Bridges Community Church

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The main sanctuary during worship

A part of the Evangelical Free Denomination, Bridges Community Church was started in 1966 with a charter membership of 21 people. It now meets at 505 Driscoll Road in Fremont, California and a satellite campus in LIvermore with an average attendance of 1600 people on any given Sunday.

This church has been identified as having a more than average diversity in it’s membership and regular attendees for a church located in this upscale region. On it’s campus meets two Chinese churches, a deaf church and an Iranian church.

1 Venues
2 Ministries
3 History
4 Pastoral staff as of Oct 2006
5 External links

[edit] Venues

Currently Bridges offers 3 venues for meetings on Sunday mornings:

Bridges Live which is in a more traditional setting and meets in the main fellowship hall in Building A; A video feed telecast meeting called Video Café which is offered in a more informal atmosphere, serving coffee and snacks, and meets across the campus in Building C, and Bridges Livermore which meets in the nearby city of Livermore. All three venues have a live worship session with a live band, but the Video Café and the Livermore venue present a broadcasted sermon that originates from the Bridges Live venue.

[edit] Ministries

The Band of Brothers cell group sponsors an annual men's retreat every September.

The Sunday morning meetings are meant to accommodate the Bridges Church community as a whole, but the primary mission of the church to it’s membership and regular attendees is to offer an extremely wide assortment of cell based ministries which meet in smaller groups throughout the week and in various locations on and off the church campus. It is Bridges’ stated belief that cell based ministries offer those who attend, more opportunities to develop closer friendships within the church body, and more opportunities to find the exact type of growth and involvement to suit each individual. The cell ministries do not meet during the summer months, but function throughout the rest of the year. Three times per year (January, May, and September), the church offers a Cell Expo to highlight all the cell ministries.

[edit] History

[edit] 1960’s

Began meeting in 1966 in small groups in homes, then called their 1st pastor and rented a mortuary on Washington Blvd (current location of Burger King) for worship
Incorporated as a church of 21 members and purchased a house on 1-1/2 acres on Grimmer Blvd

[edit] 1970’s

Purchased 2-1/4 acres on Driscoll Road and built first Worship Center and classrooms (Building B)
Added on Fireside Room and church offices to the East - all are now children's classrooms
Purchased 2 adjoining acres in 1974
Built present Worship Center (Building A), additional downstairs classrooms, and offices in 1979

[edit] 1980’s

Planted a daughter church - Newark Community Church
Completed unfinished upstairs classrooms from the 1979 building addition
Began Deaf Church
Traded property with the Seventh-day Adventist Church next door in 1984 to acquire land behind parking area
Purchased 3/4 acre easement (under power lines) in 1989 for parking needs

[edit] 1990’s

Started Little Lamb Ministries (day care and preschool) in 1991
Began Cantonese Church on campus
Planted a second Deaf Church in Bay Area
Planted a church in Romania
Built a multipurpose building (Building C) and expanded parking lot in 1997 (5-1/2 acres total)
Transformed ministries into being cell based

[edit] 2000’s

Completed second floor classrooms and offices in Building C
Began an Iranian (Farsi speaking) church on campus
Planted two more Deaf Churches in Bay Area
Started first video venue worship services on campus
Began Mandarin Church on campus
Planted three churches in Vietnam
Launched first off-campus video venue worship service in Livermore

[edit] Pastoral staff as of Oct 2006

TBD	Senior Pastor
Fred Biby	Executive Pastor
Scott Taylor	Worship Pastor
Dale Goncalves	Relationships Pastor
Ryan Kwon	Growth Pastor
Nate Glaze	Junior High Pastor
Joel Enyart	High School Pastor
Dusty White	College Pastor
Pattie Larsen	Children's Ministries (4th-6th Grade)
Dwight Hunnicutt	Children's Ministries (k-3rd Grade)
Grace Montenegro	Children's Ministries (3's-4/5's)
Jolene Thym	Children's Ministries (Nursery-2's)