laugh-your-head-off fun.  The best way to make the gospel believable is to love and serve the world in response to the gospel. What better way to do this than dress up as a giant potato or walking Twister board???

It always feels like family with The Bridge.

Bridge Family – tomorrow’s Trunk-or-Treat has been rescheduled for 2-4pm on Sunday instead of tomorrow night.  Although the rain may be gone by tomorrow afternoon, the field on which Susan and our [awesome] Missions Team were hosting our Trunk-or-Treat would probably still be muddy from earlier rain.

The church-wide bonfire, however, is STILL ON at the Shoopman’s house tomorrow night at 8pm. For directions, email Scott at scott.shoopman@thebridgespringhill.com.  See you tomorrow night with a smore in-hand!

This is a post from JD Greear. Jana and I read this together over breakfast yesterday. We both struggle to believe the gospel. Just seems too good to be true…

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The word “enough” is the enemy of the Gospel. The word “enough” about killed me spiritually.

For many years I have lived with a complex… Have I given enough? Do I love enough? Do I share Christ enough? Do I sacrifice enough? Should I be living in a downtown Durham project? Should I adopt 3 adolescent runaways from Russia? Should I be sharing our house with a homeless man? Should I give away 50% of my income?

Every time I have heard a new preacher with a new “cause” I have left thinking, “Do I have to do that to be a real disciple of Jesus? Am I doing enough?”

That is because many well meaning (though I think misguided Christian preachers) preach a message built on enough. Their message often appears to be, “Do you give enough to the poor to really consider yourself a good Christian? Why don’t Christians in America die like Jesus’ first followers? After all, good Christians… adopt, live poor, die martyr’s deaths, win all their neighbors to Jesus, use only recycled cooking oil, drive hybrids… etc.” I am forever left thinking, “If I were a real Christian, I’d be doing this or that…” (and, to be fair, it’s not always the individual preacher’s fault, sometimes it’s how I misinterpret them–which has more to do with me… I seem addicted to works-righteousness and can turn anything into a new “standard” to reach.)

Obviously, giving and any form of sacrificial living are all important questions and things that many Christians who have experienced the love of the Gospel will want to do. But never in the context of “enough.”

Whenever we preach “enough” we preach legalism. Legalism has two unmistakable marks: pride in those who feel like they live up to the standard or guilt-complexes in those who don’t. The Gospel creates neither. The Gospel is not about how much you give, or whether or not you die, or if you adopt, or if you go overseas, the Gospel is about a heart of love that does things simply and freely in response to what God has done for us.

“Not under compulsion” is one of Paul’s favorite phrases in the context of generosity. The word “enough” is its own type of compulsion. The Gospel is not about any response that is “enough”; the Gospel is about the free response of love flowing from gratefulness for the sacrifice of Christ which set us completely free.

The Gospel is not about what we are to go and do for God, but about what He has done for us. There are only two ways to approach God… one says, “I’ll obey some standard, and because of that I’ll be accepted.” The other says “I’ve been accepted by what Christ has done for me, and I love in response.

This is why the preaching of the announcement of the Gospel (that Christ has DONE all that is necessary to save us) is so absolutely essential for all Christian living. If you do not preach the announcement of acceptance because of what Christ has done, there is no way he can create free love. Legalistic preachers, no matter how “evangelical” or “radical” they seem to be, don’t create love for Jesus in people, they create pride and guilt-despair. Because they don’t preach an announcement of freedom, they preach an obedience of captivity.

 

Paul said in 1 Cor 13:1-4 that “real Christianity” had nothing to do with “giving enough” or “dying enough” or “suffering enough” or “witnessing enough.” He said it had to do with love, and love, as I’m saying, only grows in absolute freedom.

The only time the word “enough” ought to be used for the Gospel is in reference to what Christ has done for us. Those who understand this will live their lives in response, and their lives will be characterized by radical love.

The Gospel is not spelled “D-O” or “D-O-N-T” but “D-O-N-E.” If you don’t love and live radically, think about what Christ has done. Repent of the idols and saviors you have served in place of Him, and when you do , He will change your heart from one of selfishness to one of love.

More coming all week, but it’s official. The Bridge will have it’s first service at our new site 2 wks from today on November 8th.  If you’re an out-of-towner or have been wanting to check us out, I have a suggested week for you to come

PS – just in time too. Our (INCREDIBLE) Kids’ Ministry was packed with almost 60 people back in those hallways and stairwells talking about Jesus today.

Not only have I realized that we have a lot of Bible college, seminary students, and a handful of other pastors that read the blog and make it what it is (thanks guys!), but we also want to see The Bridge raise up a multitude of church leaders now and in the future to lead Kids’ classes and small groups as well as other churches.  So I read this, learned a lot of from it as a pastor, and wanted to post it here.

If you’ve missed it so far, Tim Keller is now blogging here.  His second post was fantastic and timely for anyone in any type of ministry.  You can read the whole post here, but here’s a summary in 6 sentences…

Many Reformed evangelicals think of sound, expository preaching as something of a ‘magic bullet.’ We may think that as long as we are preaching the Word–preaching the law and the gospel rightly–that everything else in congregational life will somehow take care of itself… Pastors in many of our Reformed churches do not seem to be as energized to learn to be great leaders and shepherds, but rather have more of an eye to being great teachers and preachers… If you put in too much time in your study on your sermon you put in too little time being out with people as a shepherd and a leader. Ironically, this will make you a poorer preacher.  Preachers-only aren’t good preachers.

This has been my personal experience and led to the nearly complete failure of my first ministry position.  If I put in 20+ hrs on a “winning” sermon (common), but fail to spend time with people, dream and plan for the future of The Bridge (easy to do), then I’ll fail.

This follows John Frame’s tri-perspectival view of the church – Jesus’ offices were that of Prophet, Priest, and King.  Prophets preach, priests weep with the hurting, and kings lead the kingdom.  By the power of Christ, church leaders from parking lot greeters to Sunday school teachers/small group leaders to Lead Pastors need to do the same for Jesus’ church.

Someone said this to me last week and it hit me between the eyes: Don’t win at work and fail at home.

… but to the rest of us, this email I just got is HUGE.

This is an email I just got from the Spring Hill Fire Marshal.  A little background: we were going to have to repaint the parking lot to meet Spring Hill codes and last week were told that it could delay our relocation as much as two months.

We were going to have to work with our landlord (Mr. Johns) so we asked if we could pray with him.  So we prayed together.  And then we worked… hard.  And then I got this email from the Fire Marshal this morning.

Every time I start to falter in my faith, God reminds me that he really seriously responds to the prayer of his kids.  We’re very hopeful that a big announcement will be made this Sunday