The Bridge adds second service

SUBMITTED PHOTO
Reach, Equip, Send Pictured is a service at The Bridge, a local non-denominational church which meets in the building behind Walgreens. The Bridge will be moving to two similar services this weekend to accommodate for its consistent growth.

The Bridge is adding a service this weekend.

After steady growth this year, the church located behind Walgreens will be duplicating its normal service starting this Sunday.

Jonathon Mitchell, the executive pastor at The Bridge, said the services would be carbon-copies of one another.

“We’ve got the same band singing the same songs and the same teaching for both services,” Mitchell said. “We’re also offering kids programming for both services, which will look the same for each one.”

Breaking from the commonality of “traditional” and “contemporary” services, Mitchell said The Bridge wanted to avoid distinctions between the services.

“We didn’t want to create two different environments or segregate generations from one another,” Mitchell said. “No service is more important or different; we wanted a consistent experience across both services.”

This has been a work in progress for the Bridge, according to Mitchell.

“Back in June, we realized we would need to move to a second service,” Mitchell explained. “We identified this Sunday (Sept. 18) as a goal to shoot for.

“Several groups have been working behind the scenes to make sure this was a success.”

Doubling up on services not only provides more room to attend a service, but more room to serve, according to Mitchell.

“With multiple services, you have multiple service opportunities,” Mitchell explained. “We’ve had new people come in that want to get involved.”

This isn’t the first change for The Bridge this year; as the academic year began for Northwest Missouri State University, The Bridge decided to move its college ministry nights from Thursdays to Tuesdays at 7 p.m., located at the Bridge Collegiate Ministry house at 329 Lynn Lane.

Mitchell said the church made these decisions to keep in step with its community focus.

“We always want to be a church that reaches into the community and reflects the community we live in,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said the consistent growth they’ve experienced allowed them to have the flexibility they needed to move to two services.

The services will be at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. starting this Sunday.