Local church leaves building to be a church to the community

Newbridge Church meets most Sunday mornings at the Capitol Theater in Downtown Wheeling, where hundreds of people gather to sing, be inspired and learn about God. But on Sunday, May 5th, the Church left the building and headed out to serve Wheeling.

“Serve our City is an annual event where instead of going to church we are the church to our community”, said Chris Figaretti, lead pastor of Newbridge. “Our congregation is all about building new bridges to the community, and service is a great way to do that. So instead of teaching a lesson on service this past Sunday we put feet on our faith and simply lived the lesson.

As part of Serve our City, hundreds of Newbridge volunteers fanned out all over Wheeling to clean up the streets. In city playgrounds, parks, and pools teams cleaned, mulched, and painted. Partnering with Bethlehem Apostolic Temple in North Wheeling volunteers painted at the Dream Center and joining with staff at Madison School on Wheeling Island teams painted and cleaned, as well. “Summer is just around the corner and it’s time for a city-wide spring cleaning!” said Figaretti.

For the past 45 years Newbridge has been known around town as The Vineyard Church, but changed its name in January to Newbridge Church. “We changed our name to better represent who we are and what we do,” said Pastor Figaretti. “We are all about building bridges between people and the God who loves them and we believe God has all kinds of new bridges he wants built here in the Ohio Valley.”

Newbridge is in the process of renovating the Ohio Valley Building on the corner of 10th street to be a childcare center and cafe (Newbridge Academy for Kids and NB Cafe) and is scheduled to launch in August. “The childcare center is just another opportunity for us to build bridges to our community by meeting a real and significant need for Ohio Valley families,” said pastor Figaretti.

Newbridge Church meets Sunday mornings at 10:30am at the Capitol Theater in Downtown Wheeling. Services are open to everyone and everyone is invited. The teaching team is currently going through a sermon series on the book of Proverbs.

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