Hello TGC Family,

The quick headline is we are not able to have access to MS 51 this weekend and are going to be moving our location and service time this Sunday September 17th. Our worship gathering will be at 5pm at Greenwood Baptist Church* on 7th Ave between 5th and 6th St. (461 6th St, Brooklyn, NY 11215 – right across from Barnes and Noble).  Full kids program will be offered. 

It is less than ideal to have to move again after so many weeks of disruption in August, but we are very grateful to Greenwood and their hospitality to host us on such short notice. This has been a kind of baffling time with our rental arrangement at MS 51 (more about that in a moment), but I have been truly encouraged by how our church family and leadership has rallied to the challenge and still managed to gather for worship and life together in the midst of all these unexpected changes. We are in the middle of sharing about our most essential vision as a church and so much of that comes back to trusting God. We have another chance to live that out together. 

Some explanation:

After receiving news Wednesday that we could not be in the school this weekend I was able to get over to MS 51 and sit down with the principal and head custodian. In our 13 years of renting at MS 51 we have not had a series of Sundays like this where we have had to be out of the building so often and I wanted to check on the status of our relationship and arrangement. The good news is the both the principal and head custodian are happy to have us at the school and are displeased with having had to ask us to be out all these weeks. The situation is made difficult because the work being done on the school is much needed but the school does not hire the contractors. They are hired by the DOE and the school is not made aware of when they will be showing up until they do. So on Wednesday they got news the company would be doing the work this weekend and passed this information on to us. According to the contractors this is the last weekend this fall they will be working on the weekend with one additional week possibly in the new year once some supplies arrive that have been ordered. 

This may be more information that any of us really need but it was a load off my mind to realize the school is glad to host us and our relationship is good. These are unfortunate circumstances for us, but I was assured the principal and custodian understand our needs and the burden it puts on our church to keep moving on such short notice. Despite the difficulty I left the meeting encouraged.

We may still have to deal with some of this in the future, but hopefully not for quite a while. In the meantime let’s keep praying for God to provide a more permanent building for our church family!

Hope to see you Sunday for evening church!!

Peace.

Caleb Clardy 

*We are still waiting on the last piece of approval from their board.