Showing posts with label Weekend Series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weekend Series. Show all posts

0 God at the Movies 3 starts this Sunday!

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This week, we begin a new series that’s become an annual tradition at BridgeWay…God at the Movies.


Each week we'll be looking at the spiritual themes in 4 of this past year's biggest movies.  This year we'll be looking at the following questions.

  • July 11th (2012) - What does the Bible say about the end of the world?
  • July 18th (UP) - How do you deal with disappointment?
  • July 25th (The Blind Side) - What does it mean to be family?
  • August 1st (Invictus) - How do you forgive someone who has hurt you?
We'll have some fun suprizes for you each week of this series, so don't miss a single week!

This is one of the best opportunities of the year to INVITE SOMEONE TO CHURCH. Use the graphics below and paste them all over your digital space (facebook, myspace, twitter, etc...), and invite people to join you this weekend. Sunday at 9:30am and 11:00am.


1 Sunday Night Reflections

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It just keeps getting better! If you were at BridgeWay this morning you know exactly what I'm talking about. We had a huge crowd for the middle of January this morning, but even better than that we had a powerful worship experience today. Here are some of my quick hit thoughts:
  • We closed out our God at the Movies series this morning with the movie Transformers and talked about deep changes that God wants to make in our lives. I am both happy and sad to see this series end. I'm happy because it is the most difficult and time consuming message for me to prepare for...each week I've spent between 25-28 hours watching the film, looking for spiritual truths, and then finding Scripture that speaks to those truths. That doesn't even include the 5-7 hours each week that Chris Borth has put in editing the clips down for us to use each week. I'll be glad to get back to my normal 15-20 hours of sermon prep, and I'm pretty sure that Chris is glad to be done too. I'm sad because it has been one of the most powerful series that I've ever taught, and God has really used it to help our church reach out to others.
  • Speaking of reaching out...Last week we had 216 people in worship and the place was packed...this morning when I stood up to welcome people to worship we were filling up again, and had to ask people to move forward and in to make room for others to have seats! I got the count this afternoon and we had 241 people in worship today! I'm excited to see what God has for us this year at BridgeWay!
  • The band did a fantastic job leading us in worship this morning...you guys get better every week!
  • I did something this morning that I don't do very often. I preached my message for about the first 10 minutes and after the second clip from Transformers I felt led to make a clear presentation of the gospel. It was totally God leading, and the power of God's presence during this part of the service was unbelievable. I know that there were people who accepted Christ for the first time today!
  • We had nearly 40 first time guest this morning! That's right 40 people who visited BridgeWay for the first time this morning!
  • I am blown away by the number of people at BridgeWay to took the opportunity to invite a friend, co-worker, or family member to worship! Thanks for doing your part in reaching your world for Jesus Christ.
  • Can't wait until next week at BridgeWay. We're kicking off a new series called Old School and you will definitely want to show up early to get a seat, and bring a friend with you. Let's see if we can't fill this place up next week!
  • I love doing what God created me to do! I hope you find the same joy!

1 Old School Series

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Our next series at BridgeWay is going to be one of the best series ever (seriously)! Earlier this year we determined that we needed to equip our people to develop their own plan for spiritual growth. We realized that we didn't do a very good job of equipping people to develop personal spiritual disciplines. So for the next 5 weeks, starting in February, we will be going Old School...and teaching on 5 core spiritual disciplines...and having a little fun with some 80's music at the same time.

0 Sunday Night Reflections

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It's been an exciting week for me as a pastor. Everyday has been filled new stories of how God has been at work in the life of our church. God has been teaching me, stretching me, and growing me in ways that blow my mind! With all that said, here are my reflections on today. (with a little from the week thrown in)
  • God is really blessing us with new people who are looking for a place where they can find a safe place to explore faith and to share their faith with others. We had over 20 first time guest today! I pray that we can be a church home for many of them.
  • The spirit of worship was contagious today. The band was fantastic, and the people really sang out to God!
  • We were in week 3 of our God at the Movies series, and used the metaphor of "binding" from Spiderman 3 to talk about how sin binds itself to us. It was probably the most direct message I ever preached on sin and how to break free from it's power in our lives. Lots of stories of people getting help.
  • We had 220 in worship today! That's up almost 70 over the same week last year! Praise God for what he's doing! (sorry for all the exclamation points)
  • I loved the band's version of "East to West" by Casting Crowns.
  • It was freakin' cold this morning in our main auditorium! 52 degrees when we got there. 60 degrees at the start of the service. 66 by the end of the service. Thank God for body heat!
  • The Giants-Packers game was great! I told Greg Scott this morning that the Giants would win on a late turnover by Brett Favre...hmmm...how did I know???? Wouldn't you like to know.
  • I'm really excited about this coming week! I'll be praying a lot about two major decisions. Would you join me in praying that I would be able to clearly discern God's direction in our hiring process for the Equipping Pastor and Children's Pastor roles at BridgeWay?
  • Our small group was really great tonight...good discussion....great people...and good fun!

0 God at the Movies

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Next month we'll be kicking off a series called "God at the Movies". Each week we'll be looking at a spiritual theme from a recent movie and then talking about it from a Biblical perspective. The films we'll be looking at are:


  • Stranger than Fiction

  • The Pursuit of Happyness (yeah, it's really spelled like that)

  • Spiderman 3

  • Transformers

It is going to be a powerful series, and it is going to be a ton of work. Some might think that this is an easy series...show a few clips from the moive...talk about what the Bible says...match point. But the reality is that it requires hours of preparation. Watching the movie. Looking for the core spiritual truth. Applying Scripture to that truth. Then tying it all together in a way that moves people to take their next step towards faith. I usually spend about 15-18 hours on each message. This series is going to be a lot closer to 24-26 hours per message. But I believe that it is worth it. Very few people who our outside of the church think that the church has anything relevant to say. Many churches are answering questions that no one is asking, and speaking a language that no on understands. That's why I think this series is so important. It gives us a chance to take a language that people already understand and use it to communicate a truely life-changing message. That's what the church should be all about!