What is this world famous house's connection to BPC?

What do you know about this world famous house (not the couple standing in front of it-Brad & Angie) and what is the house's connection to BridgePoint church? To get the answer you have to come to BPC this Sunday morning at 10am to find out!

BPC's New Years Eve Blessing!

Looking for something special to do early in the evening this New Years Eve? Well, have I got something for you & your family as well as your friends! It’s BPC’s very 1st New Years Eve Blessing! From 6:30 – 7:30pm at the church Francie & I would be honored to pray a prayer of blessing over your lives as we begin 2010.

BPC is the 7th church plant of Allison Park church & P. Jeff has hosted this event @ APC for the last few years. I love the way he explains what this is all about!
“Blessing is simply envisioning a positive future and speaking those words of faith over another person's life. It is not so much predictive as it is declarative. We declare God's promises and speak our prayers in faith. This practice of blessing is both a powerful and Biblical thing to do."
• Jesus blessed the little children brought to him.
• Israel blessed his sons and grandsons.
• The priests would bless the people as they would gather for worship.
• Psalm 20 is a declaration of blessing in song.

So, are you ready to receive your blessing? Sure you are! BPC meets at 400 east 9th Ave in Tarentum. While you are there feel free to check out our new “digs.”

Francie & I are so excited for this New Year & brand new decade to begin. God has so many amazing things He wants to do in & through BPC and guess what…He’s got some amazing things for you as well!

God bless you and Happy New Year!

BPC Candlelight Christmas Eve Service at 7pm

Please join us this Thursday at 7pm for our Christmas Eve service in our new location - the 1st Christian Church Building, 400 East 9th Ave in Tarentum.

The sanctuary is beautifully decorated for the Holidays and on Christmas Eve candelabras will give off a warm & inviting atmosphere during the service for you to enjoy. We will be singing Christmas carols together, blessed by a special song & continue in our Advent Reloaded series with a message entitled "Why God Chooses Surprise Beginnings."

The service will last 1 hour so you & your family can spend the rest of Christmas Eve celebrating the birth of Christ.

Merry Christmas!

Jewish, Roman & Greek contributions to the coming of the Messiah

Thursday is my message prep day. I’m also doing a little pre prep for BPC ‘s Christmas Eve talk. Here’s an excerpt from the book “How People of the Bible Really Lived” by Howard F. Vos who writes 3 examples of how the Jewish people, Romans & Greeks prepared for the coming of the Messiah & may not have even realized it.

Thought provoking reading & interesting stuff.....

The Jewish contribution:
Prepared the world for the coming of the Messiah by establishing synagogues through the Mediterranean area. Synagogues proliferated wherever Jewish people lived in substantial numbers. Possibly 150 of them were scattered across the Roman Empire standing for high ethical standards in a world without moral absolutes. The scriptures were written in Greek in a translation known as the Septuagint & as a result many Gentiles seekers became God fearers or proselytes to the Hebrew faith & later Christianity. The Old Testament is filled with the anticipation of the Messiah who would deliver God’s people Israel. The scripture present Him as Moses’ "Prophet", Isaiah's "suffering Servant", Jeremiah’s "Branch", Daniel’s "Son of Man", and as the coming of God Himself.

The Roman contribution:
Prepared the world for the coming of the Messiah by their conquests. Defeating various nations they contributed to the loss of faith in their gods, who were now seen as unable to protect the people. The Romans unknowingly created a spiritual vacuum.

The Greek contribution:
Prepared the world for the coming of the Messiah through the speculations of their philosophers. They undermined older polytheistic religions by their skepticism but failed to provide a satisfactory alternative. Some discovered a monotheistic being behind the welter of gods that people worshipped. Others taught immorality of the soul. Yet others were developing elevated ethical systems. And some, such as Epicurus & Zeno (the Stoics), sought a more personal relationship to God, or Being, in the universe. Each in their way both reflected & helped to create a hunger for a personal relationship with God who could provide eternal life & an inner strength to live out an ethic that would embrace all human relationships

All this preparation came together in a meaningful way at the birth of Christ. History, it seems, was ripe for the coming of Christ & His birth in Bethlehem. Paul declared, “When the fullness of time had come,” or “when the right time finally came,” “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman,” (Galatians 4:4) Living in that time Paul understood from experience how everything fits together. Jesus Christ made the impact that He did because to some degree the world was ready for Him and what He had to offer.

Pastor Greg's run in with the frozen roads & BPC info in case of bad weather

I typically begin my Sunday morning each week at 5:30am. It gives me an opportunity to go over my message one final time & pray for our service at 10am. I’m here to tell you that the roads were bone dry until about 7am when it started to rain. (Didn’t the Tin Man in the Wizard of OZ say that??). The roads quickly turned into a sheet of ice shutting down PGH. The last time the State Police shut down the parkways was for the Blizzard of ‘93! At 7:30am I decided to “Go for it” & Francie & I backed the car down the driveway (Really now, where did I think I was going?). The car started to slide down the driveway on the ice in a matter of seconds. Needless to say I parked the car on the street in front of the house & went back inside to watch the news. All roads were shut down, car accidents were being reported left & right & no one; I mean NO ONE was going anywhere until the temperature was going to rise.

How does the rain freeze? Well, let’s simplify the science… think of the atmosphere as a cake. Meteorologists, analyze several layers of the atmosphere. Typically, the surface layer (or the bottom of the cake) is warm and temperatures get colder as air rises. However, on Sunday, it was the opposite. Sunday, the higher levels of the atmosphere (the middle of the cake) were warm and the surface (the bottom of the cake) was cold. The precipitation starts in the clouds as snow, then it falls through a WARM layer that’s usually 3,000 feet above the surface. As it goes through the warmer air, it changes to rain… but right before the rain hits the surface; it hits a very shallow freezing layer. The droplets hit the ground and they instantly freeze coating your driveway, sidewalk and the roads. (The weather info above was supplied by Erin Kinzle of WTAE Channel 4 & not me)

About 8am the temperature was slowly rising & they predicted the roads would be passable by 10am. At about 8:15am the salt truck drove by our house spreading a layer of salt & in 15 minutes the ice on the road melted. We waited until about 9am to head out to the church taking Freeport Rd from Blawnox to Tarentum. By then the roads were “slushy” but all the cars on the roads were driving very cautiously (so was I). It took us 30 minutes to get to the church & once we arrived I decided to changed the service time to 10:30am to give more time to anyone who was “going to go for it” as well. Thanks so much to all those who attended the service & thank goodness to all those who stayed put because you never know what could happened.

So, during the next 3-4 months we could potentially see more dangerous winter weather conditions on a Sunday morning. Please use your best judgment & common sense when attempting to come to church. Obviously stay put if you’re likely to get into an accident & cause injury or damage to yourself or someone else. Not to mention the financial headache that goes along with stuff like that.

If you decide you can get to church safely please log onto the internet & check our website, my blog, facebook & Twitter for any BPC changes or cancelations. You can also call us to find out what’s up. Below is all the contact info you’ll need. Remember to always be safe out there this winter!!

website; www.bridgepointchurch.cc, phone number 412.596.5599
Pastor Greg on the internet; blog-gregkrowitz.blogspot.com, facebook-Greg Krowitz Sr and Twitter-@gregkrowitz

BPC Service this morining December 13 2009

We will be having our 10AM service this morning. Wait until the temperature risies & the ice on the roads melts away. Weather forcast is...roads should be O.K. by 10am.

Jr Church "Goldfish" will be next Sunday!

Be safe & see you at 10 if you can make it.

BPC Christmas Outreach 09

On Saturday December 5th BPC held our Christmas Outreach event to the community of Tarentum & the AG Valley. We hosted a FREE Christmas Flea market in the lower level of the church. Thanks so much to everyone who donated items!

On Friday evening a team of BPCers stacked, arranged, folded & put out all the goods. Every category of clothing, toys, home décor, hardware, furniture - anything you could imagine was set out. (Well, maybe not anything like…goldfish?? Bring the kids to Jr. Church this Sunday at 10am to find out about the goldfish!) Everything was in such great condition & a large portion of the items donated were brand new with the tags still on! We even gave away 10 live Christmas trees thanks to Teddy B!

15 minutes before we opened the doors on Saturday at Noon the sanctuary was packed with 50 people registered & waiting to be escorted to the lower level to pick out their FREE presents for Christmas. Francie & I were so glad to meet everyone who came to the event.

Almost 200 people were not only blessed with presents but a FREE lunch (thanks to Jim A), cookies, coffee, drinks & hot chocolate. Also, the first 64 families who registered were given a FREE Thanksgiving dinner (all the fixins minus the turkey) donated by St. Edmunds Academy – thanks to the administration, faculty & students!! I’m so pumped to tell you that a number of those who were blessed by our event attended our Sunday morning service!!

Francie & I want to say thanks so much to everyone who helped make this year’s BPC Christmas Outreach a huge success! AND…a very BIG thanks to Jim & Lisa for making it all happen!!