#11 Starting Bridge Church

I mentioned in my last post that at Cleveland Hope one of our jobs was to help start churches in the Greater Cleveland Area.  Before coming to Cleveland I had very little exposure to church planting.  I heard it talked about some at my home church but that was the extent of my exposure. However, when I started at Cleveland Hope I was pretty much immersed in the outer realms of the church planting world.  What I mean by that is that I started meeting a lot of church planters, I began learning about some of the important things a church plant needed and I got to be a part of helping church plants find partner churches to support them.  Even though I was serving in a support role to many church planters, I wasn't really involved in the daily on the ground type work that church planters do.  I did eventually start to go to one of the churches planted by Cleveland Hope. It was called North Pointe  and was led by some fabulous people, Joe and Becky Ciresi, Mark and Karey Leist and some other terrific families.  It became my home church for a few months and I did try to get involved in serving in the nursery on occasion and helping out at an outreach when I could, but the busyness of my job didn't allow me to be much more involved than that.

Jeff and Julie

About 6 months into my time in Cleveland, Darin came into my life and to keep the story short (I'll give the longer version in a later post, its a top 5 life experience) he swept me off my feet, we decided to get married and that he would move to Cleveland so I could finish my time at Cleveland Hope.  However, he needed a job up here.  He had been involved in church planting in southern Ohio and since I was so connected to the church planting center in Cleveland it seemed like maybe we should explore some possibilities of church planting in Cleveland.  As I mentioned before, my very good friend Brad Graves was looking out for us and he sent Darin's resume to a guy named Jeff Calloway who was planting a church in a small town east of Cleveland.  I still remember the day I drove out to what is now my home town to deliver t-shirts to Jeff and the mission team he had working with him.  I knew he had gotten Darin's resume but I didn't want to bring it up and seem "unprofessional".  However Jeff was not about to let me leave without teasing me a little bit.  He said right as I was about to take off, "So Brad sent me this guy's resume as a possible worship leader, apparently he's dating one of the girls at Cleveland Hope.  Do you know anything about that?"  All professionalism left me at that point and I said "Yeah, that's my boyfriend! He's awesome, you should hire him!"  Okay so I didn't say that last part, but I did tell him it was my boyfriend and that we were very serious and he was wanting to move up here so we could get married.  I went on to find out that Jeff was very interested in talking to us and he proceeded to tell me to go drive around and check out the area.  I still remember that first drive around what is now my home town.  The neighborhood we were in is actually where many of our very close friends live.  I went to see the schools, checked out a few of the neighborhoods and as I was pulling out of the driveway from the school's campus (which is so close to where we now live) I knew in my heart that God was telling me this is where we were going to live.  As crazy at it may sound it was love at first site for me with this town (which is funny because while I still think it is a nice town, I don't know that most people would fall in love with it on their first visit.)

That weekend Darin came to visit me and we got to go out and meet with Jeff and his wife Julie at their home.  Jeff and Julie are wonderful, down to earth people who are sold out for Jesus. They have two great daughters Sarah and Emily who we also got to meet that day.   They made us feel so welcome in their home and it was great to hear the passion and excitement in their voices as they talked about planting Bridge Church.  The meeting went great and by the end Jeff had pretty much offered Darin the job without even hearing him sing or play the guitar! Pretty crazy since he was hiring him to be the worship leader. He did tell him to send him an audition tape but he also told Darin that when he moved up he could live in their basement until he was able to find a place to live. A job offer and a place to live after one meeting and again not having heard the potential worship leader sing! Needless to say Darin and I were excited and definitely seeing God's hand at work. 

After a few failed attempts we finally did get Jeff the audition tape and it was official, Darin would be the worship and small group pastor for Bridge.  I think this was all settled less than two weeks after we started talking to the Calloways.  Darin moved up to Cleveland and into the Calloway's basement a couple of weeks later and we became a part of the Bridge Church launch team.

In September we got to meet some of the other families who would be helping us start the church.  It was three families Jeff had known from his previous church.  The first family I remember meeting was Patrick and Jennifer Jesberger and their daughters Kayla and Kristen.  We were having a cookout and meet and greet with some of the families from the community who were interested in being a part of the new church start.  I also met Gregg, Cindy, Ryan and Laura Sadler that night as well as Tom, Martha, Spencer and Brittany Lang.  Calloways, Jesberger, Langs, Sadlers and Avery's were the 5 families  that would make up our initial launch team.  In October we started meeting in the Calloway's home on Sunday mornings and we continued to do that until we launched the church in late January.  That was such a special time for me.  It was so intimate and special getting to know these families with whom we were about to begin a very special journey.  It was totally relaxed, just Darin and his guitar and Jeff and his Bible.  I still remember Jeff teaching from the book of Acts while sitting in that big armchair in their living room every week.

Slowly we started adding more families.  Some through the preview services, and some through other connections in the community.  We sent out mailers, we had billboards, we did servant evangelism projects and hosted 5th Quarters after football games with the Fellowship of Christians Athletes.  We did everything we could think of to let people know this new church was starting and we wanted them to be a part of it.  It was hard work, but it was rewarding and we were blessed to see God's hand at work in many ways.  We launched our weekly public services on a snowy Sunday in mid January with almost 100 people in attendance.

Darin and I were also especially blessed to have Jeff and Julie to mentor us as we started out our marriage and life in ministry. They are such a great example of a God-honoring couple.  They showed us what it meant to work hard but also make sure you took time for each other and your family.  They loved on us and made us a part of their family.  As I mentioned Darin lived with them for about a month when he first moved here but after he moved out they let me come out and stay with them on the weekends so I could be closer to Darin and not have to get up super early to drive to church on Sundays.  I did that from October until Darin and I got married in February.  We continued to be a regular at the house, sharing the occassional meal or holiday if we weren't able to travel home.  After Darin and I had Landon they watched him many Monday nights for almost the first year of his life so Darin and I could have still have date nights.

Being part of starting Bridge has been one of the greatest experiences of my life and part of what has made it so great is the awesome people I have gotten to meet because of this wonderful church.  I have learned so much from the people we've worked with about what it means to be faithful to what God has called you to do and be willing to make sacrifices.  I saw the Jesbergers drive 25 miles or more one way to help us start this church.  It wasn't  only on Sundays either, they were a part of a small group, they were at every servant project, and they took great care of the finances (which is no easy task in any church, but especially not in brand new church where you have to star everything from scratch.)

Tom and Martha worked tirelessly and faithfully despite Tom having to work 80 hours a week and Martha having to work and take care of various family members including her mother who lived with them.   They are always willing to serve at any task big or small and God has used them to be part of the back bone of Bridge Church.  They also have two of the best kids I've ever met who like their parents are servant hearted and always willing to help wherever needed. The Langs have become some of our closest friends over the past 6 years as they have stood by us and the church through some very tough times.  Darin and I both agree you would be hard pressed to find a couple as great as the Langs.

Cindy and Laura were some of the first people to meet Emmy!

It took me a little longer to get to know the Sadlers but they became very dear friends over the years who have helped us in many ways not the least of which has been help in providing babysitting services.  My son was so attached to Cindy that she was the only person he would just leave and go places without giving even a backwards glance or goodbye to mom and dad.  Cindy even took care of Landon the night we were in the hospital having Emmaline.  It gave me such peace to know he was being well taken care of by someone he loved so much and he wasn't missing mom and dad.

I got to see a lot of servant hearts during our years at Bridge. The men were (and some still are) there every week setting up and tearing down.  It is no easy task lifting all the heavy equipment.   During the first year of the church, Jennifer, Martha, Julie and I worked every single week in the children's ministry.  Julie actually did it longer than the rest of us, she probably did it closer to two full years.  It was hard but everyone had the attitude that this was what God was calling us to do and we would do it.   It's funny as hard as it was to not get to be in the service I do treasure that time working with those ladies and the children we had in our class every week.  We really got to build some special relationships during that time.

Besides our core launch families God has blessed our church family with so many wonderful people.  I can't begin to name them but its just been so cool to see how he has brought us so many wonderful people.  Some of them, like the Steve and Jodi Sivon, weren't on our launch team but they came to our first launch service, continued to come every week after and have become a integral part of our church family.  There were other families that might not have been there on our launch Sunday but came in the weeks and months after and have been such a blessing to my family and our church as a whole. I really don't know what I'd do without having people like the Youngs, Ortizs, Penroses, Sandors, Burt and Janine Sivon, Hodkinsons, Duncans, Strnisas, Gauntners, Bonnemas (the whole clan), Steeles, Makselans, Mahers, Walkers, Kostners, Harshaws, Mehls, and so many others. (I'm sure I've forgotten some, please forgive me if it was you!) 

One of the harder things about being a part of a church plant is that you don't always get to keep everyone who comes into your church family.  Being a part of a new church is hard work and it's not for everyone.  There are many people who have come and left and its been really hard to watch them move on, some because of relocation or a call to a different ministry, others because of differing views or disagreements, (those are always the hardest).  It's heart breaking to lose a part of your church family. Darin always describes it as a tearing effect, like you are losing a body part (because in essence you are).  Its always painful and it never seems to get easier.  Honestly, I hope it never does get easy to watch people go, I want to feel the hurt because then I know that I have done my best to truly love those people while they have been in our church.  There are moments that I find myself wishing some of them will come back but there are others that I see God's hand in moving them onto something different so I'm at peace with it.  I still love all those people though and I'm thankful for the impact they had on my life while they were a part of Bridge.

There was one loss that was harder than any of the others.  In our first year at Bridge we lost a man who had been with us from very early on.  He was our bass player on the praise team and a wonderful Godly man, Hank Patricy.  It was horrible losing Hank and knowing that he had left behind a wife and 5 children.  However even in that horrific loss I believe God used it for His glory.  There were many who came to Christ because of Hank's life and devotion to Christ. Many of them were young boys who Hank had coached and Darin got the privilege of discipling them in our youth ministry. We even saw some of their moms and dads come to Christ.   It didn't lessen the pain of the loss but it did bring joy and hope in the midst of that valley we walked through with the Patricy's.  In that situation I learned I won't always understand God's ways and purposes, but I don't have to understand, I just have to be faithful and trust in Him.

Mission Trip to Michigan with our awesome students!

My next few posts will be about certain special parts of our time at Bridge. There have been so many, Bridge Church has been with Darin and I as we've gotten married and had both our children.  We are still here at this church we helped start 5 and half years ago.  Darin actually just celebrated his second anniversary as Senior Pastor of the church.  Two years ago God moved Jeff on to be a part of a broader ministry focused on church planting all over Cleveland. It has been very cool to see how God has blessed Jeff's work and how Darin has been able to do something he is so passionate about, preaching every Sunday and leading the church as God leads him.  We definitely feel like we are exactly where God wants us to be.  Darin started as the worship and small groups pastor but soon after we began he switched to worship and youth.  That was a fun adventure in our life.  We love the students we were able to build relationships with during that time.  It was challenging but also very rewarding to watch some of those young people turn into these awesome men and women with hearts for the Lord.  Our prayer is that Bridge will be able to continue to see  people come to know Christ as Lord and Savior and serve Him their whole lives.  We're praying daily that Bridge would be faithful to plant the gospel seeds in our community and that God would allow us to be a part of reaping a harvest for His kingdom that will transform this community and the surrounding areas for His honor and glory.  We thank God for allowing us to be apart of this wonderful church family and we pray we will remain faithful to Him as we serve here.

To end this post here's a few more pictures from our Sports Camp we did this summer.  It was such an awesome week and  I couldn't end this post without including a few pictures. It technically happened a month after I turned 30 but I decided since this is my blog I can post them if I want to. ;)