LETTER FROM NYC LAUNCH TEAM

October 2006, New York City

Dear Friends of New York Mission:

In August 2002 my wife and I moved to New York City with the express purpose of working with Samir Selmanovic to develop a new and relevant urban ministry.  We quit our jobs, sold our cars, and gave up the lease on our apartment in Connecticut.  Why would we take such an enormous risk?  Because we had heard the gospel preached by Samir and it finally sounded like good news to us, news worth acting upon, worth taking a risk for.

Through Samir’s teaching we came to understand the gospel as something beyond an intellectual idea that wins us salvation after we die.  The good news is so much more:  a call to partner with God in the work of overcoming evil with good and a promise that through this shared labor, good will ultimately prevail.  This gospel message interacts powerfully with all the major issues of our day, including war, poverty, climate change, homosexuality, health care, race, gender, and others.  What more vital or exciting work could there be than to develop an urban ministry that seeks to discover and embody the good with regard to these essential issues?  And what better place to develop that ministry than New York City, a hub of communication that shapes the way people across the continent think about these issues.

Samir is ideally suited to lead such a project, and many of us who have already invested a good chunk of our lives and fortunes in New York are eagerly waiting for him to get here.  At least ten of us will make up the core team that will work with Samir to launch this new ministry.  Among us is a hospital administrator, a high school teacher, a computer systems salesman, a non-profit project manager, a dental hygienist, a doctor, and a fashion designer.  All of us know Samir because he spent six years pastoring a church in Manhattan from 1996-2002.  We know he has the tools to succeed here.  Samir is smart and well-educated, which is essential to connect with a population that’s incredibly sophisticated, well-informed, and socially mobile.  He loves the city and its people, and I don’t mean in some overly spiritualized way; he genuinely loves being with people and hearing their stories.  He is rooted in the core teachings and principles of our faith, but at the same time he is also flexible and innovative, the ideal agent to connect lifelong Christians and spiritual explorers.  He is inventive and resourceful and will find ways to be effective.  He also comes equipped with a well-developed network of friends and professional contacts, beyond the core team, who are poised to lend their talents to this new endeavor.  Developing a new church in New York City is not an easy task and few people have the full complement of skills required to succeed.  We have full confidence that Samir has what it takes.

Today institutional Christianity is sliding from its privileged position in American life, and younger generations continue to decide that the Church is irrelevant.  Many flee to New York, long considered a refuge for free thinking and the exchange of new ideas.  A church that can win a hearing for the gospel in this place is a church that will continue to have relevance for emerging generations.  New York is the epi-center of the emerging urban postmodern culture, the center of television and communications, fashion, financial markets, art, and global diplomacy.  Trends start here and spread outward from here.  Partnering with God to do good in this place can have a ripple effect throughout the whole world. 

If you want to help proclaim the gospel for emerging generations, join us by investing in this unique adventure with your finances, your prayers, and your voices.  Share our vision with the people within your network and invite them to participate as well.  The mission is not only to faraway lands; the mission is here, among us.  There is no reason to wait a day longer.  Have we been waiting for someone to make a difference?  That someone is all of us.

In gratitude for your support and with great expectancy,

Robert Darken, Lynette Darken, and the New York Launch Team