One of Brooklyn's historic nicknames is "The Borough of Churches" (and the panoramic view from the F train's elevated stretch between 4th Avenue and Smith/9th Street reveals a considerable number of steeples), but there are people who nevertheless worry that we don't have enough. People out there in the heartland.

I got interested in this because of a heated exchange on a local parents email listserv. After one parent noted a newish and attractive coffee shop on a side street in the neighborhood, another quickly chimed in to say that this particular shop was really a low-profile community outreach program of a new local evangelical church -- which was itself part of a large-scale southern-funded project to jumpstart evangelical congregations in the Northeast. This, of course, immediately touched off accusations of religious intolerance, Osama bin Laden was invoked, and the discussion collapsed into the sort of thing that we're shocked -- shocked! -- to see happening on an Internet discussion board.

Given the paranoid-seeming tenor of the accusation and the dyed-in-the-Blue-wool nature of the nabe itself, I was inclined not to believe it. But then I realized the poster making the claim had provided some links.

Of course, there's nothing in the church's publicly announced plans to cause much alarm --after all, if we don't have room to accomodate one Christian coffeeshop in our gorgeous mosaic, then we really need to kick out that store that sells $60 notebooks and $400 table lamps, not to mention two or three of those plentiful"Chinese" restaurants that serve a painful approximation of the real cuisine you can find a couple of subway stops away.

But what really makes me sit up and meditate on a higher purpose is the news of the support available for those brave missionaries who must leave the comforts of Indiana and Kentucky to seek out an arbor here in the howling spiritual wilderness where the tree of life maybe planted anew.

And we all can be sympathetic to the struggles ahead for Brian and Allison. After all, there are many of us who have beseeched heavenly aid in locating a reasonably priced shoebox-sized studio (to say nothing of the 3-bedroom apartment it looks like they'll need), and who have "crisscrossed the city, praying for clarity about God’s specific location." Or at least for clarity about the specific location of rent-stabilized, no-fee apartments with an easy walk to the subway and nice light in the morning, with maybe a little exposed brick? Which most people would agree would be just divine.

Just thinking out loud here, but I'm wondering if there's a forward-thinking congregation somewhere in Memphis, or Houston, or maybe suburban Atlanta, that would like to help me plant the First Wombat Church of Brooklyn. I guess I'd have to work up our core values a bit, but if you want us to serve coffee, hey, no problem! Just a nice one-family brownstone should be enough to get the ministry started...