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I am writing you this letter with a heavy heart. As you know, RevolutionNYC has been struggling financially for the last year. I know these are difficult times and we appreciate all those that have helped keep us afloat.

As of late, our situation has reached a critical level. I want to be honest with you about where we are.

1. We did not make payroll this pay period.

2. We are sending this email using our old server which runs out this month. We do not have the money to purchase a mailing list plan for the next newsletter.

3. At the rate we are going, we will not have enough fund to pay our internet server. If this happens we will not be able to continue the weekly podcasts that many of you enjoy.

These financial constraints have severely limited our ministry. It seems that our staff time is dedicated solely to keeping our basic operations going. We continue to minister to people both on line and here in Brooklyn, but we could do so much more if we didn’t have to worry about meeting our monthly bills. Most of our staff is volunteer, and Pastor Vince and I have salaries that are well below an average church salary. All of this, in one of the most expensive cities to live in. We run a bare bones operation. No health insurance. No office space. No expense accounts. Your donations go directly to the ministry of grace. Hanging out with people. Listening. Helping with their struggles. Communicating the message of God’s unconditional love.

I am convinced that in times like these, a ministry like ours is so sorely needed. Please help us continue to exist.

You can donate with a credit card or debit card by clicking here, and you can donate through PayPal by clicking the link over to the left of this column.

You can also mail in checks to 190 Bedford Ave. #211 Brooklyn NY 11211.

Humbly in Grace,

Jay Bakker

Pastor, Revolution NYC

Greetings from Revolution Church NYC!

It’s a rainy day here in the Brooklyn. Nothing new. It’s been a cold and rainy April.  I’m looking out my window to the dark and dreary skies. Right outside my front door is a newly planted tree, struggling to live through it’s first tumultuous spring. You can see only the tips of the buds, pushing through, yearning to reveal their splendor to our little neighborhood.

To me, this tree represents the Easter moment that we find ourselves in. I love Easter. Always have. And we did Easter up here at Revolution. We had a choir, and Easter lilies. We partook of the sacrament, opened to all. It was such a joyous celebration of life.

Then came Monday. As I mentioned in last weeks sermon, Monday brings the Easter hangover. In Easter Sunday lies the promise that life wins, and life abundantly. Come Monday we realize that though the promise is real, the struggle continues.

Just like that tree on my street, we the children of God, struggle to reveal our essence. We struggle to announce our unique beauty to the world. We push and grow attempting to fulfill God’s purpose in us. Along the way, we doubt if it will ever happen. Will the Kingdom come?

To me, this struggle is the Kingdom of God.

I have seen it first hand here in Brooklyn and with the online congregation. We are a community that shares our struggles to one another, and in that sharing, God is truly present.

Thank you for sharing your struggle with us. Your stories inspire us. We hope that ours inspire you.

Yours in the Easter moment,

Vince Anderson

Assistant Pastor, Revolution Church NYC

Although I have been working with Jay and Revolution NYC for close to a year now, we just realized I still haven’t introduced myself to many of you. I am a long-time online listener who relocated to Brooklyn last spring and took over many of Marc Brown’s duties for the church. If you have contacted us through Myspace, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, you have probably already met me. But since we have so much going on right now, I’d like to save more about me for later and get right to the good stuff.

We’re well into the swing of things with our “Green Bible” study, meeting every second and fourth Thursday here in Brooklyn. These are open-ended, meaning you can jump in and out as your schedule allows without having to worry about missing days you can’t attend. If you’d like more information on this please visit our staff blog for more details. You can do that by clicking here.

We are very excited to be working with a great group called Books Behind Bars, who deliver reading material to prisoners all across the country. If you attend Revolution here in New York, you can click here for a list of the types of books they need, and if you are an online listener and would like to help out with this great cause you can do that here.

Also for those of you here in New York City, we are very excited to bring you our next installation of our film series with “Shakespeare Behind Bars”. Seeing a trend here? This documentary film chronicles the story of prisoners who take on roles from the works of Shakespeare, which in turn helps them to confront their personal demons. This will be shown on Monday, April 13th at WOW Cafe here in Brooklyn. You can get all the details at our Facebook Fan page.

Finally, we once again ask humbly for your donations to help keep our church going. Much of the work that goes into Revolution comes from unpaid volunteers like myself in an effort to use any money we do have as efficiently as possible. We are on a show-string budget so every little bit helps. If you prefer, you can even sign up for automatic giving in any increment you’d like. Even if it’s only a few dollars a month, it would make a big difference. We get so many heartbreaking letters from people who we have touched, and it’s an unfortunate fact of life that we need funding to continue to do this. So please, if you haven’t yet or have been considering it, go here to donate now.

As always, we want to hear from you and get your feedback and ideas. We really take them to heart because we want to serve you and our community as best as we possibly can. I can’t wait to meet more of you so don’t be shy! You can email me directly at paolo@revolutionnyc.com if you ever need to get a hold of me. God Bless and we’ll see you soon!

Paolo Mello
RevolutionNYC Web Coordinator

Hey all,

Hope this letter finds you well. We just went through our biggest snowfall of the year here in Brooklyn. It’s been such a cold winter. As a transplanted southerner, I never thought that 46 degrees would seem warm, but as spring slowly arrives, I’ll take it.

Things are going well here in Brooklyn. We continue to preach, teach and live Christ’s message of grace through these tough times. It’s not always easy, but I have found that it’s always worth it.

In recent months, you may have noticed that I have been active on the blessing and the curse known as Twitter. You can find me there at twitter.com/jaybakker. Our assistant pastor, Vince Anderson is also there,twitter.com/reverendvince, as well as our general church page at twitter.com/revolutionnyc. It has been great getting to know some of you through this service. We have really realized over the last few months how great the online church is, and we thank you all for the encouraging words and support. We love being your church!

Sometimes though, I get bogged down by people that write negative stuff about our message here. I get discouraged, and my self esteem gets low. Like I said a couple of Sundays ago, sometimes I feel like a smoldering wick. I think at some point we can all relate to that. I believe we are called to lift each other up. At times, we will differ in our opinions. To me this is a good thing. Through it we can come to a better understanding of God’s love for us. It is my hope that this exchange can be delivered with grace and love, as Jesus taught us.

Again, thank you for your continued support of Revolution. Your prayers and financial contributions really do make a difference. To donate now CLICK HERE!

In Grace,

Jay Bakker

[audio http://www.RevolutionNYC.com/audio/20090215.mp3]

Study Links:

Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli

John 12:40-44

Emergent Village

How (Not) To Speak of God by Peter Rollins

When Being Good Isn’t Good Enough by Stephen Brown

Care to support our mission and what we’re doing?  Donate here!