“Whenever He Calls”
By Erica Hagar
Brian Bridges, pastor of West Bay Community Church in Waveland, knows about answering God’s call. He’s done it several times—once led him to seminary, once led him into church planting, and once led his family to the Coast he thought he’d left for good.
“How do you know a call from God? When it becomes so compelling you just can’t get over it, until that’s the only thing in your thoughts. Then, you have to do it. You have to come to a cognitive understanding that the God of the universe wants to have a personal place in your life. When you realize that, you’re humbled to be a part of whatever He might ask you to do,” Bridges said.
His journey to his current position at West Bay began years ago as a member of First Baptist Richland.
“We were doing a Purpose Driven Life study at the time. We had just built a house. As we did that study, I just kept thinking, ‘We should be doing more,’” Bridges said.
That urge was about to become a reality. Bridges began to contemplate going to seminary. When he found himself suddenly unemployed, he began his own information technology business. During that time, it was his wife Karen that received confirmation about doing “something more.”
“I heard an audible voice saying, ‘The place is seminary and the time is now,’” Karen said.
The Bridges never put a sign in the yard to sell their new home, but within one week it had sold, and they were on their way to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary soon after.
“It was forty days from the time of losing his job until the day we surrendered to full-time ministry,” Karen recalled.
For them, seminary was a calling. And in seminary, church planning became a calling.
“I took a class in church planting. I just remember a sense that I would do that one day. That class kicked it off for us,” Brian said.
“We had to change our mindset of what full-time ministry was,” Karen added. “I felt passionate about church planting from the beginning because it’s missions.”
While in New Orleans, Brian worked at an inner-city school in the Lower Ninth Ward, a ministry they admit they wrestled with concerning the safety of their daughters, now 8 and 14.
“We had to live out the Gospel every day. That’s what it’s all about,” he said.
Everything changed the Monday afternoon Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast.
The Bridges had been in the Big Easy just eight months and, through a series of unforeseen events, found themselves moving to Louisville, Ken. A Kentucky congregation wanted to help a seminary family get back on their feet after the storm. That family would be the Bridges.
“They paid for an apartment for us for a year. Everything we owned was in our van, so we left and headed to Kentucky,” Karen said.
It was a year that Brian refers to as “a recovery year” for their family. With the help of First Baptist Richland, family members, and this Kentucky congregation, the Bridges had their physical needs met and began to find closure.
“We really recovered there, spiritually and mentally. It gave us time to ask, ‘What just happened?’” Brian said.
When that year was over, the Lord began to give both Brian and Karen a peace about coming back down to the Coast.
“I never thought I’d go back to New Orleans,” Karen said, but New Orleans is where they found themselves for two more years while Brian finished his Master’s.
Throughout seminary, they often visited Waveland on the weekends “as a little sanctuary,” but had no intentions of moving there. In fact, they were pretty solidly heading to a church he had been helping to start in Atlanta.
“We had a launch service for that church in Atlanta and even put an offer down on a house in the area, but didn’t get it. We began saying, ‘Okay, God. If you don’t want us in Georgia, we need you to open other doors,’” Brian said.
“The Coast kept calling us back,” said Brian, who knew in fact that God was calling them once again to a new place of service. “We felt that God wanted us to start rebuilding churches on the Gulf Coast, and we felt like it was the right time to start doing that, so we did.”
With the help of the Gulf Coast Baptist Association, the Bridges were connected with the former First Baptist Waveland, whose facility had been damaged during Katrina and was currently housing volunteer teams helping along the Gulf Coast. When the church building was ready in November 2008, Brian moved his family to Waveland, began West Bay Community Church, and began engaging the community they had first grown to love in seminary.
“So many people aren’t open to whatever God has in store for them. We said early on that we would—no matter where it was—we would surrender to wherever He wanted us to go,” Karen said.
For Brian, it all comes back to the original call. “It may not look like what you thought it would, but you hold on to the compelling call you know you heard. God is still calling people to Himself.”
Karen added, “One person at a time.”
The Mississippi Baptist state missions emphasis asks every church member to reflect on how God’s call may touch their life. Brian’s feeling that he and his family should be “doing something more,” may speak to your heart as well. Is now the time to answer God’s call? Pray for the courage and selflessness to give more of yourself and your resources for the Lord’s use.
