Good morning! With the Car Show behind us the next big event at church is our Romans Road Trip VBS, which is just around the corner. VBS is every evening from July 6 through July 10 from 6:30 -8:3o. There are all sorts of ways that you can help out at VBS, and we are in great need of volunteers (even if you can’t be there every night). There is a signup sheet in the lobby, and if you have any questions you can see Elizabeth Barrett. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night o

Good morning! Two of the goals of our 10-year church vision are for ABCF to be a vital center of the local community and to have events throughout the year that invite people to “come and see.” Although the Car Show was a bit “stretching” for many of us, it definitely was a start to meeting those goals! In total, 60 cars participated in the show, which I feel was a tremendous turnout, especially for a first-time event like this. It is hard to judge how many people came to

Good morning! A few weeks ago I was able to attend the One Solanco event, which was a presentation for the community sponsored by Solanco Neighborhood Ministries, Solid Rock Youth Ministries, New Hope Counseling, and the Solanco School District. It was a very well-done presentation that served as a good reminder of the challenges that many in our community are facing. It was inspiring to see how the ministries of our community see themselves as teammates and not competitors.

A few updates on church happenings in the month of June: 1. We have made the decision that this Sunday (6/7) will be the last one with Sunday School at 9 am for the summer. We had already decided to not have SS next weekend (6/14) due to the car show and after having quite a few conversations over the past couple of weeks it appears that attendance will be very light on Father’s Day (6/17). Bringing SS back for one week before our traditional summer break didn’t seem like t

On Sunday I announced that the church has signed a contract with Hollow Ridge Construction for the building expansion project. Hollow Ridge anticipates breaking ground in late August/Early September. Although we still have a long way to go, this is another significant step in the process! I have been asking God for clarity as the building committee has met over the past 18 months. Overall, we talked with nine different builders throughout the process, with three builders g

On Sunday we looked at Joseph’s interactions with his brothers as he discerned whether or not they were repentant of their sin against him. This part of the story includes two verses that cause some concern for some folks. In Genesis 44:5 a servant of Joseph discovers the silver cup in Benjamin’s sack and in doing so says this: Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done. Then is Genesis 44:15 Joseph says this t

On Sunday I briefly mentioned that Joseph was given a wife by Pharaoh. His wife’s name is Asenath and we are told that she was the daughter of an Egyptian priest. This detail about Joseph’s life has raised the question of whether or not Joseph sinned by marrying an Egyptian. So what is going on here? Well, there are a couple of things that we need to consider: 1. Joseph goes from being a Hebrew slave and prisoner to the #2 position in the Egyptian government in an i

On Sunday we meet another new character in the Joseph story – Pharaoh. The elevation of Joseph by Pharaoh is one of the most remarkable moments of the story and prompts a natural question – Who was that guy? Unlike some Pharaohs that are mentioned later in the Old Testament, the Bible never tells us this Pharaoh’s name. Scholars have debated the matter for a long time, and to this day we haven’t yet discovered definitive evidence as to this Pharoah’s identity. However, the

On Sunday we looked at Joseph’s incident with Potiphar’s wife and how it led to Joseph being put in prison. As is often the case, the Bible compresses the timeline of Joseph’s life during this time. If we give a cursory reading of Genesis 39 - 41 it can appear that Joseph begins serving in Potiphar’s house for only a short time before being thrown in prison. Joseph then immediately is given the responsibility of running the prison shortly before he interprets the dreams of

This week we are jumping ahead in the Genesis account from chapter 37 to chapter 39. This means, of course, that we are jumping over one of the weirder and frankly more disturbing stories in the Old Testament – the story of Judah and Tamar. We learn that Judah gets married and starts his own family. His sons are wicked, however, and God strikes them down. Judah’s daughter-in-law is Tamar now very vulnerable, since she doesn’t have a husband or a son to take care of her. I

Good morning, On Sunday I mentioned that we believe that the ages of Jacob’s sons spanned from around 25 years old (Reuben) to 10 years old (Benjamin). Here is how we get to those ages: Genesis 29:21-27 – Jacob is deceived by Laban into marrying Leah. A week later He is allowed to then marry Rachel in return for another seven years of work. It is during this seven-year window that 11 of the boys are born, beginning with Reuben and ending with Joseph. Genesis 30:25 – Immedi

Good morning! On Sunday I mentioned that we will be starting a new sermon series on the life of Joseph that I have titled “Not Your Average Joe.” The story of the life of Joseph is one of the longer ones that we have in the Bible – it takes up the last quarter of the book of Genesis! One of my goals throughout this series is to look at how the life of Joseph points us to Jesus. Although Joseph is one of the more prominent Christological Types that we find in the Old Testame

Good morning! Thank you to everyone who was able to donate items for the food pantry at Oxford Neighborhood Services. As a church we donated 62 jars of peanut butter, 47 jars of jelly, 38 boxes of instant oatmeal, a box of cereal, 3 boxes of Pop Tarts and a couple cans of chicken. Some of you might remember Dan Mayberry. Dan passed away this week and there will be a graveside service for him on Monday, April 6 in the church cemetery. Visitation from 1:30 – 2 pm, which the

Good morning! This is an exciting time of year…it looks like after this weekend the spring temperatures might be setting in for good. The days continue to get longer and the signs of spring are all around us. And now Holy Week has all but arrived. We have a lot going on at the Bridge between tonight and Easter Sunday! A couple of reminders as we prepare to celebrate our Risen Savior who is in the world today. First, a reminder that this Sunday is the last day to bring in

Good morning, I hope you were able to enjoy the preview of Spring this week. Looks like more season temperatures for March will stick around for a while. Here at the Bridge we are entering a busy season of ministry. Here are all the Easter-related events and activities over the next couple of weeks: 1. Starting on Sunday we are having our annual Lenten collection for Oxford Neighborhood Services ’ food pantry. This year we are “playing the hits” – we are collecting jars

Good morning, Last Sunday we concluded our look at John 11. In John 11:54 John writes that Jesus and the disciples left Jerusalem once Jesus received word that the Sanhedrin were now plotting to kill Him. They traveled to the small village of Ephraim. Tucked away in the Judean wilderness, Ephraim served as something of a retreat for Jesus to prepare Himself for the events of Holy Week. John then writes this in John 12:1: Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany

Good morning, We had 16 youth and 4 adults at the Black Rock retreat last weekend! I’m told that it was a great time. I am thankful for the chaperones for being willing to make it happen and to everyone for praying for their weekend. I am also told that the youth of Andrews Bridge made a great impression on the Black Rock staff with their attentiveness, politeness, and behavior. That apparently could not be said for some of the other youth groups in attendance. I just want

Good morning, There is a lot happening at the church as we have reached the season of Lent. So much so that the announcements section is going to take up this whole email! Here’s what’s happening: 1. I announced on Sunday that we are moving the congregational vote on the proposed changes to the By Laws to next Sunday, March 1 st . We are doing that in light of the fact that between the youth retreat and some other events on Sunday attendance is likely to be a bit lighter t

Good morning, Since the church is a part of the AMEC church network we have a relationship/partnership with Everence Financial Services. Like the Bridge, Everence has Anabaptist roots. It was founded in 1945 as Mennonite Mutual Aid. Since then it has grown to become a full-service financial institution. Although I do personally have a retirement account through Everence, I’m not writing about them to endorse them. I just want to let you know about one way that the church

Good morning, You might recall that in the message a couple of weeks ago I talked at the “missing” verse 4 in the story of the man healed at the Pool of Bethesda. John 5:4 typically appears in the footnotes or margins of our Bibles with a note that some manuscripts include the verse. I explained that the earliest and most reliable manuscripts that we have of John do not have that verse, so we believe that scribes added it later. In John 8 we have a similar conundrum. In yo