Name: Bridgeway Church
Address: 4755 Kimball Bridge Road, Alpharetta, GA 30005
Phone: 678-942-1100
Website: www.bridgeway.net
Services: Worship at 9:30 a.m., Bible study at 11 a.m.
Worship style: Contemporary
Average Sunday attendance: 140
Minister: Pastor Douglas Turner
Denomination affiliation: Southern Baptist Convention
Mission statement:
Be living proof of the loving God through worship, evangelism, and service to our neighbors and the nations.
History:
The church’s beginnings can be traced to 1985, when two seminary students took a door-to-door survey to gauge interest in a new church. Home Bible studies formed, and with support from First Baptist Church of Alpharetta and North Peachtree Baptist in Doraville, the first morning worship service was held on Oct. 5, 1986. In the summer of 1990, the church spent $300,000 for more than six acres with buildings, including the 14,000-square-foot Amy L. Dodd school and the Ocee Community Center, valued at more than $1 million. In 1993, a 500-seat worship center and multipurpose building were built, and a neighboring home and two acres were bought for office and parking space.
Pastor’s path:
The New York native received his master of divinity from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary and a bachelor’s in political science from Messiah College. After pastoring First Baptist Church of Rhinebeck, N.Y., for four years, Turner said he felt called to Albany to plant a church. Five years ago, he moved to Atlanta to join the Bridgeway staff. Turner has take mission trips to the Dominican Republic, Ukraine, Paraguay, Bolivia, Germany, Mexico, Swaziland and South Asia. He is actively involved in the Not for Sale Campaign, which fights the horror of human trafficking and modern-day slavery around the world. He and his wife, Catherine, have five children.
Ministries:
Church members have been convicted that they don’t need to just go to church, but they need to be the church, according to the pastor, taking active steps to be involved in the community.
Turner said that about a year ago, his heart was broken when he learned about the problem of human trafficking in Atlanta. Church members have spent the past year learning about the dilemma, and have come alongside the Not for Sale Campaign.
“Atlanta ranks No. 3 in the nation,” Turner said. “It disturbed me that this is happening in our backyard. We are close enough to make a difference. We are at the beginning stages, but moving to be involved in multiple areas.”
A fundraising concert at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 16 at the church will begin with acoustic Christmas music, feature information about Not for Sale and end with a concert from the Museum, Christian recording artists. There’s no charge to attend, but an opportunity will be given to donate to the cause.
Another passion of the Bridgeway members is ministering to children, according to Turner. The church began Bridgeway Academy, a Christian school for grades k-8 that is now a separate entity. The Bridgeway Recreation program is a church ministry that offers basketball, tennis and soccer programs to 1,000 students.
“It seems that everything we do revolves around kids. So many children are coming from broken homes, and have no heroes, no one to look up to. We’re committed to building families,” Turner said.
Thoughts from the pastor:
“In this disconnected world, people are looking for relationship. We live in this cyberspace world, filled with social media, yet our lives are more disconnected than ever. Our calling is to provide people and families a place to connect. We’re here to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. We’re multicultural, multiethnic, multi-everything, and the love of God and love for each other has brought us together.”
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