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church for the beaten up, the burnt out, and the just plain bored with church
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crossing together to discover who we are, who God is, and His purpose for our lives
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To find out more about the Bridge, click here to visit
crossingtogether.com
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Did You Know?
Today, of the approximately 350,000 churches in America, four out of five are either plateaued or declining.
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Bridge Rewind
Psalm 23:4
"Even
when I walk
through
the darkest valley,
(the
dark valley of death)
I
will not be afraid,
for
You are close beside me."
Followers of Jesus go through valleys just like everybody does.
They have disappointments, get sick, experience tragedies, lose loved ones, have family, marital and financial problems.
But
there is a difference.
While we all go through the same
valleys of life, The difference in the life of the Christian is not the absence
of
the
shadow
but the presence of the Shepherd.
God is with you in your darkest valley.
...we also learned that valleys suck!
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Upcoming Events & Information
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November 27
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Let's talk turkey!
* Americans feast on 535 million
pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving.
* According the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, more than 45 million turkeys are cooked and eaten in the
United States at Thanksgiving. That number represents one sixth of
all the turkeys sold in the U.S. each year!
* Benjamin Franklin wanted the
turkey to be our national bird.
* The heaviest turkey ever raised
weighed in at 86 pounds - about the size of a German Shepherd! (But
turkeys are normally not used as police animals.)
* A turkey under 16 weeks of age is
called a fryer. A five to seven month old turkey is called a roaster.
* Turkeys can drown if they look up
when it's raining!
* A turkey's field of vision is 270
degrees--one of the main reasons they're able to elude some hunters.
* The average age of the Mayflower
passenger was 32. The oldest Mayflower passenger was 64.
* President Abraham Lincoln
established the original date for our National Thanksgiving Day
celebration in 1863.
* President Thomas Jefferson
scoffed at the idea of establishing a national "Thanksgiving Day."
* Congress did not declare
Thanksgiving a national holiday until 1941.
* The average person consumes 4,500
calories on Thanksgiving Day. (Now that's a lot of turkey!)
HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING, WE'LL SEE YOU SUNDAY!
special thanks to 1800FLOWERS.COM for the Thanksgiving fun facts!
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November 30
WORSHIP
Topic: Psalm 23:5 -
A Feast for Me, Honor, and Overflowing Goodness
Why would God do all this for us in the presence of our enemies? You'll have to come to the Bridge to find out!
Sunday at 10:30am at Allegan High School. Unplugged music, casual worship, prayer and hanging out together. Coffee and snacks are provided.
Kids are welcome! Kids will worship with the adults and then preschool - 4th grade will be excused for some supervised fun time in the adjacent gym while the adults and teens hang around for teaching and prayer.
Come and check us out!
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LIFE TRANSFORMATION GROUPS
It is our ultimate goal that everyone involved in the Bridge would participate in a Life Transformation Group with one or two other folks. LTG's are a great evangelism and discipleship tool and are appropriate for anyone who would like some accountability in their lives.
LTG's are "Life Transformation Groups" and they do just what the
name says - they help transform your life! The are based on the concept
by author Neil Cole.
Each LTG is made up of two-three same sex friends and meets
weekly. Adding a fourth is okay for a short while before splitting
into two groups of 2. Each LTG participant carries an LTG Card with discussion questions dealing with 3 areas:
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Confession -Ten accountability questions covering
integrity, sexuality, generosity, etc., are discussed to keep each
other's character in line.
- Reading - The group agrees to
read and discuss 20-30 chapters of the Bible each week. If one
participant fails to read it all, they all re-read it for next week.
- Prayer - Each participant prays for 2-3 people who do not know Jesus using ten Biblical texts..
Download a copy of the LTG Card._________________________________________
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Answers to what you've already prayed...
- More new faces at the Bridge!
- God putting people in our paths who need to be connected.
- We were contacted by more people every week who are seriously praying about whether God is calling them to the Bridge.
Stuff that still needs praying for...
- The Bridge still needs to identify and train the leader/administrator of our Bridge Kids children's ministry. Please pray that God will raise that person up.
- We would like to raise $20,000 to help offset the cost for our Church on Wheels
package that we have just ordered. From now to the end of 2008 all of the offering to the Bridge will go toward Church on Wheels.
- Bridge staff (i.e. Roger and Lisa) are required to raise 25% of their salaries through folks that believe in the mission of the Bridge. Pray that God would raise up generous individuals to come along side them and help provide the funding they need.
- The Birds are praying for an economical car to help with gas costs traveling back and forth to Allegan. We know that the car is out there somewhere, please pray that God would provide it!
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Contact Info
Equipping Team:
Roger Bird
269-509-6458
email
Lisa DeKryger
269-720-2103
email
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