Articles for tag: New York City

December 1, 2020

Christian Standard

Raders Persevere in Planting NYC Church During Pandemic

By Jim Nieman The launch of Reunion Church in the heart of New York City hasn’t gone off exactly as planned this year . . . but few things in life have escaped the far-reaching impact of COVID-19.   “There’s no book on how to do what we are doing,” says Russel Rader, who is launching Reunion in the Union Square neighborhood with his wife, Katie, and the help of a core launch team, Orchard Group, and churches from across the country. “On Wednesday, March 11th, our community had an amazing evening of hospitality in our home with a group

November 22, 2020

Christian Standard

Abiding Peace in Troubled Times

By Jessie Wells Clark It was the Christmas season in 1940, but there was no peace. England was at war, and Nazi bombers were raining death and destruction from the air. Yet, in London’s underground shelters, the people sang, seemingly oblivious of the pandemonium above: O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by;Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light.The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. What a picture that must have brought to the minds of those singers! Perhaps

June 1, 2020

Michael C. Mack

Ask the Lord . . . to Send Workers!

By Michael C. Mack We planned the articles for our August 2020 issue on March 20, the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 916 points and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the nation’s largest city was “now the epicenter of this crisis” in the U.S., with 5,151 coronavirus cases and 29 deaths at that point. We were a nation looking for some sense of hope in the midst of a crisis we didn’t even understand. People’s anxiety was palpable and pessimism itself took on pandemic proportions. On that day, publisher Jerry Harris and I talked on

February 12, 2020

Christian Standard

Longtime Kentucky Pastor Makes Leap to Greater NYC Church

By Chris Moon From Keavy, Ky., to Long Island, N.Y. The change in environment and culture—at least within the United States—probably doesn’t get more drastic than that. And that’s exactly the jump that Tommy Lanham made. The longtime Kentucky pastor is now in his fifth month as co-pastor of Glen Cove (N.Y.) Christian Church, a small congregation on Long Island, about 15 miles northeast of Queens. Lanham says the culture shock wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. “We always had heard that New Yorkers are rude,” he told Christian Standard. “That has not been our experience at

September 13, 2019

Christian Standard

An Urban Conversation for the Restoration Movement

Our September 2019 issue focuses on urban ministry, which is something Steve Carr wrote about in this article from 11 years ago. At that time, a few dozen urban ministers came together for an “Urban Conversation” to discuss the situation and consider solutions. Some things have changed over the last decade, but many of the elements of their conversation are still important today. (This article originally appeared online in August 2008.)  _ _ _ By Steve Carr By sometime this summer half of the world’s population will live in cities.1 For Restoration Movement churches in America this fact is problematic

July 22, 2019

Michael C. Mack

Going to the Cities

By Michael C. Mack Cities are a key setting in God’s story. The churches in Jerusalem, Ephesus, Corinth, Athens, and many others in the New Testament were urban. And, while the Bible’s story began in a rural area (surely two people in a garden surrounded by lots of animals is rural!), it ends in an urban locale, “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem” (Revelation 21:2). Cities also present a strategic opportunity for the church today. Several statistics quoted by writers of this month’s articles stood out to me: – “The most recent U.S. Census data revealed for the first time

July 22, 2019

Christian Standard

Whelpish

By Lancelot Schaubert We had just learned we failed to secure government approval, so we would not receive a grant in time to start a project and program one of our neighbors—an artist—had been counting on. I had worked painstakingly on the grant for months, haggling with four state governments. After all of this, our artist friend came to our house with his bulldog, refused to sit and eat, and told us he was pulling the plug. I don’t blame him; he couldn’t afford to wait it out. What was most upsetting, however, was he ignored everything we’d done to

November 8, 2018

Christian Standard

1964: When the NMC Traveled to NYC

– October 31, 1964 – The International Conference on Missions is taking place in Cincinnati next week, November 15-18. It’s the sixth time the gathering has come to the Queen City, and the first time it’s been there under its “new” name, ICOM. Cincinnati last served as host in 2007; the conference was known as the National Missionary Convention until 2011. As is the case with the North American Christian Convention—now known as Spire—the best-attended gatherings among our fellowship of churches traditionally take place in the heartland. And so, that’s where most of the ICOM/NMC gatherings have taken place during its

August 11, 2018

Christian Standard

Next-Door Urban Ministry

By Lancelot Schaubert “I understand that Haiti is hurting: It’s the whipping boy of the world.” My friend winced, and I immediately knew I’d used a poor metaphor. “It’s that,” he said, “but it’s all of these people”—he pointed to fellow Christians leaving a church—“going to Haiti on extravagant mission trips and doing nothing for the Haitian next-door.” We were standing on a street in Manhattan while eating pastrami sandwiches and kettle chips. He offered me the final piece of a puzzle that has slowly formed over the last few years of our bizarre ministry in New York City. It

January 15, 2018

Mark Scott

Lesson for January 21, 2018: A Prayer for an Obedient Faith (Daniel 9:4-8, 15-19)

Dr. Mark Scott wrote this treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson. Scott teaches preaching and New Testament at Ozark Christian College, Joplin, Missouri. This lesson treatment is published in issue no. 1–4 (January 7-28, 2018) of The Lookout magazine, and is also available online at www.lookoutmag.com. ______ By Mark Scott  Daniel 9 contains one of the most stunning prayers in all of the Bible. It is filled with praise for God’s character and with contrition for God’s people. Daniel was moved by the righteousness of God and emotionally owned the shame of Israel’s sins. What brought about such a moving prayer? Perhaps a

June 5, 2017

Christian Standard

Urban Churches, Creative Solutions

By Brent Storms Where to meet presents special challenges for new congregations in expensive, congested cities. Urban churches are finding solutions that offer lessons for anyone”s church building decisions. One of the biggest challenges of starting a church in a city center or urban context is finding the right facility for Sunday gatherings. Space is limited. Landlords are skeptical. Prices are (often) outrageous. One example of the challenges: hotly contested lawsuits have bounced from court to court over whether churches should be allowed to rent New York City public schools for religious services. Some churches have been in public schools,

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