Our Story
Who we are
The Bridge Community Church is made up of people – probably a lot like yourself, from virtually every walk of life. We are people who have either had our lives radically affected by the love of God and the good news of Jesus Christ, or who are just beginning to explore what it means to follow Jesus.
We come together each week in large group celebrations to worship, to hear teaching from God’s Word, to pray and be encouraged to grow in our relationship with God and each other. While these are all serious concerns – somehow the feeling of these gatherings is anything but somber – and certainly not “religious.”
There is something about receiving the grace of God that fills a person with joy – and so there is often laughter and a feeling excitement in the air at The Bridge.
We believe that being a Christ follower involves more than merely believing certain things - but living as Jesus lived – and so we look for ways to love and serve people – especially those less fortunate than ourselves.
While we take seriously God’s revelation to man contained in the Bible and we do our best to follow the clear teaching of Scripture – we don’t believe in dividing over secondary matters of faith. With regard to mattes of doctrine we try to practice the adage:
In essentials – unity
In non-essentials - liberty
In all things - charity
Whatever your church background, or if you have no church background at all, The Bridge is a great place to meet God again - or for the first time.
Our History
How it all began
On November 6, 2006 Bo and Jannie Weaver convened a meeting to discuss plans for a new church. About thirty people showed up to learn more about this new church. It was appropriate that outside the large windows of a meeting room at The Town & Country Sports Complex - cars could be seen streaming across a bridge spanning the Licking River, as this new church would be called “The Bridge Community Church of Northern Kentucky.”
Why “The Bridge?”
A bridge speaks of overcoming obstacles and connecting those otherwise separated. The fact is all humanity was separated from God by sin until God took action to bridge that gap. The ultimate bridge God provided was the life and sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.
By calling this new church “The Bridge” we would be constantly reminded of what God has done to bring us to Himself - and of our mission to make Him known.
Laying the Foundation
With a deep desire to be the kind of church God would want us to be, over the next several weeks this small band of believers met to study Scripture and determine what would be the mission and vision of this new church. Out of these gatherings emerged the following statements:
“Our mission is to build a church to the glory of God by reaching lost people with the good news of Jesus and turning them into fully devoted followers of Christ.”
“Our vision is to be an ever expanding family of fully devoted, outwardly focused, self-sacrificing followers of Christ who are growing in our love for God and each other, demonstrating God’s great love and compassion to the world by word and by deed, on our way to heaven and enjoying the journey.”
Getting Started
Everyone on this “launch team,” as we came to call ourselves, volunteered for multiple jobs to help prepare for our first service and to begin the exciting adventure of starting a new church.
Gifts from launch team members and friends of The Bridge provided the finances to purchase a small, portable sound system, nursery and children’s ministry supplies and an old, but reliable step-van we dubbed “Junie,” in which we could store and transport our few possessions.
On Sunday, December 24, 2006 The Bridge conducted its first service at the Marquise Conference and Banquet Center in Wilder, KY.
For the next 12 months, our set-up team met at 8 a.m. each Sunday morning to prepare for church by vacuuming, emptying trash, hauling equipment and setting up chairs. After each service everything would go back in the truck until the next week - when we would do it all over again.
Some dedicated members of the launch team spent almost every Sunday of that first year serving in the nursery; attending only one or two services of the church that they considered their own.
The first year saw our attendance grow to a weekly average of 230, which was just about the capacity of the Marquise.
From Warehouse to Worship
Needing more space – and wanting desperately to get out of the set-up and tear-down mode, we set out to find a more permanent home. Much to our surprise we found a place directly across the parking lot from where we were meeting.
After signing a lease we immediately began converting an empty warehouse into a house of worship. Exactly forty days after we began this transformation of the warehouse we held our first service in our first semi-permanent home – one year and one week after conducting our first service at The Bridge.
Having our own facility not only allowed us to graduate from being a mobile church, but also enabled us to expand our ministries to include a Wednesday night student ministry, weekly Xenos (young adult) meetings, a weekly “Bridge the Gap” prayer service, and a whole lot more.
By April 2009 – just sixteen months from our inception, The Bridge was averaging nearly 500 in weekly attendance. But increased attendance alone has never been what The Bridge is about. Seeing people come to know the Savior and helping them grow to be more like Jesus is our ultimate goal. By teaching the Bible in a verse-by -verse fashion we are seeing lives changed by God’s Word and Spirit.
Reaching Out
With a desire to demonstrate God’s love in tangible ways – from the start The Bridge has been involved in serving the community; first at an Emergency Cold Shelter and then at Sunday Night Live at 5th and Greenup in Covington where once a month more than forty volunteers from The Bridge provide a hot meal for over 200 people.
A Place to Pray
Wanting to be a church built on prayer – on August 2, 2009 The Bridge dedicated the Thomas Zane Roberts Retreat House on Middle Creek Road in Burlington, Kentucky as a place to pray and commune with God.
Once again it was the generous gifts and the dedicated work of volunteers from The Bridge that turned a 100 year-old farm house into a lovely place for personal and small group retreats.
An Exciting Future
Perhaps the greatest indication that God has great things in store for The Bridge is the incredible team of staff and volunteers He has assembled in such a short amount of time.
With gifted and seasoned pastors overseeing every area of ministry and the greatest volunteers in the world – the future is bright at The Bridge!
If you are looking for a place to make a difference in the world – to help bridge the gap between God’s love and a lost world – join us at The Bridge – where God is building a church to His glory!