Mike Santistevan

I love how God works. Yesterday was a unique day for me. Throughout the day I met 4 brand new people at different times as I was going about life. In the course of conversation with each of them, God opened up an opportunity to talk about faith and I ended up inviting all 4 of them to church!

I still think that personal invitation is the absolute best form of marketing. You just can’t beat it. People are much more willing to travel long distances to attend a church with a friend than a church down the street where they don’t know anybody. I know its a simple lesson, but I’m re-learning that God does not bring people into our lives by accident, and he loves to set us up with divine appointments.

My encouragement to you is to be sensitive today to the people that God may be sending your way. Look for opportunities that he may open up to share the gospel, and bring somebody along with you this Sunday!

Really excited to start a brand new series this Sunday called “After God’s Heart: Developing a God-Centered Life“. One of the best known and most loved of all the people in the Bible is King David. While David is known for many things, perhaps the most intriguing and important fact about his life is that he is the only person in Scripture who is referred to as a “man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22).

This is an amazing fact considering the dramatic ups and downs of his life. He went from warrior-king to adulterer-murderer and is still remembered as a man after the heart of God. As a man of success and a man of failure, we all have much in common with David. In this 6-week study the life of David, we will see how we as imperfect people can become people after the heart of God.

This is the first series in which I have written a complete 6-week study guide which will be available on Sunday. Some of our Community Groups are using it as their basis of study. Others may find it helpful to use for family devotions or personal study.

As a pastor, one of the things I’ve thought a lot about is whether our services should be geared towards believers or unbelievers. I think the most biblical answer is both.

I think it goes without saying that corporate worship gatherings are to build up the body of Christ. Worship and Bible preaching definitely strengthen believers (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16; 1 Tim. 4:11-16). If church services are not strengthening believers we are not being 100% faithful to our calling as a church.

However, if we neglect the evangelistic element in our services we are being equally unfaithful. Why is this? Several reasons from Scripture:

• In the context of public worship, Paul expected unbelievers to enter Christian worship services (1 Cor. 14:23)

• Paul expected unbelievers to be converted to Christ in Christian worship services (1 Cor. 14:24)

• Paul urges sensitivity to unbelievers in corporate worship for the sake of the gospel. In the gathered community, he urges intelligibility in the use of spiritual gifts over unintelligibility for their sake (1 Cor. 14:23b)

• In the context of preaching the Scriptures to the gathered Christian community, Paul told the young pastor Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim. 4:5). Whatever Paul may have intended by this, he surely expected Gospel-centered Bible preaching to lead to the salvation of sinners

• In the early church, God “added to their number daily those who were being saved.” This would include their day of corporate worship.

In our services I will typically give unbelievers and opportunity to give their lives to Christ because of the above biblical reasons. Also, I’m not at all suggesting that the evangelistic ministry of the church be restricted to Sunday mornings. Indeed, believers should be sharing their faith all week long.

When it comes to corporate worship, I don’t think we need “believers only services” and “unbelievers only services”. The biblical picture of the church is the regenerated family of God worshipping, fellowshipping, and receiving teaching from the word of God on a regular basis in a local community. At these gatherings, unbelievers will be present and should come to faith in Christ. So I opt not for “believer only” or “seeker sensitive” services, but rather “Holy Spirit sensitive” and “Gospel-centered” services. The Gospel builds up believers and saves the unregenerate. The presence of God’s Spirit builds up believers and convicts unbelievers at the same time. In a Gospel-centered church believers will be strengthened and unbelievers will be saved.

This Sunday we are planning to introduce the song Yahweh by Reuben Morgan. It is a powerful song of worship that uses the sacred Hebrew name for God. It is important that we worship God as he is and not how we might want to make him be. He has revealed himself to us by many names in Scripture, but it is Yahweh that is his personal name.

We derive the name Yahweh from four Hebrew consonants YHWH. In revealing himself to us, God chose to combine his name with the Hebrew verb meaning “to be” signifying his eternal, transcendent glory. He is the God who was and is and always will be, and he shall reign forever. Check out the video below to hear Reuben Morgan talk about why he wrote the song:

This past Sunday we had the rare privilege of having Pastor Jeff Leake as a guest speaker. Jeff is the Lead Pastor of Allison Park Church, which started Bridgeway in 1998. In the late 90’s God gave pastor Jeff a vision to plant 5 churches in 5 years. Not only did they plant 5 churches, they are currently planning the 8th for early next year!

Pastor Jeff was my pastor growing up. He is a spiritual father to me and our entire church. It is an honor to be a part of such a great movement of churches reaching the city of Pittsburgh for Christ!

On Sunday he shared a powerful message with us about the journey from promise to provision. In the message, he showed us how the experience of Abraham in Genesis 15 illustrates the principle of Hebrews 10:36 “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.“

From the life of Abraham he showed us that after we receive a promise from God we often face a major problem. In the problem phase things don’t make sense and the promise seems more and more unlikely.

This leads us to the next phase in which we must persevere. Perseverance is all about staying true no matter what. In the perseverance phase we develop faith and character.

Then, in God’s timing, after we have done the will of God we will receive his provision. It is important through the whole journey to keep our eyes, heart, and devotion upon God and not the provision. This will keep us from making an idol out of the provision. This process applies to individuals, churches, and families. Such a great word!

In such a fast paced society it is sometimes difficult to develop true friendships. Yet it is so vital for our spiritual well being that we be connected with one another in real community. Connecting with others and developing authentic, life-giving relationships is simply a matter of making time for them. If we don’t invest the necessary time, our friendships will be continually plagued by superficiality.

Our theme as we head into the fall is CONNECTION and we are providing several ways to connect with other believers. Here’s a look at what’s on the radar in terms of opportunities to connect at Bridgeway:

• Men’s Breakfast- 9:00am Saturday Sept. 26 at the Ministry Center

• Newcomer’s Lunch- After service Sunday, Oct. 4. RSVP by email

• Fall Harvest Fest at Economy Park- Cookout, fun, & fellowship 3:00pm Sunday, Oct. 11

• Fall Community Group Kick-Off- week of Oct. 18. Plan to join a weekly group

• Bridgeway 1st Annual Golf Outing- 10:00am Saturday, Oct. 24 at Harmony Ridge Golf Club. RSVP by email.

Mark your calendars and plan to take some time this Fall to really connect.

Connecting with other believers is so important for our spiritual growth. That’s why we are starting a new ministry to help guys connect with guys. This Saturday will be our first Men’s Breakfast. Sometimes we all need to just get out of the house and get around some other guys for  encouragement, fun, and food. Nothing like connecting with other guys over a hot cup and a hot breakfast. I’m really looking forward to hanging out with the Bridgeway men! Hope you can come!

Saturday, Sept. 26 9-10am

Bridgeway Ministry Center (424 Duss Ave. Ambridge)

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Prov. 27:17

As the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt. Sometimes the things we are most familiar with become the things that we take the most for granted. One such popular phrase in the church is this: “God has a perfect plan for your life.” Many of us have heard it so many times that it has begun to lose the power of its effect on us. Scripture makes it clear here and here that God does indeed have a perfect plan for us. If the infinitely good, all-knowing, sovereign God of the universe has a plan for our lives, then it must be the best way to live. The essence of folly would be to live outside of his perfect plan, to live out of step with his will.

Here are 5 questions that I ask myself to help me keep in step with God’s will:

1. Do I care about what God wants for my life? – When we are truly submitted to Christ as our Lord, our deepest desire will be to live for him and his will. If we don’t care about what God wants for us, its time to reevaluate things. I love the psalmist’s prayer in Ps. 143:10, “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!”

2. Have I surrendered my desires to God? – Sometimes the things we desire most are not God’s best for us. It may be a relationship or an activity that is actually drawing our hearts away from the Lord. Sometimes our “quest for God’s will” can actually be nothing more than trying spiritualize our disobedience so that we feel better about it. At the end of the day we must be able to say like Jesus, “Not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

3. Have I spent time in real prayer? – It is so easy to casually say, “I’m praying for God’s will” when we have actually spent little or no time in actual prayer. God does not desire his will to be a secret. He wants to show us, we just need to ask! I love the promise of Jer. 33:3 which says, “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”

4. Have I sought godly counsel?- One indication that we are outside of God’s will is that we are avoiding the counsel of godly people. When we know we are living in sin, the last thing we want to hear is the counsel of godly people. Prov. 13:20 tells us that “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”

5. Will my decision further myself and my goals, or God and his goals? - Living according to God’s will means living primarily for him and his agenda and not ourselves and our agenda. May we say with John the Baptist, “He must increase, I must decrease” (John 3:30).

My friend and mentor Jeff Leake has taken the initiative to establish a prayer blog for the purpose of mobilizing prayer for the G20 Summit which will be held in Pittsburgh at the end of the month. I was honored to write the post for today. Click here to check out the G20 Prayer Blog.