The Twelve Teams of Life Bridge (Part 2)

I know this is going to sound strange, but if I were only allowed to build one team to start Life Bridge, it would not have been a marketing team.  It wouldn’t be a team that plans excellent worship services.  Small groups would not be at the top of my list.  Don’t get me wrong.  Each of these teams are vital pieces of the Body of Christ.  They just wouldn’t be the first team I put in place.  That’s because the Church isn’t sent out into the world to communicate well with new people, create dynamic worship-inspiring music, or to gather people together to pray for one another.  The church exists to make mature, Christ-following disciples.

It’s About Leadership

When Jesus began his ministry, he started recruiting people who would be with him from the beginning (Acts 1:21-22).  The people he recruited were a motley bunch of men.  Fishermen, tax-collectors, doubters, and a thief were among the twelve who would be closest to him.  That’s not counting the seventy two that he knew well enough to send out two by two as well (Luke 10).  Jesus recruited people to be followers, but from the beginning it was clear that this was not his only intent.  Jesus was going to train them to be leaders.

Busy Whiteboard

Ok, so I did not anticipate the amount of activity that would take place in December and January.  Perhaps I should have.  It was, after all, Christmas.  Since my last post on December 5th, we have held 14 normal weekend services, 7 midweek services, a family Christmas program, Christmas Eve Candlelight service, and a New Years Eve youth overnight party.  In addition to all this, we attempted to travel to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving (resulting in car repairs and replacement in December), actually travelled to Cincinnati in January (for Christmas with family), and spent a week in Anderson, IN to continue my Doctoral studies. Whew!

All that being said, the “whiteboard” has not stayed clean.  I’ve been writing on it quite a bit with different individuals and teams.  Work is progressing.  New teams are starting to form.  MBOs (ministry by objectives) are being created, and support systems are being developed and put into place.  God is working in and through His people to begin empowering one million to walk together with God.  God team!  Praise God!!!

The Twelve Teams of Life Bridge (Part 1)

I was just listening to my favorite version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” again to get me into the season.  I think I enjoy it because I used to be in an acapella singing group many years ago with my dad.  I also think I enjoy it because their version seems a bit ADHD, but really pulls a lot of fun references together into one Christmas song.  In the end, it makes beautiful (and fun) music.

Priorities, Process and Progress

Long before opening day of Life Bridge Christian Church, we were prayed for by people over a ten year time span.  They prayed for God’s timing.  They prayed for God’s leadership.  They prayed for God’s provision.  God answered all of those prayers with a resounding, “Yes,” so that the timing was 2003, the original leaders were called from Ohio, Oklahoma, and Indiana, and the money was provided to begin services open to the public on September 28, 2003.  Two hundred people attended on that day.  God had faithfully provide all three (wisdom on timing, leadership, and financial resources) ever since.

Clean Whiteboard

I love whiteboards.  Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t love whiteboards like I love my children, love my wife, or love God.  But still, I love whiteboards.  There’s something about a whiteboard that communicates, “Let’s collaborate. Let’s imagine.  Let’s plan.”  Some of the people at Life Bridge are convinced that my last name, Kersker, is just the German word for whiteboard.  (Actually, the German word for whiteboard is “Weißwandtafel.”  I looked it up.)

A Better Top

Traci has been working with different groups of people on a project.  She took old CD’s and DVD’s we had left over at Life Bridge, painted them, added a marble and plastic cap to them, turning them into tops.  They’re really cool.  They spin much longer than any top I remember having as a child.  They handle resistance better, the connection to the ground is more stable, and, best of all, we built them using materials we already had available to us.  So, they spin and spin and spin and spin.  These tops will be one of the many gifts we send overseas through Operation Christmas Child.

Over the past 12 years, now, we have been designing and creating a “better top” of sorts.  I’ve long since recognized that the our ways of empowering and equipping people to walk together with God have very real limitations.  We, the church in the West, have fallen into a style of being and doing church that makes it too easy to fall over and grind to a halt.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to leave this life and look back only to find that my life’s work fell over and ground to a halt so easily.  No, we needed to design a better top.  Interestingly enough, we don’t need to build a better top.  We simply need to build the top using the Original Builder’s design.

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved--even though only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15 NIV)

This Sunday (November 15, 2015), I will have the privilege of sharing a vision for Life Bridge Christian Church as it moves forward.  The vision may sound similar to those you have heard before but, for those of you who have been paying attention, you will notice a real difference:  It’s time to make the tops.

I hope you can join us this week.  It will be exciting to see where God takes us from here.  Services are at 9am and 11am Central Time here at our local building.  Should you be away at that time, you can watch one of the services Live (well, with a 40 second delay) at http://lifebridgealive.com/EncounterGod/Online.  Should you miss it, you will be able to watch the service this week at the same link. I hope to see you there.