A blog that exists to bring together evangelical mission practitioners from multiple denominations and organizations to facilitate the expansion of the Kingdom of God into all of the people group populations that make up Metro New York.
Everyone in Metro New York is well aware of the diversity of the city, but how would it be possible to reach an entire city full of different population segments and ethnic groups? The Cityreaching Movements Training will address how to multiply disciples by starting with our own personal devotion to Christ, and then through methods that have been used by God around the world to multiply disciples and churches in diverse settings. The training will be facilitated by Brad Wall and Chris Clayman and is suitable for any follower of Christ longing to see God do more in and around them. The date is April 6, 2013 from 10am - 4pm at the South Asian Center, 72-26 Roosevelt Ave, 2nd Floor. The Training is FREE but registration is required (limited space available). Click here to register for Cityreaching Movements Training.
Over 800,000 Muslims reside in New York City and several million Hispanics.
Most Muslims work between 70-80 hours a week and the most exposure they have to
Christians is happening at the workplace where they are working alongside Hispanic Christians. Because the culture is so
similar between Hispanics and Muslims a lot of the barriers are removed.
Many Hispanics are embracing Islam and you can even find a Hispanic mosque in Harlem
but at the same time many Hispanics are intermarrying and are using this as one opportunity to share the
Gospel. As a result many Muslims are investigating Christianity.
More Hispanics are needed to reach out to Muslims in Metro NY. Listen to this short video with Chris Clayman subtitled in Spanish.
Volunteers will come to New York and be trained in meeting people on the street, sharing their testimony and the gospel with them, and being able to tell if the person is a person of peace. This is a very strategic role that you will play as we sift through many people in the city to find those the Holy Spirit is at work in. These ‘Sifting Weeks’ are very strategic as we seek to bring the gospel to unreached peoples here in the city. For information and dates on ‘Sifting Weeks’ NYC 2013 see below.
The greatest missions opportunity in the US right now is perhaps the limited window Christians have to engage Saudi students with the gospel in our universities. Saudi students are the fastest growing international student population in the US. Last year alone, 66,000 Saudis studied in the US. Christians need to quickly respond to this opportunity to welcome and show Christ's love to people who are from a country that is rated #3 in the world in its oppression of Christians. See http://www.worldwatchlist.us/.
A recent Wall Street Journal article, titled "Saudi Students Flood in as U.S. Reopens Door," by Ellen Knickmeyer, highlights the trend of Saudis in America. Here is an excerpt,
"In the years following the security crackdown on Arab travelers after
the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks—in which 15 of the 19 hijackers
were Saudi Arabian—tough restrictions kept most Arab students away from
the U.S. In 2004, only about 1,000 Saudis were studying in the U.S.,
according to the U.S. State Department.
This past school year, Saudi Arabia sent 66,000 students to U.S.
universities, four times the number before the 2001 attacks and the
fastest-growing source of foreign students in the U.S., ahead of China,
according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Saudi influx is part
of a broader increase in international students in the U.S. as American
universities seek to raise tuition revenues. Some 723,277 foreign
students enrolled during the 2010-2011 school year, up 32% from a decade
ago.
...
Saudi Arabia's international scholarship program, launched when Saudi
King Abdullah took the throne in 2005, is a key part of his efforts to
equip future generations in handling the country's main challenges,
including a fast-growing population and declining oil reserves.
Since taking over, the Saudi king has emphasized scientific education
and exposure to foreign countries as keys to combat religious extremism
and transform Saudi Arabia into a modern state. This year, the
scholarship program has about 130,000 young people studying around the
world, at an estimated cost of at least $5 billion since the program
began."
Individuals learn to articulate truth "on the job" as they work out the
content of their faith in the context of a small faith community. When
church gatherings are participatory, worship and training overlap in
significant ways. One believer in the Bronx once said: "It has actually
empowered me to be able to instruct people, which I never thought I
would be able to do. I didn't think I'd be able to do that for twenty
years."
Group discussion nurtures accountability as different voices contribute
to Biblical interpretation. Participation by each person encourages
on-the-job training, and specialized teaching by includes conversation
and dialog. Groups learn together through mutual sharing, inductive
Bible discussions, and meaningful conversations. Essentially,
participatory meetings emphasize formation and encourage a built-in
accountability as each person learns and grows as an active part of a
community of faith.
By Tiana Murray adapted from Global City Mission newsletter
The church has a habit of drawing people out of their spheres of
influence. People commute twenty or more minutes away to service, are
encouraged to get involved in this church ministry or that Bible study,
and then spend the rest of their weeks in their respective
neighborhoods, far from the church and the church community as a whole.
The extraction of believers from their local communities waters down the
potential influence churches and Christians could have in the places
they work, live, and interact on a daily basis.
In the same vein, Christians have a habit of trying to draw people into
the church to be saved rather than meeting non-believers where they are
at. Rather than getting deeply involved in the communities in which they
reside, surrounding themselves with the unreached people groups around
them, Christians extract potential believers from their families and
communities and bring them within the church walls. Of course,
Christians should gather to worship together regularly, but far deeper
ministry and relationships can be built directly within a person's
immediate circle of influence.
Global City Mission aims to share the Gospel through individuals
embedded in their communities, making "outposts of Kingdom life where
people already live out their lives." Christians are not called to bring
the world to them, but to go into all the world and make disciples of
all nations. "All the world" starts in the communities in which we find
ourselves, and in fact, New York has brought "all the world" to us.
The established community of many people groups is more important than
the church realizes. These potential believers have to wrestle with the
questions, "How will this affect my family? What will my
Muslim/Hindu/Buddhist neighbors think? Will I still be accepted?" By not
reaching out to people where they are at, the church misses out on the
opportunity to reach out where the Gospel is the most relevant to their
lives.
Furthermore, through reaching out to individuals in their communities,
the Gospel is able to spread organically through new believers who come
from cultures where the group dynamic is of the utmost importance.
Global City Mission says, "Persons of peace are the gateway people
through whom a new community of faith may emerge in a neighborhood
and/or among a people group. Each person of peace represents the
potential of a new church." By reaching out to individuals in their
communities, whole people groups can have the opportunity to hear the
Good News of Jesus. This is a key to sustainable church growth: the
outsider steps back to let the Holy Spirit move through local,
insider-individuals to reach whole communities.
As Christians, we must have a presence in our local communities,
bringing the Gospel to the people we see daily, rather than relying on a
church building to do the work for us. Only then will the Gospel become
a part of the fabric of community life among the unreached peoples of
New York.
NYC
Missionary Training School (NYC-MTS) is an August-May training program
led by a multi-agency team of believers who are committed to starting
churches among the unreached people groups of the world. Over the past
few years we have seen many come to Christ and have seen churches
started in least evangelized countries as a result of our ministries.
Thousands of internationals from least evangelized countries come to New
York City every year. These internationals represent the influential
thinkers and policy makers of their nations. Being away from home, many
are more receptive to the Gospel message. Our focus is on making
disciples among these people and training them to start reproducible
churches here and when they return to their home country. Ultimately,
our desire is to see movements of national led churches established
throughout the darkest corners of the world. NYC-MTS is cross cultural
church planting training. This program enables individuals to learn
about the DNA of reproducible church planting, cross-cultural ministry,
and the Gospel while working alongside experienced church planters. They will have opportunity to start discovery Bible studies and house churches among internationals or unreached people groups within New York City.
What will the year look like?
Dates: Partcipants will need to arrive in NYC by August 1st, 2013 and the program runs through the
end of May…although people are more than welcome to stay indefinitely!
Orientation will last for approximately 4 weeks and involve trainings such as:
-Living in NYC
-Effective Team
-Church Planting Mentality
-Dealing with Theological Differences
-Philosophy of Ministry
Training throughout the year will include:
-Filling the Earth Seminar
-Reaching Internationals to Reach the World
-Discovery Bible Study Method
-Making Reproducible Disciples
-Evangelism with Muslims and Contextualization
-Chronological Bible Storying and Worldview Based Church Planting
- Strategy Coordinator Training
-Training for Trainers
-Coaching and Mentoring Workshop
Books and Articles: Throughout the year each participant will
also read five to seven books and various articles, discussing how they
relate to ministry and/or CPM. In addition to the above trainings, as
mentioned earlier, additional Biblical coursework is offered to those
who need to fulfill academic
requirements.
House Church
-Involvement in a house church community including: discipleship, leading meetings, ministering
within the community.
-Initiating house churches among internationals and/or unreached people groups within the city.
International Student Ministry
-Leading 2-3 English groups on a university campus
-Leading 3-4 discovery Bible studies with international students
-Meet one-on-one with students for relational evangelism
Muslim Ministry
-Conduct and implement a strategic field survey of a Muslim neighborhood
-Develop a plan for reaching this Muslim community
-Build relationships within this community
-Start discovery Bible studies
