This summer, Bridge Church has been studying through a few of Jesus’ one one one conversations with people in the Gospels. We’ve had Close encounters with people in the Shadows (the woman at the well), with the Wealthy Fringe (Zaccheus), people with Rough Edges (Peter), with those in Crisis (Lazarus’ family), with those who are Caught (the woman caught in adultery), and with the Religious Crowd.  Here are a few highlights from the series:

• Reminder: Every person has a name, a story, and great value to God.
• Don’t worry about dumping your gospel load and engage people as friends.
• God is able to make preachers out of prostitutes.
• When confronted with truth, what you do next demonstrates what you believe and if its real to you.
• Jesus has a vision for what you could be and will be through Him. He has you in the oven, He’s working on you.
• If any of us had the power to clean ourselves up, Jesus would not have had to die on the cross.
• Jesus didn’t say, “Peter, go get cleaned up, get you act together, quit being so undependable and mule headed and then maybe you can come and follow me.”
• God’s goal for us is CHRISTLIKENESS.  NOT COMFORT AND PLEASURE.
• Death and disaster may seem like the end to us, but it’s not to God.
• We can demonstrate to a doubting world and to doubting, skeptic friends the reality of who Jesus is when we live out his ways.
• “People may doubt what you say, but they’ll always believe what you do.” – Unknown
• Truth is not a club to be used on people, but a mirror to show us our sin and our need for Christ.
• If you say, “Well, that person will never change” – You are saying more about your belief in God than your belief in that person.
• Religion is man’s way to get to God. Christianity is the story of how God made a way to get to man.

Listen to the series here, or find us on Itunes.