Chris Figaretti - Lead Pastor of Newbridge Church

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Welcome to CEOs you should Know. I'm your host, Mike Howard,
chief Operating Officer at the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce.
CEOs You Should Know is an iheartened production and sponsored
by our good friends at West Banco Banks. We love
our friends at West Banco, Jeff Jackson, David Klick, Amanda Brown,
Sunny West. I'm probably gonna get yelled at by some
of the others because those are the four names I

(00:40):
mentioned most of the time, but that's our little line
to the top and we love working with West Banco
and just so happy to have them as a sponsor
of CEOs you should Know. Different twists Today we're going
down a different road as we are in studio with
I would call him a multi multi CEO, and we're
going to find out all about it. It's Pastor Chris
Figuretty from Newbridge Church. Chris, welcome to CEOs you should know.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Mike Long walk across the street what you I was just.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Over at the NB cafe, yup, and it was twenty
five steps, so it's perfect. Look out the window and
see our operation right across the street.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
It's fun from the church angle. I'm assuming senior pastor,
lead pastor.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Lead pastor. I'm not old enough to be a senior past.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Not old enough, I'll take I'll take senior radio host guy,
because I think I am old enough. But anyway, and
you've been in that position. How long?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
I've been in that position for fourteen years? Okay, I
believe if I'm doing the math correctly in my head,
fourteen years.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Super. And we'll get back to Newbridge Cafe, the academy,
all that stuff and see how all that fits in
and the leadership realm and what happens there. But let's
go back, take us all the way back. Where'd you
grow up? Where are you originally from?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, I grew up. I'm a wheeling boy. I grew
up in elm Grove and for most of my childhood
and stayed here most of my life. Went away to
go to school. So I went to Shepherd Well, it's
now Shepherd University.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
It was nice price just on the campus.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Beautiful spot over there. And graduated from the State University
of New York in Syracuse, New York, and then went
and got a master's degree in Minnesota.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
In experience North.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
It kept getting colder, It certainly did Minnesota is ridiculously
cold inner time, but.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
I was there once in March.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
It's uh, yeah, it was. It's it's breathtaking. I thought
Syracuse was tough, but Minnesota is a different beast altogether.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
And you started to say what that degree was in.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, experiential education is what I got a degree in,
which is a fancy name for outdoor adventure stuff, really
outward bound, and.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
I've learned.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, all right, and came back to Wheeling after I graduated.
I worked around the country a little bit, worked at
outward Bound in North Carolina, outfit called Summit Adventure out
in California, and a couple different other programs around the country.
Moved back to Wheeling in ninety four summer ninety four
to start a Christian wilderness adventure leadership ministry and wow, yeah,

(03:12):
so established a nonprofit. We initially called it the ABE School,
which stood for Adventure Based Experiential Education, and we decided
that was too many ease and we changed the name
to the Next Step A little catch here, and I
moved back to the area. There was a guy named
Mike Porter who grew up in the area who we

(03:33):
were friends involved in young life together. A woman who
eventually became my wife, was from Rochester, New York. I
had all made connections outside of Wheeling and decided to
move back to Wheeling to start this program and where
whatever happened to that program well, we established a five

(03:54):
one C three nonprofit and set out and started doing programming,
worked with churches, college groups, taking them to the mountains
of West Virginia. After all, West Virginia is the playground
of the eastern United States. It is and it is beautiful,
and so we did some great programming over the next
six years. What we found was it's hard to raise

(04:15):
money when you're twenty four years old and you have
this concept that people don't quite understand. And so the
programming was great. We had a great time doing all that.
We were under capitalized and it was eventually became more
nonprofit than we could afford to live on. I've been
there and in the meantime, I was involved at the

(04:36):
Vineyard Church just it became our local church, and over
time became very passionate about what was going on there
and about you know, reaching and impacting our community through
the local church. And accidentally volunteered my way into a
job and so we in the year two thousand, we

(04:57):
closed the next step and I came on full time
at the church, and I've been there for the last
twenty five years.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Well, there you go. I got into town in nineteen
ninety two, so I didn't beat you by much, and
I have been living here ever since, love it and
wheeling progress then through how things happened in the church
to where you are today. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
So for my first ten years, I was the I
think my official title was the pastor of starting stuff.
I'm an entrepreneur at heart, the PSS. Yeah right, I'm
good at spotting, spotting what's next on the horizon and
then building solutions to meet that need or to solve
that problem or take advantage of that opportunity. And so

(05:41):
that's I was kind of became the associate pastor. I
guess I was the associate pastor a little different than
your traditional church. You know, we're very non traditional church,
and so we like to say we're not organized religion,
we're disorganized religion. But so it was a fairly unique role.
But you know, I started teaching and preaching here and

(06:03):
there on the weekends and starting things. We started a
Saturday night service to reach a younger generation. We started
something called the Alpha Course. It had just come to
the US from the UK and we still run that
to this very third day. Yeah, and that's that became
really an on ramp to help people connect in the
life of the church and connect with their faith, and

(06:25):
just started a young adult ministry started, just started things
and small group ministry, everything else. And so that was
my role for about ten years. And then our pastor
at the time, his name was John Ras Remember John,
He developed a health condition that made it impossible for

(06:46):
him to continue and I was tapped to be the
intram lead pastor just until the board could figure out
what we were going to do next. And then after
about a year of that, they asked me if I
would be the lead pastor and I have been ever since.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
And what year was.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Twenty eleven?

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Ok? Right, yeah, so working up to fifteen years. Yeah,
Well things have changed a lot in those last fifteen,
haven't they.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
It's been It's been an incredible ride, Yeah, it really
has been. So we went through a you went through
a leadership transition. Anytime there's a new leader, there's a
transition and the organization and of course with churches, the
congregation has to adapt to all of that. And I
learned a lot as a young leader in those days.
And then yeah, we just started to grow and reach

(07:35):
our community, and we outgrew our facility on warden run.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Say, when did you realize that that being in the
valley over there, even though you have a nice sized building,
still wasn't enough.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, So we built that building in nineteen ninety seven.
I was part of the church at that point in time,
but you know, not on staff, not connected to the
inner workings of the church. But I remember, I remember
the groundbreaking for that and all that. We built that building,
moved in and ninety seven, I think it was Super
Bowl Sunday, nineteen ninety seven. And so as we outgrew

(08:08):
that building probably five or six times. And what I
mean by that is, you you know, with a church,
you you grow into your facility, and if you can't
make room for more people, you kind of grow and
grow and it blows up like a balloon. But then
you have to let some of the pressure out. And
so the topography of the valley is very difficult. We've
been looking for a place to you know, build the

(08:32):
next church building, probably probably within a year or two
after moving into that building, and it's just, you know,
we've tried different things. We did a campus at the
Highlands at the Movie Theater, I remember, just to buy
us a little bit more seating on Sunday morning, which
enabled us to reach into Western Pa in a way
that we weren't able to before. So that was that
was really neat. But then in two thousand and eighteen,

(08:56):
I believe it was Denny McGruder and I sat down
and so, what what would it be like if we
could meet at the Capitol and he was running the
theater at that point in time, and we were able
to work that out, and they were excited to have
an anchor tenant. We were going to bring a bunch
of equipment that they would be able to use. So
it was a real community partner great and I believe

(09:18):
we brought an enhancement to the theater. And the theater,
of course is a wonderful spot to do church. Every
weekend we're in there and it's uh, you know, it's
it's just bigger than life. It's a great spot. We
got lots of folks coming and it's just a it's
just a great experience.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
So moving from there to here. You're still in the
building out on Wodell's Run, right offices or what what
all still happened? Yeah, so I went to a conference there.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, let me so correct you on What's run was
always Woodell's Run. They changed it. I don't know how
many years ago now, but it's Warden's Run. And so yeah,
so we still own that building and we do all
our officing and programming and everything out of that building.
We also bought a warehouse just down the street, a

(10:05):
little warehouse that we call our outreach outfitters, so we
do all of our outreaches out of that, and so
we're set up to be able to respond or you know,
do camps or do whatever out of there. And then
recently we purchased the old Stratford Athletic Club, so we
own that building now as well. In fact, right now

(10:26):
when we're as we're recording, we're doing flood recovery and
we have Samaritans Purses in our main building with one
hundred volunteers from around the country and we've got eight
days of Hope in the Stratford building. Very nice doing
flood recovery right now too, which is just a real
blessing to be able to host those guys. And because

(10:46):
it's you know, it's summer, we're not doing a lot
of programming. We just said, here's the building, have at it.
You know.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, we got contacted by board members and talk within
our staff. What can we do to help with this
without could we do this now that's already covered. Maybe
we could do a concert. No, there's already three conrad
you know, but we'll just communicate to our members what
everybody else is doing. They know where they can go
to help and plug in. And that's really kind of
what the chamber is all.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
About it, Yeah, making those connections and it's been amazing.
The community has stepped up for this flood relief in
an amazing way. In fact, we just had a meeting
last night with the two groups, Eight Days of Hope
and Samaritans. Person they're like, you just don't you know,
we're all over the world, all over the country. This
is a unique place and a really special people. The

(11:27):
way they're coming together to take care.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Of this, it has been fabulous. Our guest is Chris Figuretti.
He is the lead pastor at the New Bridge Church.
Got that right. New Bridge Church is no other name.
That's the new name is Newbridge Church, New Bridge Church, correct,
all right, But now across the road, as we talked about,
is an academy and a cafe. Can you tell us
about how all that materialized?

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, the way most things do it just you just
keep opening, walking through open doors.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah. So when we move to the Capitol in twenty eighteen,
we were doing portable children's programming in the ballroom. The
ballroom is a great, great facility, but you know, Saturday night,
there's weddings, there's parties, there's everything else. We roll in
on Sunday morning, you know, a slight smell of beer,

(12:18):
sticky floor. It's not the ideal place to do children's programming.
And it's a lot of work setting up and tearing
down every week. And so we when we came in
twenty eighteen, we purchased the Kaufman Building with the idea
that we were going to grow into that building as
a children's space, and we figured out pretty quickly it's
too far out of the way. The project would have

(12:40):
been immense it We've needed a lot of work, and
so we had been talking over the years to Red
who owned the old children's museum building where CA House
was historically right across from the Capitol. It would have
been perfect. And during COVID I called and said, hey,
where are you with this building, and they said, we're
actually ready to part with it, and we were able

(13:02):
to pick it up. We were anticipating coming back downtown
able to pick that building up. And then we walked
around the building and said, oh, my goodness, what an
opportunity and what a project, but what an opportunity. This
is an amazing facility. It's a full city block long.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
I know it is. You walk by and you just
can't believe how much, how big it is.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
It's huge. It's a twenty six thousand square foot facility
and two floors, and it was it needed some love.
It's one hundred and thirty year old building. It was
built in eighteen ninety two, and so it needed new plumbing,
that needed new electrical, it needed new everything. It had

(13:44):
been patched together over the years. And so initially we
were just going to do children's programming on the second
floor and renovate that. But in light of the work
that needed to be done, and in light of the
opportunity that lay before us, because we began to ask
the question pretty early on, how can we do the
most good with this building and be a blessing to
our community. And as we asked that question and talk

(14:07):
to people in the community, almost unanimously, the chorus was
we need childcare, and of course that tied perfectly into
what we wanted to use the building for on Sunday morning.
We didn't need twenty six thousand square feet of childcare space,
but the Ohio Valley did. And so we raised about

(14:31):
three million dollars in our congregation to seed that project,
and we pursued some tax credits and other things and
are actually still continuing to raise money to get this
project across the finish line. But it's an amazing, amazing facility, amazing.
It turned out so much better than we ever dreamed,

(14:53):
and we got it done. We're working with Gray con
Construction and they did a phenomenal job. They got that project.
I got that building turned around in eight months. Uh
and on budget.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
Maybe we should get them involved in roads and stuff.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
Maybe we should. Well that doesn't happen. And I really
give you know, give them all the all the credit
and of course the lord as well. But it's it
was an amazing It was an amazing turnaround. We opened
up New Bridge Academy for kids, and it was in
the midst of that that we changed our name because
we had been known as the Vineyard forever and ever,
and we're still a Vineyard church, but we decided New

(15:30):
Bridge expresses who we are so much better. We're about
we're across from the old Bridge, but we're a New Bridge,
and we're all about building bridges to our community.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
That's the chamber has somewhat of the same kind of slogan,
building business and community, you know, in a bridge fashion.
So that's great. How did the coffee shop come about?
I mean, I guess you know, it's a church, there's
got to be coffee.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
There's got to be coffee. You know, Christians need caffeine.
That's just kind of a foregone conclusion we uh early
on in the process, one of the things we wanted
to create was a third space for our congregation on
Sunday mornings just to gather. There's not a great space
at the Capitol to do that, and so it made

(16:11):
sense to take that first floor main street side and
just you know, come across the street, get a cup
of coffee. Sit down with your friends and build that
community and build that connection. So that's that's where the
idea started, and then it quickly grew into, hey, this
could be a third space for our whole community. You know,
we we can do a really great cafe and invite

(16:33):
the community to come have meetings there, get lunch there,
connect with friends there. We have i think one of
the largest indoor playgrounds in the in the community, so
parents are coming and bringing their kids and playing on
the playground and it's at air conditioned space, and it's
you know, it's going and growing and we're seeing amazing things.

(16:55):
Just brought ice cream online a week or so ago
for that Yeah, homemade ice cream.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Sample was tremendous, right, very tremendous. Yeah, I mean all
those things are so cool. And I call it, you're
like the economic developer's dream, you know, you want to
do great things in a different fashion and help the community.
And what government entity wouldn't like to see that. So
I'm sure the folks around here are just thrilled with
what's happening, and I know we are, and we appreciate

(17:21):
the membership that you all bring to us. And it's
been a great spot to bring some government folks in
from Charleston and whatnot. Sit inside that cafe. Now you
can see the bridge, the new opening where the Gateway
Center will come in.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
It's just fat. The view, the view from the cafe
is awesome and it's a great place to just come
and sit with your laptop and do work or read
or we have a lot of.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
Coffee meetings up there and talk to new potential members
and you know, it's really good. We love it.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
That's great.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
So the church, let's just for numbers freaks out there,
how many folks are typically with you on a Sunday.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Morning, typical Sunday morning, and we're running between seven and
eight hundred people?

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Okay? Yeah? And is it one service?

Speaker 2 (17:59):
One service US at ten thirty am.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
And service ten thirty okay, and then other ancillary things
I know, like you mentioned the Alpha project, you think
you have some other ministry things going on. So there's
a lot of things people can get plugged in.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Absolutely, we've got groups meeting all the time. We do
three what we call life group semesters. There's small groups
where people get together, you know, make closer friendships and
study the Bible and just just learn together. Grow together
and build community because it's hard to connect with it's
hard to connect with eight hundred people, but it's hard
to connect with sixty people. If you're in a sixty

(18:32):
person church, you really, you know, you really have to
get into those smaller groups to make friends.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
And go deep exactly.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
And so that's that's our mode of doing that. And
we do a fall semester, a winter semester, and a
spring semester, and then over the summer. There's various things
that go on. Right now, we've got a we're doing
a men's Alpha group, which is interesting because we've never
done a you know, it's always been just co ed,
but we have a men's group and they they want

(18:59):
to to do a men's Alpha for the Hope Center,
which is another conversation altogether. But so Hope Center is
a recovery center that we helped bring to the Ohio Valley, Okay,
and so they started doing this i think last summer
of the summer before Well, at this point we've got
like eighty guys over the summer in an Alpha course,

(19:20):
which is which is really fantastic, and so we've got
things going on all the time.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Well, we talked a little bit about your entrepreneurial spirit.
I guess we could call it with your vision seeing
the things that are going to come down the pike.
What about how would you describe maybe your leadership style?
What what? How does that permeate through the whole organization?

Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, well my leadership style is hire really good people
and let them go.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
You sound like my boss, Kurt.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, And and you know, I mean we talk about
vision and direction and parameters. But you know, if I
can hire builders who share the culture and the heart
heart of the organization, and whose hearts are in the
right place and I can trust them, then they can build.

(20:07):
And so I think hiring builders is a big part
of that, but also hiring builders with character, because builders
without character can get you into a lot of trouble.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
Well, it's like my favorite leadership guy, Mark Miller, former
Chick fil A VP. He talks about leadership character and
leadership skills and he puts it in an iceberg and
ten percent is the skills above the water, and ninety
percent is the character below the water. It's such a great.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Compagency without character will will bring death and destruction.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yes, it will well over your life. Then Chris who influences,
family or friends, or teachers, professors, other entrepreneurs who might
we target there that would be an influence.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
My influences over the years, Oh gosh, they're too numerous
to count, you know, I read a lot, and so
there are you know. I mean we were talking to
about John Maxwell. There are other pastors, ones that I know,
ones that I don't, whose books I've read. You know,
I have to say my father has been a big

(21:15):
influence in my life.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
He thinks that's the number one influence. We hear he
was either mother or father on this ship.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yeah, and he was. He's an entrepreneur at heart, and
you know, started a business here and Wheeling in the
seventies doing payroll software called it was a business called
DP Consulting. Actually met next door in what is now
the Mall Center, used to be the Holly Building, And
interestingly enough, he spent a stint in the corner we

(21:44):
call it the Bridge room at our building across the street.
That was office space back in those days. But they
developed one of the key payroll softwares in the country
at that point in time out of Wheeling, West Virginia,
and sold that, you know, and that was the nineteen seven,
you know, seventies and eighties. So and he was a salesperson,

(22:04):
so he you know, he had the vision for the software,
got the team together, built it, and went out and
sold it all over the country.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, and I wanted to mention earlier. I just thought
it was funny this was kind of going back, just
for second, the fact that that was the children's museum,
and you think of a museum as a place where
there's just you know, all these things of historical Now
it's back in action, right ye as the children's academy,
So just to I just find that kind of very interesting.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, and it's so fun We have right now we
are licensed for three hundred and twenty one children. Wow,
at any one time. We have about one hundred and
fifteen in the program at the moment, so we're instill
in the ramp up mode. You know, it takes time
to build, but just even with that number of kids,
the vibrancy in the life that it brings to this

(22:49):
corner of town is amazing. There's a playground outside. We
designed it as a natural play environment, so it feels
like you're walking out into the forest in the middle
of downtown. But you know, the comments that we get
from people driving by. It's just brings a smile to
your face to see little kids just having joy and whimsy.
Oh you know, in the middle of downtown Wheeling. And

(23:12):
it's still.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
See more of that kind of popping up all around
town after the streetscape's done, and all the other entrepreneurs
that are working hard to make things happen here. It's
really great to see.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, it brings a lot of life to the to
town in this corner of town. I mean, just to
speak to that, you know, with with what's going to
happen next door, with the visitor center of the welcome center,
with when the capital is gorgeous, what the what the
carl brothers did with the bridge is amazing. I mean,
it's just a wonderful venue. Should be packed out all

(23:43):
the time, and I think it will be. I think
we've got what we have in downtown is we've got
five to seven years of don't go down there, you're
gonna get a flat tire and there's no place to park.
And so we have behavior patterns set. Everybody goes to
Highlands or Saint Clairsville, and so getting people to come
back downtown, and there are things to do back downtown

(24:06):
that's gonna take a little bit of time. Hyeah intentionality,
I think from the city, from the chamber and everyone else.
Once that's established, this is one of the if you've
been down here in the evening with the bridge lit
and we have the plaza lit behind us with string lights,
this is gonna be one of the coolest places to
hang out anywhere. It's just beautiful. It's really stunning, it

(24:27):
really is.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
And then when you throw in things like I still
cannot believe the quality of symphony that we have here.
I talk about that all the time, and I always
tell the folks in economic development, city count whoever said,
if you're gonna start bringing investors in, if you're gonna
bring like a familiarzation tours, even for conferences, whatever, make
sure you do it over a symphony weekend. Because if
people go there or even get up there and see

(24:48):
what they're doing at Wheeling Park, the Strings program, all
the things that are happening here for people to bring
their businesses, move their families, or even if it is
just tourism related, there's so many great things here that
people need to know about.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
Absolutely and it's still affordable, which is huge because as
I talked to friends and people around the country, it's
becoming pretty pretty unaffordable to live in a lot of places.
But this is an affordable community and it is rich
with art, history and opportunity.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
Parks, recreation, great education, and great churches. There you go.
Main thing I like to ask at the very end
of Chris is kind of that tough lesson you had
to learn, hardship you've gone through that's helped fashion who
you are, made who you are, that helps you maybe
look at at leadership or life or work through a
different lens. Is there one particular thing like that, a

(25:43):
combination of things what maybe has been a tough lesson
learned or a challenge that the Lord got you through.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah. Probably the biggest lesson I've learned along the way
is the people around you matter the most. You know,
if you have people again that you can trust, that
are motivated and want to you know, are in this
to to make a difference, and they genuinely love you

(26:14):
and you genuinely love them, that's a really good life.
Oh yeah, and uh, and I'm just very blessed to
have a wonderful team that makes coming to work a joy,
you know, and that's not always been the case. You know,
getting the right people on the bus, so to speak,
and then getting them in the right seats on the bus,

(26:34):
I think is as far as leadership and leading an organization,
maybe short of the spiritual lessons, maybe the most important
lesson I've learned along the way.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Yeah, and you know, the other last question I like
to ask is advice for aspiring either CEO's leaders entrepreneur.
Sounds like that answer fits that question as well, you know,
surrounding yourself with the right people on the bus, if
you're if you're growing an organization, or if you're like
you found yourself as the interim, you found yourself then
as the as the lead pastor.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah, I think that's the other thing. The other lesson
I guess now that you you say that, that that
jumps to mind is whatever you do, do it with
all your heart. You know, if you bloom where you're
planted and you'll work hard and you do what you
do with excellence, more opportunities open before you. And I'll
come back to the ice cream on that.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, So, but that's a ice cream is a great
way to well.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Ice cream is a great way to end end the podcast. So, uh,
you know, we set out initially we hadn't even had
ice cream on our radar. There's a have a friend
in town who used to make ice cream, and he's like,
you really need to do ice cream. You really need
to do ice cream. And I've always kind of secretly
wanted to make ice cream. And you know, CEOs and

(27:49):
pastors for sure, I think always have a dream of
something that that isn't such a weighty responsibility.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
I'm a little lighter now.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
I want to go on a hot dog cart or
I want to go make ice cream or whatever. And
so I love Greaters ice cream. They're out of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Very expensive, but oh it's so good. I mean, I'm
a big fan. And I thought, well, maybe we could
sell Greaters ice cream. And because it's just such a

(28:19):
high quality, wonderful product and it's ice cream, right, it's
ice cream. And and when I found it, started learning
about making ice cream, like, let's make something better than Greaters.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
And through down the gauntlet.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
Well we set out to and I you know, I
haven't we haven't had an ab taste test yet, and
we're we're still going you know, and we're just we're
just getting started. But we made our first sixteen flavors.
I'd say fourteen of them are as good as or
better than greaters, and we got quality products. We made
sure the flavors were right. But if you're going to

(28:52):
do something, to do it with excellence and people will
come and uh and it will grow and it will
take on a life of it its own. And so
you know, whether it's the food we're making over there,
the ice cream that we're putting out, or the way
we do church on Sunday morning, we're going to do
it with all our heart. We're going to put you know,
I mean, we don't claim to be the best at

(29:14):
anything in the world. We're going to do the best
we can and put out an excellent, excellent product and
hopefully blessed people in the in the process and they'll
come and be a part of it.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
Now, the cafe is open. Is it open every day? Right?

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Every day? Yeah? Sundays it's I think seven thirty to two.
The rest of the week, I believe it's six thirty
to nine. Because of the ice cream, we're staying open
and creaming open a little more.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, that's good. And then as far as that into
or the church website, how would people get in touch
with you?

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yeah, the easiest way to get ahold of us is
Newbridge Church dot us our website, Newbridge Church dot us
and yeah, you can track us down from there.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
Yeah, all right. But on the corner is the cafe
where the ice cream is. If you're coming downtown, you're
gonna drive right by it, that's right.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
And I do want your listeners to know they've started
enforcing the two hour free parking, which means finally there
is parking. So if you got down the change, Yeah,
if you come down, you can park by the bridge.
I think there's four spots by the suspension bridge, and
all along main street in front of the Doris and

(30:23):
the Bridge Bar, there's spots there. There's spots in front
of our or not directly in front of our building,
but just down from our building, so you can get here.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
And if anyone came in and drank coffee and ate
ice cream for two hours, they need to visit their cardiologists.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
They probably do, or at least the bathroom at times.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Oh man, Chris, thanks so much for coming in. It's
been great to talk with you. Get just a little
bit of flavor, no pun intended, of everything that's going
on and all that you're doing. We look forward to
maybe having you back in a year or so and
see what else may be going on.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
All right, I appreciate it, Mike, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah, you've been listening to CEOs. You should know. I'm
your host, Mike Howard, Chief Operating Officer of the Wheeling
Area Chamber of Commerce. Are sponsored by West Banco, our
good friends at the banks of West Banco. I think
over two hundred strong now to going strong and going great,
just like another business in Wheeling. So we appreciate you
being with us and we'll catch you next time on CEOs.
You should know.