Nehemiah 1:1–4 (NASB95) – 1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capitol, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem. 3 They said to me, “The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.” 4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Nehemiah 2:4 (NASB95) – 4 Then the king said to me, “What would you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.
This week our pastoral staff team and wives attended a conference in Colorado Springs, CO. Called, “The Huddle,” it is an annual conference for pastors and wives of the churches that are part of the “Crossway Network.” This network was started by our very own Pastor Tom Harcus with an intentional focus on planting healthy churches that will multiply all over the world. It was so refreshing to be with about 140 people who are committed to making Jesus famous all over the world. They are mostly young, energetic, fun-loving, worshipful, evangelistic, and zealous for the kingdom. Interacting with them for 3 days was profoundly encouraging.
We hired Pastor Tom one year ago to help us be a church that is very intentional in reaching lost people, training them to maturity, and equipping leaders to go out and plant other healthy churches all over our city and the world. After seeing the fruit of his vision for the Crossway Network, we are excited to see what the Lord will do here at The Bridge. But accomplishing this will require much prayerful strategic planning and a commitment on all of our parts to carry it out joyfully and sacrificially.
This summer, our staff and elders will be evaluating how we can be more effective in reaching lost people and training everyone in our church to be mature, healthy, reproducing disciplemakers. I implore you to pray for us as we seek the Lord for the best way to accomplish that. We want to develop a clear pathway of discipleship and multiplication that is understandable and available to all who attend The Bridge, and those who will be reached by us in the coming days.
To help give me and our leadership time to do the strategic planning necessary, we will have a rotating team for the rest of the summer preaching through some of the Psalms. This will not only refresh our hearts to understand and apply the Psalms, but it will also give us opportunity to raise up more men in our midst who can proclaim God’s holy word faithfully and powerfully. It is our hope that we will equip a number of gifted men in our church who can serve our congregation and/or be sent out to plant healthy churches in the months and years to come. This Sunday Joe Leinen will be preaching on Psalm 1.
This summer we will also be going through our church database to make sure our information is accurate as to who is still among us. I’m sure you are aware that we have graduated a significant number of church members and attenders to heaven in the past three years, and an even larger number have moved out of the area. Hebrews 13:17 says that it is the responsibility of the leaders of the church for every member of the church to “give an account” for their souls. We need to know you and how you are doing. That is one of the reasons why we ask you to fill out a “connection card” or register your attendance on our church app each Sunday (even if you are watching on livestream). It helps us know if people are absent so we can follow up and provide care. Currently, there are a large number of people who don’t do that regularly. We will be looking at all that data this summer so we can clarify if people are still with us, and if so, what status they are (visitor, attender, member). Thank you for your help in this so we can have correct information in our database. This will help us care more effectively for those whom God has called us to shepherd (1 Pet. 5:1-5).
PLEASE CLEAR YOUR CALENDAR for the next 6 weeks and plan to attend “Summer Nights at the Bridge” on Wednesday nights (6/21 – 7/26). BBQ dinner at 5:45pm followed my ministry to all ages from 7:00-8:30pm. Invite family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors to join us for a great time learning about relationships (singleness, marriage, parenting, grandparenting…).
Thank you for your commitment to grow strong and be reproducing disciplemakers of our Lord Jesus. Our great God and King is going to do amazing things in and through our church this coming year. To Him be “glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 24)