“To be and to share the good news

of Jesus Christ, witnessing, loving

and serving from our doorstep

to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 1:8

We seek to save the lost.

We are fulfilled through obedience to God’s word.

We strive to serve people and advance God’s kingdom.

October 2004, a group of people with a vision met and decided to step out and start a new church. Josh Carter began serving as the minister even before we had decided on the name “LifeBridge Christian Church.” The first actual worship service was held at Carters Valley Elementary. We carried in everything we felt that we needed to have a worship service. Josh brought his guitar and stool and led worship and delivered the message in the small school cafeteria. We had volunteers to help carry folding chairs from the storage area in the gym to the cafeteria where we sat and sang and listened to Josh preach. We also started the first “doughnut” list where we took turns in bringing a small morning snack. Someone also took the children over to the gym to have a lesson and play games while worship service went on in the cafeteria. Every week, we carried our stuff in, set up chairs, took down chairs, and took our stuff home.

Later, we also started meeting in the conference area of Days Inn in Lynn Garden. In addition to the area we used for worship service, the hotel let us use their breakfast area to have children’s church. A short time later, we moved again to meeting at the Kingsport Renaissance Center, where we had one room for worship, a breakfast prep area, and another room for children. When we started having Sunday School groups, several groups met out in the hall sitting on the floor. Yet again, we carried in our stuff, set up worship and children’s areas, and took our stuff home.

It was not until renovations were completed and we began renting the Kings Giant Plaza space that we actually got to set down our stuff, our music equipment, our chairs, stools, and tables, the kids materials. Finally, we had a kitchen area to serve breakfast and Wednesday dinners. We settled into our storefront church, thinking we would be in this building for several years, however God had other plans.

In August 2006 LifeBridge felt the call to minister to the Allandale community and moved to the University Square property. Then in February of 2014, we moved to 617 Donelson Drive, behind Jackson Elementary School.

We are excited about what God has done in the past, and we look forward with even more excitement to what God still has in store!

The Christian Church

One thing is certain–there is no shortage of churches. You can take your pick among the hundreds of different kinds, from the proud old denominations like the Episcopalian and Presbyterian to the newer, more energetic Assembly of God or Seventh Day Adventists.

In the midst of such diversity, what is special about our church? What kind of a church is it, anyway?

The distinctive about this Christian church is that it has no distinctives. In fact we deliberately seek not to be different, because our goal is unity, not division. Christianity has suffered long enough from deep divisions separating denomination from denomination, Christian from Christian.

In John 17:21, Jesus prayed “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me”

He had us in mind. In the spirit of His prayer we seek unity with all others in Christ.

Christian churches and churches of Christ trace their modern origins to the early 19th-century American frontier, a period of militancy among denominations. America’s pioneers brought their deeply rooted religious convictions to the new land and perpetuated their old animosities. Presbyterian squared off against Anglican who defended himself against Baptist who had no toleration for Lutheran. A reaction to this mutual animosity was inevitable.

When it came, the reaction was spontaneous. A group of New England Christians broke out of denominationalism, announcing their intention to follow the Bible only. Another group in Kentucky, and still another in Pennsylvania, each independent of the others, felt the spirit of unity moving them to stand with, not against, fellow Christians. Under the leadership of minister Barton W. Stone, some Presbyterian leaders in Kentucky published The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery, putting to death their denominational connections. They said, “We will, that this body die, be dissolved, and sink into union with the Body of Christ at large; for there is but one body, and one Spirit . . .”

The early leaders of what later came to be called the Restoration Movement, believed unity in Christ was and is possible. To achieve it required letting go of human traditions and loyalties to dynamic personalities. Christ alone could be exalted. The ideal of the church that emerges from the pages of the New Testament must be the standard for today’s congregations.

A summary of what kind of church we are talking about:

A Christian Church

Our message is that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” We require no other creed. He alone is Lord and Savior.

A Church of Christ

The Church belongs to Him. We have no authority to change the teachings, rewrite the rules, alter membership requirements, or usurp His place. The church is not a democracy.

A Church Seeking Unity

Members of this church seek to be one in Christ with all others He calls His own.

A Church Seeking to Restore 

As much as possible, we imitate the New Testament precedents. That is why our baptism is by immersion, our Communion is every Lord’s Day, our leaders are called elders, our preaching is about Christ, and our prayers are in Christ’s name. Even our church name is rooted in the earliest days, when disciples were called Christians and their congregations were often addressed as “churches of Christ.”

An Apostolic Church 

The church, Ephesians 2:20 states, is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” Whatever we know about Christ and the church we learned from Jesus’ closest companions, the apostles.

A Thinking Church 

In the same Ephesian letter, Paul prays that God will give a “Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. . . .” Christian faith demands the best our minds can give, so we are a studying church, seeking to apply biblical truth intelligently.

A Feeling Church 

Ours is not a dryly intellectual approach to God, however. We rejoice and praise and pray and love and serve from the heart. We are unashamed of the gospel and not embarrassed to let our excitement be seen.

A Sharing Church 

We share our faith and love with as many as we can reach and our possessions as persons who know that everything we have belongs to God to be used for His purposes.

A Free Church 

We have no bishops or superintendents or national headquarters to determine local church policies. We elect our own leaders, call and support our own ministers, and decide where our mission money will go. We are not isolationists, though. Our congregations freely associate with one another to accomplish tasks too big for one church alone.

A Growing Church 

We want to grow, because we are under Christ’s commission to disciple the world. We haven’t completed the task yet, so Christian churches and churches of Christ are renewing our commitment to go unto the ends of the earth, preaching and baptizing and teaching, until the whole world knows the one Lord of all.

James A. Garfield, former president of the United States, is one of the best-known individuals associated with Christian churches. He even served as a “lay preacher”. When questioned about the group of believers with whom he worshiped, he wrote a classic statement:

1. We call ourselves Christians, or Disciples of Christ.

2. We believe in God the Father.

3. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and our Savior. We regard the divinity of Christ as the fundamental truth of the Christian system.

4. We believe in the Holy Spirit, both as to his agency in conversion and as indwelling in the heart of the Christian.

5. We accept both the Old and the New Testament Scriptures as the inspired Word of God.

6. We believe in the future punishment of the wicked and the future reward of the righteous.

7. We believe that the deity is a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering God.

8. We observe the institution of the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s Day. To this table we neither invite nor debar; we say it is the Lord’s Supper for all of the Lord’s children.

9. We plead for the union of God’s people on the Bible and the Bible alone. The Christ is our only creed.

10. We maintain that all the ordinances should be observed as they were in the days of the apostles.