Core Values: Gospel Community

Are you lonely?

Recent studies suggest that loneliness is on the rise in our culture…so much so, in fact, that psychologists have called its horrific escalation the “Loneliness Epidemic.”

Lonesome means “sad from being alone.” There’s a reason we associate sadness with loneliness. We weren’t created for it. It’s a result of the fall and a part of the brokenness of our world. 

God didn’t create us to be solitary. He didn’t create us to be cut off from others. He created us for relationship – with Him and with the people around us. 

When we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, something astonishing happens. The loneliness we were subject to while we were separated from God by our sin is decimated. He wraps His arms around us as His children. He adopts us as His sons and daughters. 

But I’m not His only daughter.

You’re not His only son. 

You’re not His only daughter.

When we become believers, we are adopted into a family of every tribe and every tongue that stretches across generations. It’s a family against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. It isn’t a perfect family yet, but one day it will be. 

Our invitation in this life is to participate in the family of God in a way that causes the watching world to stop and stare. We are to love each other through, over, and above struggles, differences of opinion, brokenness…the good, the bad, and the ugly. We experience a taste of heaven on earth through gospel community…and when the kingdom comes, the world isn’t left the same.

In this epidemic of loneliness, the world should be looking at the church and saying, “Wow. They love people who disagree with them. They love people who don’t look like them. They love people who don’t think like them. What on earth is uniting them?”

The thing is, it isn’t a “what.” Jesus is a “Who.” And He said the watching world would know we are Christians by our love for one another.

Jesus wants to meet you in your loneliness through His people. If you know Him, you have brothers and sisters. The Bridge is a local expression of a global family. 

I beg of you, don’t miss out on this family. Don’t try to do the Christian thing alone. I’ve tried. It’s impossible. You miss out on the best parts of who God is and what He is doing. It’s lonely. It’s sad. Not only do you need your brothers and sisters, but, hear me on this, Christian, they need you. 

Gospel community isn’t easy, but it’s so, so good. 

Tomorrow at 10 AM and 6 PM the family is getting together. We’re praying we experience a taste of heaven. I hope you’ll join us. 

With great joy and love,
Erika