From its very beginning, God has been using Bridgewater Church to make a difference in people's lives and to spread the good news of Jesus to new communities. It has been a bold, risk-taking church. It's been a multiplying church. I did not know this when I came here, but Bridgewater Church was an amazing movement in its first 50 years. Our founding pastor, Davis Dimick, was saved in 1801. He went from making moonshine to preaching, and seven years after getting saved, he started Bridgewater Church in Bridgewater, Pennsylvania, with 11 members in the log cabin of Revolutionary War Captain Bartlett-Hines. In the official meeting notes of the church in 1808, he wrote, "The inhabitants appeared in general to be as wild as the vast wilderness around them. Bridgewater Church and Davis Dimick helped start seven other churches in the area over the next 20 years, before they even had their own building." And then two more churches were started after that. Hundreds were saved, and revival swept through the county. Fast forward 150 years to 2011, and we got moving again. We started with Bridgewater Hallstead with almost 50 people, almost half of whom were children. Then in 2013 we started Bridgewater South Vestal, 2014 Bridgewater Conklin, 2016 Bridgewater Tunkanic. We merged with Ross Corners Baptist Church in Vestal in 2017. We took Bridgewater to the internet with Bridgewater Online in 2018. Then we paused to take a breath, pay off a couple million in debt, and get through COVID. And in 2023, we started Hancock, and in 2024, we're in the process of starting Elk Lake. We've come to realize that when Jesus said, "Go into all the world," that isn't just something for professional missionaries or pastors, it's something for all of us. When we find ourselves asking again, "Where does God want us to go, and how does He want us to get there?" Should we send 50 people to Susquehanna, Apple Aiken, somewhere else? You might say, "We only have 60 people coming to Hancock. We couldn't send 50 away, pray, and see what God does." The resources for doing the work are in the harvest. We sent 50 to Hallstead, and then they sent 75 to Conklin. What's 50 minus 75? Apparently, the answer is 375, because that's how many are in Hallstead now. That's called multiplication. It's called God's math. You see, God does not want us to be a monument. God wants us to be a movement. We believe God not only wants our church to be on the move, but that He expects our church to be on the move. We believe God has uniquely positioned us to do something unprecedented, unprecedented not only for us, but perhaps for anyone. Knowing God expects us to multiply, we believe we are ready to do it again, but we're not talking about a campus launch, a community gathering launch, or even a church launch, we believe God would have us launch a multi-site church. We believe we are positioned to do this in January 2025. Using the New York, Pennsylvania State Line as a guide, we want to launch Bridgewater's Conklin and Vestal campuses out as a new multiplying, multi-site church. Led by Vestal's campus pastor Aaron Patton, this new church would seek to make more and better disciples of Jesus in New York. He would be joined by Conklin campus pastor Tim Sullivan, Conklin associate Jeff Schreckingost, online campus pastor Andrew Peterson, and intern Dallas Siemens. We are so thankful that this team is eager to lead this initiative. This launch would enable this group to focus on multiplication efforts in New York and the remainder of our staff to focus on multiplication efforts in Pennsylvania. Essentially, we believe we can all go further, faster for the Kingdom of God with this strategy. Bridgewater is currently capable of reaching one new community per year through a campus or community gathering launch. We believe if we launch this new church, each church will be capable of starting one new location per year, so we stand to be able to reach more people more quickly and efficiently. When we hired Aaron Patton in 2022, we hired a man who had served as a lead pastor for many years. He has grown a church, built a staff, led through change, and solved problems as the leader of a church. We believe that he is capable of leading a multiplication movement in New York and that he should be supported by several of our key full-time staff. Both Conklin and Vestal campuses are watching God change large numbers of people's lives. On top of that, they are experiencing growth in attendance and giving. Both locations are healthy by every metric that matters. They carry no debt. They are prepared to seek the next community God would have them reach. Over the next few months, our team will be working diligently to help this new multi-site church form their own budget, assess any staffing needs, and establish themselves as a separate 501(c)(3) non-profit entity. Each church will be independent of each other, and though we are creating two churches out of one, both will remain committed to the mission of making more and better disciples of Jesus Christ, both will seek to continue the work of reaching new communities through multiplication efforts. We will also be holding some informational meetings about this launch at various Bridgewater locations. More information on those meetings is coming soon. You can join us in this endeavor in a few ways. Let me lay them out for you. First, pray, pray, pray. We cover your prayers for wisdom, effectiveness, and favor. First, you can spread the word. We are so excited to launch this church. It's been a couple hundred years since Bridgewater has launched another church, and it has never launched a multi-site church. Another way you can get involved is if you are a part of Conklin or Vestal Campuses, remain there and be a part of the new thing God is doing in New York. I believe you will want to be a part of this new work. Another way you can get involved is to vote. Soldiers of Bridgewater Church will have the opportunity to affirm this new church launch on Sunday, October 27th. Lastly, you can give financially. This marks the official launch of our Vision 2024 Giving Efforts. You will be able to give to support both the church in the north and the church in the south. Both churches are pursuing initiatives that need your generous financial gifts to fuel them. I think there are a number of worthy efforts for you to take part in by giving sacrificially. We understand this is no small thing. This is a bold move and not without risk. Though this is incredibly exciting, it will be a change and a significant one for many of you. So we invite your questions. Scan the QR code on the screen or navigate to bridgewater.church/vision to submit your questions. You will answer as many questions as we're able at the big event on Sunday, October 13th. You are officially invited to join us at the Montrose High School as people from every Bridgewater location gather together in one place to celebrate all God is doing among us and prepare for what's next. Your campus pastor will be up in a few moments to follow up this announcement. We are so excited to be on this amazing journey with you. So, this is kind of a big thing that maybe is kind of confusing to some of you. One thing I just wanted to clarify, especially if you're new here, you might be like, what are we talking about? We have six different physical locations, five different preachers every Sunday. And you might be thinking, well, that looks like six different churches already anyway. But here's how we are one church. We're one church. That means we have one leadership team. Every Monday, all the pastors get together. We make decisions together. We have one overseer board, which is kind of like an elder board that recommends things that come to the congregation, that then as a congregation votes on it. And then we have one budget. And so if you are in Tunkannock or if you are in Hancock or if you are in Vestal or Montrose and you give money, it all comes to one central pot that then we approve our budget and the members vote on that and it goes out to everything else. So that's what one church means. So this means we're going to have two budgets. We're going to have two separate churches eventually, even a separate name for Bridgewater North. They can call themselves Bridgewater North if they'd like or they can call themselves whatever they'd like. You know, I have some really bad names, but I don't know what would be a good name. And so here's my summary though of this concept or my reaction. This is the culmination of a lifelong dream and prayer that I have had. Over 30 years ago, when I first realized that God wanted me to be a pastor, I was in Bible College, I was studying to be a pastor, and we had a chapel speaker come who was from a mission organization, he talked about how churches in other countries that their mission supported would start other churches. And he said, "We need to do this in the United States. The United States population is growing, number of churches is shrinking." He says, "We need a church planting movement in the United States." And I talked to my buddy, Kevin Leary, and I said, "This is what I want to do. This is what I would love to see God do when I'm a pastor, not just a pastor church that gets bigger and bigger, but the pastor church that multiplies." And so when I came here 19 years ago, I think it was the night that the church voted on me. Rick Craig, he was in the left corner of the room and last I knew he was in the back here, but he asked a question. He said, "What is on your bucket list?" And what he basically was saying, "What do you want to do as a pastor? Is this a stepping stone to another church that's in a city or that's bigger or something? Or do you want to go be a seminary professor and teach pastors like what? What ultimately, what do you want to see God do in your ministry?" And my response was, "I want to be a part of a church that starts new churches or rescues dying once." And God's allowed us to rescue South Vestal Baptist Church. They had just a few members and we went in and started a new campus there. And then we merged with Ross Corners and we're able to help there. And then all these other churches, Dimmick and First Baptist of Tunkanic, they've donated their building to us. And so this is the second part though, to start a new church so that all our eggs aren't in one basket, so that we can multiply. And I think this is super healthy. Now, you're going to vote on this at the end of October. And if you vote no, I'll take that as a maybe later, all right? But, and it will be no, but it'll come back eventually, I have years left. God wants us to multiply. We know this is healthy in families, right? My family, four kids, have two kids that are grown and gone. Caris living on her own an apartment in Montrose, Amber, and her husband Peter living in Tunkanic. And now, but what if I said, okay, God's plan is in Genesis 2, He says, you need to leave your father and mother, right? And especially if you get married and cleaved to one another and it be a new, new flesh, new household. But what if as a dad, I said, okay, I got four kids and, but I'm still in charge. And Caris, your salary comes to me and Amber, what you make comes to me and Peter, what you make comes to me and there's one budget. And then I make all the decisions, right? Mom and I, we're going to make all the decisions. What kind of a dad would you think I was? Cult leader? Hyper controlling? No, that's not the healthy way. The healthy way is to multiply and to say, you know what? We still love each other, we can still eat dinner together, we can still see each other, man, you want to come over and have an overnight at the house, you can, can't, your room's gone. But, you know, you can, you can sleep on the floor, it can be great, you know. We have the extra room, you can see the extra room, you know. But you don't. And so I think this is just so healthy because we are having opportunities, churches coming to us and saying, would you help us? Church in Weymart has said, can you help us? And we're helping them, we're sending people down to just kind of like coach them and how to be. And then, and then Elk Lake opportunity, there's a church in Binghamton that for years has been saying, would you help us? And we can't, we can't juggle like that. But if God multiplies us, then maybe, maybe we can do more. And so we're excited, and one of the big reasons why this doesn't happen is because rarely do you have a senior leader like Josh Jones, Pastor Josh, who says, you know what, my goal for next year is that we have 600 fewer people attending and $700,000 less dollars given. Because that's what Conklin and Vestal are. There's about 600 people attending those two campuses, they give about $700,000 to the ministry. And very few senior leaders say, yeah, I want to be smaller and have less power and have less influence. But that's what God wants us to multiply. If we're ever going to see a revival in America, if we're ever going to see a revival in our community, we got to let things get out of control. Like let the Holy Spirit control and not be like, I want to, I want to keep my hands on the reins because what if they mess up? What if they make the wrong decision? What if they do what I wouldn't have done? What if they, that's all right? We do this with our kids, right? Do our, any of your kids mess up? Sometimes spectacularly, right? And yet it's God's, it's God's plan. And so, it's so neat that as we're doing this, that we're in the book of Acts. And again, this is a giving, we usually do a special giving Sunday this year, it'll be October 13th toward these different things that I'd encourage you to give toward. And again, if you're watching online, you can go to Bridgewater.church/vision to see more. We can do that as well if you remember that. But if you're here also at the Welcome Center, there's a fact sheet out there at that long table in the lobby that will give you more information, they'll get to you about this. You can ask questions, you can post them online as Pastor Josh said as well, and we'll get those. So, but the book of Acts, we're in chapter, finished up chapter two last week, and so the beginning of chapter three, it says Peter and John went to the temple one afternoon to take part of a three o'clock prayer service. And I'll show you how this relates, as they approached the temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the temple gate, the one called the beautiful gate, so he could beg from the people going into the temple. And when he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money, and Peter John looked at him intently, and Peter said, "Look at us." And you just imagine him just like this, right? You don't even want, you don't want to be rejected. I mean, you're begging every day. The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money, but Peter said, "I don't have any silver or gold for you, but I'll give you what I have in the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene. Get up and walk." And then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up, and as he did, the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed, and he was strengthened, and he jumped up, and he stood on his feet, and he began to walk, and then leaping, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the temple with them. And so this amazing miracle, and then that don't get hung up on the miracle. That was awesome, but the miracle wasn't the point. The point was a crowd gathered, and then Peter shared with them the gospel about how Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and how he rose from the dead, and then he gets to the end of his sermon, and he says, "All right, this is what you need to do." He says, "Now repent of your sins, and turn to God so that your sins will be wiped away. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah." Jesus is coming back, and you need to be ready for that, because he's going to come for you one by one as we die, or he's going to come for all of us when he returns, and he says, "You need to repent of your sins. Turn to God." This is basically, you need to make Jesus your Lord. So your sins may be wiped away, so that he can also be your forgiver, and this is what he's challenging them to do. Now here's how this ties in with that announcement about our church, and it's about faith. Faith is expecting God to change people's lives, Peter and John, they would have never gone up to this lame man, and said, "Get on your feet, God's going to the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk." They would have never said that if they didn't expect that God could change his life and heal his body. And then this crowd gathered, and they would have never, Peter would have never preached to them if he didn't expect that God was going to change some of their lives, and some of them would accept Christ and follow him, and this is what we need in our church. So Acts is all about the multiplication of God's people, more and better disciples following Jesus Christ, loving him, and we see that, and the accelerant. When God puts on the gas, the way we put on the gas and multiplying is through faith. I use the word expect instead of faith, because sometimes faith is this fuzzy thing that we think faith is this feeling, or this emotional confidence in something, no. Faith is just expecting that God is good, and he's going to do what he promised, and that's what they did, and this just, and so what happened as a result of that, but many of the people who heard their message believed it, so that the number of men who believed now totaled about 5,000, they had 120 people in chapter 1, and in chapter 4, months later, they have over 5,000 men, which means they probably had 5,000 women, and then with population rates the way they were, they probably had at least 10,000 children, you've got over 20,000 people that are saying, you know, our family, we are following Jesus Christ. Like, I want that, I want to see that, and how do we do that? It's through faith, through that expectation. Expect God. Now here's the hard part about faith, have faith that God can do anything, but then we also have to have faith that if he doesn't, he has something better, and that's a hard one, because yesterday we had Jacob's jam here, remembering a 15-year-old boy who died of an aneurysm in this community, and a bunch of his friends were out playing soccer, his mom and dad were playing soccer, and just the community coming together, and there's over 100 people, and I didn't even know what it was in here in the morning, they were more than in the morning, and, but what do you do? The woman who organized it, Rachel Stahl, Rachel and her husband John. They lost their son over 10 years ago. What do you do when you pray and you ask God to do something that seems so good? And he doesn't obey you, and he doesn't listen to you, and that's where you have to have faith that he has something better. Certainly this is better for Jacob and for Matthew, because I believe they're both in heaven, and it's a whole lot better for them to be in heaven with the Lord and the angels than the, like, being here looking at all your sorry faces, right? Now it's not better for us, or we don't think it's better for us, but to trust God and to have that kind of faith, not the kind of faith like the Star Wars force. If I really believe I can move it with my mind, I can move it. No, that's not the faith of the Bible. It's not about you have to have, but it's just saying, "I know God can do it, and if he doesn't." In fact, when the three, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Han and I, and Michelle and Azeriah, when they were thrown into the fiery furnace, right, before they were thrown in, they said to Nebuchadnezzar, "We know God can protect us, but even if he doesn't, we will not bow down to that idol because we know God can do anything. But if he doesn't do what we want, we know he's got something better. And that's the faith that John had, that's the faith that Peter had. And I just want to ask you, do you have that kind of faith? If you knew you couldn't fail, what would you attempt for God? I'm not talking about what you do for yourself. I'd buy a lottery ticket, right? No. No, what would you attempt for God? 30 years ago, I started praying like, "God, would you help me to be a part of a church that multiplies churches and to see people saved and to see pastors saved?" And you know, all of us need to multiply, right? We need to multiply small group leaders. If you lead a small group, you need to be checking out your small group, "Got people." Be like, "Ah, carry," or whoever, right? And if you're involved in kids ministry here, you need to be looking around and saying, "You know, there's someone who could do kids ministry with me. This isn't just a pastured job to recruit, it's all of our jobs." And if you play electric guitars, it look for, because I can't, I can't multiply electric guitar players, I can't play anything, right? I can't do that. I can multiply pastors, right? And you can multiply godly carpenters or, or, or greeters at the door or, or whatever it might be, prayers. If you, if you pray with power before the Lord, you got to pass that on to somebody, right? And so this is what, you know, if you, if you knew you wouldn't fail, this is going to embarrass them. But Eric Powers, Montrose junior high, senior high principal making well over $100,000 a year because that's just what they make, right? It's, it's a standard thing, the number of years you have put in, and I never asked them how much he makes, but we just all know that's what they make. And then to come on staff here means he took a 50% or maybe more salary cut, probably more. Why would he do that? That makes no financial sense because he's expecting God to change lives. And if you knew, but maybe it's a career change or maybe more than anything, it's a person. I think all of us have people in our minds that we're like, he will never. She will never. She's so bitter, it's so far gone like no way. They would never follow God. In fact, I'm so glad Tim got baptized today because when you started coming, there was a man in the church that came up to me and said, Tim Strayer's here. I'm like, who's Tim Strayer? Like, like, what? I don't know this guy. They're like, oh, it's that guy over there. Okay? And he said, I never thought he would come and I'm so excited to see him here. And he didn't just come one time, like he's addicted to Bridgewater Church in a good way. And people come up to me all the time and say that. They're like, I can't believe so and so is here. It's usually a guy. It's usually not women. It's maybe the guys are like the longer, they're like, I can't believe he's here. Like what? This is awesome. Like God is changing lives. And do you want to be a part of that? This is the most exciting thing we can do with our lives. Like, you know, so it's just, I need to move. So the second thing, I don't want to, I got to get done in 10 minutes. So expect God to give courage. So as we go on with us, there's two things that I see as I read Acts chapter three and chapter four, reading them over and over again. And there's trying to marinate in that. And I say, man, they're expecting that God changed lives. And then they're also expecting that God would give them the courage. Because what they're in, and we'll read this, it is scary. The members of the council, they get arrested for healing a lame man. Like you think, you know, no good turn goes unpunished. I mean, things were bad and who were they arrested by? The same people who were arrested and beat and flogged and crucified Jesus Christ just months later. What do you think they thought Peter and John was going to happen when the same people who crucified Jesus arrested them? That's scary. And you know what? Some of us might not be afraid because we didn't know what, what flogging and beating and crucifixion is, but they'd seen it. And the members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John for they could see, I love this, they were just ordinary men with no special training in the scriptures. And they also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. I have the equivalent of a master's degree in the Bible, it's called the Masters of Divinity. I tell, I tell kids, I finished 19th grade. You know, that's essentially what that, that means. And so I, I appreciate the education that I've gotten. I think it's been very helpful for me, but honestly, I would much, much rather take someone who'd been with Jesus than who has three doctorates after their name. There's a difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing about the scriptures and knowing God personally. And, and we to do that, you got to be with God, you got to be with Jesus. And that's why we want to encourage all of you if, you know, out at the, the desk you can get a 30 day, 100 day devotional track. If you don't know where to read in the Bible, you spend time in God's Word. You listen to Him by what He's written for us. And then you talk to Him and, and, and you be with Jesus. And that's where the power is because Jesus makes the ordinary extraordinary. But what we're Peter and John, fishermen, I mean, what fishermen today, you know, any fishermen who are presidents, who are military generals, who are anything, no, I'm glad we don't have fishermen in our church, professional fishermen, but yeah, they're just ordinary. And yeah, God did extraordinary things through them and, and they replied, Peter and John replied, do you think God wants us to obey you rather than Him? We cannot stop telling about everything we've seen and heard. And the council threatened them further. What threats do you think they made to them? We'll do to you what we did to him. Don't think we won't. But they finally let them go because they didn't know how to punish them without starting a riot for everyone who was praising God. They were like, okay, these people healed a lame man. We arrested them. If we beat them up, people are going to think, we're the bad guys. We can't do that. Like we got to punish them later for some other trumped up charge or something. And, and, and so then as soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the, to the other believers and they told them what the leading priests and elders had said. And when they heard this report, all the believers lifted their voices together and prayer to God and, and the prayer that they give is typical of most biblical prayers, which is almost entirely praising God and rehearsing God's promises and even quoting Scripture from, from the Old Testament and, and, and what God has said and done in the past. And then at the very end, they have two quick requests. The second request is God continue to heal like you healed that man. And then this was the first request. And now, oh Lord, hear their threats and give us your servants great boldness in preaching your word. They prayed for courage. I was asking my junior high soccer team this question. If you're on the junior high soccer team, I think he's out. You are. Don't answer. All right. Because you know the answer. What does courage feel like? And if you know what courage feels like, fear. Courage doesn't feel like adrenaline. It does a little bit because fear feels like adrenaline, right? Courage doesn't feel like inspiration. Courage feels like fear. We are in an epidemic of fear in our country today. I can't remember a time in my life where we didn't have more people suffering from anxiety and fear problems. We're afraid of diseases. We're afraid of politics. We're afraid of what people think of us. We're afraid of what our appearance is and whether we're fitting in. We're afraid of failure. We're afraid of... We are just scared to death of everything. And no secular counselor is going to tell you this solution to fear in your life. Be with Jesus. I have struggled with fear, getting up in front of people. Not my thing. Talking to people I don't know. I'm good at it now. I'm okay with it now. But I used to be just scared to death to talk to people. I don't know. I'll look stupid. I'll say... I'll blank out. I'll say something dumb. And the thing that has given me the most courage and even today, like when there's a meeting and I don't want to go to that meeting and I don't want to talk to that person and I don't want to even be there, right? How do I get courage? Be with Jesus. And you just take some time and you get alone in the car or in your backyard or at your desk or wherever in the shower, I don't care. Wherever you go in your bedroom and you're like, "God, help. God come with me. God, pray this prayer, give me boldness to say what I need to say, to make that phone call, to go where I need to go." After this prayer, the meeting place shook and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and then they preached the word of God with boldness. God answered their prayer. You have a choice today, fear or faith. God wants us to take risks. God wants us to move. If we didn't expect God to change lives, we wouldn't have bought the movie theater in Hancock and be renovating it. If we didn't expect God to change lives, we wouldn't have accepted the gift of Dimick Baptist Church from Dimick and started renovating it. If we didn't expect God to change lives, we wouldn't be sending Bridgewater North away. Like we'd be like, "Hey, this is it. We don't even need to buy any more chairs." Because God is no longer changing lives, we would not expect that. This is the new normal. America is going to hell in a hand basket and we just got to hold on. Maybe Jesus will come back. No, that is not what we see in Acts. That is not what we see in God's Word and that is not the kind of followers of Jesus Christ that he wants us to be, that is not the kind of church he wants us to be. Who is God calling you to? We had a little card to write down three names for you to pray for every day. If you missed it, just write it down on your hand, like write it down on a piece of paper. Three people. God changed their lives. Maybe you can't narrow it down to less than 15, great. And then let God change your life as well. Right, courage. So many of you, you are struggling. You're drowning in fear. And I'm not here to make you guilty because you're feeling fear and you must not be a real Christian. No, quite the opposite. In the midst of that fear, God might not take that feeling away. But He will give you the strength to do what you need to do. Maybe you're watching online and you haven't even left the house because you're so crippled by fear. You need to get out. You need to call somebody. You need to, no matter how scared you are, do what God is asking you to do. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, I just thank you for the example of the early church, for the amazing things that you did 2,000 years ago. And God, I just thank you that you want to do that today and that you want to use us. God help us to have that faith, to have that expectation that you are still changing lives. And God, next Sunday at Open House, Lord, as we eat together afterward and this week as we invite people to come, Lord, that you would bring them here and that you would change lives next Sunday, that the gospel would be clear, that so many would come to know you as their Savior, would take another spiritual step in discipleship and becoming more like you. God just uses for your glory and in Christ's name we pray.
