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Dear friends, This is my first letter of thanks to those of you that have taken it upon you to support the work of church planting in the Diocese. “Vision for 50" is an ambitious goal! We are grateful for your willingness to take the mission of church planting into your prayerful conversations with God and for your financial contributions to help make church planting more than a goal. My wife, Stacy and I are at the end of our transition from the church we planted in Philadelphia 15 years ago. We have been thinking about the fruitfulness of what we did. One of the most remarkable things that happened just after the public announcement that I had taken the Canon role with DOMA was that former church members across our 15 years emailed and texted us reflecting on the importance of City Church in their lives. Pastorally, we were focused on the moment, the people in front of us, but it has been such delight to hear from people out of our past. One former college student emailed to let us know of the “invisible impact" City Church had on his and other student lives. God uses the simple work of a start-up church to connect people with the hope of Christ and bring healing to their lives and our world. Transitions are liminal moments, a threshold space ripe for growth and change. I feel that intensely as I leave a community I have loved and been loved within - experienced God’s faithfulness to take the simple decision Stacy and I made some 16 years ago to move into our West Philadelphia home and start sowing the seed of a new church. Its fruitfulness reminds me that the church is core to God’s mission in the world, and more, it is the threshold space in which friends and neighbors experience the good news of Jesus self-giving love over and over again. Without your faithful participation in this work of starting new churches, our goals would merely be aspirational - an idea or desire without much hope of becoming an incarnation reality. As I take up my work in the Diocese I am grateful for your self-sacrifice to enable churches to be planted. I look forward to getting to know you in the days ahead of us. Blessings,
Tuck
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