And, you might be wondering, where have we been? 

Well, here. 

Normally we spend some time each summer traveling and seeing many of our ministry partners around the country. That was not the case this summer, however. 

Over the past year Grace has experienced more transition than normal for an organization our size. We saw an above average number of people move away because of jobs and family, we transitioned to a new Lead Pastor, we unexpectedly had to move locations, and, with the new location we’ve had to change our strategy for outreach and growth. It’s been a lot to say the least. 

So, this summer we made the difficult decision to stay here to serve the efforts we’ve had going on. 

Upon moving into our new location we quickly discovered that we were right across the street from a large grant housing complex called the Amsterdam Houses. We prayed and were able to connect with some key relationships who invited us in to hear about the needs of the people who live there. 

We were able to sit in on their monthly community meetings which led us to partner with residents who put up flyers for our Mother’s Day service. We gave out free family portraits to all moms and their family. The response was bigger than we had anticipated. 

We also partnered with a local coffee shop to give away coffee and let people know about our Easter Service. It was encouraging to meet a local business man who was excited about what we were doing and eager to help. 

We also connected with a local man who runs an organization called Positive Influence reaching and empowering youth to make positive decisions in life. It was through this relationship that we were asked to serve at the Amsterdam Houses Family Day (think a big community celebration day along the lines of a fall festival… but during the summer…). 

Grace was able to provide a bounce house for the kids to play in, give away a brand new HDTV, and get to know people in the neighborhood. It was an incredibly encouraging day to see people from Grace come out and serve others that live right across the street from where we meet!

We’re encouraged and thankful for all that God has done this summer. 

But, when will you see us? We’re planning to make our way down to Florida this Christmas and hope to see as many of you as possible during that time. And, before that we’ll give each of you a call in the next couple of months to catch up and give you a more personal update. 

We hope to talk to you all very soon!

Early this past year we announced that we’d have a new Lead Pastor for our church as our founding Pastor, David Whitehead, handed the church over to Jason James. That was a 6+ month process that culminated in September with a 10 year anniversary celebration (watch the 10 year video)for our church and handoff to Jason.

Shortly after Jason took the reigns he and I sat in a meeting with our current leasing location who informed us that they were increasing our rent by 500%. We trusted in the provision of our Savior and announced it to our church before we even knew where we’d be going. And Jesus was more than faithful.

Tomorrow morning Grace turns the page as we begin to meet at Public School 452 just a couple of blocks away from our previous location.

PS 452 Auditorium where we’ll be meeting…

In typical God like fashion, (as I’ve heard said), He wasn’t early, and He wasn’t late, He was right on time. We came down to literally the final day when the school contacted us that we had been approved to meet in their facility.

As we move the reality of New York becomes very evident. We’re only moving about 2.5 blocks away. And yet, in a 2.5 block distance we find that we’re moving from a predominantly white neighborhood (90+%) to a much more diverse setting. In only 2.5 blocks the white population drops to 60% and we’ll now be directly across the street from the projects. What’s amazing is that before we even knew where we were going God began to move on our hearts the desire to have a multicultural expression from our church. What an amazing and beautiful God we serve.

As we look ahead we of course have dreams of what God might do. Our guess, though, is that His dreams for us far overshadow any dreams we could have. He knows that neighborhood better than any of us do. He knows the people better than any of us do (and this includes our congregants who live in that area!). He knows us better than we do.

A scripture we often remind ourselves of as a staff comes from Proverbs 16:9, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”

That’s our heart as we move into this new facility tomorrow morning. We’re eager to plan and dream, but, in all things we want to point to Jesus and His wonderful ways for our lives and our church.

Please pray for us as we dive into this new adventure for our church! And, we covet your prayers for our family as well as Helena developed a fever today and we’ve had to get a sitter for tomorrow morning. And, as this incredibly cold weather (we haven’t experienced anything this extreme since moving here!) persists I’ve developed some pretty bad congestion as well. All that to say, please pray for our church and our family. We desperately need God’s healing, His wisdom, and His guidance as He writes our future on the landscape of New York City.

We’re incredibly blessed to have you all in our lives and our ministry here in NYC. We pray for you that today would be filled with family and friends, joy and peace, hope and rest. Most of all, though, we pray that the presence of our Savior would fill your lives today as we celebrate God coming to earth for us.

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upond his shoulder,
and his name shall be callede
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.

{ Isaiah 9:2, 6-7 }

Blessings,

The Gilland Family

PS – We have a new location for our church! More on that later this week, though… Today, we pause…

As many of you know, renting space for a church in NYC requires nothing short of needing a miracle. The size of the congregation rarely matches the cost of what you actually need to get into a space that fits your congregation. So, it’s nothing short of a miracle when you find a place that works.

Grace has been meeting in a YMCA here in NYC for a little over 6 years now. A couple of weeks ago, however, we were called into a meeting with the Y’s directors in which we were informed that our rent was being raised 500% (yes, that’s unfortunately legal) beginning January 1st.

So, we announced to our church yesterday that December 31st would be our final Sunday at the Y…

…and that we don’t know where we’ll be going from here. 

My initial reaction to all of this was that the enemy was attacking and trying to take us out. However, the more that we’ve (Jess and I and the team at Grace) prayed about this and looked to God together, we can’t help but see this as God at work. We believe that God is moving us to be a blessing to our city in a new way.

While it’s amazing to follow God in these moments and to realize that he’s leading us to even more effectively serve our city, it’s also a time to pray and seek God on our behalf.

So, as we find ourselves in the best place to be, on our knees in need of God to answer us, would you join us as we pray for the next place that God might be bringing Grace in our city?

We’ll keep you updated as we learn more!

Thanks for praying with us in this big moment for our church!!!

Current and past attenders of Grace came out to celebrate together!

People from our Grace East Queens Campus celebrating as a community.

Praying over and sending out Pastor Dave and praying over and setting in Pastor Jason. A beautiful moment in our church’s history.

Pastor Dave & Kathleen (founding Pastors of Grace) and the new Lead Pastor Jason James and his wife Jyothi.

We moved up 8 years ago after a conversation with Dave where he invited us to come be a part of the team. Pretty amazing.

As we celebrated our 10 year weeding anniversary, we joked that we were grateful for Grace throwing us the most amazing 10 Year anniversary party ever!