Bridge people

There's something fascinating and exciting about bridges that span great rivers or huge bays. Driving across them almost always creates a subtle tension in me, puts me on high-alert in terms of staying centered in my lane, taking care to watch the road and not the scenery. In recent years there have been some tragic bridge failures in the US, and this certainly contributes to the anxiety a bit.

But bridges have been, and continue to be, hallmarks of civilization, drawing people together, encouraging communication, commerce and community. They span the natural barriers of water and gorges. Some cities must rely on multiple bridges for day-to-life life. It's little wonder, then, that the bridge is an analogy for spanning the social and emotional distance between diverse peoples. There's a need to bridge the 'generation gap,' for instance, or to bridge the cultural differences between nationalities and ethnicities.

Speaking at a church planting conference several years ago, Rudy Carrasco noted that 'a bridge-person is someone who can connect two or more communities in a way that allows them to understand, accept, and relate to each other.' Carrasco was thinking primarily of people who can lead the dominant-culture church in connecting with ethnic minorities. But the implications are clear for evangelism as a whole when the church seeks to reach the people and culture around us.

We need bridge people, folks who can span the divide between the "church world" and the secular communities we are striving to reach. That means learning the language, the value system, the motivating factors in the lives of those who do not make Christian living a priority. The spiritual bridge person spans the distance both ways, interpreting faith matters to the secular individual, but also interpreting non-church realities to the faith community. This takes special gifts, yes. But even more it takes a desire, a commitment. It's a way of responding to the Great Commission.