Redeemer East Side Update

This past year has been a time of exciting and significant changes for our church as we prepare for our next chapter of gospel ministry in the city together. As you have no doubt experienced for yourself, no one has served more faithfully and selflessly through these transitions than Ed Sirya.

For several months now, his role had been in flux, and we have been working with Ed on a role that would both challenge and invigorate him while making the highest and best use of his gifts for our mission. In the midst of that process, Ed, much to his own surprise, began to sense that God may be calling him to be at least be open to other opportunities if they were to come his way. We wrestled with this decision together and while Ed continues to love and feel personally invested in the vision and community at Redeemer East Side, he recently concluded that God was, indeed, calling him to a new chapter as well.

I will let him tell the rest of his story in his own words below, but I wanted to be sure to take this opportunity to personally thank Ed for his many years of faithful and selfless service to our church. We simply wouldn't be the community we are today if it weren't for him. So Ed, thank you—truly—for your friendship and leadership.

So, while we of course would have loved to see him continue his ministry in our midst, I couldn't be more thrilled for him as a friend, and for our good friends down the road at Central Presbyterian Church, as we continue to seek the coming of Christ's Kingdom together on the Upper East Side.

Gratefully,

Abe

Dear friends,

After a season of prayer and conversation with friends, Rosalynn and I have decided to follow God's call to continue the work of gospel ministry in a new way at Central Presbyterian Church in NYC. This has been a very difficult decision for us because of the exceedingly sweet and positive time we have had at Redeemer, the potential of an exciting new role on the East Side and because of the countless ways God has shown his love to us here. Yet, unexpectedly, we find ourselves once again being called by a God who continues to show that his plans far exceed our own.

When we arrived in New York City in 2009, one of the first things we did was attend Redeemer on the Upper East Side. It was there that we heard Redeemer's vision of a gospel movement for the city, and we were hooked! In the summer of 2011, I was invited to help launch this new thing called the East Side Congregation and since then, I have had the privilege of seeing this congregation become its own church. A couple of months ago, I was contacted by Central's search committee and in the most unanticipated and surprising way, we sense God releasing us from Redeemer and sending us out to help with the exciting work of rebuilding a historic church on the Upper East Side.

We thank God for the ways he has allowed us to be part of the work of the gospel at Redeemer and to work with such remarkable colleagues and friends. We are excited for Redeemer East Side under the incredible leadership of Abe and Bruce and we can't wait to see how God will use the church to love, serve and renew the East Side.

Thanks be to God!

Ed

P.S. Please join us on Sunday, July 16 at either of the East Side worship services to say goodbye!

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There are over 200 children who call Redeemer ES their church home and they need YOU to lead them each Sunday. Sign up to serve in Children’s Ministry or nominate someone else by emailing [email protected].

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