NYC Newsletter #2

This newsletter was originally sent June 19, 2011. Thank You! Thank you for taking the time to read this update and to pray for us.  Many of you have joined our email list over the past month and have committed to praying for us.  The rest of you have apparently not blocked us from your inbox...and for that we are grateful as well! In all seriousness, we cannot tell you how much it means to us to know that we have brothers and sisters who are interceding for us before the throne of grace.  We know that we are unequal to the task of planting a church in NYC for the glory of Christ in all nations.  But we also know that our sovereign God delights in glorifying Himself by answering the prayers of His people.  So please continue to pray.  Pray for God to establish His kingdom in NYC and in all nations.  What have we been doing for the past month? The past month has been crazy...in a really good way.  On June 5, we officially announced our intention to plant a church in NYC to our faith family at Brook Hills.  Honestly, we have been a bit overwhelmed with the response we have seen.  We have been meeting with individuals, families, and small groups who are praying about how they might be able to partner with us to make disciples of all nations by making disciples in NYC.  We have also gotten some interest from individuals and churches in other areas of the country and are exploring the possibilities of partnering with them.  In other words, God is doing some pretty amazing things.  We are not always sure what exactly He is doing, but we are excited to find out! We have also launched our NYC church planting web page that is hosted on the Brook Hills website.  Here you will find a video that some of our communications staff helped us put together about our vision for planting in NYC, as well as some other helpful information.  The address is www.brookhills.org/nyc.   What do the next few months look like? We have learned over the past month that God often has other plans than we at first perceive.  We initially thought that we would be moving to NYC in August.  However, we really feel that because of the tremendous interest we are seeing from our people at Brook Hills, it would be wise for us to stick around for a few more months in order to develop our church planting team here. So, here's what that looks like: Over the next month and a half (through the end of July), we will be meeting with potential team members, speaking at small groups, and traveling to various churches around the country to explore how we might partner with individuals and churches. In early August, we will begin meeting as a group with those who are considering moving to NYC.  Lord willing, after 2-3 months of building the team, Traci and I will move to NYC, and our team members will join us as they are able to relocate.  How can you pray? Our most pressing need at this moment is for God to send out laborers into His harvest with us (Mt. 9:38).  Please pray with us that God would raise up mature, godly brothers and sisters who have a heart for the glory of Christ in NYC and all nations to move to NYC.  Obviously, this means a major life transition for them, so pray that God would provide for them as they seek jobs in NYC and work through the logistics of relocating.  We will be updating you more on the development of the church planting team and letting you know more specific ways to pray in the near future. What else can you do? As you ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest, we would also ask you to consider whether you are one of those laborers that He is sending to NYC.  It may be that God has begun to give you a passion to make disciples of all nations by making disciples in NYC.  We would love to connect with you and explore that possibility. As we stated above, we are also exploring the possibility of partnering with other local churches outside of Brook Hills.  If you think that your local church, or some members of your local church, would be interested in what God is doing in NYC, we would love to connect with you.  Please feel free to contact us so that we can think and pray together about how we might be able to see the kingdom of Christ advanced in NYC and to the ends of the earth. Thanks again for taking the time to read this e-mail.  Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you might have for us. Blessings in Christ, josh and traci "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, now and forever. Amen" (Eph. 3:20-21)