Bridge Churches are smaller gatherings started from grassroots efforts to share the Gospel with those who have not yet responded. This is a strategy that we believe God has given us to see more people come to faith in our region and become disciples of Jesus. One of our big motivators for this is the 2019 Barna list of “Most Post-Christian Cities Per-Capita in the USA”. The Quad Cities made this list at number 15. That means over 200,000 people in our area have rejected Jesus. This in conjunction with the Great Commission in Matthew 28, motivates us to step up with a robust strategy to reach people where they are for Jesus.
Once a person responds to the Gospel, they are discipled by a person within the context of a small gathering called a Bridge Church. These churches are based on The Timothy Initiative model of training and planting churches that are built through evangelism and then multiply through discipling people who are then sent to plant churches through evangelism efforts throughout the Quad Cities area.
These churches can have a variety of strategies and can meet in various locations. They truly are the most flexible of all of our church planting models because they do not require a pastor but they exist under the authority of our Bettendorf campus and leadership. They require the oversight of a pastor but they can be run by trained facilitators who lead the efforts of the church to share the Gospel and make disciples. These facilitators go through an extensive training using the same materials The Timothy Initiative uses internationally to implement the same strategy globally.
Bridge Churches have a high degree of flexibility on when and where they gather. They can be in people’s homes, in public places, or businesses. If a Bridge Church grows to become something bigger than the leader can facilitate, we will then discern if this should be a potential brick and mortar style of location for Bridge Cities Church. Establishing a church in the traditional sense is not necessarily the goal of Bridge Churches but it is certainly an option as God grows those gatherings.
Our entire church can be involved in Bridge Churches as we begin scouting regions through church-wide prayer walks, training opportunities, and prayer/vision nights at Bridge Cities Church. We will continue to give updates to the congregation and opportunities for involvement as Bridge Churches continue to develop and be launched.