Rev. Bruce Bridgewater
Bruce was born and raised in Scottsburg, Indiana, the oldest child of Betty and Harold Gene Bridgewater. Upon graduation from high school in 1975, he entered the U.S. Navy. He served four years as a Jet Engine Mechanic being stationed at Whidbey Island, WA. After his honorable discharge, he returned home to Scottsburg and worked at Zimmerman’s Implement Dealership as a farm implement mechanic. In 1983, Bruce volunteered with National Ministries of the American Baptist Churches, USA and was sent to Kansas City, Kansas to work and serve at Bethel Neighborhood Center, a Neighborhood Action Program of the American Baptists.
Bruce worked and served the neighborhood of Bethel Neighborhood Center by working with the children and youth programs and with the Senior Adult programs. While in Kansas City, Bruce acquired his B.A. degree from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He then attended Central Baptist Theological Seminary earning his M.Div. in 1993. In 1993, he was named the Program Director and Associate Pastor for Bethel Neighborhood Center and was commissioned by the ABCUSA as a National Ministries’ Missionary.
Bruce met his wife, Jene Chadwick, in Kansas City. They were married at the neighborhood center Sept. 3, 1994. Together they served as co-ministers and co-directors of the Bethel Center Baptist Church and Bethel Neighborhood Center. In 2001, they resigned from the center after nearly 20 years of ministry and returned to Bruce’s hometown of Scottsburg.
Since 2001, Bruce held a variety of different positions/jobs, each giving voice to various interests and skillsets of Bruce. He helped begin the Austin Learning Center in Austin, Indiana. He worked at a cabinet making factory and later at Jeff Boat as a steel fitter. Then he spent nearly 10 years as a maintenance man for the St. Joseph’s Children’s Home in Louisville, Kentucky. He began the “Teens Linked to Care” program at Austin High School before coming to Bethel Baptist as Pastor in 2019.
Bruce has come full circle in his life and his ministry serving the church and serving God’s people through many areas. Now, he has returned to his home church where he was baptized so many years ago in Lew Murphy’s Pond. Bruce’s theme or motto for his life has been, “Ministry begins where you are.” And so, it has been for Bruce. Whether playing with kids in the neighborhood, giving Senior Adults rides to see the autumn leaves, assembling a barge at JeffBoat, or cleaning up messes kids make in daily living, ministry begins where you are. Now, he finds himself in the country church on the hill of downtown Leota. Ministry continues to be “where he is.” He says, “My prayer is that each person who comes may understand God’s love and care for her or himself, and then discover his or her own spiritual gifts to be used by God to share God’s love to a broken world.”
