Dear Tim,Well, you’ve been traded to the Jets. Welcome to New Jersey. You’re in a mission mine field (gold or bombs? It’s hard to tell.)
Yeah, let’s get a few things straight. You see, both the Giants and the Jets belong to New Jersey, regardless of where their franchises register the moo-lah. They both practice and play in NJ…so even though they call themselves NY teams, they’re ours. New Jerseyans know the difference… and that’s where suburbia lives. (And you’ll have to understand that you’ll never win over the southern half of the state, they’re mostly Eagles fans.)
Speaking of suburbia….did you know that the suburban and metro NY/NJ area is probably one of the biggest mission fields in America? Yeah, you see we’re so caught up in trying to keep up with what we’ve got that the devil has been having an easy time of it. Being a Christian isn’t always easy here…we’re a melting pot of faiths, cultures, politics, social and economic classes, races… you name it… you can find it here.
On the flip side…on the whole, I think we’re a pretty tolerant region considering our diversity. But that tends to lend itself to a laissez-faire attitude of “hey, you do your thing and I’ll do mine” making evangelism a tough sell in this area. The “Tebow-ing” thing will generate an equal amount of mockery and supporters.
And it’s not just the fans. Ask Mark Messier or Mike Richter of the Rangers, or Phil Simms or Eli Manning. Ask Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada or Alex Rodriguez. Ask Mark Sanchez. The media is looking to crucify you….when they’re not tearing apart your football skills they’ll mock you for your faith, your personal life or worse, they’ll label you irrelevant. They’ll take you to task like no other media market in the country. Like a dog with a bone, they’re not going to let you get away easy.
Unless you’ve got the stuff to weather us.
Because you’re not irrelevant… you are a child of God, just like the rest of us.
And your faith has lit a light that shines on God in the one place a majority of Americans, and New Jerseyans and New Yorkers, will find themselves each Sunday… in the church of the sports arena (or watching it on TV).
There’s a song by Ol’ Blue Eyes (if you don’t know who that is, you’d better look it up before you move here) that goes “if I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.” If you think Denver was tough, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Grab your big boy football pads…the hits are going to be hard.
Your proving ground has been set before you… I wonder what plans God has in store for you here.
Good luck.
Join us for worship anytime:
Sundays 8:30 and 10:45 am
St. Andrew Lutheran Church
335 Reynolds Ave., Parsippany, NJ 07054
(973) 887-6713
www.elcaandy.org
