Ever since opening day in the fall of 2003, Life Bridge has been a church that strives to imagine life differently and empower people to walk together with God. Being the church is more about listening to and following God rather than listening to and following a human leader. Pursuing this "decentralized" model has created confusion for more than one person as they've walked in the door for the first time.
Often times, they will ask to speak to "the pastor" so they can be "in the know" about the many happenings that are going on around the church. When they find out that I don't know everything that's going on (it usually takes about 30 seconds), they really don't know what to do. "How can I know what's going on," they wonder. "How can I get and stay connected?"
Before I answer the connection question, it's probably best if I explain why things seem a little different and confusing at first.
Life Bridge works hard to follow a model that we believe God desires for the church. It is a model that doesn't match business or political structures that we encounter everywhere else in the world. Instead, we follow a model that matches a picture in the Bible.
In business or politics, we look for the person or group of people who are in charge of the organization. Sometimes it's a single person, like a president or CEO. Sometimes it's a group of people, like a board of directors, who vote on decisions for the organization. The picture we find in Scripture, however, is a little different.
The Bible describes the Church as a body. The body has many parts that work in harmony with one another. Each part of the body takes it's direction from the head. In the case of the church, Jesus Christ is the Head. We all take instruction from Him.
In keeping with this picture, we attempt to "empower" each person to do his or her part in the Body of Christ. Leadership, then, is not about power, position, or political influence. Leadership is about clearly hearing God's call, following it, and helping others do the same. We want to teach people how to walk by the Spirit, and empower one more to do the same. Scripture teaches us how to do this because God is the same yesterday, today and forever. When we learn what it meant to walk together with God back then, we learn how to do it today as well. Our mission, then, is to "Empower one more to walk together with God."
Two communication channels become extremely important in effectively empowering people. The first is communicating with God. We all need to learn how to discern the voice of God and follow His instruction. The second is communicating with one another. As parts of His Body, we are all connected to one another in some way. We need to know what is going on around us so we can connect into our part and be His Body: the church.
Early on, Life Bridge attempted to facilitate these communications through programs, connect cards, and even paper newsletters. Some of these communication vehicles have served us well through the years. Others have proven to be cumbersome and not very timely. The result has been a reworking of our methods of communication. For over a year now, we have worked with and tested several new methods of communicating with one another. Now I can share with you the methods that seem to be working the best at facilitating our communication with God and one another.
I am writing two more blog posts entitled:
1) Connect with God
2) Connect with People
I encourage you to check each of these out as you look at your own walk together with God. My prayer is that these vehicles will empower you as they have already done for many others. Perhaps they will even help you empower one more to walk together with God.
Walking with you,
Pete
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