We go to a Church within a Church

Fresno Deaf Church, Fresno, California

“Word of mouth.”

It’s really a great quote, one of my favorites this year. I’d asked Pastor Keith Catron how people are drawn to the Deaf ministry of the Bridge Church, and he told us, “word of mouth.” Though actually he signed his answer in ASL (American Sign Language), and Tiffany interpreted it into spoken English. But I guess if he’d said people were drawn to the ministry by “word of hand” that would sound pretty strange as well.

We’ve been to lots of worship services in other languages -- Korean, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish. Sometimes there have been translators and sometimes not. When we’ve had translation we’ve sometimes had someone sitting next to us but more often we’ve had headphones with the interpreter speaking in our ears.

Things were simpler this week. As happens most weeks, an interpreter sits in the front row at Fresno Deaf Church with a microphone and speaks, so anyone who doesn’t know ASL can feel included in the worship service.  

The Sunday afternoon Deaf ministry worship services are held in the Cafe on the Bridge campus. On Sunday mornings, the room is used as an alternate worship space, with the sermon from the main sanctuary projected on a screen during the 9:30 and 11:00 am worship services.

Mindy noticed before the service began that the people tended not to sit right next to each other when they were chatting because they needed room to use their hands and to see the signs. There was a mix of older folks and young, along with some little children who apparently weren’t deaf and some others who were. People were enjoying talking together, and starting the service right on time didn’t seem like a priority.

The service began with announcements. The first was about the ASL translation in the 11 AM sanctuary services of the Bridge on the first and third Sundays (there aren’t enough translators to cover every week). There was also an announcement for Bible studies during the week. There was a time for prayer requests and prayer.

A Youtube video of Hillsong Worship singing “What a Beautiful Name” was projected on the screen for praise time, with an ASL interpreter, Cathy, signing in front of the Cafe as members of the congregation signed along. Another woman came forward to sign “Jesus Set Me Free.” Some people clapped along with the music.

One dynamic that is different in this church from any other church we’ve visited is that children can be loud and no one cares. We also heard someone snoring on Sunday, but it didn’t bother anyone. (I’ve sometimes heard preachers say about people sleeping in church that it is good they have a place to rest. But they usually draw the line at snoring.)

When Pastor Keith came forward for the message, he urged people to sign along with him, “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.” He then talked about faith, and the need for people to exercise their faith like a muscle. He asked the congregation what makes faith strong and some responded with signs for “prayer” and “service.”

It was communion Sunday. The ushers dismissed people row by row to get the bread and the cup, then everyone returned to their seats to eat and drink together. There was another song. Then Ronald, the worship leader, asked who had a birthday in July. There was cake available to celebrate the July birthdays.

Pastor Keith had agreed to meet with us after the service but we were able to meet a number of other people first. We spent a little time talking with Tiffany, who was going to interpret for our time with Pastor Keith.

Nobody in Tiffany’s immediate family growing up had a hearing disability, though her cousin was deaf. Though she wasn’t particularly close to her cousin, she got the idea in her head she wanted to learn sign language, and while she was in high school she began bugging her parents to find someone to teach her sign. Eventually her father found someone who led a class at their church. She learned all he had to teach in a few weeks. Tiffany went on to college and graduate school and continued to learn.

Through Tiffany, Pastor Keith told us his story. He grew up in a deaf family. His parents are deaf, and he was born deaf. As a freshman at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, he met his wife, Lisa. After three years there, they went on to North Central Bible College in St Paul, Minnesota, where he prepared for Deaf Culture Pastoral Studies.

He worked in ministry in Florida for about two years, then was called to Fresno to serve at what was then Fresno First Evangelical Free Church (now the Bridge), where he’s been for the past twenty six years.

The Deaf ministry at the church began before he arrived. Cathy (who still serves as an interpreter), began a Sunday School class for the Deaf, which grew.  The church decided to call a pastor for the ministry and called Keith.

There was a hope with some that the Deaf congregation would grow to a point that they would be self sustaining, but since the great majority those in the congregation can’t get full time employment for a variety of reasons, independence has never been a possibility for the congregation. When the Bridge had financial challenges in the last few years, Pastor Keith went from full to part time ministry. He has since found other part time employment (teaching college-level ASL at a local college while pursuing further education in that area himself) that allows him to continue ministering at the Bridge.

I asked if there were other ministries for the Deaf in the Valley. Though there are some congregations that provide interpretation during worship services, Pastor Keith is the only Deaf (ASL signing) pastor in the area, and the Bridge has the only church ministry specifically for the deaf that he’s aware of.

I asked how much the deaf congregation interacted with the general congregation of the Bridge. The answer was not much. Since the Deaf Ministry meets at 1:00 pm, and the Bridge’s other services are 8:00, 9:30 and 11:00 am, there is little opportunity for interaction. The Deaf ministry hopes that will change in the future, with a change to a morning service time. This would allow children to go to Sunday School, and allow people of the various congregations to interact.

Pastor Keith said his desire is to more deaf people come to know Jesus and to see spiritual growth.  “That’s my desire,” Pastor Keith said. I believe that’s God’s desire as well: God’s Word going forth through language, spoken and signed.

Statistics

Service Length: 58 minutes

Sermon Length: 22 minutes

Visitor Treatment: Pastor Keith picked us out as visitors (and we had been in email contact with him over the past few weeks, so he expected us) and welcomed us. Tiffany and Cathy both greeted us and made sure we could understand what was happening in the worship service. In some ways, the language barrier was more difficult to overcome than it’s been in churches where few people speak fluent English; we know only a couple signs. Still, we were made welcome

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none

Our Rough Count: 36

Probable Ushers’ Count: 40

Snacks: Coffee, lemonade, and chocolate cake

Musicians: none

Songs: “What a Beautiful Name”

“Jesus Set me Free”

Distance to Church: 500 feet

Open WiFi: yes

Tie/Suit Count: none

Church Website: thebridgefresno.com

We Finally Have a Home Church (But We Won't Stop Going to Other Churches)

The Bridge Church, Fresno
Over the past year, a lot of people have asked us about our "home church." Usually, we figure they want to make sure we've got people who support us spiritually and to whom we're accountable, so we've talked about Healdsburg Community Church, The Redeemed Life Church, and First Presbyterian Church of Santa Rosa -- all churches where we've had strong ties of family and friendship for years. But we acknowledge that for the past several years, we haven't really had a home church. We've been visitors, sometimes first time and sometimes frequent.

But as of this month, we have a home church: The Bridge in Fresno. We can see the buildings from our front windows, so we don't anticipate much trouble walking the two minutes from our door to the church parking lot. We were briefly part of the congregation more than 25 years ago, and we visited in March of 2015, when we were visiting former youth group members.

Here's a quick update since our last report:

• The church has called a senior pastor, Andrew Smith. 
• Seven worship services are held on the campus each Sunday, including an 8:00 am "traditional" service, two services in the cafe (with live music and video sermon), two "live" contemporary services in the sanctuary, a Spanish language worship service, and a deaf service. There are also an abundance of Sunday school classes for children and adults, as well as small groups that meet throughout the week.
• There are people here who actually remember us from 1990. 

In the months to come, we anticipate becoming involved in an "Adult Bible Fellowhip" (or Sunday school) class, as well as attending at least one worship service here each week. 

But you'd get pretty bored with statistics from the same church week after week, so we don't expect to be reporting on The Bridge after this post. Instead, we hope to visit new churches (mostly in California) each week, generally following a monthly theme. 

Next month, we plan to go to each of the other churches in our neighborhood -- none more than half a mile away. We'll let you know how it goes!

Statistics
(so far this month, we've visited the "Traditions" service, "The Cafe," and "The Bridge Live") 

Service Length: Traditions 1 hour 12 minutes
The Cafe 1 hour 14 minutes
The Bridge Live 1 hour 15 minutes

Sermon Length: Traditions 42 minutes
The Cafe 40 minutes
The Bridge Live 36 minutes

Visitor Treatment: In each of the services, visitors were welcomed from the front multiple times. The church makes great efforts to ensure new visitors are greeted even before they enter the building, and there's an information station near (clearly marked) main entrance. We were greeted by at least five people as we walked into the Traditions service, and a couple (we later realized they had been our Sunday School teachers almost thirty years ago, although none of us recognized each other) invited us to lunch after church. Everyone in each service was encouraged to fill out the Connections card.

Followup by Tuesday Morning: On Monday, we received a personalized email from the Director of Community Life ; a day or two later, we got a phone call in response to an interest we'd expressed on the Connections card. We also got an email (again in response to interests we'd mentioned on the Connections card) from a member of the Missional Life Department.

Our Rough Count: 165 / 74 / 225

Probable Ushers’ Count: 190 / 80 / 230

Snacks: coffee, decaf, and hot water for tea were available in several locations around the campus. The Cafe had specialty coffee drinks available for purchase, and croissants, muffins, fresh fruit, and donuts were available as well (a "donations" jar was on the table with the snacks).

Musicians: Traditions had an orchestra, choir, and worship band that included an electric bass (man), 3 trumpets (men), violin (woman), saxophone (woman), trombone (man), flute (woman), drums (man), piano (woman), keyboard and organ (man). The choir consisted of 14 women and 8 men.
The Cafe had percussion (man), acoustic guitar (man), electric bass (man), and keyboards (woman)
The Bridge Live included an electric bass (man), electric guitar (man), drums (man), acoustic guitar (man), and vocals (woman)

Songs: Traditions
"O for a Thousand Tongues"
"All Because of Jesus"
"Shout to the Lord"
"The Power of Your Name" (choir only)
"Rise Up, O Church of God"
"Sanctuary"
The Cafe
"Stir in Me"
"What Joy"
"From the Inside Out"
"Love Came Down"
"Called me Higher"

The Bridge Live
"Dare you to Move"
"Everyday"
"All to Him"
"Take Heart"
"For the Sake of the World"

Miles to Church: 100 yards

Church Website: http://thebridgefresno.com/

WiFi Availability: open guest wifi

Tie/Suit Count: 12

Visits with Old Youth Group Students -- Heather

One of my favorite parenting bits came from Bruce MacLeod, father of Heather and Allison. Heather and Allison are not just Bruce's daughters but were also members of the youth group when I was a youth pastor at Concord Bible Church. Back in the day, Bruce used to say to Heather, "Heather, you're my favorite daughter. Now you know I'll have to say the same thing to Allison because I don't want to hurt her feelings. But you're really my favorite." He'd say the same thing to Allison (switching names, of course).

So let me say right off that Heather was my favorite student in youth group. There are others I've told this to, but I really mean it with Heather. She always brought energy and joy to the group along with earnestness about her walk with Christ.

This month Mindy and I are going to churches with former youth group students. We asked Heather what she appreciated about Concord Bible Church growing up. She said she appreciated that CBC was a multigenerational. There were a number of women that took her under her wing (talking about you Magda Bedros, and you Nancy Walter, and you Val Gallaher) and helped Heather to feel safe. So safe that she often wore pajama bottoms to youth group (which I remembered as a charmingly quirky).

I asked Heather why she thought she had remained consistent in her walk with Christ and her churchgoing through the years. Many kids, especially during their college years, drop out of churchgoing for a time, some more permanently than others. Heather thinks that part of the reason may be that she became a Christian a little later in life, in the eighth grade, and everything about church and faith was new and exciting to her. She appreciated that kids were a part of the church and not shoved to the side at CBC. Through the years, Heather has continued to want to be a part of things in church and church ministry.

Heather met Matt, her husband, on their first day as freshmen at Berean Christian High School -- not that they were a couple during those years. After they married and came to Fresno, the Bridge was the second church they visited. There were a number of young people in the church, which at the time was called Fresno Evangelical Free Church (The church is still Evangelical Free; the name was changed to help the baffled).

When their first kid became involved with the children's ministry, Heather was concerned about aspects of the ministry and she made her opinions known. She sent letters voicing those concerns, and during discussions about those issues she was asked if she was interested in being a part of the staff and helping to revamp the ministry. She took the offer several years later after being part of a group of volunteers.

Heather was on staff for two and a half years but quit at the end of the summer last year, when the time commitment proved too taxing for family time. But even after she resigned, she maintained a good relationship with the staff and volunteers.

She and Matt appreciate the church's concern for and outreach to the neighborhood around the church. I'm sure that on staff or off, Heather will continue to be a blessing for The Bridge, as she always was at Concord Bible Church.

-- Dean