the future of the bridge

As you all know, the bridge is a group that meets at santa monica fumc for many years. We have been a young adult bible study that has focused on study, fellowship and service. And since 2006 we have been a self-led group, led by the bridge leadership team (the bLT).

When the bLT first formed, we agreed to check in periodically with the bridge members to make sure things were running smoothly and that people were happy. We decided it was time to have a formal meeting to address a few concerns. A group of bridge members met with the bridge leadership team late last year to discuss how the bLT is doing and how, if at all, the bridge needs to change in the future.

The consensus was that we are happy with the way that the bridge is going and we are happy with the content of the bridge. We are proud of being a self led team and pleased that we have been able to keep it going through many changes over the years and continue to give members the “study, fellowship and service” that is the core of our group. We don’t feel a need to change anything in the basic Wednesday night agenda or with our non-Wednesday social/service calendar. Not that we aren’t always looking for suggestions and comments, but that even though we recognize that we aren’t perfect, we feel good about the status quo.

However, there is a concern that the perception of the church as a whole, of the composition of our group is different than the actual make up of members at this time, specifically with reference to age. We are no longer the “young adult” group. This has become an issue over the past year with new members coming and not feeling that this group is what they have been led to expect in terms of age.

Also, we worry that we are perhaps not reaching out to prospective members who may feel that they are “too old” for the bridge when in reality they are close to the age of many of the current members. It was determined at the beginning of the bridge, as a self led group, that the bridge would grow older, along with its members. We took a vote and decided that we still want to stick to that decision.

So the bridge, has decided to transition from a “young adult group” to an “adult group.”

That being said, no existing members will be kicked out of the group, and any new faces will always be welcomed, regardless of their age.

After much discussion the following items were agreed upon:

We will remove the words “post college age” from our mission statement so that it now reads “the bridge consists of adults gathering for the purpose of Spiritual Growth; recognizing Spiritual Growth as encompassing elements of study, fellowship, and service. We are an active part of the First United Methodist Church of Santa Monica. We value diversity in the group while gathering around our commonality in relationship to Christ.”

Although we are now targeting a different age group (mid 20s to early 40s), we resolve not to become a clique and will not turn people away based on age, whether older or younger than the current demographic. We will always be welcoming, but we want to change our marketing.

There seems to be more and more younger people coming to the bridge for one or two meetings and not coming back due to the age difference. Therefore, we think there is a need in the church for a younger group that would target of ages 21-30. We do not think it is the bridge’s responsibility to start this group. However, we remember how hard it was to start our own group so we would like to assist the church in getting it started. To that end, we are going to host a BBQ at the church geared toward getting to know the “young adults” who are looking for a group and help get them talking. We picked a date of Saturday, February 26, 2011. If you would like to help out in any way, please let a bLT member know.

For those members of the current group that feel like they want to be part of the new group, please do as you feel led. We hope to offer our experience and advice to the group, to help it get started, but we have no intention of imposing any of our ideas or expectations. So, if you have found yourself not coming to the bridge because you want something else besides the bridge, another format, different activities, whatever, we will not take offence if you would rather become part of the new group. You can be in both groups of course :)

Please start alerting anyone you know who would be interested in coming to the BBQ. They don’t have to commit to anything, this is just an afternoon to talk and outline wants and needs. We will be creating a public facebook event, so keep an eye out for that.

Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or comments.

Thanks,
The bLT

PS: We are sending this email out to our entire contact list, as it is a special email that we want to go to all of our contacts, not just the people on the weekly email list. We apologize if you have no interest in recieving this email. And, if you want to be removed from our contact list entirely, please let us know and we will do so!