Bridge Building
We are an Urban Bridge Church.
A spiritual bridge between Christ and the urban culture he has asked us to reach. The bible talks about what it means to be a bridge. It doesn’t use the word bridge. It often uses the word reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:14-20 says:
Whatever we do, it is because Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for everyone, we also believe that we have all died to the old life we used to live. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them.
So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now! What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!
All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling (bridge building) people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. We are Christ’s ambassadors (bridge builders), and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, “Be reconciled (use the bridge) to God!”
In other words Christ is asking us to build bridges for Him to cross in to culture. Christ isn’t just interested in bridging culture but shaping it and changing it. Through us, the church, Christ bridges culture in a number of ways. He bridges and shapes culture through symbol, space and spirit;
Symbol
The Cross
Romans used Crucifixion for slaves and non-Romans convicted of serious crimes. In other words it was used for second class, marginalized people.It was was a painful and disgraceful way to die in the culture of that day. Followers of Christ hated it as much as anyone. But the cross went from being dispised to embraced by the christian community and took over as the symbol of Christ.
Today the Cross symbolizes all that is good in Christianity. It reminds us that Christ overwhelmed death, that He is God and that his spirit is here with us, the church.
What despised symbol would Christ be identified with today?What socially unacceptable icon would symbolize all that Christ Stands for?We have a responsibility to build a bridge to the despised.
Space
What is Christmas with out a manger scene? Christianity loves the stable; warm soft fluffy straw, gentle cows, obedient donkey. We have romanticized it to the point that it is no longer identifiable for what it was. No one would choose spend a night in a smelly, dark, draft filled barn: And give birth to a child in that space. Christ’s example gives us permission to build bridges to spaces and places where you wouldn’t normally expect to find the spirit of Christ.
What places, what locations do we need to bridge?
Symbol and space speak of Christ’s relevance to society to culture, but there is more.
This bridge can be a personal connector. Christ is spirit and He can inhabit our spirit.
Spirit
When He died on the cross and then overwhelmed all that is natural to live again His spirit remained on earth for society and for individuals. Christ’s spirit creates a bridge between me and God, if I ask he will inhabit my spirit.
Bridge builders, that’s what we are.
~Darrell