Bridgetown Audio Podcast

Bridgetown Daily: Rev 1v17-18, "I Hold the Keys to Death and Hades"

A daily meditation on scripture, a quote, or the life of a saint to ground you in God and his peace.

Five Practices for Becoming a Non-Anxious Presence

From the series "House to House." With Coronavirus (COVID-19) being reported in the greater Portland area, local officials have placed a restriction on public gatherings. So we are excited to introduce our new church initiative called "House to House." Listen along as John Mark Comer teaches from the Gospel of Matthew about following the way of love as we seek to be a non-anxious presence in a cultural moment of anxiety, and to love and care for those in our community.

Take Up Your Cross

From the Series "Gospel of Matthew." In a culture of hedonism, digital instant gratification, and postmodern propaganda, Jesus’ call to deny your self and take up for your cross sounds bizarre. But in yielding control to God in trusting love, we enter the kingdom. At first this sounds hard, but what if control is actually an illusion? What if yielding is actually the path to freedom and joy?

Who Do You Say I Am?

From the series, "Gospel of Matthew." In this teaching from chapter 16, we explore Jesus’ famous question, Who do you say that I am? As well as the background of the city of Caesarea Philippi as the city of the Greek god Pan and his gate to Hades. We imagine living a world where Jesus is far more than just a rabbi, and as a result, we move from fear to faith.

Sign Seeking & Scarcity Mindset

From the series, "Gospel of Matthew." Jesus critiques the religious leaders for asking for a sign and urgently warns his disciples not to fall into their way of thinking, lest it take over their mind and keep them from discipleship.

Bring Us Home

From the Series, "Gospel of Matthew." Jesus heals the sick and feeds over four thousand people. On first read, it seems as if Matthew is reiterating what he has shown about Jesus already, but as we look closer we see that there is more to this encounter and to Jesus than meets the eye.

 

Taught by Christian Dawson of Northwest University

The Bible Put to Memory

Part 5 of the series "Scripture", as part of Practicing the Way. There’s no doubt the scripture played a central and essential role in both Jesus’ life and ministry. For Jesus, scripture was not as much tool, instrument, or weapon as it was part of how he viewed and interacted with both God and the world. As apprentices of Jesus, if we want to live into the fullness of the Kingdom and what God is doing in and around us – we too must be people who know and have the scriptures in us.

The Bible as Spiritual Authority

Part 4 of the series "Scripture", as part of Practicing the Way. We finally come to the tricky subject of biblical authority. What is authority? Where did the Western fear of authority come from? What does it mean to say the Bible is authoritative when most of it is a story? And it has contradictory commands? We explore all this and more as we pursue reading the Bible as an act of trust in Jesus and his mental maps to reality. 

The Bible as Meditation Literature

Part 3 of the series "Scripture", as part of Practicing the Way. We get frustrated with the Bible when we approach it as an encyclopedia—an entirely literal, linear one-size-fits-all manual for life in the modern world, but the Bible wasn't designed as a convenient reference manual or a textbook. The Bible describes itself as a library designed for a lifetime of ongoing meditation. For this, the way of Jesus proposes the ancient spiritual discipline of Lectio Divina. 

 

Taught by Josh Porter of Van City Church

The Bible as an Alternative Story

Part 2 of the series "Scripture", as part of Practicing the Way. All humans beings live by a story, a narrative by which we make sense of the big questions of life – who are we? Why are we here? What’s wrong? How do we fix it? The story we live in, is the story we live out. It comes as no surprise that most of the Bible is narrative, and that together it tells a unified story that leads us to Jesus. Scripture functions as an alternative story to the many narratives of our soul and society, and calls us to live in alignment with the real, true story of God’s world.