Reaching Out
We determined from the beginning to try to strike a biblical balance between "inreach" and outreach. Knowing that Emmanuel's draw for many was the sense of belonging and warmth that a small church enjoys, we kept trying to lean against self-absorption.

Through frequent personal stories and resistance to religious lingo in our preaching, we sought to keep our public worship accessible to inquirers. We set up our Community Relations Team whose task was to define for us a local mission and to implement at least one initiative. At Christmas 2000 we took a special offering that enabled us to send water treatment kits to 1400 third world children, most of whom are constantly at risk due to water-borne disease. At about the same time we set up a prayer table on the sidewalk near church one Sunday afternoon and offered prayer for any passersby who desired it.

On Christmas 2001 fifty of us went caroling through the neighborhood after worship (what follows is from the January newsletter):

On December 16 we held our second annual Service of lessons and Carols to a packed house. In my message I said, among other things, that God's choice to become a carpenter ratified the holiness of all creativity. And the beauty, excellence and variety of the music God gave us through our church family on that occasion proved the truth of that observation. A string quartet opened. We heard a contemporary setting of the Magnificat and Frank's traditional setting of "O Holy Night", both exquisitely rendered. A violin duet graced us with a movement from Bach's double violin concerto, a vocal ensemble performed "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree" brilliantly, and a jazz guitar duet jamming "Go Tell it on the Mountain" brought the house down. Following the benediction we all rose and sang the Halleluia Chorus stirringly accompanied by our organist. So fired up were we that about 50 of us went caroling together afterwards on Broadway, bringing cheer and handing out "Finding God in New York", a presentation of the gospel I had recently written. Our caroling took us to numerous restaurants and to the local Fire Station where we were invited in. We ended singing in front of one of the libraries at Columbia. Along the way I met Juanita, a Columbia grad student who latched on to us as we walked the streets. I handed her "Finding God" and then, noticing her tears, asked if I could pray for her. I have no idea what was troubling her but it was a great joy to commend her to God's care. Please pray that God will keep sending "Juanitas" our way.

During 2001 we also established our Mercy Fund, whose resources we distributed to members and friends of our church family. Though we had little space for children's ministry and only a few very small children, we hired Jennifer Billings as our part-time Coordinator of Children's Ministries in the fall of 2001 in order to spearhead our ministry to families in the area. Our 2001 children's Christmas party drew a remarkably diverse socio-economic group of local families.

In the fall we offered our first membership class and thirty were received as charter members the first Sunday of November, one year after we had begun regularly worshipping together. Throughout the year weekly attendance climbed steadily, from an average of 80 in January 2001 to about 100 in January 2002. Though we spiked to 146 on September 9 and to over 170 the Sunday following 9/11, we did not have the space or infrastructure to retain such numbers. Students continued to comprise a significant portion (about 1/3) of our worshipers. We enjoyed a steady stream of people from overseas, as the following newsletter excerpt indicates:

Following worship one recent Sunday (in January 2001), I spoke in succession with three people. One (Tim) was a native of Singapore who attended Yale as an undergraduate and is now at Columbia Law School. He made a point of coming up to introduce himself and interact appreciatively about the sermon. The second (Yemi) was a Nigerian doing a PhD in art history at Columbia, with whom I had already enjoyed a lively discussion on another occasion about the arts and evangelism. He asked for a copy of the sermon to share with a friend. The third (Ying) was a young woman from a city deep in the center of mainland China pursuing graduate work in sociology, also at Columbia. A week or so later my wife Jeannie and I joined Ying and a mutual friend for dinner at a local restaurant followed by dessert at our uptown apartment, where we talked at great length about her many questions regarding the Christian faith.

It would mislead you to suggest that these three friends represent the whole, or even the major, constituency of Emmanuel Church. They do not. But they do represent a significant and strategic group in the community where God has placed us, and it delights me immensely that God is bringing folks like this to us. We impact the world, and not simply Morningside Heights, through such friends. Please keep praying for us.