LEAWOOD - Rev. Gary Beach and Mary Lou Reece, president of Reece Construction Company and wife of Bishop Scott Jones, shared the principles of building a good bridge, for roads and for growing the church into the future in the 2010 Bridges to the Future capital campaign report.
“We’ve raised $1,743,364.40 for Bridges to the Future during the worst recession in recent history,” Beach said. “We are a people of faith. We’re a part of God’s construction crew, and I doubt God is going to let much get in the way of what God wants to happen.”
After allowing each ministry to share what Bridges has been doing at their site for the past year, testimonies were shared by people whose lives have been changed by camping, campus ministry and church growth and development projects.
Elizabeth Collins, 8-year-old daughter of Revs. Jenny and John Collins of Coffeyville First UMC, shared her favorite things about Camp Chippewa – the horses, archery and marshmallows.
“I like to go swimming,” Collins said. She said she likes sleeping in the bunk beds.
Emily Melanson, a senior at Kansas State University, came to K-State Wesley in the second semester of her freshman year. She first learned about the Wesley when Rev. Matt Stone, who was then the campus minister, visited Church of the Resurrection to meet with the students who would be headed to K-State in the fall.
“I got involved in the freshman small group,” Melanson said. “Wesley has definitely been a relationship-builder for me. The Wesley is an accepting place. They don’t care who you are, where you’ve been or what you’ve done. It can be overwhelming, but also comforting.”
Through the Wesley, Melanson said she found what she wanted to do when Rev. Mike Toluba, the new campus minister, asked her to do promotions for the Wesley.
Catina and TJ Sauder are members of the Life Bridge new church start in Shawnee.
“It’s been quite an experience for us in helping build a new church,” TJ Sauder said.
“When we first met Mitch, and to be quite honest, we weren’t that excited about it, we had been going to church when we felt like it,” Catina Sauder said. “We had our list of excuses, but we met Mitch anyway so we wouldn’t feel guilty. It didn’t take long before we fell in love with him and his family.”
Catina told Mitch up front that she wouldn’t feel comfortable with talking about the church to other people or speaking in front of others.
“I was the first one he asked to share my testimony at the church, I’ve been inviting people to come, and we’re here today,” she said. “We are just so blessed that we can be part of this.”
At Life Bridge, they talk about connecting real people with real life.
“I feel like that’s what’s happened to us,” she said. “It’s about telling about it, inviting people to come. We’re just really excited and really thankful for your support and your prayers.”
Blue Springs United Methodist Church has participated in the ABIDE program for small-membership churches. ABIDE is modeled after the Incubator program used with larger churches, but it requires the pastor and a small team of laity to participate in a series of retreats together as they build a ministry plan.
“Four lay people signed on for this journey of faith,” said Pastor Dallas Peterson. “In the beginning, they knew only that they were being asked to give 200 hours of extra time to the church over 15 months for the well being and future of the church.”
At the beginning of the year, the ABIDE Team decided to change the Sunday morning worship and Sunday school schedule.
“We didn’t know that that was such a big deal,” Peterson said. “It was met with considerable resistance, I might add, but just this past Monday, our Church Council voted to keep the new schedule the ABIDE Team offered to them.
“Has our journey been frightening? Yes. Have we met and will we meet resistance? Oh, yes. The team, including an aging and cynical pastor, have been transformed,” he said. “We’ve made a commitment to the future of the church.”
