melbourne
BRIDGE CHURCH AT RICHMOND ESTATE
BRIDGE CHURCH AT RICHMOND ESTATE BY SALLY HOULIHAN Our vision for Bridge church in Griffiths Street and the Richmond Housing Estate for 2012 is “a Year of Purpose” and our core values as a church of “souls, supernatural, significance” are the emphasis we take out into the Richmond Housing Estate. My prayer is that we will clearly hear and understand God’s vision for Bridge church at the Richmond Estate and how our church community can be involved. It is time to put God’s plans at the centre of our lives. Doing the work of God’s kingdom needs to be our first priority. It’s about sacrificially making time to get involved in other people’s lives. This comes at a cost. Jesus emphasised the need for us to reach out to people who don’t know God. I believe God’s vision is to see us going out in large numbers to connect with residents at the Richmond Estate, building relationships, sharing the good news and making disciples who then can go on and make disciples. We have seen many people come to know God at the Richmond Housing Estate. One of these residents is a woman from Egypt who used to bring her grandson to a kids program called ‘Solid Ground’ that Bridge church was involved with a few years ago. Over time, volunteers from Bridge church got to know her and invited her to attend Bridge church at the Richmond Estate. She is a loving woman who has become a valuable part of the team helping regularly with the catering at the Estate outreach. She also attends a connect group at the Estate. It has been amazing to see her genuine love for people and her servant heart. Another person that we have seen God change is a man who has regularly attended the church for over two years. He has developed and grown in his faith and has a heart for God. He loves getting involved by volunteering his time at church and has opened his home to a weekly connect group at the Richmond Estate. It’s great to see God move in his life. On Sundays at 2:30pm we have a community lunch and outreach service. At the Estate we also work from within the community through the ‘Community Information Centre’ building relationships with the residents and workers. We have Bible study based connect groups and will be focusing this year on expanding our outreach volunteer teams and developing a Vietnamese volunteer team. Everything we do is focused as an opportunity to be in the community and to build one-on-one relationships. We use programs as an opportunity to make connections, build relationships and make disciples who make disciples.
Change The World Magazine 73