New York City

“The Big Apple”
“The Melting Pot”
“The City That Never Sleeps”

Over the years, countless musicians and writers and artists have attempted to capture the essence of New York City. And yet it remains an enigma, a place unlike any other. The wild diversity, the ceaseless energy, the astounding creativity of New York have made it the world’s leading city.

New York City proper is composed of five boroughs (Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island) with a population of roughly nine million people. However, the New York metropolitan area, which includes portions of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, has an estimated population of nearly 22 million people, making it the most populous metropolitan area in the United States and the sixth most populous in the world.

WHY NYC?

So, why do we believe that God is leading us to plant a church in NYC?

Unparalleled Influence

According to the 2010 Global Cities Index, New York City is the most influential city in the world. For good or for bad, NYC is the world’s center for finance, politics, entertainment, music, art, and culture in general. In other words, what happens in NYC does not stay in NYC. It flows out to the rest of the world.

Unsurpassed Diversity

New York City is also one of the most diverse cities on the planet. What else would you expect from the city that is the home to the United Nations? Here you will find residents from every geopolitical nation on earth. There are over 500 people groups and over 800 languages spoken in this one city!

The nations have come to New York. They have come looking for something called the American Dream, and the church of Jesus Christ has the opportunity to tell them about something that is so much greater. The logic is really quite simple. If the mission of the church is to make disciples of all nations, and if the nations are in NYC, then we need to plant churches that make disciples of all nations in NYC.

Under-Served Need

NYC is among the least churched cities in the United States. About 2.3% of New Yorkers claim to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. That means that the percentage of evangelical Christians in NYC is lower than the percentage of evangelical Christians in Beijing, China!

Throughout the south and Midwest U.S., there is roughly one evangelical church per every one thousand people. In order to achieve that same ratio in NYC, approximately twenty thousand churches would need to be planted.

These three factors: Unparalleled Influence, Unsurpassed Diversity, and Under-Served Need mean that there is no mission field on earth more strategic to the fulfillment of the Great Commission than New York City.

For more info contact us at nyc@brookhills.org.

Also view a printable info sheet (PDF).