It was one year ago, this very week that Kelleye and I invited Larry and Stephanie Myles over to our home to discuss the prospect of starting a new church in Gibsonia. Larry and I had discussed the idea before but never this seriously. However, by the end of that evening a new church was in motion.
Well, actually God had things in motion long before we did. You see, Living Bridge is not your typical church plant. We didn’t have a “mother” church to support us… We didn’t have financial backers waiting to donate towards our effort… But what we did have was a BIG, BIG God who was going ahead of us.
Honestly, I was still having second thoughts about the whole thing. I mean, I was a music and worship pastor and I didn’t have the foggiest idea of how to start a church. But while I was having my doubts, Larry was filing the paper work to get us incorporated. No, wait, stop! However, before I knew it, all was in process. I mean, we didn’t even have a name yet! We had no drawing board, no outlined plans, no name, no experience… but again, we did have a BIG, BIG God!
Before long word began to spread of this potential church start and I had to come up with a name. I got it! People’s Church Pittsburgh would be our name! That was it! No it wasn’t… God had other plans and after a night of sleepless thinking trying to come up with a name that worked, it finally came to me. “Christ is the Living Bridge between God and man”. That’s it! And from that moment on the church had a name, “Living Bridge Community Church”.
We decided to begin this effort by holding Bible studies throughout the summer. Our first gathering was on July 22, had about 20 people in attendance, and was held at the home of Larry and Stephanie Myles. We continued meeting and the group began to grow. God began sending us leaders including some who had church planting experience. We set a date for a Sunday service launch of Sunday, September 27th, less than 2 months away…. but where? I checked into schools, the library, buildings for rent… then through a freak moment where someone overheard my conversation with someone else, the suggestion came, “How about the Pine-Richland Youth Center?” I didn’t even know where it was! But like every other piece of this puzzle things just came together. I found out where it was, walked in, asked for the person in charge, and within minutes was talking to the director of the center who shared with me that it just might be a very real possibility that we could meet there. We now had the possibility of a building, but we had no money, we had no name in the community, and the folks at the youth center didn't know me from Adam, but what we did have was a BIG, BIG God!
Over the next weeks and months the Bible study continued to meet and it grew to around 60 people. We began purchasing some sound equipment, chairs, and other things we would need to have for our church service. Things were full throttle ahead, no turning back now! We never had any big lump sum monetary donations, but at the same time we never were in need. We were in full force marketing mode with phone calls, yard signs, a booth at Community Day, and lots of word-of-mouth going on. This thing was happening and I began realizing more and more that I was not driving this train, God was. A BIG, BIG God!
On September 27th of 2009, Living Bridge held its first service with a total of 192 persons in attendance. As with most church starts our numbers sank for a while after that. Over the past year we have been tested from all directions. We have endured both one of the snowiest winters on record as well as one of the hottest summers. Behind the scenes we had to come to a place of unity concerning what we believe, how we would function, what was our purpose, our priorities, and our mission. We had to put together bylaws, establish elders, decide where we stood on key issues, all while actually being in the process of doing church week in and week out….
However, through it all, one thing that remained constant was God’s faithfulness. Our relationship with the youth center turned out to be a real blessing. Our numbers have grown steadily since January of this year and we now have some 200 people who attend on a regular basis. We have seen more leaders emerge to help pick up the slack and fill in the gaps where needed. We hired a full-time youth pastor in May and we are seeing an average of 30 students on a weekly basis. There have been over 20 people make the decision to accept Christ as their Savior and we have baptized 10 people since January. We are blessed with incredible kid’s leaders that most churches would die for, and our kid’s ministry is seeing over 30 kids weekly. We have a group of 5 elders who are leading our church spiritually, and we have established care, and prayer teams that are diligent in serving and seeking the Lord’s face.
Lives are being changed! Families on the brink of disaster are being rescued! People are finding hope, love, and joy that they didn’t even think was possible.
I have left so much out, there is so much more I could say…
So here we are, almost one year later, and as we look down the road there is one thing that remains constant, one thing that is blocking “my” view, but that’s ok. It’s our BIG, BIG God who goes ahead of us and know the plans He has for us.
And you know, I can’t wait to see what He’s going to do next as Living Bridge continue to…
Be the Church!
Blessings to you,
PCW
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