The Bridge

About a week ago I had the privilage and great pleasure to attend The Bridge, a young church that is active in engaging the culture in Tempe, Arizona. For those of you who share my taste in literature, you might recognize The Bridge as one of the churches featured in the book Emerging Churches.

This is where I must make an appeal to my more traditional brethen to not write me off as a heretic. The Bridge is, in fact, an SBC church, with theology that is in step with the Baptist Faith and Message, and planted with CP funding. So if you are a member of an SBC church and tithe, you are in fact supporting at least one "emerging" church- whatever that really means. On a completely unrelated side note, suprisingly enough, The Bridge was actually founded by the lead singer of Stellar Kart.

Back to the important part.

Pastor Norwood gave a well crafted and convicting message about the revolutionary nature of Christ's teaching- pointing out that Jesus instructed the Demoniac and the widow who touched his cloak to return to their friends and family after they were healed. God provided the oppurtunity for them to return to society.

Because they do not own their own building, the Bridge meets at many locations throughout the week. On Sundays they meet on the patio of bar. The worship band is very loud, and before and after the service a dj spins some of the finest european dance/techno music- it's pretty cool.

Having service out in the open air has its pro's and con's- one being that even after the sun goes down it's still in the mid 90's in PHX. But on the upside, the pulsing techno music and edging alt rock tends to draw a crowd of passerbys, who are very surprised to find they stumbled upon a church.

I can't think of a better use of CP dollars.