Rick Rusaw - At LifeBridge Christian Church

At LifeBridge Christian Church

At LifeBridge they focus on saving the lost and serving the least. They do that by helping the lost discover grace, then encourage people to grow in grace and to live gracefully(serve the lost).

All of their staff is required to volunteer 15 hours a week either in the community or church or both. "How can you lead where you aren't willing to go?"

Often when we say service we mean serve us, but it needs to transition to serve others - Ephesians 2:10. LifeBridge values inside and outside service. They value the Little League coac as much as the children's worker. LifeBridge is trying something where they took four small groups and are giving them back half of their giving to find some service to do.

Start with people who are already doing it.
Use big events as an entry point into consistent service. (painted three middle schools one summer)
If big events are the only thing you do for service then stop.
At LifeBridge everybody does something externally focused. Mens, womens, childrens, youth, small groups have an externally focused arm.

They measure all kinds of metrics at LifeBridge, but what they do not do is measure metrics on how service is impacting attendance, because they want to protect the integrity of their service.