The vision of our local church is to build bridges to knowing Christ, maturing in Christ and reaching others for Christ.  This third “ministry bridge” is the ultimate bridge we want to cross as Christians.  But how?

1. Nurture your own relationship with Christ.  If you are not in love with Jesus, passionately obeying and following Him, connected with fellow believers in worship and a Bible study class, serving others in a ministry, what is there to share?  What do you have that will be a magnet to the unchurched and unsaved?  It all starts here. The genuine product. The real deal.

2. Limit your involvement.  Yes, you need to be involved in church ministry and faithful to all services.  But the faithful core often get overextended and overcommitted with no time to build bridges with the lost.  Too busy reaching in, no time to reach out!  This is often the fault of church leadership.  We feed the beast!  We stretch people too thin.  We encourage the vicious cycle.  But if are serious about reaching others in our community for Christ, we must be intentional about avoiding this, especially in a growing church.  Two or three ministry areas max.

3. Connect in the community.  Build relationships with the lost!  Join a sports team, art club, craft class, volunteer organization.  Meet other parents, athletes, artists, business people.  Build friendships and trust.  Serve them and love them.  Model Christian behavior and Biblical priorities (in the world, but not of the world).  Share Christ!  Give away a tract, outreach card, book or sermon series.  Invite them to church or a Bible study.  Take time to invest in them.  As someone has said, you never win your enemies to Christ, only your friends.  And friendship takes time, effort and intentionality.