our purpose
| we understand that the Bridge (any bridge) is not a destination but a connection that is meant to be crossed.
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at the Bridge we are crossing together
to connect to:
God,
each other,
the community of Allegan
and new communities as we plant new churches
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|
don't miss it!
| 11/1/09 daylight savings ends
2am
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11/1/09 sunday a.m. worship
10:30 am @ Allegan High School
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11/03/09 prayer group
7pm @ Lakeshore Pregnancy Center (downtown Allegan)
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11/04/09 carols by candlelight
7pm @ First Presbyterian Church (downtown Allegan)
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11/08/09 starting point class
5pm @ the Birds' house
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11/14/09 office remodel
9am @ the Verde Law Offices
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|
| podcast | Bridge Podcast!
Click here to listen to messages at the Bridge.
Or now you can visit our blog or Facebook pages to hear them too!
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|
 | sunday worship | - dress is casual
- worship is contemporary
- attitude is relaxed
You don't need to have it all together to come to the Bridge. It's OK to just check things out. Bring your beliefs, your doubts and your questions.
You are welcome here.
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this sunday
| _______________>
Acts 1v.4-5
4 Once when He was eating with them, He commanded them,
"Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift He promised, as I told you before.5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
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Last week we saw that the apostles received three things from Jesus before He left:
1. A commission
2. Verification the He was and is, indeed, ALIVE!
3. Instruction about the Kingdom of God
We also saw that we, today, have received those same things from Jesus.
And this week we'll talk about how while all of that is good, it really doesn't become "God-sized" until we are empowered by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
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|
this week in kidmo!
| Power Stack
Sunday, November 1
Episode #4 - People
Jesus teaches us how to pray for difficult people.
Matthew 5:44
All Aboard! Conductor Johnny Rogers
takes us back to the time when locomotives ruled the land. These iron
dinosaurs teach us that even the strongest among us have times of
failure and weakness. In this adventure of the H.P. Powerstack Railroad, we learn the importance of PRAYER and how to pray as Jesus taught us. Join Johnny, Vladmir the Engineer, Powerstack the Train and the sinister H.P. Powerstack to discover how you can change the world through prayer.
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 | only one allegan |  |
|
 |
 | daylight savings ends
THIS SUNDAY!
sunday, november 1
|  Don't Forget to
"Fall Back"!Daylight Savings time ends at 2am Sunday, November 1 so remember to roll your clocks back 1 hour THIS SUNDAY! __________________________ |
 | 250 pumpkins given a way
| |
 | 
starting point class - take 2
sunday, november 8
|
Our second Starting Point class will take place on Sunday, November 8 at 5pm at our house (204 Cutler). I will have a sign up sheet at church this Sunday. If you haven't signed up yet, please do so I know how many to count on.
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 | office remodeling
saturday, november 14
| 
On Saturday, November 14 at 9am, we are having a work day to get our new office/meeting/band space ready.
The offices are at: 141 Riverfront Plaza (on the riverfront near the gazebo downtown).
Work that needs to be done includes: painting, cleaning, plumbing and electrical, some carpentry and an exterior door needs to be installed.
The more hands we have working the quicker it will go, so if you can make it please do! If nothing else, we'll have a good time, we always do!
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| carols by candlelight
wednesdays at 7pm
| 
First Presbyterian Church of Allegan is putting together a Christmas choir service called "Carols by Candlelight" that is open to anyone who is interested.
Practices are at 7pm every Wednesday and meets upstairs in the sanctuary of First Pres. The Carols by Candlelight service will be 7pm, December 6 at the Methodist Church in Allegan.
If you're interested, just show up on Wednesday at 7pm.
Since we don't have a choir of our own this is a great opportunity to connect to other folks in Allegan and sing some Christmas songs!
If you can't make the Wednesday rehearsal time, contact Nora Kelly at First Presbyterian Church: 269-673-4631.
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| laminins
pretty cool
|
OK, as a general rule I delete forwarded emails, so please don't bombard me with forwards now...but this one was so good I felt like I needed to pass it along. Enjoy...
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A doctor-friend wrote:
A
couple of days ago I was running (I use that term very loosely) on my
treadmill, watching a DVD sermon by Louie Giglio...and I was BLOWN
AWAY! I want to share what I learned....but I fear not being able to
convey it as well as I want. I will share anyway.
He (Louie) was
talking about how inconceivably BIG our God is...how He spoke the
universe into being...how He breathes stars out of His mouth that are
huge raging balls of fire...etc. etc. Then He went on to speak of how
this star-breathing, universe creating God ALSO knitted our human
bodies together with amazing detail and wonder. At this point I am
LOVING it (fascinating from a medical standpoint, you know.) ....and I
was remembering how I was constantly amazed during medical school as I
learned more and more about God's handiwork. I remember so many times
thinking....'How can ANYONE deny that a Creator did all of this???'
Louie went on
to talk about how we can trust that the God who created all this, also
has the power to hold it all together when things seem to be falling
apart...how our loving Creator is also our sustainer.
And then I lost my breath.
And it wasn't because I was running my treadmill, either!!!
It was because he started talking about laminin.
I
knew about laminin. Here is how wikipedia describes them: 'Laminins are
a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural
scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue.' You
see......laminins are what hold us together....LITERALLY. They are cell
adhesion molecules. They are what holds one cell of our bodies to the
next cell.. Without them, we would literally fall apart. And I knew all
this already. But what I didn't know is what laminin LOOKED LIKE.
But now I do.
And I have thought about it a thousand times since (already)....
Here is what the structure of laminin looks like...AND THIS IS NOT a
'Christian portrayal' of it....if you look up laminin in any
scientific/medical piece of literature, this is what you will see...
Now tell me that our God is not the coolest!!!
Amazing.
The glue that holds us together...ALL of us....is in the shape of the cross.
Immediately Colossians 1:15-17 comes to mind.
'He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth , visible and invisible,
whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things HOLD TOGETHER. ' Colossians 1:15-17.
Call me crazy. I just think that is very, very, very cool.
Thousands
of years before the world knew anything about laminin, Paul penned
those words. And now we see that from a very LITERAL standpoint, we are
held together...one cell to another....by the cross.
You would
never in a quadrillion years convince me that is anything other than
the mark of a Creator who knew EXACTLY what laminin 'glue' would look
like long before Adam even breathed his first breath!!
" Faith is not knowing what the future holds, but knowing who holds the future."
I wanted you to know and to
undertstand that YOU are being held together by the cross of Jesus
Christ. His love. His forgiveness and His marvelous power.....
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AND ALL GOD'S PEOPLE SAID.......AMEN!
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| prayer
|
-
Please pray for personal and corporate walls to come down. For true openness and transparency with one another and with God, and for graciousness to abound.
~Roger
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If you have prayer requests please email them to: prayer@thebridgeinallegan.com.
If the prayer request that you send in is about someone else, please make sure you have their permission first!
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|
| currently reading,
recently read
and/or highly recommended
|
An Unstoppable Force
daring to become the church GOD had in mind
by Erwin McManus
on Amazon
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