(ACTUAL DATE THIS WAS WRITTEN: 9/16/03)
I walked quite a bit today. I walked all over the downtown area. That’s not really true because downtown Manhattan is quite large but it seemed like I walked and walked and walked. There is an area of downtown (Wall St., John St., Fulton St., etc.) that is made up of tiny, skinny streets. Many of the streets don’t allow cars on them. They are filled with businesses large and small. Chase bank takes up an entire block and rises high to the sky while little businesses seem to survive in 500 sq. ft. rooms. These streets are packed with people. I also came across two old churches. One was a Methodist Church that claims to be the first Methodist Church in the USA (178?). The other, forgot its name, is also old. They both looked dead and empty. Maybe they thrive on Sunday mornings but my suspicions tell me otherwise. On my walk I prayed for a teammate(s) and for the residents and workers of the downtown area.
I proposed this morning to Tom Robinson, the Manhattan Church of Christ senior minister, that the downtown church plant has it’s first public Sunday worship in Sept. 2005. (Exactly two years from now.) My reasoning is twofold: to start in Jan 2005 (the other reasonable date) would mean that I only have 15 months to find a partner/teammate. That, to me, seems like a big task and might be hard to do in that amount of time. To start in Mar/Apr/May of 2005 would be to open doors right before the summer. The summers are deadly here in NYC. Not because of the heat but because everyone escapes the city for beaches or mountains on summer weekends. NYC is empty on weekends. NY churches are known to suffer attendance woes during the summer months. So it seemed logical to me to plant in Sept. ’05. Tom was understanding but hesitant because he is starting to get hungry for this church to be planted. (Interestingly, we had suddenly switched roles. In the beginning, I was the one hungry to start sooner rather than later and he was more cautious and would have liked later rather than sooner. Now the roles were reversed. It was interesting to me how this came about.)
As I walked the streets and continued to see an absence of churches; therefore, an absence of Christianity, I felt the need, the urge to plant in January 2005. It will be hard finding a teammate in 15 months but it can happen. God can make it happen. I’m no Super-Man. I’m no Super-Stud. I need help. I need a teammate.
Lord, send someone to NYC to help us plant this church. Amen.
I walked quite a bit today. I walked all over the downtown area. That’s not really true because downtown Manhattan is quite large but it seemed like I walked and walked and walked. There is an area of downtown (Wall St., John St., Fulton St., etc.) that is made up of tiny, skinny streets. Many of the streets don’t allow cars on them. They are filled with businesses large and small. Chase bank takes up an entire block and rises high to the sky while little businesses seem to survive in 500 sq. ft. rooms. These streets are packed with people. I also came across two old churches. One was a Methodist Church that claims to be the first Methodist Church in the USA (178?). The other, forgot its name, is also old. They both looked dead and empty. Maybe they thrive on Sunday mornings but my suspicions tell me otherwise. On my walk I prayed for a teammate(s) and for the residents and workers of the downtown area.
I proposed this morning to Tom Robinson, the Manhattan Church of Christ senior minister, that the downtown church plant has it’s first public Sunday worship in Sept. 2005. (Exactly two years from now.) My reasoning is twofold: to start in Jan 2005 (the other reasonable date) would mean that I only have 15 months to find a partner/teammate. That, to me, seems like a big task and might be hard to do in that amount of time. To start in Mar/Apr/May of 2005 would be to open doors right before the summer. The summers are deadly here in NYC. Not because of the heat but because everyone escapes the city for beaches or mountains on summer weekends. NYC is empty on weekends. NY churches are known to suffer attendance woes during the summer months. So it seemed logical to me to plant in Sept. ’05. Tom was understanding but hesitant because he is starting to get hungry for this church to be planted. (Interestingly, we had suddenly switched roles. In the beginning, I was the one hungry to start sooner rather than later and he was more cautious and would have liked later rather than sooner. Now the roles were reversed. It was interesting to me how this came about.)
As I walked the streets and continued to see an absence of churches; therefore, an absence of Christianity, I felt the need, the urge to plant in January 2005. It will be hard finding a teammate in 15 months but it can happen. God can make it happen. I’m no Super-Man. I’m no Super-Stud. I need help. I need a teammate.
Lord, send someone to NYC to help us plant this church. Amen.
posted by jch at
11:43 AM
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