The Bridge - A Most Unlikely Place

The Bridge Christian Church

            The Bridge Christian Church represents the most radically contextualized alternative missional ecclesia within this paper. The story[1] of the Bridge begins with an organic emergence of a community amid the punk-rockers during the late 1990’s. Through a series of connections and events Ken, Deborah and Crystal were invited to come and help this fledgling community until they turned it over to the current leadership that was raised up from amid the ecclesia. From its inception the Bridge has been an alternative missional ecclesia that practiced the Positive Deviance Approach intuitively without knowing what they knew.[2] For this reason the categories that the Bridge fits into are the intuitive, innovative and adaptive positive deviance processes. It has endured through several reinventions coming to its current incarnation mainly due to the characteristic of being a “contextual open society.”[3] The interview process yielded so much information and data that a complete paper focused solely upon the practices and strategies of the Bridge could be written. The Bridge was created through trial and error by attempting different practices and strategies. The participants in the interview process researching the Bridge included past leadership represented by Deborah Loyd and current leadership represented by Angie and Todd Fadel.

            Angie and Todd Fadel are a gregarious couple who have been with the Bridge from its beginning. They are musicians, artists, who are passionate about Christ and people, especially people who are displaced. Angie shared that the Bridge is the church of “comes as you really are.” Todd shared that the Bridge is “a true postmodern faith community” and they “practice a radical acceptance of others and scandalous grace.” The interview with Angie and Todd provided an excessive amount of data. Together their story is one of journeying through hard issues of the institutional church.

Bridge Practices and Strategies

            The interview process revealed that the Bridge represents an organic community in which the Positive Deviance Approach results from an intuitive, innovative and adaptive intelligence found amid the leadership of the Bridge and the community that comprises the Bridge. The leadership struggled with how to contextualize the Gospel for the community they were now engaging. It was a community of young people who were very talented, artistic, musical, broken and flawed, yet spiritually hungry, but most of all did not relate or connect with the traditional church. The Bridge represents an early adaptation of the Positive Deviance Approach and should serve as representative model of how the Positive Deviance process works over time and does not result in quick fix or immediate gratification. In contrast the institutional church model would impose a conformity culture. This would be done in order to obtain its goals in a faster manner and attempt to avoid the messiness that comes with cultural self-identification with Christ as represented in the Bridge community. The contrast is a transformational culture that relies upon the work of the Holy Spirit, as represented in the Bridge, versus a forced cultural conformity, represented in the institutional church model.

The intractable issue for the Bridge was contextualization of the Gospel amid a non-religious, disenfranchised and marginalized people. The status quo practice of repackaging the institutional church as contextualization would not work with these people. The repackaging of the institutional church is represented by the use the music, language, clothes and cultural nuances in superficial attempt to connect amid marginalized people. The consequences of such a strategy and practice would have been catastrophic for the Bridge community. This is due to the non-conformist culture represented amid those who populated the Bridge. The reaction to conformity, by being told what they would be expected to do in order to belong to the community would not have gone over well. The people populating the Bridge are independent thinkers and want to discover truth and life for themselves rather than being told what it is. If any situation resembles what was transpiring amid the community of the Bridge, it would be comparable to Antioch when the Hellenists took the Gospel amid the Greeks cultural context.[4]

            The initial leadership approached the problem from a cultural perspective. They engaged in cultural exegesis. The leadership asked, “Can we be you?” Cultural understanding was the highest priority. The journey into Positive Deviance process began with this step for the leadership of the Bridge. Intuitively, there was the understanding that they stood at the outside and were looking in and what needed to transpire was to step into the culture becoming one of them. The leadership went native. It is comparable to stepping through the looking glass, thus gaining a whole new perspective. By engaging the culture from within the culture the leadership validated the people and established the initial foothold that would develop their cultural clout.

Second, the leadership of the Bridge working within the culture began the process of navigating the community toward creating its own identity. This strategy began even before the first Sunday morning meeting of the Bridge. It was decided that the cultural identity of the people was important and the leadership was decidedly against the idea of practicing cultural imperialism, which is the practice of overlaying one culture on top of another, thereby subverting the resident culture to conform to the overlaid culture. At the first Sunday meeting of the Bridge, the community was given, even promised, the responsibility for developing the community’s identity as “Christians.” Ownership of the ecclesia belonged to the community. The structure was not hierarchal, but is flat and the pastors walked amid the people as one of them and not over them. Shepherding is done from in the midst of the “tribe.” Leadership is from behind not out in front of the community. The community provides their direction and the leadership operates from a culturally responsive position rather than a dictating position.

Third, ownership of the community at the Bridge is invested amid the people. This would be considered extremely risky and defies the conventional wisdom amongst institutional church planting models. The leadership of the Bridge followed the PD process by trusting that the community itself held the answer or wisdom to self-organize and design its own practices. In designing their practices the driving theological praxis for the Bridge was formed within a theology of hospitality. An open hospitality means the free flow of ideas and the search for truth. It allows for open dialogue and nothing is off limits. The praxis of hospitality requires faith in what the Holy Spirit is actively pursuing amid the community and trusting God for the results. This praxis is messy, but deeply rewarding according to the leadership.

Fourth, the transformational nature of the community allows the community to be adaptive to cultural changes. Deborah describes the community as going through eras or incarnations. Another term used by Angie described the community reinventing itself. Deborah gave examples of how this transpires. Initially the occupants of the Bridge were punks and Gen-Xers making up the community. Several transition or reinventions have transpired and now the occupants of the Bridge are Millennials and Christ-archists (anarchists). This transformational nature represents the community itself is functioning in positive deviance process. The community of the Bridge is adapting to the internal diversity that exists amid the attendees. The mode of operation is cultural inclusion, multicultural inclusion and context.

To illustrate the open contextual community that exists at the Bridge Amanda Westmont and Joel Gunz wrote about the Bridge in their blog Year of Sundays: we go to church so you don’t have to. Joel comments on the atmosphere of the bridge,

In this come-as-you-are church, the pastors wear no fancy robes or expensive hair spray. A pulpit would be as out of place as Laura Bush at a cockfight. Instead, you’ll see a slightly pudgy hipster couple switching off between sermonizing and cuddling their oh-too-cute baby. The Bridge is the kind of place you could only expect to see in a city that glorifies strange bicycles, house rock concerts and tofu . . . . this blog’s search for spiritual authenticity has yielded mixed results, this week, we found it in the unlikeliest of places: a multi-purpose yoga studio/art room/public space for hire. Welcome to The Bridge, captain.[5]

Amanda “gushes” about the Bridge in her blog post titled The Bridge: A Perfectly (Im) Perfect Christian Experience,

This church doesn’t have a PR department or a logo or a red velvet bag for your tithe. All they have is a scrappy, shared yoga studio on NE Tillamook and each other. The only thing I could find lacking at The Bridge was judgment. There is no “IF” at The Bridge. No qualifications. They literally DO love you just for being there. It’s the “only a mother could love you” church. Everyone qualifies. Every. Single. Soul. The more flawed the better. And if I believed in God THAT would be the kind of God I’d want to worship. The one who made The Bridge possible.[6]

The Bridge represents an incredible experiment in what it means to be the church amid marginalized people. The evidence for the intuitive, innovative and adaptive categories of the Positive Deviance Approach is all over the Bridge like children’s finger prints on a glass door. The Bridge is a living organism. It lives within its environment (culture) and navigates creating its own identity, designs it own practices and adapts to constant internal changes in diversity. The Bridge is messy, but it causes me remember the Church in Antioch as the first Greek converts must have struggled amid the cultural conflicts. 

Since the writing of this section of my dissertation the Bridge has ceased its operations. After 10 years and 4 incarnations the work and ministry of the Bridge has significantly changed. This is another aspect of positive deviance in church is knowing when to transform and transition. I applaud the Bridge for being sensitive and intuitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. They are everyday heroes.

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[1] For a brief story of the origins of the Bridge visit http://thebridgeportland.org/about.php

[2] Pascale et al., The Power of Positive Deviance, 7.

[3] “Contextual Open Society” would best be defined in alternative missional ecclesia as a community that is adaptive to the cultural paradigm shifts that require a fluidic contextualization in the life of the ecclesia.  This term was supplied earlier in this section in the interview with A.J. Swoboda concerning the nature of adaptability within an alternative missional ecclesia.  The term certainly fits within the transformations the Bridge has moved through during it tenure.

[4] See Chapter 3 pages 68-74 in order to review of the work of the Hellenist amid the Greeks in Antioch and the resulting communities.

[5] Amanda P. Westmont and Joel Gunz, http://blog.beliefnet.com/yearofsundays/2011/03/flea-market-cathedral.html

[6] Amanda P. Westmont and Joel Gunz, http://blog.beliefnet.com/yearofsundays/2011/03/the-bridge-a-perfectly-imperfect-christian-experience.html

Resonate or Die

Resonate Christian Church

            Resonate Christian Church was founded by Kevin and Amanda Bates amid the resistant and marginalized people of the city of Sherwood. Bates was attracted to the community of Sherwood due to its history. He shared the community’s experience leading it to become resistant to the Gospel. He stated, “In a twenty-one year period seventeen churches were planted in Sherwood and all but two of those church plants have closed their doors. This created a very resistant community that views church plants negatively.” He noted that there was a lot of hurt and pain due to having such a large number of church plants fail and people felt spiritually abused. Therefore, whenever a new church plant appeared the attitude amongst the people was “how long will this one last?” The attitude was one of distrust amid the community.

Kevin is tall, rowdy and expressive as a person, yet very approachable. He impressed me with his down to earth demeanor during the interview process. He consistently brought theory back to the practical. The focus on being practical indicated to me that Kevin has thought through his theology of the church. He shared that the theoretical nature of propositional truth has its limitations in real life application in the Kingdom of God. Kevin expressed that his passion is to incarnate the presence of Christ in a tangible manner expressing the presence of the Kingdom of God active in community. He said, “Christ is the center of all our activities.” In the interview process Bates revealed practices and strategies that would place Resonate Christian Church within the categories of innovative and adaptive positive deviance process. Resonate engaged a process of ecclesial contextualization with theological praxis by emulating the Positive Deviance Approach.

Resonate Practices and Strategies

While interviewing Kevin the four D’s (define, determine, discover, and design)[1] of positive deviance process were described in detail within the planning of this particular ecclesia. Kevin described an intentionally relational approach, due to the contextual need of the community of Sherwood for a meaningful presence amid the people in order to develop trust. Following the four D’s allowed Bates and his team to fully exegete the community of Sherwood. His familiarity with Leonard Sweet influenced him to follow the missional, relational and incarnational lifestyle amid the people of Sherwood.

            First, the Resonate planting team engaged the culture of Sherwood. Bates and his team had no problem fitting in culturally, but the issue was creating a culture of trust for the team amongst the greater community. Having exegeted the community Bates determined the main areas of cultural focus that would best create trust was to engage family, education and business in the Sherwood context. The team engaged the YMCA initially and assisted with the various programs offered to families. By volunteering as coaches, referees and in the after school tutoring offered at the YMCA the Resonate community created an initial positive presence in the greater community. From there the team moved into assisting the school district asking to help fill whatever their critical needs were. It turned out that tutoring was their greatest area of need. The team provided teams of tutors for the elementary and middle school students.

Availability to fill the real needs of the community of Sherwood represents the greatest point of impact by the RCC team. Bates then turned his attention to engaging the city council itself and asking what Resonate could do for the city and doing whatever menial task was available: tasks such as providing teams to refresh the landscaping of the local educational facilities. Intentionally engaging these three areas allowed the Resonate team to gain clout with the community, thus developing a culture of trust. As Resonates’ culture of giving to the community through volunteerism and service they began to experience growth in the gathering. Creating cultural clout in this manner reflects the Positive Deviance process by engaging the life of the greater community. In the interview Bates told me of an encounter he had amid a meeting of the community pastors and the mayor. The mayor had called the meeting to engage the faith communities as a way to help meet needs in the city. The local clergy were interested in presenting the Gospel and did not connect with how serving the community related. Resonate turned this attitude upside down and made themselves available to the mayors request. By connecting with the values of the city and the city’s leadership Resonates’ practices and strategies reflect a positive deviance approach, where as the majority of other churches in the community were not engaged. By being present and available Resonate has created a new perspective of church in its community.

            Second, the issue of long-term sustainability of the church plant was a concern. Repeating the past would have been an unforgivable sin and would drive another proverbial nail into the resistance of city to the Gospel. Bates desired to support the ecclesia financially in an additional manner rather than just depending upon church offerings for its sole support. At the same time the desire of Resonate was to create a larger presence amid the community drove the direction of the team to consider other options. The eventual solution was to create a for profit business model[2] to help support the church and give back to the community. Resonate created an additional identity amid the community through the development and successful launching of Symposium Coffee house[3] near downtown.

The business allowed for the employment of Resonate staff by creating an alternate income source other than church offerings. It also allowed the presence and proximity of Resonate to expand more into the community by creating a third space. The creation of a third space, the coffee house, formed an additional community connection point. The net result has been the creation of the most popular coffee house in Sherwood and a broader recognition of Resonate. The intractable problem of sustainability, which was the reason for the failure of church plants in Sherwood, and securing a solid presence amid the Sherwood community, was effectively solved through a positive deviance process of innovative and intuitive thinking and problem solving.

            Third, the Resonate gatherings are characterized by the community identity. The pastor is not up on a platform, but is down in the midst of the congregation. In addition the sermon is interactive with the congregation. The interactive nature allows for questions and clarification between the speaker and the congregation. The valuation of the contribution of the congregation appears to enhance the identification and the connection amid the community. In this manner Resonate has created an environment where the community helps to create its own identity through participation with the pastor. Wisdom and understanding are not exclusive to the pastor, but is co-mingled from the congregation with the pastor as a facilitator of truth. This practice is an intentional activity practiced amid the pastors at Resonate as a strategy for the purpose of creating connection with the community amid the ecclesia. It also provides a level of transparency in favor of the pastor amongst the people who associate pastors with talking heads who monopolize all that is shared.

            Resonate has applied a Positive Deviance Approach in creating a sustainable ecclesia in a community that has experienced more failed church plants than success. Their uses of the positive deviance process steps of engaging culture from within culture, creating community identity and designing practices has allowed it to follow a trajectory of successfully overcoming an intractable problem. Resonate has successfully emerged as an adaptive, indigenous and innovative alternative missional ecclesia through its presence and proximity and their consistency of intuitive service that has become recognized within the Sherwood community.

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[1] Pascale et al., The Power of Positive Deviance, 195.

[2] Eric Bahme, MBE Mission-Based Entrepreneur Revolution (KingdomPoint International, 2009).

[3] Symposium Coffee House has become a success in the community employing five employees, including some staff from Resonate Church, http://www.symposiumcoffee.com.