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On June 25, LifeBridge Cypress opened the doors on its first permanent building, with a loan from the Texas District Church Extension Fund and help from the local community.
You might think this new structure changes everything, but the real story is more complex than that.
The congregation of LifeBridge Cypress has been portable for eight years, worshiping each Sunday morning in a local school cafeteria. Efforts to build a permanent structure began nearly four years ago, but the building faced numerous delays.
Challenging as that was, says Pastor Michael Meissner, the delays only served to focus his community on what really mattered. “Our primary emphasis is not on a building or a Sunday morning event,” he says, “but on bringing the Good News of Jesus into our homes, our community, and our world. Adding a building doesn’t change that at all. It just gives us another tool to shape and mold the people God brings to LifeBridge.”
From the outset, LifeBridge has lived by a rather unique core value of giving away 50% of whatever is given to them. An oft-heard mantra is that they "do without things they would like to have for themselves, so that there is more to invest in the world out there." Those values are on display with the way the congregation has developed their church property. By building simply and inexpensively, LifeBridge was able to simultaneously invest a significant amount of money into two unique ministry ventures.
Abba’s House of Welcome is a new ministry for refugees that will be housed on the back of the new property. Abba’s House will provide a temporary home and transition center for refugee women and children who have recently arrived in the United States. Breathe Life Ministries is a ministry that cares for Christian leaders and their spouses. Both are new ministry ventures, supported by LifeBridge and starting in 2017, that will have an impact far beyond the walls of their campus.
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