Manhattan Site

I am preparing to launch JOY's third site in Manhattan. For those who wonder why we would want to do that, I write this blog entry. A year and a half ago, we began looking for a second site to provide room for growth. That search led to the Edgewater Site. However, what began as a simple search for physical room to grow led to a total paradigm shift of how we would do church. As the congregation prayed for one month concerning the decision to have a second site, God began to give us confirmations via many people. One verse particularly struck me: "Jesus went through every city and village, preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God" (Luke 8:1). This is a most simple verse describing Jesus' ministry, but it struck me hard. Until then my paradigm of doing church was : build it as large as you can and have people come to you. However, this verse showed a different picture: Go where people are and build churches. Jesus did not put up a large tent and gathered people from all over the country; he went to people and preached the gospel. Thus, before we launched the Edgewater Site, we had changed how we would go forward. We would look for places where churches are needed--especially places where concentrations of Asian-Americans live without Asian-American church presence--and build churches. As we started the Edgewater service, we were already planning for the third site for the fall of 2009.

I thought the third site would be near Parsippany. I never thought of going into NYC. What a wild idea! How daunting it looked. However, some people shared with me their impressions from God that the third site would be in NYC. These were unsolicited; therefore, I began to mull over this possibility and inquired what other people, especially those who live in NYC, thought. The responses were enthusiastic: "We need JOY in NYC. People want to come to JOY but cannot because it is in NJ," etc. Thus, we began seriously thinking, and it made more and more sense that the third site would be in Manhattan--where massive number of Asian-Americans live with limited church presence. Julie and I also visited the Redeemer Church and The Journey Church and came back more convinced that JOY will have a role to play in NYC.

The Manhattan site launch will not be as Edgewater launch. It will be much more limited. Edgewater launch was a passive structural change: 70-80 people coming out to start a new service. For Manhattan site, I expect 20-30 from JOY to come out. While Edgewater was a like division of forces in half, Manhattan will be like sending a special force.

Therefore, we are looking for mission-minded people, people who look forward to the hard work of tilling a new soil, people who want to begin something for the sake of many. Already a good number of mission-minded people have signed up. If you are interested, please let me know. We need people who will lead TLC's, ministries, and worship band (for worship band, please talk to Kevin Jun if interested kevinjun@gmail.com) . If not, please assist us with prayer that many will be brought to God's Kingdom through this new site.

We will be duplicating what we are already doing at Tenafly and Edgewater. I think the service will begin at 4:30pm, somewhere midtown. I will preach. TLC will take place immediately following the service, just as at Tenafly and Edgewater.