About us
Great Bridge Evangelical Free Church was founded in 1859, and to date is one of the oldest churches in Hampton Roads. The building as well as the congregation have gone through many changes throughout the years but God's refining fire has created this into what it is today and we strive to fulfill the calling He has placed for us in Great Bridge. Though the support of Young Life, Food Banks, and other ministries we strive to minister to our community.
Dr. Angus Mcdonald- senior pastor
"My father and mother, immigrants from Scotland, were deeply committed Christians. They gave us children every reason to give our lives to the Lord Jesus at a young age. We often saw our parents praying on their knees together. I prayed to receive Christ at a very young age at Vacation Bible School. But it was not till later that it began to be central in my life. After a deeply spiritual senior year in high school, I entered the military and found my first real test of faith. By the grace of God I found fellowship with other Christians, and eventually joined them in planting a church among the Japanese and starting a Youth for Christ on base.
During the military, a wise chaplain encouraged me to further my education. How I thank God for the great educational mentors I have experienced at Westmont College, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Trinity International University. The time in the academy not only solidified my calling into the ministry but also brought my magnificent wife, Susan to me. We were married shortly after graduation and made our way west to the Berkeley, California area in 1974. Our first ministry was in an atmosphere of anti-war riots and Hippies. There, in the Berkeley area, I worked alongside Spiritual Counterfeits Project, Campus Crusade for Christ, and Young Life.
Berkeley was an epicenter of change and was a harbinger of things for the future. My pastorates since have exhibited the same orientation toward hot spots. They have included: a church near Nauvoo, Illinois (where Mormonism took its first foothold); Clinton, Iowa (where the Spiritualist Camp for the Midwest is centered); Salt Lake City (Mormonism’s center of operations); Washington DC’s outer beltway (one of the centers for Central Intelligence Agency training); and Hampton Roads, the largest concentration of military in the world. These experiences have brought me into the presence of world changers in the form of missionaries, politicians, entrepreneurs, and military. At blazing speed, I watched world leaders make dramatic tactical and organizational changes.
With continued starts and stops and amazing confrontations with various Elder Boards who were intransigent with regard to change, I found myself driven to work harder as if that would satisfy the needs of those around me. It did. Our last church grew from 50 to 600 with 5 pastors on staff. I found myself putting on a different face for each power group within the church and justifying the dysfunctions within the church suggesting that it was a “trinitarian tension.” The denomination took notice of the success and encouraged expansion, fund-raising, and sent consultants to open our minds to the epic possibilities in our Northern Virginia area.
If tiredness indicated anything, I clocked up to 80 hours a week. At one point I was meeting with 34 men regularly, mostly on a one-to-one basis. From outside, my ministry looked great but I was dying on the inside! It simply did not work and drove me into a complete burnout. I spent one year on disability and then came out with a deep resolve to find new ways of approaching ministry. Multiple counselors met with me over that time and determined that I was simply physically and mentally exhausted. No medications were advised and I continue happily without them. However, I must say the lessons learned have deeply impacted me.
After prolonged prayer, we decided to dive back into the deep waters of ministry again. One of my greatest concerns was that burn-out would never happen again. This quest, led me to countless conferences and the reading of countless books. One of my greatest concerns was and is that pastors try to minister alone. There is no basis for this in Scripture. In light of that I have done a great deal of networking and have even started fellowships of pastors. Thankfully, when we sought for a church, the Lord gave us the miracle of both a church and a position for Sue as a teacher at Greenbrier Intermediate. We would both say that Great Bridge Evangelical Free Church has been our favorite experience in the ministry. What a profoundly loving group of people!!! My greatest joy recently (outside of my family and church) has been a group of lay men and pastors associated with the Transformational Leadership Conference in Hampton Roads. After the June 2010 Transformational Leadership Conference, several of us felt like we needed to continue the learning/growing experience of Transformational Leadership. We began to have occasional and then regular lunch meetings. From these lunch discussions, the Transformation Hampton Roads Core Group was formed, with each person having previously attended the three-day Transformational Leadership Conference. It was a LIFE-CHANGING experience! Here were people integrating doctrine and the realities of daily existence. My goals for ministry have solidified more than ever before. It is clear that no pastor or lay person should ever try living the Christian life alone! "-
