In 2018, Garrett and his wife Gabby asked themselves, “If we knew we had God’s blessing, what’s the boldest, most meaningful thing we could do?”

“We don’t live in a religious desert. But it is a church desert.” When Larry and his wife Lindsey moved to Western Queens, there were about 30 mosques and temples in the neighborhood and barely any churches.

“We don’t live in a religious desert. But it is a church desert.” When Larry and his wife Lindsey moved to Western Queens, there were about 30 mosques and temples in the neighborhood and barely any churches.

I underestimated the role of prayer when I planted my church. I was told about the huge effort it would take to plant a church but I didn’t anticipate that effort might subtly crowd out a reliance on God through prayer, over time.

Before I did a residency at a church in Harlem and started getting involved at CTC, I would have thought starting a church was about getting people to lead a service and hoping people would come. But now I see this is just 10% of church planting.”

The call to start a church is unique. And in a city like New York, it is a calling that requires much risk, discomfort, and faith.God loves cities. And in New York, we’d like to think our city is no different.

“I didn’t think I had the gifts to start a church, but at the same time I was thinking – Why not me?”

On February 2nd, pastors and lay leaders gathered for a conversation with Justin Giboney, President and Co-Founder of the AND Campaign for a talk on Rethinking Mission: Engaging Polarization. An attorney and political strategist, Giboney and other leaders at the AND Campaign have become a resource and hub for Christians engaging in politics and advocacy during a time of polarization in our country.

People and communities thrive when they are experiencing a sense of love, well-being, creative expression, safety and unity. A neighborhood mural in East Harlem describes what the human heart longs for: “unity is the condition of being united with a single whole”. This longing is a reflection of the image and nature of God which He has endowed upon all humankind.

If you imagine an ordinary moment at an intersection in New York City, and there is a pause because there is a streetlight, and some people are stopped and others in motion, and some cars are stopped and others in motion...

In October, pastors and leaders gathered for a conversation with Derrick Puckett, Pastor of Renewal Church in Chicago and President of The Chicago Partnership, a multi-ethnic, multi-denominational team of leaders from local churches working to see a movement of gospel-centered churches in Chicago.

In 1989 when Tim and Kathy Keller first moved to Manhattan to plant Redeemer Presbyterian Church, one of the most critical challenges he would say they faced was learning how to communicate the historic gospel in a way that was both true to Scripture and would resonate with a highly secular, therapeutic culture among the educated professional classes of the Upper East Side.

Over the years, we at Redeemer City to City have often returned to the foundational principles of Gospel, City, and Movement as a way to frame our vision and mission.

In John 2, at a wedding about to turn into a social disaster, the water of religious ceremony—water used to separate God’s people from the world—is turned into the finest wine you can imagine, wine of friendship and celebration.

In John 2, at a wedding about to turn into a social disaster, the water of religious ceremony—water used to separate God’s people from the world—is turned into the finest wine you can imagine, wine of friendship and celebration.

Sitting alone at an outdoor cafe near his Queens apartment on a warm, sunny Monday afternoon, a young church planter stares at his laptop.

The gathering featured a speaker who had spearheaded an impressive reimagination of the church he pastored.

In his magnificent introduction of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John, the Apostle proclaims that, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

In a landmark decision, the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was recently found guilty on three counts in the trial over George Floyd’s death.

Church planting is not sexy. Or cool. Or easy. At least not in New York City.