Church Plant Moving Forward

The following is an email I sent out today to all of our Sunday brunch attendees, as well as some other supporters:

Dear All,

In my last brunch email, I wrote that we are moving into a new phase of the church plant. For those of you who were not with us on Sunday, here is what we discussed:

Over our first 10 brunches, we have had over 50 different people in attendance, over 35 of them twice or more, and there is palpable sense that God is doing something good in our midst. Amazingly, this has all happened purely by word of mouth.

After spending some time in conversation with my church planting mentors, both in NYC and elsewhere, it seems time to move into a
new phase. Over the past few months we have been gathering together those with some interest in being part of new church in Manhattan. Although we will continue this gathering in the coming months and years, it is now time to begin forming a core group of people who are interested in shaping the vision and values that will guide the growth of our new church.

The rationale behind this group is to build a common sense of purpose, as well as mutual affection, as we move towards launching public worship services a few months down the road. This group will meet twice a month even as we continue with our weekly Sunday brunches.

I will be in touch with you over the next few weeks about the formation of this "vision group" and I invite any of you who may be interested to participate.

We have had a very encouraging start to this endeavor and I look forward to what God has in store for the future!

rj