Gomez Journey/PrayerNote

The cat is out of the bag.

While I’m not sure just where that expression came from (or why we take it to mean a secret is not-so-secret anymore), we have some news to share.

At our District Conference last monday, our District Superintendent shared The Bridge’s plan to daughter a new church in June of next year. Sarah and I will be the lead planters in what we’re affectionately, for now, calling ‘Bridge 2.0’ and are excited about that next move. This is definitely a big step, but it’s part of an even bigger dream of developing an urban church planting and training center from which church planting teams are prepared and sent throughout the region, nation, and globe. It’s an impossible vision that will take the activity of God’s own Spirit to accomplish--and that excites us to no end!

For now, we ask you to pray for us as we identify the people and place where the next church will be. We have some ideas, but we need to be doubly sure we are focused on where God is already moving rather than just choosing something based on selfish desire.

In the meantime, we’re fully engaged with The Bridge and are ramping up to a busy summer ministry season. Please keep the following dates/events in mind as you pray for us and the ministry of The Bridge:

• Sunday, June 27: Sharing at First Wesleyan in Shippensburg, PA
• July 7-July 11: Youth volleyball clinic with the women’s volleyball team from Oklahoma Wesleyan University

Our largest event of the summer will be a free Family Fun Day at a local park on Saturday, August 28th; already churches and groups are signing up to take part in helping us offer a meaningful, engaging and totally free event that allows us to serve our community and get to know our neighbors as well as (hopefully) building momentum for our first preview service in September.

Thank you for taking this journey with us and praying for us.

We’re honored to have you in our corner.

Jeremiah, Sarah, and Jubilee

From the Well

Greetings Everyone!

We had a great block party! Thank you for your prayer coverage. God provided a wonderful sunny day! We didn't have a huge crowd - about 45 people attended. However, we made some good contacts and had about 8 people that expressed real interest in coming to The Well.

We are hosting a picnic on July 27th and asking some of the people we've become friends with to come. Pray that we as a launch team will be able to connect with them even more.

"A Day Awaits" is coming to play at Cold Stream Dam on July 16th at 6:00 p.m. for us. We are hoping to reach the teens and young adults. Pray for good weather and that people will come to hear the band. They are all college students and do a great job. They played for the district lock-in several months ago and the teens from the district really enjoyed them.

We will be having a preview service on July 18th at 11:00 a.m. at 1 North Front St. Cafe Books Events. The coffee shop owner once again was an answer to our prayers. We are able to rent an office space 24/7 with use of a larger room once a week for our Sunday morning service for $550.00 a month. We were excited about this as we won't have to load and unload sound equipment and nursery/junior church supplies every Sunday. We will store them in the office space during the week. Plus we will be able to have small groups in the office space.

We also have some people that may be interested in being in a worship band for us. Pray that God would continue to bring that all together. We are so thankful for our launch team. They have been doing a great job. Pray a hedge of protection around them. As we near launch, Satan is throwing more problems our way. We know that God has the victory we just need to keep our focus on Him and the mission we are on with Him.

Pray for Doug and I as it sometimes feels like you're in the trenches all alone. We know we're not but the work load is enormous and the to do list is big. You find yourself thinking and living the church plant 24 hours a day. We realize that we need to pull back and remember who we are as a couple and as individuals. We've gotten so busy being church planters we've forgotten to be husband and wife. We just won tickets to Creation Festival for next week so that will be a nice getaway for us. We are planning short day trips just to catch our breath too.

We praise Hyde Wesleyan for having a "baby" shower for us. We were showered with many wonderful gifts which will be a great help. Two of the churches in our district are preparing backpacks for us to give away in the fall. We are so thankful for them. We are thankful to all of you who are supporting us in some way -financially, prayerfully or actually physically helping us. Keep praying ! God is moving and working!! Lives are being touched and it's because of your obedience to the part God would have you to play in The Well and it's ministry.

If there is any thing we can pray for you about please let us know. We love and appreciate you all!

Karen and Doug

Seven.

In the June 7th Forbes Magazine, Rich Karlgaard noted some of the shared characteristics those companies which seem to have grown stronger and better despite the Great Recession. His article is good and well worth the read, but I’m taking those ‘seven secrets’ and applying them to how we’re thinking at The Bridge:

Design.
I’m not a designer, I’m not even artistic. But it doesn’t take too much to see bad design--in fact,in the past, I think a lot of our effort was just avoiding bad design. Our design is getting better…thanks to GotPrint, t-shirt producers, and Cloversites, I don’t have to be an incredible designer to have good design. We could be better, and we’re growing, but I’m glad we’re not settling for “free” when an investment in design speaks volumes about us. We’re moving to a place where we’re pursuing beautiful design rather than just running away from bad design. I’m excited about that.

Speed.

In general, things are moving much faster than we thought they would…and this is building serious momentum--we’re planning to launch and daughter faster than we thought could happen. We can’t take credit for this, but it’s happening. We also are focusing on making sure we follow up fast and do what we said we would when we said we would.

Cost.
We’re working hard to show that when someone invests in The Bridge, we’re being wise in how we expend limited resources. ‘Cost’ for us has less to do with what a customer gets from us, but how we manage the results we demonstrate to our investors. In our community, it also means ‘free’ doesn’t suck. We’re trying to do as much as we can at no cost to the people we’re ministering to… but we’re trying to do it as though they paid a premium to be there.

Service.
When it comes to our investor churches, we genuinely believe they are getting something by partnering with us, whether it's people who participate and take a renewed passion back, or a sense of legacy, there are many benefits to being part of what God is doing through The Bridge in Pittsburgh. But when it comes to serving our community, after just a couple of events The Bridge is already ‘the church that gave the free car wash--that’s great!’ We’re finding fun ways to show our community we care, we want to know our neighbors, and that God really loves them.

Communication outside.
Right now, this has to do mostly with face-to-face contact. Rick, especially, has been knocking on doors and being ‘the face’ of The Bridge. This will only go so far, and we’re analyzing where to best put some communications dollars: radio? adsense? street corner with a sandwich board? As we learnour community more and more, we’ll discover the best ways to communicate outside.

Communication inside.
We could do a better job at keeping launch team members on the same page, but we're learning how to make sure communication among senior leadership is open. Thanks to GoogleDocs, Calendar sharing, and Facebook, we’re growing in our communication and how we collaborate; we’re not ‘there’ yet… but I think we’re well on our way.


Purpose.

We’re here to help people connect with Jesus and see them grow in His likeness. More than that, we’re here to keep doing that by planting churches that plant churches to reach those far from God. The Bridge exists to love, learn, and live Jesus Christ in our context at whatever cost. We hope we have the purpose thing down… now it’s a matter of staying on mission when things, good and bad, tempt us to drift.

Why not run down the list yourself and give your church/organization a quick checkup?

District Conference CMTF Video

Here's another look at the CMTF video in case you missed it.

The best is yet to come!

Gomez/Bridge PrayerNote

We want you to know that God is indeed hearing and answering your prayers; here's a bit of what God has done and what he is doing:

CELEBRATIONS FROM LAST WEEK:

On Wednesday, Rick and I were able to attend the Community Development meeting in Penn Hills. It was encouraging to see the crowd gathered looking to serve their community and find ways to make the quality of life for everyone just a little bit better. We were able to get a sense of what the people in the community are worried about (many school closures and what will happen with the vacant property), what they are celebrating (a new community garden), and what needs they see (identifying different needs in different neighborhoods).

On Saturday, 10 members of our launch team connected in conversation with various people through the use of Community Surveys. The insights gained were good, and it seems a number of relational doors were opened.

Also on Saturday, Sarah and I attended the pool party for our apartment complex and were able to meet new friends, gain insight into where we live, and even connect with some community leaders.

EVENTS THIS WEEK:

This Saturday, we’ll be hosting a free car wash for the people of Penn Hills. We’re hoping to serve people and continue building on the relationships God has opened to us. Please pray for open doors for ministry and for us to connect with people far from God.

“BIG NEEDS”:

We are praying that God would allow us to help twenty people who don’t know him cross the line of faith and fall in love with Jesus this summer. Please pray that God directs us to people whose hearts he is already stirring and that we would connect with people in the right way for them to hear/receive the Best News Ever.

Sarah and I are in the process of seeking God’s face to get a sense of where the next church plant will be--the design of The Bridge is as a 'pregnant church plant,' and we know we need to be actively pursuing the vision of multiplication. Please ask God to shower his grace on us, that we would sense clearly where he is already working and that he would birth his vision inside of us.

With a growing family comes changing needs. We are asking God for the provision, in his timing, of a family vehicle that comfortably fit parents, a baby, dogs, and all of the ‘stuff’ that comes with us as we travel.

Please continue to pray for the sale of our house in Carlisle. We know the right buyer at the right time will come our way; in the meantime we are in need of God’s provision and continued patience.

We can't tell you how much we are enjoying this adventure of faith--thanks, again, for taking this journey with us.

Have a great week!

Jeremiah, Sarah, and Baby Jubilee!

(Don't forget to check out The Bridge's website at www.BridgePGH.com!)

5 by 2012

For more information go to www.theydidwewill.org.

Memorial Day and the mission

The following is an e-mail I received from our brother Rick Cox a few days ago that I thought you would enjoy. Rick and Jeremiah Gomez are currently working to establish a church planting movement in Pittsburgh, PA.

In just a few days we'll all be celebrating Memorial Day. For some it has become a time to grill hot dogs and enjoy time with family or friends. Regardless of what we do over the weekend, the thought itself is rather profound. I like the reminder to take a moment to remember. As we have travelled around the the district promoting church planting, I have found the district motto 'They did. We will." has caused many of us to stop and remember. It has been an interesting journey. I have been a part of this district for 15 years, and in all of that time, I didn't realize that the McKeesport church had daughtered the Armbrust church, nor did I realize the Ashland church daughtered the Hyde church. Our latest find came from our visit to the Loganton church. You could tell the church had been well prepared for our visit. They knew why we were visiting and what we were doing. The Q&A time at the end of the service was amazing. One person spoke up and said "when they planted our church they said we need to pray for the meanest guy in the community to get saved. The man that they prayed for was my Grandpa!" A number of his family members are now currently attending the Loganton Church, and they all realize they would not have a church today if somebody hadn't stepped out in faith and said we will!

It is good to remember, but the district motto isn't built on memories alone. It doesn't just say they did! It also says we will. It requires action. Our missions experience taught us that when we stepped out in faith to go, we did not do it alone. Today, nearly 2/3 of our district churches have stepped up to the plate and said if you go, we will go with you. Your prayers, your provision, and your participation are enabling us to be here in Pittsburgh, and we want to say thank you!

Just remember...for a church to have a future, her dreams must be bigger than her memories! We could paraphrase Jesus' comment by stating 'a church cannot live on memories alone!' We've got to have action.

Pray for us as we build The Bridge in Pittsburgh East!

Rick, Eunice, & Trevor