Hey Bridge Family, this week in the Bridge, we discussed that God is full of surprises. While most of us probably agree with that, I wonder how many of us truly expect surprises from God in our own lives or in those we care about. Are we actively looking for His unexpected blessings? Our story was from Acts 12:1-19. Also, a quick tip: I encourage you to read these stories with your kids each week. It’s a simple way to reinforce what we talked about and spend quality time in the Bible together. Here’s a quick summary: Peter and James are arrested by King Herod Agrippa. James is executed, and Peter faces the same fate. But then, an angel of the Lord appears, and—surprise!—rescues Peter from jail before his trial.
Towards the end of our large group time, we asked, “What do you think was the most surprising thing that happened to Peter?” Let me tell you mine. It’s when Peter is left standing outside the home because the surprised Rhoda leaves him there to let the others know Peter was free! Then she tells the others. What’s their response? You’re out of your mind! (v.15) No matter how many miracles these people have witnessed over the past few years, they still find them hard to believe. That really surprised me. But then I thought about it, and I’ll say it again. I wonder how many of us truly expect surprises from God? Because I don’t know about you, but sometimes I am just like Rhoda and the rest in that house, looking for logical reasons rather than appreciating the supernatural (I’m telling you, you gotta read the story).
The sad truth is that the older we get, the less in awe we become of things. That whole childlike mind fades away. So how can we keep our kids from becoming as desensitized as we are? Well, first, we should give glory to God for the things and events that happen in our lives. If you watch sports, you see athletes do it more and more these days, even in defeat. When special things and events that surprise us happen in our lives, we should share them with our families. Then, when they do occur, and they will, acknowledge God? Give the glory to Him. Also, consider writing down your kid’s prayers and, over time, see if you can help them connect the dots to see how God showed up. Maybe you’ll both be surprised.
Remember, as long as your child is at home, you have a great chance to share the Bible. Together, explore its stories, discussing how they apply to daily life, and fostering deeper family conversations. This makes faith an exciting and meaningful journey. God bless, and I look forward to seeing your family on Sunday.


Pastor Bob

Happy New Year, Bridge family! I hope you had a safe and wonderful time welcoming in the New Year. This week, our message in the Bridge focuses on being welcoming, inspired by Acts 10, where God calls Peter to accept Roman officer Cornelius into God's family for his faith in Christ. It's the first recorded instance of a non-Jew being filled with the Holy Spirit and baptized into Christ. Many may miss its significance, but chapters 11:1-18 reveal the tension—many Jews thought Gentiles like Cornelius were unworthy to follow Christ because they weren't Jewish. In sports terms, Gentiles didn’t make the cut. Fortunately, that’s not true for us.
However, in our world, achieving acceptance and feeling welcomed often seem out of reach, especially for children. Kids can be harsh, forming exclusive cliques over trivial issues. Even those who are accepted may feel confused or hurt when their friends are not. Sadly, similar behaviors occur in the church as well. The church, as the body of Christ, sometimes judges others to determine their worthiness for acceptance. We judge by how a person lives, their appearance, or who they spend time with, deciding if they are like us and deserving of our attention.
In Romans, Paul writes, “Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you, so that God will be given glory” (v.15:7). This verse highlights the importance of being welcoming. How can we show this to our kids so they do the same? Two ideas: (1) Instead of chatting with friends before or after service, seek out someone new and connect—with your kids in tow. This shows them Romans 15:7 in action and may positively influence how that family views Southeast. (2) Encourage your children to do the same when you pick them up. Recognizing they are part of Christ's body can shape their walk. Pray about it and try it.
Remember, as long as your child is at home, you have a great chance to share the Bible. Together, explore its stories, discussing how they apply to daily life, and fostering deeper family conversations. This makes faith an exciting and meaningful journey. God bless, and I look forward to seeing your family on Sunday.
Pastor Bob

Hello, Bridge Family! I hope you had a joyful Christmas. I can’t believe this is the last week of 2025. Looking at a picture of a kid dressed as a superhero on our Digin@home handout reminded me of wrestling with my three-year-old granddaughter, Kenna, during Thanksgiving. She loves the Disney show Spidey and His Amazing Friends, a Grade-school version of Spider-Man. When she wrestles, she flings her wrist, shoots her web, and makes sound effects, pretending to triumph as I struggle to break free of her web.
Our kids are fascinated by the idea of having superpowers. Don’t believe it? Look at the shows they enjoy most. However, I don’t think we adults are all that different. Just look at the most popular movies. Very few of them aren’t associated with X-Men, Marvel, DC Comics, or something in that genre. I believe these things are so popular regardless of age because we all long to have superpowers, or at least are, to some extent, fascinated by the possibility.
We need to capture that fascination and use it. Not only to strengthen our children’s walk, but also to strengthen our own. As adults, how many of us understand what Christ bestowed upon us to live as children of the Most High until His return? For each of us in Christ, receive(s) power when the Holy Spirit comes upon (us). So that we will be witnesses…to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8 NLT). Jesus gave us this incredible power, not to fly or spin webs, but to live out the will of the Father, not in our own strength but through His strength—the Power of the Holy Spirit.
Here are key points to share with your kids about the Holy Spirit. First, He is God, the third person of the Trinity, who fully dwells in each believer. No matter how lonely we feel, we are never alone because He is always with us. He knows our thoughts, so we can always come to Him. He helps us walk through our struggles, prays when we don’t know what to say, and prays for us and others. He helps us understand what is true, both from the Bible and in life’s situations. He will lead us as we grow to become what God has in store for us.
I think many people give up on God because they feel they never measure up to God’s will. They would be correct if they were trying in their own strength. This is true for our kids as well. Sadly, as they become adults, many will leave the church because they find it too hard to measure up. The sooner we can teach them about the Holy Spirit, about this incredible power that God has given them, the greater the chance they will walk in the Lord all the days of their lives.
I pray you all have a Happy New Year!
Remember, as long as your child is at home, you have a great chance to share the Bible. Together, explore its stories, discussing how they apply to daily life, and fostering deeper family conversations. This makes faith an exciting and meaningful journey. God bless, and I look forward to seeing your family on Sunday.
Pastor Bob

​Hello, Bridge family! I hope this message finds you and your loved ones well. This week, we had a fun challenge for the kids. Out of 10 challenges, they were to choose three they would be willing to do. I’ll admit, some of them were quite funny, but not the best choices. In fact, no one in their right mind would want to do any of them. I encourage you to ask your child which of the ten they chose. Also, they were asked: “What is something that you hope you never have to do?” The point of all this was to show that sometimes in life, there are things we don’t want to do, and this even happened in the life of Jesus, too.
 
That brings us to the Garden of Gethsemane, where we can truly see Jesus struggling with a difficult choice, just like you, me, and our children sometimes do. I believe that in the garden, the Father showed Jesus the full picture of what was to come. In that moment, in His humanity, He recoiled at the prospect and prayed for deliverance. Can you relate? I can, of course, not to the same scale, but with the idea that God, there has to be another way. However, there wasn’t, and even though Jesus could have said no, He didn’t. Think about it, no one forced Him to say yes. He did it because He knew it was what His Father wanted. He did the hard thing because God planned to save us. In Gethsemane, we see our Lord, living out His love for God and for His neighbor (Matthew 22:37-39), and it was tough.
 
But if we are willing to do hard things and desire our children to do the same, then I believe no greater act reveals our love for God than loving others. I don’t know if there is a more challenging task set before us as Christians. Be honest, loving others is difficult. So let me suggest this as a starting point. First, think about someone you are struggling to love as God commanded and share that with your children. You can leave out the details, but ask them to help you love that person by praying for them and asking the Holy Spirit to give you the ability to do this hard thing and love them as God desires. Over time, get to know the people your children are having a hard time loving, and pray together similarly.
 
Remember, as long as your child is at home, you have a great chance to share the Bible. Together, explore its stories, discussing how they apply to daily life, and fostering deeper family conversations. This makes faith an exciting and meaningful journey. God bless, and I look forward to seeing your family on Sunday.
 
Pastor Bob
 

Hello Bridge family! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This past week, we explored Jesus’ teaching in the book of John, where He describes Himself as “the true grapevine.” Not only is this the final “I am” statement in John, but it also serves as an ideal example of how we should live out our faith (of course, it’s perfect—because it’s from Jesus).

Jesus says in John 15:5: “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” We understand that we are called to obey God, but Jesus shows that it’s impossible without Him. One definition of ‘Remain’ is to “live in one place day by day.” I find that meaningful, don’t you? But how can we do that? How do we bear “good fruit?”
Remember and share this with your kids: Jesus sent a helper, an advocate, and a counselor—His Spirit, the Holy Spirit! Our reliance on remaining in Christ depends entirely on the Holy Spirit, who alone can produce good fruit. It is His work, not ours. The more you talk about what the Holy Spirit does for them and how He changes them, the more they will believe in His sufficiency. As they rely on the Holy Spirit and grow in their love for Him, the fruit of the Spirit will become more evident in their lives. Here are three things I have found that teach about the Holy Spirit, which you could share with your kids to strengthen their walk.

1. The Holy Spirit helps us to trust in God.
God doesn’t change and always loves us. He keeps His promises to be with us, empowering us to obey, and bringing us to His perfect home. The Holy Spirit reminds us to trust God in everything.

2. The Holy Spirit helps us to grow closer in our friendship with God.
Remaining in Jesus helps our friendship with God grow. We learn about friends by spending time with them; we do the same with God by reading the Bible and praying. The Bible teaches about God and how He wants us to live. The Holy Spirit gives us the desire to learn from the Bible and pray. When talking to God, remember we can share anything; He is ready to help.

3. The Holy Spirit helps us change so that we are more like Jesus.
Because the Holy Spirit is in us, we have new life in Christ, which means we start to live differently and grow good fruit for God. He will help us to obey and be kind. We can’t forgive others, speak God’s truth, or take care of other people by just trying harder on our own. Instead, we can rely on the Holy Spirit to help us live God’s way out of love for God.

Remember, as long as your child is at home, you have a great chance to share the Bible. Together, explore its stories, discussing how they apply to daily life, and fostering deeper family conversations. This makes faith an exciting and meaningful journey. God bless, and I look forward to seeing your family on Sunday.

Pastor Bob

Hey Bridge family!
Can you imagine someone getting invited to the event of the century and tuning it down? Something so grand, so magnificent, unquestionably beyond wonder and amazement, and yet they say, no. To quote Vizzini, in the Princess Bride, that’s “Inconceivable!” Yet, it’s sadly not! That is precisely what we read about in our Bridge message this week as Jesus responds to the comment, What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God’ (Luke 14:15b NLT).

To be clear in our parable, Christ is doing the inviting, Heaven is the banquet, and the Jewish people are the ones who decline. Maybe you wonder why? But if you think about it, is it really all that hard to imagine? You see, those declining the invitation are very much like the Rich Young Ruler, who feels that his lifestyle and position make him worthy, but Jesus says, ‘No, that is not the case; you need to respond when called.’ This is an incredible distinction that we need to ensure our children understand. Jesus will one day come to them and extend the invitation of a lifetime, and they will need to make a choice.

Therefore, as parents, we need to make it clear that attending church, praying, and reading the Bible prepare our hearts to accept His invitation. They do not get us into Heaven. Share how you responded to Christ’s invitation with your family sometime. Chances are that if you ponder it for a while, you can easily share how you went from believing in your own abilities to get to Heaven to your gratitude in hearing His invitation. I can think of no better way to include others than by revealing how Christ included you in His Kingdom.

Remember, it’s never too late to engage. As long as your child is at home, you have an excellent opportunity to share the Bible together. Focus on exploring its stories, discussing applications to daily life, and nurturing deeper conversations as a family. This makes faith an exciting and meaningful adventure. God Bless, and I hope to see your family on Sunday.

Pastor Bob

Hey Bridge family!

I want to share something with you. I have learned more about Jesus from teaching children than from any other study in my Christian walk. Lori and I have served in children’s ministry, on and off (but mostly on), for over 30 years. I can’t begin to describe how much more I now understand about Jesus and His Word—the Bible—than when I started. There’s a good reason for this. In Mark 10:15 (NLT), Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” When we help children know Christ, He lets us experience their childlike wonder and innocence, just as He intends. Their questions and thoughts have often led me to reflect on the mystery of God.

I can’t speak for Lori, but I felt totally ill-equipped to teach kids when I began. Maybe you feel the same way when you look at the weekly Dig In @ Home we provide or when you hear the pastor challenge you to share the gospel with your kids. I get it, but we can’t let that stop us from doing what we, as parents, are called to do. Here are a few ideas to remember.

· Keep it real: there is no expectation that your discipleship time will become a church service. That’s why the dinner table is such a great opportunity. It doesn’t have to be every night. Just look for one or two times during the week to share the gospel. See where God leads you from there.

· Keep it natural: discipleship is a way of life, not a program. Our discussions should be natural, not forced. Look for themes in movies, shows, and music. Talk about how they relate to the gospel. Maybe try this: read your children C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Hint: Aslan is a type of Christ.

· Keep the wonder: share with your children the things of Christ that amaze you, even if you can’t explain them. Talk about how Jesus fed all those people or calmed the seas. Imagine what it must have been like to be there. Let your kids build on that curiosity. Build on each other’s curiosity; it could be fun.

It’s an excellent opportunity to get to know Jesus with your family. I, for one, wish I had had someone share this with me. My prayer is that you’ll make the most of the time you have. It doesn’t last as long as you think.

Remember, it’s never too late to engage. As long as your child is at home, you have an excellent opportunity to share the Bible together. Focus on exploring its stories, discussing applications to daily life, and nurturing deeper conversations as a family. This makes faith an exciting and meaningful adventure. God Bless, and I hope to see your family on Sunday.

Pastor Bob