Speaker 1Hey friends, Tyler here to share with you that registration for our 9th annual Holy Spirit Conference is now open. The theme of this year's conference is the Wedding at Cana, and we'll spend time together in the text exploring the rich themes of Jesus' first miracle, turning water into wine. Join us in person at the Keller Auditorium in downtown Portland on February 26 and 27, 2027. I'm so excited that you'll be joining us in Portland once again and anticipating being with you all. You can register right now at HolySpiritCo.me.
Speaker 2Tonight, we're reading out of Luke chapter 1, starting in verse 39. At that time, Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. The church is a
Speaker 1procession of apprentices, following behind Jesus on the narrow way. And the church is a family, serving one another through thick and thin, made up of married and single, rich and poor, orphan, widow, and child. And the church is a present outpost of the coming kingdom of God, an invasion of God. An invasion of heaven on earth, blessing enemies, loving persecutors, flipping the tables of oppressors, a movement on the margins. And that is exactly what tonight is about. Who the church is called to be, and our ongoing journey to become it. You see, God renews the world through people. That's his plan. He's stubborn, and he's sticking to it. But the work of renewal is not a matter of human initiation. It's not a matter of human initiation, but rather a matter of human participation. Even Jesus himself, the closest thing he ever gave us to a method when it came to the work of his kingdom was, I only do what I see the Father doing. In other words, I'm not initiating. That's what the Creator does. I'm paying attention to the Creator, though, and joining in. To paraphrase the wisdom of philosopher Dallas Willard, the life of apprenticeship to Jesus, includes both obedience to Scripture, and obedience to the Spirit. Meaning, much about following Jesus has been made plain and common through Scripture. Jesus honored the Bible as God's authoritative revelation, even claimed to be its prophetic fulfillment. So all of Jesus' followers, everywhere at all times, live under the generous, freeing authority of the Bible, and walk in step with its teachings. But when exactly does my savings account cross the line from prudence and into building bigger barns? And how do I know whether I should send my kids to public school or to private school? And how do I determine if I should spend an hour alone in Scripture and prayer each morning, or if listening to Lectio 365 on my commute is enough? And should I break my fast if an unchurched co-worker I've been praying for invites me to lunch? Or should I fast at all? How do I know what to give up for Lent? Or if I should buy that homeless guy a meal? Or what spiritual practice is a committed non-negotiable for me in my particular season of life? Well, Jesus doesn't give common, plain answers to any of those questions, does he? I mean, there's plenty of questions, really good questions, worth asking, that the Bible doesn't directly address. And that's where obedience to the Spirit comes in. Every apprentice of Jesus has been given Scripture to obey commonly. And every apprentice of Jesus has been filled with the Spirit to obey particularly. So tonight we're closing out our annual vision series, In Portland As It Is In Heaven. And to this point, our focus has been on the bit that we all share in common, obedience to Scripture. But tonight we are turning toward that second, more mysterious bit. Walking the narrow path. Walking the way of Jesus in obedience to the Spirit as Bridgetown Church in this particular moment. And that means this teaching won't be what you're used to. It's not an exegetical sermon where we chop up a passage of Scripture and then uncover its treasure and respond personally. And I won't be preaching, or at least not alone. But I'm going to share this teaching with three other pastors from our team. With Bethany, our associate pastor. Joy, our pastor. Our pastor of family formation. And Eric, or Eazy-E, if you know him like I do. Our pastor of compassion. As four pastors, we want to give voice to what we have collectively discerned as Bridgetown's elders, board of directors, and staff to be the story that God is writing among us at the moment. We want to name the themes of that story clearly and invite you to participate in it at the Spirit's Inn. As we look ahead to our next three years as a church, we're envisioning the same story, but a new chapter. Not a new direction, but next steps in the very direction that we've been walking for a couple of decades now as a church. The themes of this new chapter, the priorities that we want to highlight and hold for the next three years of our life together are spiritual formation, family formation, and kinship. Spiritual formation, that is not a new theme, of course. It's been the heartbeat of our church from the very start, but we are prioritizing that theme in new ways over the next three years, beginning with the birth of a fourth Sunday worship gathering this year. So as of the first Sunday in January of 2027, we will gather at 9, 11, 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. every Sunday. Second, family formation, that we would devote ourselves to the spiritual formation of our kids and youth every bit as much as we do to adults, equipping every parent to be the primary disciple maker of their children and knowing the home as the furnace of formation, the primary place where spiritual formation happens. And finally, kinship, meaning relationship. In which the stranger becomes family. That is the ultimate aim and destination of all of our service and justice. It is the aim at which we point all of our compassion. And as of today, that word compassion will be the umbrella term under which these three expressions fit. Now, historically, we have used justice as the umbrella term holding all of our ministry dedicated to love, serving, and serving our neighbors outside of our local congregation. But we are shifting from justice to compassion simply because there is so much confusion and disagreement in our broader culture about what justice really is, what role mercy should play in justice, when service helps and when it hurts. But compassion is a thoroughly biblical word used across the board by the Old Testament authors, the New Testament authors, and by Jesus himself. We are shifting from justice to compassion simply because there is so much confusion and disagreement in our broader culture about what justice really is, what role mercy should play in justice when service helps and when it hurts, but compassion is a thoroughly biblical word used across the board by the Old Testament authors, the New Testament authors, and by Jesus himself. We are shifting from justice to compassion simply because there is so much confusion and disagreement in our broader culture about what justice really is, what role mercy should play in justice when service helps and when it hurts, but compassion is a thoroughly biblical word used across the board by the New Testament authors, the New Testament authors, and by Jesus himself. Compassion is a common biblical word primarily used to describe the way that God himself goes about the work of justice. And this is not a departure from the priority of justice. Rather, we're shifting to compassion to highlight and elevate, raising the banner on our justice work as the practical work of all apprentices of Jesus. Compassion simply because it frees us to then define terms like service, justice, and kinship the way our rabbi does. So here's the three themes that we want to name and invite you to participate in tonight. Spiritual formation, family formation, and kinship, and we will tackle them in that order. Let them have it, Pastor Simbella. Well, as Tyler just shared, tonight
Speaker 3we're going to be talking about where we're headed as a church community over the next three years. And I have the privilege of going first, which is a little ironic because I just got back from a two-and-a-half-month sabbatical where I specifically was trying not to be responsible for anything upon my return. So that apparently worked out great. But truly, returning from sabbatical has given me a lot of hope. It's given me a very unique and particular gift, and that is perspective. On sabbatical, I had the chance to go back through very specific and what I'm going to be talking about. I'm calling historic moments and people and experiences that have shaped my life here at Bridgetown. I was able to grieve some things and ultimately celebrate and honor the story that God has allowed me to be part of for these past 15 years. And what I found myself feeling over and over again in the midst of all of that was profound gratitude. Gratitude for what God has done among us, for the people in this room, for the strange and beautiful and sometimes wonderfully scrappy community that we all get to call home. But there was something else as I began to recognize more and more. And as I reflected specifically on our story, and it's this, it's how faithful God has been to us. How faithful God has been through seasons of change, through uncertainty, faithful in things that we've celebrated and faithful in spaces we've had to grieve. And I think that's what struck me most as I looked back, that God's faithfulness to us has never meant that he is finished with us. There's a passage I've been sitting with as I've thought about this next season we're entering into, and it's in Ephesians chapter 3. Here Paul is praying for the church, and his prayer is not primarily that they would become bigger or more impressive or more successful. His prayer is that they would become people who go deeper so that they would know the fullness of God. He says, "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." And then Paul ends this extraordinary declaration, or he ends with this extraordinary declaration. He says, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us." I love that Paul's vision for the church is not simply more, it's fullness. And I think that's important for us as we step into a new season because there is, and there will likely be, temptation when we start talking about a three-year vision to immediately think about expansion. So what are we building? How many people will come? What will we add? And what will this look like? And of course, those aren't necessarily bad questions, but Ephesians gives us a different starting point, one I hope that we will adopt. Before Paul talks about what the church might do, he prays about who the church might become, what they may know as they go deeper in practice seeing the way of Jesus. There are things that we have received as a community from God that we should honor and protect. There are things he has formed in us over a decade plus that we don't want to lose. But there are also things he is still inviting us into. And our primary work isn't to build an impressive church. Trust me, it's to remain faithful, to keep the main things the main things, to stay centered on Jesus and to remain attentive to the Spirit. And sometimes faithfulness means allowing the form to change so that the life we're trying to cultivate can continue to deepen. I think growth has a way of bringing our deepest commitments into sharper focus. Because the question in growth isn't simply how do we keep doing what we've been doing? The question is what will faithfulness require of us in this next season? And that's what we're beginning to talk about tonight here. Bridgetown is entering into a new season. And as we consider what the next three years look like, we're not trying to become an entirely different church. We're asking what it looks like to make room for the fullness of who God has called us to be and for what he might do amongst us next. Now for us in the coming season, that invitation has a very practical expression. Like Tyler just said, it is adding a fourth gathering to our Sunday rhythm. And before we talk about the gathering, I do want to talk about the ache first that has brought us here. Because remember the question we're trying to answer isn't simply how do we make room for more people or how do we expand? The question is how do we make room for what God is doing among us next without losing the very things that make this community who they are? So let's start by naming something we all know but sometimes hate. And that is that growth is a gift. Right? Nope. But yes. Growth is a gift. All kinds of growth is a gift. And it needs to be stewarded. We want people to encounter Jesus. We want people to find a home in this community. And we want to see the kingdom of God take root in Portland. We are praying for that week after week after week. But growth also creates challenges. And over the past several years, we've felt some of those challenges, particularly in our Sunday gatherings. They've gotten a little more crowded, a little busier. And those things are not bad things. We love worship. We love the presence of the Holy Spirit. We love gathering together around the Word of God. But we've begun to feel this ache. And it is a familial ache, which has led us to ask how do we become more like family, more familiar, more intimate without having to send people away? How do we preserve the formative power of Sunday evenings while recovering the intimacy of the gathering? Because I don't think the problem is that we have too many people. We want to be able to recognize one another, to know one another, to have the experience of walking into this room and thinking, these are my people, not just I managed to find a seat. And addressing that ache requires more than just a logistical question. It also requires a spiritual posture. So here's where the ache has brought us. Like Tyler just said, on the first Sunday of 2027, Bridgetown will launch a fourth worship gathering. The gathering times will be 9, 11, 4, and 6. Now, I know we're all coming into this announcement from different places. For most of you, this won't require a change to your Sunday rhythm, except it will for you. That was for the other gatherings. And I just realized that in real time. Are we family or what? It says you'll keep gathering as you do, but you won't. So let's hold that with open hands. Amen. Now, the truth is, this is for the room. Some of you have already heard about this. If you're a community leader in our community, you have heard about this. You know about this. And for those of you for whom this directly affects you or your family, we know this isn't just an idea we are speaking about from the stage. You have or you will have an opportunity to hear more, to ask questions, and to give feedback. I want to wrestle with you and shepherd you all the way through this. But for all of us, I want to be clear about what this is and what this isn't. So first, what this isn't. This isn't expansion for expansion's sake. This isn't a decision driven simply by the desire to grow numerically. That has never been our heart and it will not be our heart. And it isn't the beginning of some endless cycle of adding gathering after gathering after gathering. In fact, about three years ago, our staff and church leadership, we discerned a vision that included four gatherings and approximately 3,000 people. So this idea isn't brand new. It's something we've been bringing before Jesus over and over again. But as we've continued to grow and in that discern, we've become increasingly aware that the model matters as much as the number. As Bridgetown staff, we live and lead by nine ministry principles, one of which is we want to be a model church, not a mega church. And that's no shade to the mega churches. That's just who we're not called to be. So to be clear, what we mean by that is that the size of our church cannot become more important than the kind of church we're becoming. We want a model that is sustainable, formative, and participatory. A model where people aren't simply attending church, but actually learning to live life with Jesus together. And that brings us to what this fourth gathering is about. I want to name two things. I want to name charism and empowerment. First, our charism. Now, charism is a fancy word, but it is a word that we use to describe our unique call and character, the particular way that God has called Bridgetown to embody the life of Jesus. And I think one of the best gifts of this community is that we have always held together things that don't always get held together. So we are contemplative. And anyone know? A sweet whisper from the 5:00 PM, but thank you. That is the best we've had all day. What is it? Charismatic. You can say it. That's okay. It's a safe place in here. So we are contemplative and charismatic. Hopefully you've heard us say that at least a few times, if not a thousand times. We're also thoughtful about biblical engagement and ancient practices of formation. And we also carry a deep hunger for encounters of the Holy Spirit. We value depth and we value passion. We believe in the formative power of a Sunday gathering and we believe in the intimate relational formation that happens in homes throughout the week. In short, we need both, and we believe in both. But as we've grown, some of the good things have become less balanced. And again, those are good things. But what we want to recover is the equal value of family, familiarity, and participation. This addition, it isn't a rejection of our history. It is a return to the fullness of our identity. And that will have some practical expressions. You might have noticed that the sanctuary looks a little bit different these days. We've redesigned it to try and create a more familial and intimate environment. That's intentional. We've been thinking a lot about what it might look like to bring some of the qualities we experience at Ash Wednesday or Good Friday and Advent worship nights into our Sunday gatherings. And we've been thinking a lot about what it might look like to bring some of the qualities we experience at Ash Wednesday or Good Friday and Advent worship nights into our Sunday gatherings. We also want to continue to preserve the things we love about gathering in this room and in this space together, like the freedom to come down front in response time and in worship together. We love having our kids right in the middle of worship with us. We want to keep making space for families to gather together, to worship together alongside their parents. So please don't stop doing that. Now, we're also hoping that the way we shape our gatherings will leave more space for relationships to build and connections to form, particularly between the gatherings. So think less hustle and bustle. That's what we want. We want less of how do I claim my seat and more of it's good to see you. I've missed you. How was your week? That's the kind of church we want to become. Now, the second thing is about empowerment. And this is where I get particularly excited. You probably thought I was already excited, but no, there's more. Adding this gathering creates space for more. It creates more participation. It creates more space for people to participate. And when I say participation, I don't mean that everyone needs to sign up for something and take on more responsibility. I mean that we're creating more room for gifts and leadership and hospitality and creativity and presence within our space, the people who already make up this church. For our staff, it means opportunities for budding pastors to grow, for existing team members to step in and help them grow. And for our staff, it means opportunities for budding pastors to grow, for existing team members to step into gathering pastors roles and for more people on our teaching team to have opportunities to teach. And we've got some teachers in the lineup and we want them to teach. So this all means lowering the bar of participation while increasing the opportunity for people to contribute. But I do want you to hear this isn't just about staff. It's about all of us. One of the things I love about the early days of Bridgetown was the scrappiness. That sense that everyone had a part to play. And I think that's what I want to see. And everyone could help. Everyone could contribute something meaningful. And I think there's an invitation for us to recover some of that. Because when we spread out, needs will inevitably emerge. And when needs emerge, new opportunities for leadership emerge. And that's a beautiful thing. Going back to what Paul was getting at in Ephesians 3, his prayer wasn't simply that the church would do more, but that Christ would be deeply formed in them. That they would be rooted and established in love and filled with the fullness of God. That's a prayer for the whole people of God. This edition we're making, it isn't about creating more volunteers, I promise. It's about recovering our identity as people who all have a part to play in the life of Jesus together. Because we aren't consumers of a church experience. We are the church. So as we enter this next season, we're not simply adding another gathering. Please hear us say that we are making room for a new season of becoming the people God has called us to be. And I think that's the invitation before us, not to protect everything exactly as it has been, not to change everything for the sake of change, but to remain faithful, to keep listening and to keep yielding and to trust that the God who has been faithful to us in every season will be again. So our three themes in the next few minutes, we're going to be talking about the chapter of our story, our spiritual formation, and that brings us to family formation.
Speaker 4In the early 80s at a small Baptist church in southeast Portland, four young siblings showed up to Sunday school for the first time. They went to class, they snacked on some pretzel sticks, and they heard a Bible story. And these siblings, they kept showing up, and some took notice. It wasn't a Sunday school teacher or a pastor, but it was a woman in their church named Linda. Linda introduced herself, she learned the kids' names, and just continued to greet them with a smile every week. But pretty quick, Linda noticed that these kids were always alone. She never saw their parents. And so one Sunday, Linda walks up to the oldest sister at a drinking fountain after church and asks to meet her parents. Get this, the girl takes Linda out to the parking lot where her parents are waiting in the car. Come to find out, up until this point, a couple of tired parents had been using a neighborhood Sunday school as free child care on a Sunday morning so they could sleep in uninterrupted. No judgment there, truly. Linda, she chatted with the family in the parking lot for a few minutes, and again the next Sunday, and the next, and the next. And eventually, she invited mom and dad to come to the service and sit with her, and they said yes. She became a constant presence in the life of this family. She welcomed them into her home, she shared meals with them, and continued to worship with them every week. Fast forward a year or so later, and the dad and his oldest daughter, they say yes to Jesus, and they're baptized on the same day. And Linda was there, cheering in the congregation with tears in her eyes. And while that sounds like a page ripped from the New Testament, that's my spiritual lineage. That oldest daughter at the drinking fountain was my mom. And it's because of Linda's welcoming presence in the lives of those four kids that I follow Jesus today. And it's because those tired parents, my grandparents, they took a risk and they chose to reorder their family's entire life. It's absolutely crazy to live within an ancient story. And it's because of my grandparents and my parents that I'm raising my own family in the way of Jesus today. At Bridgetown, we're stepping into an expanded vision for family formation. So, whether you find yourself raising kids in your home or not, I want to say that this vision is for you. When we talk about family formation, we're referring to both the formative work that happens in young people through their parents and through the church. So, for those of you who have kids or teenagers in your home, parents, grandparents, foster parents, and the like, our hope for family formation is that every parent at Bridgetown Church would feel equipped to take part in the work that they're doing. And that's what we're talking about. So, we're talking about family formation as the primary spiritual leaders of their children. And for those without children in their home, single, empty nesters, married without kids, the vision is just as importantly for you. Our hope for family formation is that the people of Bridgetown Church of every generation would practice the way of Jesus together, side by side. And so, our vision for family formation is for all of Bridgetown Church. So, how do we make a move toward this? How do we become a church where every parent's equipped as the spiritual leader of their kids and where every generation truly follows Jesus together? We get there through shared life in a shared story. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses is preparing the people of Israel to enter the promised land. He warns them not to repeat the patterns of their ancestors who time and time again forgot God. And so, they're given the law summed up in the Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord Israel. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Israel, do not forget who God is or who you are, where God has brought you from and where he's taking you. Don't forget our story with God. And so, to this end, Moses instructs the people how to remember. He tells them to use their ordinary moments of shared life together to remember their shared story. So, he commands them to remember in moments as a family, like meals and bedtime and the morning commute, and in spaces of shared community life. So, write it on your doors, your homes, the city gates. And it wasn't to help them memorize a list of rules, but to help the generations to come remember their story and to continue to keep living in it. And this is the model that the scriptures give us for raising up the next generation. Shared life in a shared story. Sarah Cowan Johnson, in her book, Teach Your Children Well, she writes this. In recent years, we've experienced a global pandemic, polarizing politics, heightened awareness of racial injustice and war with massive geopolitical ramifications. And we should probably add AI to this list now, too. The fabric of our society is, if not fraying outright, significantly strained. Simultaneously, the church is learning to navigate life and ministry in a novel post-Christian context. In many ways, we and the world West are also in danger of forgetting God. Raising up the next generation to love and know and follow God is just as essential now as it was in Moses's time. So those two groups of people that I mentioned before, those of us who have kids or teenagers in the home and those who don't, whichever you find yourself in today, what's your role in this idea of shared life in a shared story? So first, I want to talk to parents, because you've probably heard the statistic, right? Less than half of the kids who grow up in church will continue to follow Jesus as adults. And parents, this is very sobering to me as a pastor, but it's even more terrifying to me as a mom. What do we have to learn from the ones who stay? What's different about them? Well, no matter how good our kids and youth programs are, which I'd argue they are, there's no stronger influence on a child's spiritual formation than parents. Parents are the single most significant factor in if a child builds a resilient, lasting faith. And there's been dozens of studies about this over the past decade, and most indicate that when parents intentionally lead their children in the way of Jesus at home, those kids are twice as likely to follow Jesus in adulthood. So parents, as a pastor, my influence or Kyle's or David's, our influence on the life of your kids will never compare to yours. But what I don't want you to hear me say is that if you lead your kids well, they'll seamlessly follow Jesus for the rest of their lives. Because when Jesus talks about formation, it's seeds and plants and vineyards, right? It's not a factory. It's long, slow work, and there's no one-size-fits-all approach to effective disciple-making in your home. It's scattering the seed and tending the plant. And there's so much that we can't control in the lives of our kids, and when we try to, we risk damaging our children or our view of ourselves or both. What we can do, though, is we can trust God, enjoy the journey with our kids, and give ourselves fully to the work of discipleship in our home. And so our hope in family formation is, again, this, that every parent at Bridgetown Church would feel equipped and empowered as the primary spiritual leaders of their children. The story that your family roots your everyday, ordinary life within is the story that will shape the lives of your children. Parents, you are in a unique position to invite your children into a story, and there are a lot of competing stories out there. And my hope is that you'll pick this one. And it's not as simple as deciding that this is the story that you'll believe. That's only the we need to put our feet towards the task of living out this story together in the everyday, ordinary moments of life. But if you're like me, I can barely remember to brush my daughter's teeth in the morning, and my husband said that was too embarrassing to share out loud from stage. But I just need to as a witness, because being a young parent is really hard. It's really hard. A lot of you get it. I forget to move her sleep sack from the washer to the dryer in time for bedtime. I feel like I'm barely surviving the ordinary, ordinary life. Letting alone making those the moments to remember God with my kid. So with this in mind, our commitment to Bridgetown parents in the season ahead is to offer easy, accessible, and repeatable on-ramps for you to practice the way of Jesus with your family at home and to live our shared story together. So that'll mean at-home resources and activities and workshops and in-person learning, all designed to help us increasingly live shared life and a shared story, not just believing. And that work, it begins in the most concrete sense a week from today. But before we get into those details, I also want to speak to the whole of the people of God at Bridgetown Church, especially those who don't have children in your home. I said before that our hope is that the people of Bridgetown Church of every generation would practice the way of Jesus together, side by side. How might God be inviting you? In your unique story and season of life, to participate in this vision. Maybe like Linda in my mom's story, through being a person of hospitality and welcome, with eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit is doing. Or maybe like Tommy. Tommy was a young adult who signed up to volunteer in Bridgetown Kids twice a month, and he found himself quickly connected with a group of fourth grade boys. And through a regular rhythm, some of those boys are in the room up here, actually, in fact, in the high school group. So, you know this, that through a regular rhythm of showing up to serve and the occasional Friday pizza night, he found himself becoming like Jesus with these kids. So much that he followed them all the way up to youth group and has walked with the same group of boys all the way to their first year of high school, journeying with them through some of the hardest years in the lives of young people today. Is God inviting you to participate like Tracy? Aging and illness made it hard for her to serve in the ways that felt the most familiar to her. And so, Miss Tracy, who doesn't have the ability to do that, she's going to do it. And so, she's going to do it. And so, of her own, is instead discipling five young girls in our church. She spends time with each of them, hosts Mother's Day teas and Father's Day breakfast. She goes to their games and their recitals, and she faithfully prays for their families every day. Or maybe God's inviting you to participate like the hundreds of adults in our church who gather around the table with families each week in Bridgetown communities, sharing a meal, asking questions, and taking communion together. Maybe God's inviting you to participate like the hundreds of adults in our church who gather around the table with families each week in Bridgetown communities, sharing a meal, asking questions, and taking communion together. Or maybe God's inviting you to participate like the hundreds of adults in our church who gather around the table with families each week in Bridgetown communities, kids and teenagers included, to practice the way of Jesus together. But wait, Joy, hold on. What's that thing you said about next week? I haven't stopped thinking about it. Thank you. Thank you for asking. So, next Sunday, October 11th, is Family Formation Sunday. Family Formation Sunday is going to be a grand experiment in the life of our church, something that we truly hope does become a tradition. We're going to be doing a lot of work on that. Every single one of us will have an opportunity to put this vision into practice. So, we'll worship Jesus together, side by side, but in ways that are more invitational to children than our typical Sunday gathering. And we will intentionally create space during the gathering to lead parents as they lead their children, equipping new parents with at-home formation tools. So, what does this mean practically for all of us seven days from now? So, after worship, instead of Bridgetown kids programming, parents and their children, four years old through fifth grade, will gather outside in the parking lot under a tent. It's going to be beautiful with lights. It's going to be great. And we'll lead you in a guided family activity centered on a practice from the life of Jesus. And parents, this should not be a jump scare, but if it is, check your email for the details. We gathering in here, it'll continue on as normal with teaching and prayer, just with a little smaller crowd. It'll be like on a flight when you look out with an empty middle seat and aren't rubbing elbows with the person next to you. Family, can we practice the way of Jesus together next week? Like, really together? Can we do that? Yeah? Because trying new things, I think it's weird sometimes, but it's worth it. And I think it's going to be worth it, not just for the sake of the next generation and their formation, but for ours. And Family Formation Sunday, it's just the starting point. There's more to come. In the Gospels, Jesus, tells his disciples that receiving these children is the same as receiving me. And when Linda welcomed those children, she welcomed Jesus himself. In an ordinary moment, she welcomed Jesus to transform her life and theirs. And Linda had no idea that a passing smile exchange with a child or that parking lot conversation would bring generations of fruit for the kingdom of God. And those parents in that car had no idea that they were going to be in the kingdom of God. And they were going to be in the kingdom of God forever. And they had no idea what their yes would do in the lives of their children and their children's children. And neither will we, probably. And that's good news for the people of God and for parents, because it starts that small. Jesus said that he can do a lot with a little, with our wave, with a hello, with a yes. In the years ahead, our vision is for spiritual formation, family formation, and finally, kinship. At the end of Matthew chapter 9 and into chapter
Speaker 510, Jesus walks through small towns and larger villages, sharing good news that in him, God is restoring that which was broken, bringing those who are on the outside to the inside and making all things new. Along the way, he heals every kind of disease and weakness. And as he looks into the eyes of the people of God, he sees that he has healed every kind of disease and weakness. And as he looks into the eyes of the people, he sees their suffering and hears their stories. And he's filled with compassion, the kind that co-suffers with someone, because those folks were harassed and they were helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Turning to his disciples, Jesus tells them to pray for laborers to enter into the harvest. He says, the people I see along the way, they're ready. They're even willing. And the does. He calls the disciples to himself. He gives them humble authority. authority and he sends them out to do what he does bring the kingdom of heaven near and as he sends them he gives them instructions that will not only form what they do but who they'll become as they serve from their homes into their cities and around the world he would say go to the overlook to bring the kingdom of heaven near freely give what you freely receive pack light take no extra be wise as serpent innocent as doves and depend on the spirit when you don't know what to do and you don't know what to say you see the compassion jesus felt for the crowds became the very commission he gave his apprentices today we want to pick up that same invitation as the church his compassion is our commission as tyler said at the top i'm going to clarify some terms and help continue to send us out as workers into that harvest just like jesus did in matthew 9 and 10 so that brings us to a few words that we want to remember you you , service, justice, kinship, what do we mean by those let's define them real quick service loving others by meeting practical needs justice seeking the reformation of oppressive systems and kinship relationships in which the stranger becomes family all three of these are interconnected expressions of the compassion of jesus in the world and that's good news because wherever you are with service justice or kinship that's the spot to be in the middle of the world and that's the spot to be in the middle of the world and that's the spot to be in the middle of the world start but he calls us to more so let's briefly look at each of those and unpack them for ourselves tonight service loving others by meeting their practical needs jesus often spent time with the father and was led by the spirit he only did what he saw and what he heard his life was a paradox of intimacy and interruption intimacy with the father and interruption with joy to the folks they bumped into along the way that's a super wrestle of mine i tend towards intimacy with long interruptions to exhaustion to netflix but he moved towards people in those interruptions that the ones he bumped into along the way as he bumped into them he met their practical needs and so for you and me that bump is our everyday ordinary moment when we bump into someone or they bump into us and we have the opportunity through the spirit to lovingly enter into their specific need or even bring our need to them in very simple terms bumps are the people that are already around us they're the people that we meet along the way and the people that we're called to go out of our way for much like john for with the woman at the well and if you don't know where to start or how to get going i would start with this question what interruptions am i trying to avoid that might actually be invitations to love my neighbor that brings me to justice seeking the reformation of oppressive systems if service asks what do you need then justice asks what do you need then justice asks why does this keep happening so we want to grow and becoming a people that both are all three see engage and reform let me break those down briefly see we want to see the ache where is our city hurting what old aches new pains have we stopped noticing don't maybe care about anymore or don't have answers for as of yet what work do i need to do internally to help address the pain that continues to happen in our city engage bring our gifts god has placed people for such a time as this in this body in this city for right now the teacher the artist the engineer the business owner the retiree the student the social worker the entrepreneur all of those gifts all of that good work made before the foundation of the world is to be ushered in to the work of the kingdom in our city so bring your gifts and lastly reform build what's missing what could we do to make sure that we're not the only ones that are missing what could we imagine create or change together so that by 2029 shoot 2059 that our collective gifts and good works would bring new answers to old aches where injustice has persisted before i say this i'm 47 i've been around the church i've served since i was 17 years old i was called at 14 years old and i don't know of any more beautiful of a place with more beautiful people that have more gifts and more work that's been given to them before the foundation of the world and i can't imagine if it were to be unleashed as a collective people into the city at this time because for generations the church has been the answer to the aches of the world folks we're his church we're the city on the hill we are the body of christ made for the world that christ created so may we see the people that are overlooked engage where our city aches and reform that which has been oppressive until guess what our name is christ made for the world that christ created so may we see the people that are overlooked engage where our city aches and reform that which has been oppressive until guess what our name is christ made for the world that christ created so may we see the people and neighborhoods flourish that brings me to kinship relationships in which the stranger becomes family if service asks what do you need then justice asks why does this keep happening and kinship asks how do we become family a few years ago a woman named cozy yelled at me from the side of the road i came over and she said hey i've got stage four pancreatic cancer i was given three months but i'm here 18 months later my house has fallen apart she said i need you to come over you're gonna help me fix it and we're gonna become friends yes ma'am that day changed our lives and honestly i wish i could tell you or we could share stories over and over again because what was about to happen literally changed my life cozy is embedded in the fabric of my dna and she is the woman i bring to almost every table that i enter into because two years later after sitting together serving together teaching together my wife may and i we walked in with the family and sat as family as we remembered cozy once was a stranger who became a neighbor who became family who became became like a mom to me and i a son to her what started as service ended in kinship what started as a stranger ended his family and you know i know that not everybody has a coach but we all do have a neighbor or a co-worker or a kid that hangs out all too much at our house the point is that everyone gets interrupted but only those that listen get invited so service justice kinship what do you need why does this keep happening and how can we become family as we grow in compassion and follow jesus by practically serving seeking justice and building kinship alongside one another and our neighbors we're focusing our compassion on seven key areas and coming alongside those that are experiencing seven specific things limited accessibility addiction and homelessness aging in place foster care and vulnerable families prison and re-entry oppression and injustice through sex traffic and slavery and racial justice and reconciliation and those that live life as refugees and if you want to find out more information we pray every first wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m down in the prayer room in fact we'll be meeting this week october 7th sundays folks hear me it's an opportunity to practice the compassion of jesus as one every gathering all day long by how we we make space for those are waiting to be seen bridgetown communities we get to serve alongside over 20 local partners in our monthly practice of service and pray for 10 global partners each month beyond the participation in the bridgetown community all are invited to commit a year to an area of compassion to practice service and justice and kinship and lastly most importantly every day you know when jesus gave us the second command to love our neighbor as ourselves i often wonder if we've ever ever ever ever taken a shot at just trying like the things that actually plague us might be answered by the second command the brokenness that we feel the the weightiness that we sense the stuff that we bump into along the way what if we practice practice the interruptibility of jesus where we are with what we have for the sake of those around us along the way and even out of our way what might happen so what if over the next three years we became a people of compassion the kind that co-suffered with each other what if we became a people who look upon those who harass and help us much like the disciples follow jesus into homes neighborhoods cities with his humble authority serving practical needs seeking justice and building the kind of kinship where strangers become family what if we went with deep trust in jesus we have already freely received everything we need to freely give remember he said pack light be wise as serpents innocent as doves depend on the spirit what if we believed just like those uneducated men and act for thirteen that have been with jesus that it's enough to follow jesus into this great invitation this is what it could look like for the compassion of jesus to walk the streets of portland through his apprentices through you and me and maybe as we give our lives to love one another and our neighbor through those bumps along the way we might begin to taste and see everything that we've been praying for in portland as it is in heaven Thank you. So I will land us
Speaker 1this evening where we began. God renews the world through people. It is about human participation. The most decisive act of God in the whole of human history is also the most personal act. When he came to live among us, a participatory work that involved Mary and Joseph, the Magi and the shepherds, Simeon and Anna, but before any of them, the first human participant invited to get in on God's arrival was a priest named Zechariah, a man thoroughly obedient to Scripture, even a teacher of it, and yet he failed to respond at first to the Spirit's invitation. But his wife Elizabeth, without an angelic encounter or a divine message, just by reading the events of her life and discerning the Spirit's work in her midst, became the first witness to God's arrival on earth. So what's the bridge between obedience to Scripture and obedience to the Spirit? Between what God has called us to commonly and what God's called me to personally. It is listening to God, chewing on His ancient promises, daring to believe that they're not stuck in a book or in the lives of people in the past, but they're as real today as they ever have been. Daring to wonder if my life might really be as consequential to the creators as the ancients were. Daring to wonder if I might, if I might be important enough to God to be written into His story of renewing all creation. In a word, I'm talking about discernment, which is paying careful, prayerful attention to where the story of Scripture and the story I'm living today overlap. So look, we just finished telling you that we're starting a fourth worship gathering in 2027, and next year, some of you aren't even aware of it, but you're not even invited to all the worship gathering 'cause you're gonna be with a few of your kids outside doing a family practice around the table. Oh, and we're moving from just proximity to the needs of our city, to kinship relationship with the needy of our city. This is a full send, but we're not coming to you today to sign you up for a church program or project. This isn't some venture capital. This is a capitalist campaign, and we're enlisting your support. We're coming to you today in the spirit of Elizabeth, the way Elizabeth answers the door when it's Mary knocking on the other side, doing our very best to do the ancient work of discernment and say, "Here's the story God's writing among us. "Might you have a part in it?" We're coming to you in the spirit of Elizabeth, so would you respond in the spirit of Mary? And as you listened to these invitations today, was there a moment when something within you leapt for joy? -
Speaker 4Thanks for joining the Bridgetown family as we engage in this teaching series. To learn more about the life of our church and how you can get involved, visit bridgetown.church/welcome. If you're interested, in contributing financially to Bridgetown Church and to our ministry, you can do that at bridgetown.church/giving. Wherever you're joining us from, we hope this resource blesses you and encourages you to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did.
PodcastTranscript AI