My experience walking with a congregation from the past to the future.
I have gotten several requests for information on how Bridges Church is moving from a large, successful church life that stopped working a few years ago into a future that is unknown and full of possibilities. As this new year starts, I am going to use this blog forum as a way to share our joys and struggles as we build a new faith community that embraces people of all ages and walks of life in an era of new technologies and cultural trends.
Bridges United Methodist Church
Why renew an existing church?
In the United Methodist system, I am blessed as a pastor to be assigned to a congregation. I go where I am sent, and I was sent to this church building and this group of people in 2016. After two years of getting to know people and our community, we decided that the best way forward was to try big changes instead of closing our doors.
We started with the remaining resources of Wesley United Methodist Church, a congregation that started in 1853 and has used several buildings and different names over the generations. We celebrated the legacy of Wesley UMC on July 1, 2018, as we closed that chapter of our history. We then started work on launching Bridges United Methodist Church, and we are deep in that process as I write this in January 2019.
Lazarus Church Plant
In the world of new church plants, we are trying the Lazarus model. The old church dies, and a new church is resurrected from the remaining resources. We are blessed with a small and dedicated group of people, a beautiful, historic building with great potential, and a great location in the downtown of a vibrant and dynamic city. We are using these resources to build a new church for a new generation of believers.
Communication Channels
How do we hear your story?
A number of pastors and church members from around the Wisconsin Conference of United Methodists have asked me how Bridges UMC will be sharing its story and ideas for reaching new believers. Here you go! We will be using this blog site as our primary channel for communicating our successes and our failures. Please share this information with others if you find it useful.
There is nothing we are doing that other churches can't copy and try. In fact, most of the ideas we are trying we got from other churches. In a time when most of the news stories we hear about churches emphasize decline and despair, we believe that we should share joy and celebration. After all, we are a new creation in Jesus Christ!
Write Your Own Ending ...
As of today, I have no idea what the ending of our story will be. I don't know if we will succeed in resurrecting our congregation. I don't know if our money will run out before we grow enough to be financially sustainable again. I don't know if we will succeed in making new disciples who love and follow Jesus.
As a kid, I loved the 'write your own ending' adventure books. I feel like I am living one of those now, as we keep trying new ideas to reach the ending we hope for.
But I am confident in one for-sure ending: This is God's story, and God will provide an outrageously joyful and fabulously happy ending. I invite you to join us on our journey and see what God has planned for our story.