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

Good morning, On Sunday we are going to look at John 7 and Jesus’ eventful trip to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. Something that I won’t have time to do a deep dive on is the interaction between Jesus and his brothers, found in John 7:2-5: But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret.

Good morning, On Sunday I gave a number of congregational updates during the Sunday School hour. Unfortunately, our system “glitched” during it and we don’t have a recording of it. I will have copies of my presentation notes available on Sunday for anyone who wasn’t at the meeting and would like them. Copies of the proposed changes to the church By Laws are available in the lobby. I would encourage you to look them over and talk to myself or an elder if you have any questi

Good morning…a number of “Church Business” updates this week as we start the new year. 1. On Sunday I will giving a Congregational Update during the Sunday School hour. I will be discussing some proposed changes to the church By Laws, giving some financial updates, and talking about some goals for 2026. Copies of the proposed changes to the By Laws will be available in the lobby before and after the services. Everyone is encouraged to attend. There will be a Sunday S

Good afternoon! Thanks to everyone who helped make Sunday morning happen while I was away this weekend. Thanks as well to the carpet-cleaning crew who worked at the church yesterday. It is hard to believe that we will transition to 2026 in a couple of days. Transitions in life can be fun things but they are often very tricky to navigate. Sometimes the transition feels like it is happening way sooner than we’d like, and that can be scary. Sometimes it’s the opposite situat

Thanks to everyone who helped with the teen choir and the children’s program on Sunday. It was a great morning! Shorter Check Ins for the next couple of weeks. I hope that everyone is about to enjoy the holidays! Here’s what’s happening: 1. TOMORROW NIGHT - Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at 7 pm. This is our most “traditional” service of the year. We’ll read through the Christmas story, sing those favorite Christmas Carols, and light our candles as we sing “Sil

Thanks to the Yerkes family for taking care of the church parking lot last weekend. My favorite Christmas Carol is “Angels We Have Heard On High.” At Memorial Church we always sang it during the Christmas Eve service. The sound of a packed church singing it while the organist played on the pipe organ is something that I think of every year. We didn’t just sing that song, we felt it! Of course, the most famous part of the song is its chorus or refrain: Gloria in excelsis D

This past Sunday we concluded our fall sermon series on the book of Acts by looking at the story of Philip and the Ethiopian found in Acts 8:26-40. If you were using a modern translation like the NIV or ESV you may have noticed something peculiar – verse 37 is skipped. The passage jumps straight from verse 36 to verse 38. However, if you were using a KJV translation, you might have thought that I skipped verse 37, because the KJV includes it! Here is the “controversial” ve