How: Our Strategy
New Churches
Help start New Churches of various denominations that are gospel-centered.
New Leaders
Raise up New Leaders to lead missionally healthy churches that welcome non-believers and equip believers to serve Jesus and the city.
A New Home
Purchase and construct a building to serve as a home for the Redeemer East Side congregation and the NY Project Leadership Development Center.
New Churches
Planting gospel-centered churches is the most catalytic way to reach a city with the gospel.
New churches are shown to be the most effective method of reaching those not already part of a church, attracting three to six times more non-Christians than older churches. New churches are also the most effective way to spark renewal for existing churches. That renewal can catalyze blessing in every neighborhood as churches increase mercy and justice through meeting the needs of their neighbors across the city.
This doesn’t mean any church will do, what is needed are gospel-centered churches who care more about the gospel than their denominations. To reach and equip New Yorkers, we need churches that care equality about reaching non-believers and spiritually forming Christians. Gospel also calls the church to confront issues of justice and engage their communities and neighborhoods to care for all.
Starting churches that start more churches.
A gospel movement is a generative movement of churches starting churches... who start more churches.
Movements are robust, organic and generative because the gospel always sends us out. Churches who have the gospel movement in mind understand their mission is to equip leaders and congregants to send out to start new expressions of ministry. These churches know a movement of God is never static or insular but highly collaborative with other churches to build up each other.
Our programs
that directly help start new churches.
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A one-year program for church planters who are one to two years away from launching.
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As a follow-up to Fellows, a two-year incubator for planters at the cusp of launching their churches. Pastors are assigned a coach to help them from pre-launch to launch.
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A two-year incubator for bi-vocational planters and pastors in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Jersey City and Queens.
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Grants to church plants between $50,000 and $120,000 spread across three years. Churches are then required to pay back 50% of the grant over the following four years.
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New church planters are partnered with a more experienced planter to help them through the process. Coaching helps to bridge the gap between what a leader knows and how to apply what they know to their project.
New Leaders
New York needs healthy and seasoned church planters to start and lead new churches.
In order to raise and train gospel movement leaders, New York needs a robust training “engine” where a pipeline of leaders and planters are being produced year after year. Traditional seminaries are woefully inadequate in setting up urban church planters, let alone in evangelism in the current cultural climate.
Healthy leaders lead healthy churches and to foster health from spiritual, relational to missional health, leaders and especially planters need a community of like-minded ministry peers, trainers, counselors and coaches. We provide this through a learning community for pastors and leaders to relate to each other as co-laborers and support systems.
We train and raise up leaders in New York, for New York.
To minister to New York, leaders need contextualized training from seasoned urban practitioners while living and serving in the city. Pastors receiving training elsewhere and “parachuting” into NY does not set up pastors and churches for success.
The exceptional cost of living, density, diversity, energy, and competitive character of life in New York make it a uniquely challenging context for lay leaders and pastors.
Our programs
that train movement leaders.
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City Ministry Program
A certificate program for emerging and established ministry leaders seeking practical ministry training in the context of New York. -
Missional Discipleship
A program dedicated to network leaders and planters to imagine together new expressions of mission in light of the pandemic.Community Engagement
A two-year program equipping planters to strategically implement mercy and justice needs in their neighborhoods based on asset-based community development.City Lab
A gathering for leaders from existing (already planted) NYC churches to foster collaboration and continued theological development.AQ Cohort
Cohort training program for pastors and leaders tasked to grow and develop their denominations and networks in NYC, facilitated by Alan Hirsch, leading global missiologist (new for Fall 2020). -
Pastoral Fellows Counseling Program
Partnership with Redeemer Counseling Center. A nine-month training program by clinical counselors for pastors serving the needs of mental health and mental flourishing.Seminary
Partnership with Reformed Theological Seminary. A two- to four-year accredited Master of Arts in Biblical Studies.
A New Home
A permanent ministry home for the gospel movement.
Real estate pressures continue to be one of the key financial hardships for churches for worship services, let alone in their ability to have midweek ministry space to gather for prayer or additional discipleship programs. Even for City to City, our leadership development programs are an amalgam of different rental spaces at various locations in the city. Almost all ministry work in New York experiences limitations due to space and the costs associated with them.
A New Home for Redeemer ES and a Leadership Development Center for CTC
With financing that was provided in Phase 1 and 2, we will be opening a brand new building in the Upper East Side during Phase 3. The much anticipated home for Redeemer East Side and the NY Project Leadership Development Center will be move-in ready in the fall of 2024. Both institutions have long needed a physical home and the kingdom impact of the building will be experienced for generations to come.
Costs
- New Churches & New Leaders
- A New Home
- Fundraising
- Total ($138M)
- Phase 1: Jan 16 – Jun 20
- $23.4M
- $45.5M
- $4.1M
- $73M
- Phase 2: Jul 20 – Jun 23
- $17M
- $22M
- $1M
- $40M
- Phase 3: Jul 23 – June 26
- $18.5M
- $5M (financial reserve)
- $1.5M
- $25M