The trip will go from Sunday 06/09/2024 thru Friday 06/14/2024
We will host information meetings in Fellowship Hall right after church every Sunday in October. You will have an opportunity to sign up for the trip at these meetings by paying your deposit.
· Deadline to sign up: Sunday November 5th.
· Deposit of $50 per person due Sunday November 5th
· Total Cost: $500 per person
· Starting in January, and on the third Sunday of the month through May, we will meet as a group right after church in the Fellowship Hall for about 30-45 minutes to share updates and get better acquainted. These meetings will be held on January 21, February 18, March 17, April 21, and May 19.
We will either rent several vans or drive separately. A decision will be made on this once we know how many are going on the trip. Red Bird Mission is about 3 ½ hours away.
o This is a Work Camp, so mostly home repair projects for area residents. Homes with elderly persons, children, disabled, low income, and emergencies are the focus.
o There are also limited opportunities to:
§ Serve in the Craft Store
§ Serve in the Community Store
§ Serve in the Senior Center
§ Serve in Outreach
Accommodations are provided on the Red Bird campus in climate-controlled cabins.
Meals are served Sunday evening through Friday morning.
You are here because you have decided to possibly try the Sabbath. That is great.
It is good to remember that this is not something we have to do, but it is a useful practice in helping us remember who we are, who God is and how we can trust Him. So as you step into practicing the Sabbath, be sure to give yourself grace and to have fun with it.
Look at it as an experiment.
The first thing you will want to do is to set a time period where you will try the Sabbath. As with any practice, you will want to start where you are, not where you want to be. You don't start bench pressing 200 lbs your first day in the gym, you start with an empty barbell and work your way up. So maybe a whole day does not seem feasible. Start with 4 hours or half a day.
But also commit to doing your Sabbath every week for at least a couple of months. This will get you through the initial uncomfortable period, into the blessing an joy that Sabbath can become.
Here is a video of a pastor from Portland describing his family's practice. There might be things from his practice you want to incorporate, you might want to do something totally different. But it is a good place to start the conversation.
So how do you build your own Ritual? Practicing the Way, a website that is focused around Spiritual Disciplines like this gives us this guide.
If you read the wider Sabbath literature, some of which is as old as the New Testament itself, you discover there are 12 common activities that fill up a traditional Sabbath.
1. Lighting the candles
2. Blessing the children
3. Eating a Sabbath meal
4. Expressing gratitude
5. Singing
6. Worshiping with your church
7. Walking
8. Napping
9. Making love to your spouse
10. Reading, especially Scripture
11. Spending time alone with God
12. Spending time with family and friends in conversation and celebration
This is not a “to-do list,” but more like 12 best practices that you are invited to grow into over time as your heart desires. They recommend you pick at least 3 to start with.
Now that you know when to do it, and what to do, go for it.
For more thoughts on this, check out these resources:
Sabbath by Dan Allender
Sabbath by Abraham Heschel
A Conversation between John Mark Comer and Andy Crouch
Believer Basics at Bridgetown Church provides Christians an opportunity to learn some of the basics of the Christian life. Through the Believer Basics materials you will have the opportunity to learn either with a partner on a schedule or on your own at your own pace. You will have access to a variety of topics connected to being a Christian. You will learn about your position in Christ, the process of spiritual growth, what it means to abide in Christ, how to deal with sin, how to study the Bible, do personal devotions, pray, and lastly how to produce spiritual fruit.
Complete the form below if you are interested in Believer Basics. Once completed, someone will be in touch with you.
One step on BCC’s Discipleship Pathway is the step to Read your Bible and pray daily. This page is designed to help you and your family take this step. But first, we want to address the why. Why would anyone want to read their Bible and pray daily? Does it help us to WORSHIP GOD and become like Jesus? These are great questions to ask. Simply put, we read our Bibles and pray to open the lines of communication between us and God. God has spoken to us through the Bible (often called His Word). In turn, we speak to God through prayer. Reading the Bible and praying puts us into a conversation with God. As these lines of communication open, we start to WORSHIP GOD, which means that we start to see His worth in new and different ways.
But like in any relationship, communication with God can be tough. It is often hard to understand what God is saying (His Word) and to express what we are thinking (prayer). It does not always come naturally. Good communication with God never happens overnight. But this is to be expected. The same thing is true in all our relationships. It takes time to learn how to listen to our spouse or friend and to understand how to share with them what we are thinking. We only grow by doing. Frankly, it does us little or no good to learn about communication if we never communicate. We must try to communicate—even when it is scary. The Good News in our relationship with God is that God wants to speak to us. God very much wants to hear from us. Which is why we read the Bible and pray daily. We read the Bible and pray daily because it opens the lines of communication between us and God.
There are lots of ways to access the daily readings.
1. You can pick up a book from the church for free.
2. You can access the print or audio version directly from their website, odb.org.
3. You can download their app onto your phone.
4. You can sign up for the email list and get it directly in your inbox every morning.
CHECK ODB.ORG FOR MORE DETAILS
This Bible reading plan is a great way to lead Family Worship. Just read the daily passage out loud or listen to the audio version with your family , pray and maybe sing a worship song together. This can be done at the dinner table, at bed time or on the way to school. Whenever your family is together, you can lead family worship with confidence.
Yeah! We want to encourage everyone to read Scripture for their spiritual development. But we know that sometimes it can be hard to stay motivated. So we will have a Gift Card drawing every month or so. All you have to do to be entered is to document fourteen days of Bible reading. We have cards available at the church to record your days. Once you fill in the card, you just drop it in one of the drop-boxes to be entered into the next drawing.
