6/25/2008

What an amazing, fun day we had! Last Sunday was Prayer and Worship Sunday at Bridgeway and the church spent the entire morning rallying around Jessica and I to send us off to New York City. If you were not there, let me paint a picture of what the morning was like as if you had been there…

1. First, you walked in the front door to see a giant tunnel made by Crystal Partee and Su Crawford in the likes of the Lincoln Tunnel. It was so cool with it’s traffic cones, lights on the inside and fantastically painted facade. It was like being in the real thing except much shorter and without the nasty truck fumes. Thank you Crystal and Su! Uh-mazing!

2. Second, you proceeded into the sanctuary where your ears meet the sounds of buskers (street performers) spread around the room making all kinds of beautiful racket. On the East side Dustin Ragland was beating up some buckets with some chewed up drum sticks, Chris Clark was playing away on his viola and Isaac Elliot was shredding up his electric guitar. On the center aisle and west side we had Jaime Cochran singing and playing with his guitar, Pete Miller drumming on a djembe, and Chris Jurrens crankin’ out some vibes on his bass guitar. And finally in the center of the room we had a group of young girls signing to Amazing Grace being played by Catherine Gikas.

THANKS TO ALL THE BUSKERS FOR MAKING IT SUCH A FUN MORNING!!!

3. That scene went on for about 10 minutes until we moved into our first prayer movement. At that point everyone gravitated toward their nearest busker, each of which had a sign with a certain prayer topic, and we all prayed out loud simultaneously for that topic. We prayed for NYC Churches, Families, Poor and Homeless, the Wealthy Elite, Students, Artists and the Nations all in NYC.

4. Then everyone took their seats and Jessica and I took some time to share our heart and vision for the churchplant in NYC. We talked about our passion to see Jesus do for New Yorkers what he has done for us outlined in Matthew 28:11-20. Take a moment to read it. We talked about our desire to Jesus make an exchange with New Yorkers, a “burden exchange.” So many people all over experience the heavy burdens of life and endure them without the life-changing relief that God gives through Jesus. In our experience, the lost in New York tend to be quite hardened and seemingly self-sufficient on the outside, but often times barely surviving and desperate for life on the inside. I realize that’s quite a general, blanket statement, but again it has been our experience as we have been allowed to get to know people in NYC. Our burdens are painfully heavy, but Christ’s burdens are wonderfully light and easy to bear.

We also briefly talked about the issue of identity that we all tend to confuse from time to time. My identity is first and foremost that I am a son of God. I know this because God has made a lasting covenant with me through his son, Jesus. I would describe how that looks in my everyday like this: Everything he has belongs to me, and everything I have belongs to him. My time, my thoughts, my money, my talents, my family, my possessions, everything I have is his. Likewise I in turn receive EVERYTHING I could possibly need AND he gives me the desires of my heart. Therefore I find my identity not in being a singer, though I have a degree in Vocal Performace. I am not even primarily known to God as a churchplanter or missionary or whatever you want to call it. Those are things I DO in response to WHO I AM. Now picture a highly competitive environment in any field imagineable and tell me how difficult it would be to endure such a place without truly knowing who you are. That’s the battle New Yorkers face daily. They need Jesus. I need Jesus. We ALL need Jesus.

After Jessica and I discussed this we moved into the second prayer movement. Everyone got into groups of three and prayed for about 1 minute on these three things: 1) Matthew 11:28-30 “Burden Exchange” 2) Persons of Peace - people that would welcome us and the message we bring 3) Health and Longevity of the churchplant.

5. After that Jessica and I stood while the elders of Bridgeway gathered around us to pray prayers of commissioning and sending. People prayed that the love we have received from Christ would be evident to people around us in NYC and that they would be attracted by it. They prayed 1 Peter 5: 1-11 over us. They prayed for favor and authority and all kinds of other good prayers.

6. Then they took up an offering to send us off with. We were truly blessed by this. Thank you to all who gave.

7. And finally we celebrated with the Lord’s Supper and worship. Brad Kilman led us through 3 or 4 songs. Every time we gather as a body, worship is sweet and unique. This Sunday was no different. There was something exciting and powerful about singing praise and prayers with the body of believers God has placed you in for over ten years before you’re sent out with a vision to see someday in NYC what you see now (believers praising God for his billions of blessings).

What a day! Thanks again to everyone that put time and effort into the morning. We are especially thankful for everything that Crystal Partee, Annamrie Slater, Brad Kilman, all the Buskers, Lance Humphreys, Alex Absalom, and Sue Crawford did.

More to come…

Andy and Jessica