• Rooted in the LES since 1982

  • "Where sin abounds, grace abounds more." - Romans 5:20

Pastor Louis A. Carlo

Grace Transforms. Grace Sustains. Grace Multiplies.

[Ed. Note: This letter was originally published on the occasion of Abounding Grace Ministries’ 25/35 Anniversary Weekend, as Pastor Louis Carlo received the call to succeed co-founding Pastor Rick Del Rio as lead pastor of Abounding Grace Church. The letter is reproduced here as a statement of Pastor Louis’ vision for the ministry moving forward. Learn more about AGM’s congregational Vision here, and watch Pastor Lou’s Installation Service here.]

11/10/17

Dear Family,

Grace Transforms. Grace Sustains. Grace Multiples. This I know, first hand.

In the winter of 2001, after years of living prodigally and ignoring her invitation to a life of purpose and meaning, grace reintroduced herself. She was louder and clearer than I ever knew her to be and she was most visible through the ministry of Abounding Grace.

This local church in Manhattan’s Lower East Side presented Christ and his amazing grace incarnationally and with such relevance and realness that I wanted more. More of Christ and his abounding, amazing, life-altering grace. Not just for me, I wanted more for others as well. So, I enrolled in the school of grace.

After sixteen years of intensive study in the ways of grace and traversing personal and ministerial mountains and valleys along the way, I have grown to love and appreciate the mystery of grace and all she provides. She has taught me that despite diversity in circumstance, unity in Christ is attainable. With her emphasis on making disciples, she has demolished divisions transforming and sustaining individuals and communities in the process.  And with each passing year she never runs out, she is always present inviting us to hope and dream bigger.

As I stand this weekend at the threshold of ministry past and future, I humbly accept the leadership baton extended by my mentors and our Founding Pastors Rick and Arlene Del Rio. I embrace the legacy of grace embodied by them personally and demonstrated within the congregational community they started and have led since 1982.

I also hold fast to the grace that invites our local assembly to envision and embody a Christ-centered, multi-cultural, economically inclusive community leading transformational change in the Lower East Side and beyond.

This community we are building rests on five foundational pillars:

  1. Resurgent Music and Arts.  In the beginning, God creates, and so do we. AGM embraces our creative core and reclaims performing and visual arts and production.
  2. Holistic Ministry Center. AGM seeks the peace and prosperity of New York City, promoting compassion and justice and pursuing shalom in the Lower East Side.
  3. Intergenerational Community. AGM nurtures an intergenerational community around mentoring, senior outreach, youth programs, and family counseling.
  4. Intentional Leadership Development. AGM cultivates disciple makers who lead change in the world around them through discipleship, small groups, learning communities, internship opportunities and shared mission experiences.
  5. Authentic Diversity. In a racially, ethnically and economically diverse and evolving neighborhood, AGM endeavors to love all of our neighbors equally well, as evidenced by shared leadership that reflects our community’s demographics.

Our future, while unwritten, will continue to be guided by our values, both personally and corporately:

  • Faith– keeping Christ central in every aspect of life;
  • Family – finding identity and wholeness in relationship with the Body of Christ;
  • Education– learning to use one’s head, heart, and hands in the service of others; and
  • Community – living in right relationship with God, self, others, and creation.

Thank you for joining me and our ministry on this journey. Looking ahead, we find hope and strength in this truth: “‘Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; ‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”

Peace, Justice & Love,

Rev. Louis A. Carlo
Lead Pastor

Pastoral Installation

 960 540 Admin

On the occasion of Pastor Louis Carlo’s commissioning service as lead pastor of Abounding Grace Church, Pastor Lou affirmatively responded to each of the following questions. On this basis, founding Pastors Rick and Arlene Del Rio charged him to faithfully shepherd the congregation and willingly stepped aside that he might also lead them into the…

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Classic Fun, from the Archives. Originally produced by YW8? Youth Ministries for a Youth Sunday service, c. 2007.