These are difficult times for Christian communities in places formerly known as "Christendom."  Although the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is bringing about numerical growth among the churches in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, many of the Christian communities in North America and Europe have seen a steady decline in membership and missional commitment.

   The causes of this phenomenon are many, and they deserve our attention and analysis, but the greater challenge we face as followers of Christ in the more secularized and "developed" nations of the world is whether we can gain a renewed vision of what it means to be faithful to God's call to mission in our own communities.

    This is the challenge we face in the Metro New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Chruch in America. The future of our ministry as the Church in the metropolitan New York area will depend on our ability to develop a new approach and new resources for providing leadership for congregations. The conventional style of pastoral leadership developed in the Middle Ages in Christendom based on the principle of "one parish, one priest,"  is clearly becoming more and more the exception than the norm for leading local ministry in the work of fulfilling the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    This change in our assumptions about what constitutes a "normal" form of local congregational ministry is not bad, however. It could be seen as a "call to repentance" if it awakens us to the fact that all of the baptized followers of Jesus share responsibility for carrying out God's mission. This may be God's way of bringing about a renewed vision and commitment to using the rich resources God has already provided us in creating new, "fresh expressions" and forms of ministry that address the needs of people more effecftively.

      Because we serve in a community that is blessed with a tremendous, growing multi-cultural and ethnic population, we have a commitment that extends beyond the Metropolitan New York area and even beyond the United States.

      We are seeking ways to engage in creative partnerships with Christians throughout this country as well as from other nations who share our commitment to Christ. We have many gifts we can share with others, and we have much to learn from others. Collaboration between Christians around the world is now mor possible than ever thanks to resources such as the internet.

      In this website we will provide resources that we hope will stimulate your creativity and support your ministry where God has placed you.

      This web site will provide an opportunity for us to share our growing awareness of the ways God is at work among us. We invite your comments, questions and insights as we work on creating "a new way of being church" by using the gifts God has given us to develop collaborative ministries.