The second event that forever changed the future of Bridge City took place at a paintball game. The new youth ministry, AXIS, had planned an event with another local youth pastor. It was there that Marc Schelske and Bob Kavanaugh met. Between games, they talked about what God was doing at their churches and shared their dreams for ministry. That game led to a lunch meeting at Shari's. Bob had started a Saturday night outreach event that was beginning to see people come to Christ and grow in their faith, but the new ministry was not fitting into the larger program at Bob’s home church.
Bob and several of the leaders of this Saturday night ministry began attending worship services at Bridge City. There was such a clear connection of mission and purpose that in December the Board of Trustees invited Bob to join the staff as a pastor with a special focus on evangelistic outreach. This event impacted Bridge City deeply. First, without any warning the church had “inherited” a second worship service that met on Saturday nights. Second, the combination of these two groups tested the church's core value of Diversity.
Could a church like this survive?
Bridge City had been founded by a group of people who were almost entirely from the same religious heritage—Seventh-day Adventism. While they were generally evangelical in theology, they were open to theological discussion and differences. Diversity is an easy value to implement in the abstract when everyone around you shares the same cultural and religious background. It is a challenge to put that value into practice when the person sitting next to you believes and worships differently from you. Bob Kavanaugh had an Assemblies of God background and many of his leaders as well as some of the new Christians who had been attending the Saturday night service--then called “Night Life"--had very little church background at all. Could the community handle this kind of diversity? Historically churches had often split over very minor differences in theology or practice. But here in this group were Sabbatarians and people who weren't; people who believed in a literal hell and people who didn't; people who believed in “soul sleep” and people who believed in the "immediate reward." There were five-point Calvinists, as well as people who were barely able to grasp the historical person of Jesus. Could such a church survive?
Not only could it survive, but it thrived. Potlucks began to feature labels—“Vegetarian” and “Non-Vegetarian.” A couple of adult study classes came into being whose purpose almost seemed to be centered around providing a place for these people of different theology to come together and discuss, study, and ultimately get to know and understand each other’s hearts. One thing became clear. Keeping Jesus Christ at the center of the community would bring unity, even if that unity were completely surrounded by diversity in almost every other aspect of church life.
The third event happened quietly on a Saturday morning. A homeless drug addict walked past the sandwich-board sign outside the Montavilla Methodist Church. It advertised Bridge City and said, “Everyone Welcome.” That man, Greg Zook, honestly couldn’t believe this was true, but he thought he would see for sure. That morning two of the founders—John & Ginger Mack—were serving as greeters. They warmly welcomed Greg and that morning he gave his life to Christ. That event was the first step on a journey that God would use to bless Bridge City over and over again.
Soon, because of the number of people who were responding to what God was doing at Bridge City through the grace-based message, friendly atmosphere and eclectic worship style, the church was forced to move to a larger facility. Initially, the founders and staff felt that perhaps Bridge City would find a location in the north or northeast areas of Portland, but even after much searching this proved not to be the case. After much prayer and a facility search, the choice was made. Bridge City moved south.
Moving to Milwaukie.
After looking at a variety of facilities, the staff and Trustees chose Milwaukie First Baptist Church as the new home for Bridge City worship services, starting in January of 1998. This much larger facility provided a larger sanctuary, a wide variety of classrooms as well as Helm Hall, a wonderful brand-new multi-purpose gymnasium. The ministries of Bridge City had room to grow. Sonkist Valley, the children's ministry began to spread its wings, offering new classes for all children through 6th grade. AXIS took over the gym on Tuesday nights and began drawing more and more students. Several adult classes started and the large multi-purpose gym provided space for the development of a whole new kind of ministry--large community outreach programs.
The founders and early participants of Bridge City all had large hearts for community outreach and service, but the Harvest Hoe-Down was the first concrete incarnation of this. Spearheaded by KimSa Waters, who was beginning to show her powerful gift of events planning, invitations were mailed to all the homes in the surrounding neighborhood. Members walked door-to-door inviting people. And then on Halloween, the doors were opened to the community. Live entertainment, games and carnival activities, a petting zoo, pony and hay rides for children, chili and cornbread, and costumed characters set the stage. Over 500 people from the community came through the doors. Helm Hall was also the site of our first Easter outreach. Events like these began to provide opportunities for Bridge City members to invite their unchurched friends as well as creating a Bridge City presence in the neighborhood. With events like these and with more people inviting their friends, Bridge City continued to grow.
The pastors continued to preach the welcoming, accepting grace of God and people continued to respond. The message was simple:
Your religious heritage won't save you. Your standing in the community won't make you closer to God. Nothing you can do can solve the problem. You must depend wholly and entirely on Jesus and what He has done for you.
He loves you and nothing you have done will ever stand in the way of that. In response to this message people that didn't ordinarily spend much time in church began responding: burnt-out post-legalist ex-Christians tired of institutional church as well as people who didn't feel safe showing their faces in church--broken people with drug addictions and chaotic lives. But the message of the healing community of Christ spoke to them as well.
This signaled the beginning of a new kind of ministry--the Healing and Recovery group. Two experienced leaders, Roy and Betty Josi, stepped forward to support and guide this new ministry. This support group provided a place for people struggling with addiction and other issues to find the strength they needed to walk day-by-day. Led by members with extensive 12-step experience and years of sobriety under their own belts, this group quickly grew to be the centerpiece of the Saturday night program. It wasn't long until a majority of the Saturday night service was from this ministry. As experienced prayer warriors, Roy and Betty also consistently called the church to greater and greater prayer.
It was also during this time that Bridge City faced its first internal conflicts. The first of these--predictably enough--was in the area of worship expression. Bridge City's founders and early participants had dreamed of a church that was open to trying new things, that wasn't tied down by empty traditions, and that was growing in its ability to express itself. The worship services--which were being planned by a creative team along with the pastors--were regularly including multi-media and video, hands-on experiences and from time to time, drama, as well as a variety of music. Since the beginning the worship services at Bridge City featured eclectic music--a capella, traditional hymns, contemporary worship songs and choruses, even the appropriate use of well-selected secular songs to make a point.
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