We are turning THREE!

The Bridge TURNS THREE this Sunday March 1st, 2008! Come join us as we celebrate by opening up our new location (right behind Elizabeth Hall) at 9:00 AM or 10:45 AM.

We are "FEARLESS" ... The God we serve today is the same God who created the universe, defeated death, opposed the Pharisees, drove out demons, gave life, and who is STILL on the throne.

March 1: Gideon
March 8: Beniah
March 15: Shadrach, Meshack, and Obednego
March 22: Luke 20
March 26: FEE concert and celebration

Three Pathways of Identity

I spoke at The Bridge yesterday on "Gospel Community" and talked about three pathways of identity in life.

The first pathway was the path of "Moral Conformity."
The second pathway was one of "Self-Discovery."
We learned that both of these pathways end in alienation from God as seen in the parable of the lost sons in Luke 15.

(Please reference "The Prodigal God" by Tim Keller)

And then I presented a third pathway called "Gospel Community" that we as a body want to be true of our identity. At the center of community must be the Gospel where we realize we are nothing without Christ. None of us have any "rights" (elder brother / moral conformity) and we can't make it on our own (younger brother / self discovery). We are nothing without Christ, praise God.

I spoke from Romans 12:9-13 and Galatians 6:1-2 from the ESV about what Gospel Community should like. You can pick up the dvd of the teaching if you need it. Then we discussed how this plays out at The Bridge where as we grow this gets harder.

At The Bridge we offer and speak of multiple environments for gospel community. As each of these environments shrink, the more opportunity for deeper relationship and gospel community happens. We provide these environments but rely on the Holy Spirit to make this happen.

Large Group:
Sunday Celebration @ 9:00 & 10:45 AM
Monthly Youth Bash
Bridge Kids

Midsize Group:
Conquering Addiction
Alpha Course
Leadership Bible Study
Crown Financial Training
Men’s / Women’s Trips
Youth Trips
Socials: bowling, burger with a pastor, and etc..

Small Group:
Weekly Cell Family
Covenant Membership Courses
Mission Teams
First-Serve Teams
Youth Cell
BK Cell
Yon’s round table

One on One:
Mentoring
Parenting
Marriage

Please take a moment as you read through this to search your heart. Where are you finding your identity? Are you living to please others and gain status and control (moral conformity)? Are you on a path of self-actualization to find the meaning for your life (self-discovery)? Or are you living in gospel community where the end goal is not to get status, power, or self-pleasure - but just to delight in God.

I challenged all of our people to get in community surrounding themselves with people whose identity is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and do life together. Breathe. Laugh. Cry. And yes, call one another to repentance and faith. You can't go to these groups with rights, leaning on the cross and pointing the finger at others for Gospel Community to take place. You must go to these groups broken in submission to God at the foot of the cross.

The glory of God in salvation

One of my close friends called tonight. He said that he had been faking it for 31 years and that last night standing in the shower God saved Him. Those were his words. If you knew this man's upbringing you would think he was saved already. If you knew this man's recent life you would say, "Impossible, there is no way he could save himself." That's the beauty of the gospel. He can not and he did not. But God did. The holy spirit regenerated His heart and showed him his depravity and need for Jesus. Then last night he cried out to God in faith and was converted.

It reminded me of this paragraph from chapter 2 of Desiring God,

We will never fully appreciate what a deep and awesome thing conversion is until we own up to the fact that it is a miracle. It is a gift of God. Recall again the point that we not only sin, but we also are sinful. The Bible describes our heart as blind (2 Corinthians 4:4) and hard (Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26) and dead (Ephesians 2:1,5) and unable to submit to the law of God (Romans 8:7-8). By nature we are "children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3). And so when we hear the gospel we will never respond positively unless God performs the miracle of regeneration.

Interesting things to note:
1) This man grew up in and around church and never responded positively to the gospel until the age of 31
2) The seeds of the gospel still took root in his life and were made alive by the Holy Spirit standing in the shower

My friend told me that for weeks all he could think about was that God did not exist, he wasn't real, and that he had even grown to have a hatred towards Him. He told me he had been planning to talk to me about why God didn't exist (he had been reading Christopher Hitchens book God is not Great). And then standing in the shower last night he broke and God saved him. Now, all of the sudden he feels peace.

What a miracle!

To God be the glory.

Ephesians 2:4-9 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Parallax View Sampler

A sneak peak at a few things to come from Parallax View Band.

01 Track 1.mp3

Our God is Able Acoustic - St. Paul Interview

(Facebook viewers visit benjamindurbin.com for video)

Acoustic version of Fly

I found this video on schooltube tonight. It was recorded by the 8th grade class at St. Paul Lutheran School. We were doing an interview at the school for a cyberfair project they are involved in and upcoming concert on Feb. 20th. I need to remember to get my hair cut before going to interviews.




(Facebook viewers will have to visit benjamindurbin.com to view)

These guys are coming to The Bridge?

Hey all, I saw this video over on feeband.com and couldn't help but re-post it on my my blog. It was too funny.

(video embedded here facebookers)



We are bringing in Fee for our grand-opening celebration at The Bridge of our permanent location.

Fee is most known for their hit single, "All Because of Jesus", which peaked at #2 on Billboard's Hot Christian AC Chart. Steve Fee, the band's founder, is one of the worship pastors of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, GA. In January 2007 he released his first record, "Burn for You." In September 2007, the record was re-released on INO records, "We Shine." Fee not only is a worship leader at North Point, but also leads worship at the Catalyst East conference every year.

To watch a video of the band and purchase tickets, please visit the link below.

http://www.itickets.com/events/221114.html

The concert will be held in our new building.