One Single Step - Our First Worship Gathering

"A journey of a thousand miles begin with one step."

Our lives are filled with examples of this truth. Katie and I celebrated 20 years of marriage this year and it all began on our first date on October 20, 1989. We now have two teenagers in our house and that journey began on PJ's birthday, April 10, 1998. Last night will hopefully be another one of those meaningful nights in our lives. On Sunday, February 17th we held our first worship gathering in connection with New City Church.

In our initial planning we were not anticipating having any type of worship service until at least this fall. However as I would introduce myself to people in our community as a new pastor in town of a new church they would always ask, "Where do you meet?"

Also over the last month we have connected with a number of other believers that are relatively new to NYC as well. Many of them are like us in that they have moved to NYC to plant a church. Others are praying about what God has in mind for them in this city. But one of the ideas that continued to be raised was creating a place for believers going through similar issues to gather together for prayer and encouragement.

So, we began to pray about beginning a monthly service that would meet both of these needs. We would have a place to invite new friends that we are making in Long Island City and we would have a place for believers to gather together and pray for one another. We shared this idea with a number of people and got commitments form three other families to be there. We made plans to rent the community room of our apartment building and began to invite others. And then God did some amazing things.

As we began to plan we knew we needed 3 things: a worship leader, $300 to reserve our community room, and people to come. In less that a week from deciding to do this here is what happened: one of our new friends Trey and Caitlin, who are gifted worship leaders, volunteered to lead worship, a local organization donated $300 to us to cover the cost of the facility rental, and 15 people committed to come to our first service.

Even with God answering such specific prayers, I'll be honest I was a little nervous heading into our worship gathering last night. Fears like, will anyone come, will they enjoy what we are doing, will we honor God in our gathering, all began to creep into my mind. But God in his faithfulness set aside those fears.

Last night we had 19 people join us for worship. It was an amazing time of celebration, Bible study, music and prayer. God brought a real sense of community among those who came. I could not have imagined a better first step on the journey of a thousand miles!

Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support. It overwhelms us every time we hear someone say that they are praying for us.