Bridgeport Church

1st Service in New Building this Sunday, the 7th!!!

This Sunday, March 7th, will be the first service for Bridgeport at our new home at 404 E. 18th St.
The new locale is just 4 blocks east of the old one – at the NE corner of 18th & Oak.
We are deeply excited for this and look forward to celebrating this community milestone together.
Click here for a map of the new location.
See you Sunday @ 10:30!!

Bridgeport Moving to a New Location in March

BIG NEWS! Bridgeport Church is moving to a new location in March. Our heart from day one has been to create space where spiritual encounter and natural community can happen authentically. For the last several months, we have felt the growing need to find more space to best meet the needs of our community. After much prayer, leadership discussions and public process, we decided to move forward and sign a lease for a new property at 404 E.18^th Street, just four blocks east on 18^th St from our current locale. We are excited about this new location that will more than double our current building space as well as provide ample parking and space for our kids!

Our first service there will be Sunday, March 7th. We’ll be meeting at our current location until March arrives. There will be plenty of projects to get involved with in making this transition. If you have a specialized, or not-so-specialized skill and want to get invovled, there will be plenty of opportunity. Please watch the bulletin and Facebook or see Summer Beck for ways to help.

Because moving locations is not cheap and because bigger space means we’ll need a few more things to makes church run well, we will be taking up a special offering Sunday, Feb. 14th. Would you pray about partnering with us in this extension of the Lord’s Kingdom and growth of our community? We look forward to walking into this new season together and seeing spiritual community continue to develop in a supernaturally natural way.

What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Bridgeport is doing a 3 part series on love. Get your Valentine with Part 1 on just how much Jesus loves you specifically. Check back for parts 2 and 3 in the coming weeks.

Responding to the Crisis in Haiti

The situation in Haiti has the ears of the world right now. The pictures and stories of the devastation are overwhelming. While we lift up our prayers for all those affected, we have been given a tangible way to meet the needs of the Haitian people.

Bridgeport Church in conjunction with Youthfront’s Feed the Hunger- Haiti Initiative will be packaging meals to go directly to those who have the greatest need. Feed the Hunger is a program out of Youth Front that brings practical solutions for complex associated with poverty and need. Groups comes together to package meals one by one for a period of one to two hours at a time.

We will be meeting at the Youthfront building at 6:00 pm Sunday night, the 31st, to package as many meals as possible. To register, contact Kendon McBee at Kmcbee@youthfront.com. Youth Front is at 4715 Rainbow Blvd Shawnee Mission, KS.

Daniel Fast & Wednesday Night Prayer

Bridgeport has been gathering the last several weeks on Wednesday night for worship and prayer related to a church wide Daniel Fast. The Daniel Fast is a totally voluntary fast involving refraining from eating meats, sugar, alcohol, and eating primarily frutis, vegetables, grains and other items. We began on July 17th and will conclude on Feb. 7th. The fast has really been a time just to draw near to the Lord at the onset of the year and seek His face for the coming year, both personally and collectively.

Our last Wednesday night prayer meeting will be this coming Wednesday, the 3rd at Bridgeport at 7pm. Come on out and partake of this special time together. Child care will be provided. (For a complete guide to what is/isn’t on the Daniel Fast diet – email: bridgeportchurch@gmail.com)

Invitation to Donate Toward Year End Giving

Bridgeport Church comes to life in 2009 —-

On December 13th, 2009, the body of Bridgeport celebrated its first ever baptism ceremony. A pair of young men whose lives had been transformed by the Lord over the past year signaled publicly what the Lord had been doing inwardly in the presence of their newly found spiritual community. With a 150 gallon horse trough and the power of the Holy Spirit, we gathered around them to bear witness and pledge our lives to help walk this journey out with them in the days and years to come. This was a ‘kairos’ moment for our body, a crystallizing moment where the journey of seeing a new church planted came together in act that captured the very essence of our calling to life together.

And that, in a nutshell, has been the story of the last year for Bridgeport Church. We have watched the power of God bring life from amidst the chaos our world and that more often than not, in spite of ourselves.

Bridgeport began January 25th, 2009 and quickly began to take shape as an expression of the church of Jesus Christ. What began in back room on the 2nd floor of a photography studio in the Crossroads, grew to occupy a ground floor space in the very heart of the arts community in Kansas City.

Sunday Gatherings

We began gathering on Sunday evenings but after 6 months, moved to a 10:30 morning servie in order to accommodate the growing needs of our families and their children. Watching our Children’s Church grow and develop has been as exciting as the rest of the body.
Our gatherings have emerged as a dynamic hour of encounter framed around divine interaction in worship and the teaching of Scripture brought into practical application. We spent the 2nd half of the year working through the book of Ephesians verse by verse looking to answer the question of what it means to be church and do church according to the will and purpose of God.

Community & Discipleship

From the beginning, we have sought to be a community of disciples commited to realizing the love of God for us worked out in our love for one another. Small Groups, Disciplship Groups, and various workshops have materialized to create the space in which community and discipleship could happen organically.

Art Shows, Concerts, and Cultural Dialogue

Bridgeport Church has utilized its meeting space as an Art Gallery and Concert Venue – knowing that many people would come to art openings and concerts but might never set foot in a church. Our location in the very epicenter of KCs Arts District made this a natural fit as we simply opened our doors to the crowds already gathered on the streets for First Friday Art Walks and various musical events.

Invitation to Year End Giving

All of this has been made possible by the generous support and contribution of the members of our community and other supporting partners. The end of the year provides a unique giving opportunity where our supporters can donate year end gifts in accordance with their end of tax year write off needs. All gifts given throughout the year are tax deductible and our supporters receive an annual statement of giving for their tax preparation needs.

Would you consider partnering with this us in this fresh work of the Lord with a one time year end gift or becoming a monthly supporter? All checks can be made out to “Bridgeport Church” and sent to 5827 Locust KC MO 64110.

Thank you for your year-end gift to Bridgeport Church; we are honored by your partnership with us.

Bridgeport Christmas Party!

The Bridgeport Christmas Party will be Sunday, Dec. 13th at 6:30 pm. The theme is Ugly Sweater Christmas party- so wear your ugliest Christmas sweater for a chance to win one of 3 prizes. It will be a dessert and drinks party, so bring a dessert to share and eat dinner before you come. Games throughout the night including but not limited to – Christmas Jeopardy and even a spelling bee! Bring your canned goods to donate to the Christmas Pantry and we’ll see you there!

Christmas Food Pantry

Bring your canned goods and dry goods to Bridgeport throughout the month of December to donate toward our Christmas Food Pantry. We will take the total donations over to Kansas City Rescue Mission who will distribute to hungry families in need this Christmas holiday. Look for the donation box in wrapping paper by the information table.

Advent Season at Bridgeport

The Christmas season is fast approaching and while this is a time of great joy and celebration, it can also be very easy to lose sight of the spiritual significance of this season. In order to provide a greater sense of guidance, we will be taking the 4 Sundays of Advent, beginning Nov. 29th, to contemplate and cultivate our longing and receiving of Christ in this season.

The season of Advent is meant to steer us away from the chaos of our culture into the place of inner poverty where we can once again receive our Lord. It embraces the 3 distinct movements of Christ advent into our lives: Past, in coming to earth as a child; Present, in His presence in us through the Holy Spirit; and Future, in longing for the return of our Lord.

We will be exploring 4 different stories in the narrative of Christ’s birth, each a variation on the theme of cultivating the space in our heart where Christ can come forth and dwell. This sense of inner poverty, this manger of the soul, will be our aim. We will also explore and celebrate this theme in all aspects of our worship. We have chosen the song
‘O Come, O come, Emmanuel’ to encapsulate in music and lyric, the heart of our direction for this time-

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appears
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall Come to thee O Israel

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And deaths dark shadow put to flight
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

Thursday AM Prayer

We have a prayer meeting open to all Thursday mornings from 8:30-9:15 at the church. We meet back in the cafe and cover a wide range of topics- Come to seek the Lord and pray or come if you need prayer! And of course, there’s coffee ( and sometimes donuts)

Bridgeport Church 404 E. 18th St. Kansas City, MO 64111 Woship Gatherings: Sunday - 10:30 AM	1st Service in New Building this Sunday, the 7th!!! This Sunday, March 7th, will be the first service for Bridgeport at our new home at 404 E. 18th St. The new locale is just 4 blocks east of the old one – at the NE corner of 18th & Oak. We are deeply excited for this and look forward to celebrating this community milestone together. Click here for a map of the new location. See you Sunday @ 10:30!! Bridgeport Moving to a New Location in March BIG NEWS! Bridgeport Church is moving to a new location in March. Our heart from day one has been to create space where spiritual encounter and natural community can happen authentically. For the last several months, we have felt the growing need to find more space to best meet the needs of our community. After much prayer, leadership discussions and public process, we decided to move forward and sign a lease for a new property at 404 E.18^th Street, just four blocks east on 18^th St from our current locale. We are excited about this new location that will more than double our current building space as well as provide ample parking and space for our kids! Our first service there will be Sunday, March 7th. We’ll be meeting at our current location until March arrives. There will be plenty of projects to get involved with in making this transition. If you have a specialized, or not-so-specialized skill and want to get invovled, there will be plenty of opportunity. Please watch the bulletin and Facebook or see Summer Beck for ways to help. Because moving locations is not cheap and because bigger space means we’ll need a few more things to makes church run well, we will be taking up a special offering Sunday, Feb. 14th. Would you pray about partnering with us in this extension of the Lord’s Kingdom and growth of our community? We look forward to walking into this new season together and seeing spiritual community continue to develop in a supernaturally natural way. What’s Love Got to Do with It? Bridgeport is doing a 3 part series on love. Get your Valentine with Part 1 on just how much Jesus loves you specifically. Check back for parts 2 and 3 in the coming weeks. Responding to the Crisis in Haiti The situation in Haiti has the ears of the world right now. The pictures and stories of the devastation are overwhelming. While we lift up our prayers for all those affected, we have been given a tangible way to meet the needs of the Haitian people. Bridgeport Church in conjunction with Youthfront’s Feed the Hunger- Haiti Initiative will be packaging meals to go directly to those who have the greatest need. Feed the Hunger is a program out of Youth Front that brings practical solutions for complex associated with poverty and need. Groups comes together to package meals one by one for a period of one to two hours at a time. We will be meeting at the Youthfront building at 6:00 pm Sunday night, the 31st, to package as many meals as possible. To register, contact Kendon McBee at Kmcbee@youthfront.com. Youth Front is at 4715 Rainbow Blvd Shawnee Mission, KS. Daniel Fast & Wednesday Night Prayer Bridgeport has been gathering the last several weeks on Wednesday night for worship and prayer related to a church wide Daniel Fast. The Daniel Fast is a totally voluntary fast involving refraining from eating meats, sugar, alcohol, and eating primarily frutis, vegetables, grains and other items. We began on July 17th and will conclude on Feb. 7th. The fast has really been a time just to draw near to the Lord at the onset of the year and seek His face for the coming year, both personally and collectively. Our last Wednesday night prayer meeting will be this coming Wednesday, the 3rd at Bridgeport at 7pm. Come on out and partake of this special time together. Child care will be provided. (For a complete guide to what is/isn’t on the Daniel Fast diet – email: bridgeportchurch@gmail.com) Invitation to Donate Toward Year End Giving Bridgeport Church comes to life in 2009 —- On December 13th, 2009, the body of Bridgeport celebrated its first ever baptism ceremony. A pair of young men whose lives had been transformed by the Lord over the past year signaled publicly what the Lord had been doing inwardly in the presence of their newly found spiritual community. With a 150 gallon horse trough and the power of the Holy Spirit, we gathered around them to bear witness and pledge our lives to help walk this journey out with them in the days and years to come. This was a ‘kairos’ moment for our body, a crystallizing moment where the journey of seeing a new church planted came together in act that captured the very essence of our calling to life together. And that, in a nutshell, has been the story of the last year for Bridgeport Church. We have watched the power of God bring life from amidst the chaos our world and that more often than not, in spite of ourselves. Bridgeport began January 25th, 2009 and quickly began to take shape as an expression of the church of Jesus Christ. What began in back room on the 2nd floor of a photography studio in the Crossroads, grew to occupy a ground floor space in the very heart of the arts community in Kansas City. Sunday Gatherings We began gathering on Sunday evenings but after 6 months, moved to a 10:30 morning servie in order to accommodate the growing needs of our families and their children. Watching our Children’s Church grow and develop has been as exciting as the rest of the body. Our gatherings have emerged as a dynamic hour of encounter framed around divine interaction in worship and the teaching of Scripture brought into practical application. We spent the 2nd half of the year working through the book of Ephesians verse by verse looking to answer the question of what it means to be church and do church according to the will and purpose of God. Community & Discipleship From the beginning, we have sought to be a community of disciples commited to realizing the love of God for us worked out in our love for one another. Small Groups, Disciplship Groups, and various workshops have materialized to create the space in which community and discipleship could happen organically. Art Shows, Concerts, and Cultural Dialogue Bridgeport Church has utilized its meeting space as an Art Gallery and Concert Venue – knowing that many people would come to art openings and concerts but might never set foot in a church. Our location in the very epicenter of KCs Arts District made this a natural fit as we simply opened our doors to the crowds already gathered on the streets for First Friday Art Walks and various musical events. Invitation to Year End Giving All of this has been made possible by the generous support and contribution of the members of our community and other supporting partners. The end of the year provides a unique giving opportunity where our supporters can donate year end gifts in accordance with their end of tax year write off needs. All gifts given throughout the year are tax deductible and our supporters receive an annual statement of giving for their tax preparation needs. Would you consider partnering with this us in this fresh work of the Lord with a one time year end gift or becoming a monthly supporter? All checks can be made out to “Bridgeport Church” and sent to 5827 Locust KC MO 64110. Thank you for your year-end gift to Bridgeport Church; we are honored by your partnership with us. Bridgeport Christmas Party! The Bridgeport Christmas Party will be Sunday, Dec. 13th at 6:30 pm. The theme is Ugly Sweater Christmas party- so wear your ugliest Christmas sweater for a chance to win one of 3 prizes. It will be a dessert and drinks party, so bring a dessert to share and eat dinner before you come. Games throughout the night including but not limited to – Christmas Jeopardy and even a spelling bee! Bring your canned goods to donate to the Christmas Pantry and we’ll see you there! Christmas Food Pantry Bring your canned goods and dry goods to Bridgeport throughout the month of December to donate toward our Christmas Food Pantry. We will take the total donations over to Kansas City Rescue Mission who will distribute to hungry families in need this Christmas holiday. Look for the donation box in wrapping paper by the information table. Advent Season at Bridgeport The Christmas season is fast approaching and while this is a time of great joy and celebration, it can also be very easy to lose sight of the spiritual significance of this season. In order to provide a greater sense of guidance, we will be taking the 4 Sundays of Advent, beginning Nov. 29th, to contemplate and cultivate our longing and receiving of Christ in this season. The season of Advent is meant to steer us away from the chaos of our culture into the place of inner poverty where we can once again receive our Lord. It embraces the 3 distinct movements of Christ advent into our lives: Past, in coming to earth as a child; Present, in His presence in us through the Holy Spirit; and Future, in longing for the return of our Lord. We will be exploring 4 different stories in the narrative of Christ’s birth, each a variation on the theme of cultivating the space in our heart where Christ can come forth and dwell. This sense of inner poverty, this manger of the soul, will be our aim. We will also explore and celebrate this theme in all aspects of our worship. We have chosen the song ‘O Come, O come, Emmanuel’ to encapsulate in music and lyric, the heart of our direction for this time- O come, O come, Emmanuel And ransom captive Israel That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appears Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall Come to thee O Israel O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer Our spirits by thine advent here Disperse the gloomy clouds of night And deaths dark shadow put to flight Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee O Israel Thursday AM Prayer We have a prayer meeting open to all Thursday mornings from 8:30-9:15 at the church. We meet back in the cafe and cover a wide range of topics- Come to seek the Lord and pray or come if you need prayer! And of course, there’s coffee ( and sometimes donuts)