Side by Side

As the year draws quickly to a close, we couldn’t think of a better way of finishing it out than to ask for some insight from the “top.” Our final interviews of 2007 will feature some of the wives of our current General Council Executive Leadership Team. Like all pastors’ wives, these are busy women but on a much more prominent scale. Some have years of experience on the executive level, while others are newly elected. What you’ll discover is that all have retained the heart of a true pastor’s wife. We think you’ll find their responses both interesting and affirming.

Our interview in this issue comes from one of the long-term ladies. Though Springfield, Missouri, has been her home now for a number of years, she is a really a transplanted Texan.

Meet Joyce Sterling Bridges

While her husband, James, has been in the ministry throughout their marriage, Joyce has had a pulpit of her own—as a public school teacher for 16 years where she allowed her life and character to testify for her. She holds an AA degree from Southwestern Assemblies of God University, a BBA degree from the University of Houston, and has done work towards an MBA degree at East Texas University. Throughout her teaching career she held both local and state offices in the Texas State Teachers Association, and has received a number of impressive recognitions including Teacher of the Year in the Red Oak School District.

Although a gifted professional, Joyce always considered her primary role to be a support to her husband, and a loving mother and grandmother. The Bridges have three adult sons—Kermit, Kendall and Keenan—and eight grandchildren. Though Joyce enjoyed teaching, she stayed home with her children when they were young. Only later, when her husband was elected district superintendent and their sons were in college, did she began to travel with him to ministry assignments.

Joyce’s current place of ministry is alongside her husband, General Treasurer James K. Bridges. In between weekend ministry and travel, she serves as an active member of Maranatha Village Auxiliary where she has served for 12 years as vice president. She is also a member of the Women in Ministry Task Force.

To all her other accomplishments and activities, she adds the role of “proxy grandmother” to all the children on their cul-de-sac—baking cookies, tossing a ball, watering the flowers, and helping to sell lemonade.

Here is how Joyce responded to our interview questions:

How did God lead you into ministry?

Through godly parents who were both ordained ministers. The only child of James and Mattie Sterling, I remember what life was like before my parents were saved when I was six years old. There was an immediate difference in our home. My father, who had been a farmer and an oil field worker, had such a hunger for God’s Word. A year after they were saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit, my parents went to Southwestern Bible Institute to prepare for the ministry. Both became ordained A/G ministers and for 25 years pastored churches in Texas.

They taught me to love God and kept me involved and interested in church. I taught my first Sunday School class when I was 15. They saw that I attended youth activities such as Christ’s Ambassadors rallies where I met a young evangelist, married him, and continued in ministry.

What area of ministry stirs your deepest passion?

Ministry to the needy, brokenhearted and discouraged.

What do you find most rewarding about the ministry?

Seeing lives changed from hopelessness to joyful, eternal hope in Christ. Traveling in ministry with my husband across the United States and around the world also holds a special place in my heart.

How do you balance ministry, family and outside responsibilities?

I’ll answer this by going back 35 years when I was a pastor’s wife and mother of three young sons, and was teaching school. First, I knew my relationship with God must be my top priority. Second, I must love my husband with all my heart (that was easy) and honor his place as head of our home and pastor of my church. Admittedly, this sometimes required me to seal my lips and trust God. Third, I had a responsibility as a mother to love and train our sons while keeping their clothes clean, seeing that their homework was finished, attending their school activities, and on and on. Fourth, I desired to be a faithful church member, which to me meant teaching Sunday School, singing in the choir, etc. Last, but not least, I wanted to be an exemplary teacher—teaching the subject well, caring for each student, and influencing them by living a godly life.

What is your favorite way to relax?

I enjoy reading, doing crossword and sudoku puzzles, and exploring country roads together with my husband.

What do you know now that you wish you had known when you began?

Life is short. It’s important that we make each day count. Words can’t be retrieved, so carefully guard your tongue.

What one thing would you like to share with every young minister’s wife?

Support your husband. If he succeeds, you succeed. If he fails, you fail. Do not correct him in public. When he shares an idea with you, don’t say, “That will not work!” Rather, say, “How can we make that work?”

Share a favorite Scripture or life verse.

Psalms 19:14: “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer” (NIV).

Romans 12:9–13: “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality” (NIV).