Church of the City New York

Pastor Jon continued our current sermon series 'We Want You Here' with a deep dive into our human struggle with temptation. As we resist temptation and actively confess by bringing things into the light, shame melts away under the power of the cross. God rewards us with a new name in Christ, the affirmation of heaven, and the increased ability to walk into our purpose on earth with with freedom and authority.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued our "We Want You Here" series by discussing prayer, grief, and lament through the prayer of the prophet Habakkuk. We join God in the restoration of the world when we enter into the brokenness in our own lives, the lives of other, and in our world. God does not always remove the mountains of grief and hardship, but instead gives us the ability to scale them, allowing them to become ebenezers of His faithfulness, places where we can make our homes.

This Sunday, Pastor Sam continued our "We Want You Here" sermon series by encouraging us to spend time in the Bible and pray Scripture back to God to move us toward a confident assurance about His character. We are able to rest in God when we have clarity and confidence about who He is, which comes from studying the Bible with the help of the Holy Spirit.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon kicked off our Eastertide sermon series, "We Want You Here," with a discussion of how we can grow in love. He broke down the four stages of Christian love described by medieval theologian Bernard of Clairvaux, and summarized them as "me, my, you, and us." As we move through these stages, the goal is to grow in deeper union with our Father.

This Easter Sunday, Pastor Jon preached on how the resurrection of Jesus proves that death is not the end. Ultimately, the resurrection is the most credible, surprising explanation for what happened to Jesus and the resulting spread of Christianity, and it requires a response from us. The Christian life is about readjusting our entire selves around Jesus. Despite the rise and fall of empires and ideologies, the story of Jesus is still, and always will be, breathtakingly credible and satisfying.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy closed out our series, "God Comes Where He's Wanted 2.0" by teaching on the collision of kingdoms Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday caused in the hearts of all who gathered to welcome Him. As we remember Jesus' sacrifice during Holy Week, we are called to head His cries and seek His Kingdom first, laying down short-sighted satisfaction for eternal peace and the opportunity to see His Kingdom come.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued the "God Comes Where He's Wanted 2.0" series by teaching on the Lord's Prayer, focusing on the context of forgiveness it is presented in, reminding us that a life of forgiveness is an absolute necessity for followers of Jesus.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued the "God Comes Where He's Wanted 2.0" series through teaching on the Lord's Prayer - our "secret weapon" in the faith. Over time, Western Christianity has trivialized the Lord's Prayer, diminishing its true value and power in our lives. Now more than ever, we need to reclaim the power of the Lord's Prayer because it teaches us how to pray, orients our discipleship, frees us from the vanity and futility of self, and unleashes defiant hope.

This Sunday, Pastor Ashley continued our "God Comes Where He's Wanted 2.0" series by taking a closer look at Luke 11 where Jesus exhorts us to ask, seek, and knock. Prayer has less to do with technique, and more to do with who is listening. When we pray, we must remember who we're talking to: God, who is readily available, accessible, and can be "interrupted" at any time.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued our "God Comes Where He's Wanted 2.0" series by taking a closer look at how Jesus calls us to pray in Luke 11. After He prays the Lord's prayer as a model, Jesus teaches that the posture we should pray from is one of shameless confidence for others and ourselves.

This Sunday, fueled by the urgent movement of God at Asbury University and elsewhere, Pastor Jon dug into the spiritual roots of revival as part of our extended series, "God Comes Where He's Wanted." Pointing to King Josiah's story from 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles as an example, Pastor Jon emphasized our need to repent and draw near to God, tear out sin by the roots, recover the heart of worship and understanding of scripture, and restore redemptive spiritual practices to usher in revival.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon taught from his reflections on his time at Asbury University last week. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Asbury is a clue that God is doing something, and He is asking us to pay attention. It's time to lean in with increased devotion, preparing our hearts, and strengthening the walls of our souls to carry the coming glory of revival. We must remember that as God is drawing near to us, He's inviting us to continue to draw near to Him.

In our final week of 'God Comes Where He's Wanted' Pastor Suzy emphasized the importance of understanding God's cry for our vital consecration and purity, as we desire and call upon our Holy God in our hearts, homes, church, and region. As King of the universe, we need to seek Him based on His terms, not our own, and we must consecrate our hearts and bodies to His holiness so that the cry of our heart, home, church, and region ushers in the revival we long for.

This Sunday, Pastor Sam continued our teaching series, "God Comes Where He's Wanted" by unpacking the cry for the region through Isaiah 64. He offered three invitations to help us move from complacency, to concern, to crying our for God to intervene and reveal Himself in our region based on the pattern evident in Scripture. We must discern the season we are in, and develop a desperation for God to come have His way in every area of the world around us.

This Sunday, guest Pastor Lee Cummings continued our teaching series, "God Comes Where He's Wanted" by teaching on the importance of building altars through our lives. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God allows His people to be living temples of the Holy Spirit, invites us to walk in holy confidence, and equips us to invade the darkness of our world with His glory. Our Living the Liturgy campaign is still open for giving through the end of January. We encourage you to prayerfully consider joining us in giving to our Living the Liturgy campaign at church.nyc/give. Click here to listen to Heart on Fire by Emily Lindquist, a song inspired by what God is doing in our community at Church of the City New York.

Sunday was a historic day in the life of Church of the City as we installed the men and women of our first Elder Cohort as official Elders in our church. After a year long process, the Elders were commissioned at all four of our Sunday Services. We are so excited they have each joined this office of leadership, and look forward to the care, guidance, and wisdom they will provide as they shepherd our community.

This Sunday Pastor Jon Tyson continued our teaching series "God Comes Where He's Wanted" with a teaching on cultivating the cry of our homes. Whether we are parents, married, or single, we can make the cry of our homes, "God I want you here," and be a part of raising up the next generation in faith. We are being called to embrace this heart of prayer, and take up responsibility for the transfer faith to the generation to come. Our Living the Liturgy campaign is still open for giving through the end of January. We encourage you to prayerfully consider joining us in giving to our Living the Liturgy campaign at church.nyc/give. Click here to listen to Heart on Fire by Emily Lindquist, a song inspired by what God is doing in our community at Church of the City New York.

This Sunday Pastor Jon Tyson continued our teaching series "God Comes Where He's Wanted" by diving into the practice of cultivating our hearts in such a way that they would be a place God delights to dwell. Our Living the Liturgy campaign is still open for giving through the end of January. We encourage you to prayerfully consider joining us in giving to our Living the Liturgy campaign at church.nyc/give. Click here to listen to Heart on Fire by Emily Lindquist, a song inspired by what God is doing in our community at Church of the City New York.

This Sunday Pastor Jon Tyson began our first teaching series of the New Year, "God Comes Where He's Wanted", that will focus on cultivating the altars of our hearts, homes, church, and city in hopes of ushering revival through an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Our Living the Liturgy campaign is still open for giving through the end of January. We enoucourage you to prayerfully consider joining us in giving to our Living the Liturgy campaign at church.nyc/give. Click here to listen to Sanctuary by Emily Lindquist, a song inspired by what God is doing in our community at Church of the City New York.

This Sunday, we celebrated the birth of Jesus with our annual Lessons & Carols service, an ancient church tradition of proclaiming the story of Jesus' first Advent through hymns and the reading of Scripture. The songs and stories of Christmas that we know so well have toppled kingdoms, delivered people, and transformed history. However, it's so easy for us to hear them year after year, and yet still miss the things that God is doing in our midst. As His people, we must be hungry for the hope and glory Christmas holds for the world, and celebrate Jesus' coming with wonder and amazement. We encourage you to prayerfully consider joining us in giving to our Living the Liturgy campaign at church.nyc/give.

This Sunday Pastor Jon Tyson continued our Advent series with a teaching from John 14:1-10 about Jesus coming to make a way out of darkness for us. It is through His first advent that we see the mission of God to come and get humanity and lead us back to Himself. We need Christmas, because despite all of the evil in the world and ourselves, Jesus makes a way for us when we are lost, reveals truth in a world of lies, and gives us life in a world of death. Click here to listen to Sanctuary by Emily Lindquist, a song inspired by what God is doing in our community at Church of the City New York.

This Sunday Pastor Jon Tyson continued our Advent series with a teaching from John 3:16-21 about the darkness that exists within the world and within us. Advent makes room for us to face the darkness Jesus rescues us from, and invites us to ask Him to lead us into the freedom of His marvelous light forever. It is out of this truth that we can offer a "Merry Christmas" out of a place of deep joy to everyone we meet, knowing that our darkness has been conquered by His light. Click here to listen to Sanctuary by Emily Lindquist, a song inspired by what God is doing in our community at Church of the City New York.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy began our Advent series with a teaching from John 1 about the Light of God coming into the world through the person of Jesus. Jesus has overcome all darkness, but we must receive Him as the Light in the beginning, the Light of the World, and that He will be the Light of His people in the age to come. When we believe and receive Jesus' Light, we are freed from having to illuminate ourselves, given the ability to wholly live in His presence, and called to be witnesses to His Light for all the world to see. We encourage you to prayerfully consider joining us in giving to our Living the Liturgy campaign at church.nyc/give.

This Sunday, Pastor Ashley concluded our Fall sermon series, The Jesus Stuff, with a teaching on truth, not as an ideological framework, but as the person of Jesus. Jesus promises that when we abide in God's Word, we will know His truth, and His truth will set us free.

This Sunday, guest teacher David Bennett continued our Fall sermon series, The Jesus Stuff, with a teaching on the radical and mysterious love of God. Framed under the idea that God has a love that is unique for every person, David shared his testimony of moving from an atheistic, gay activist, to becoming a follower of Jesus, who now advocates for a positive moral vision of biblical sexuality and discipleship. You can hear more about our beliefs on sexual formation in the sermons and podcasts below or visit our website church.nyc/sexual-formation. Making Sense of the Church: Marriage - Jon Tyson Listen The Controversial Jesus: Sexual Formation - Jon Tyson Listen / Watch The Controversial Jesus: Jesus and the Gay Community - Jon Tyson Listen / Watch The Controversial Jesus: Jesus, Gender, and the Trans Community - Jon Tyson Listen / Watch

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued our Fall sermon series, The Jesus Stuff, with a teaching on the way Jesus used His margin to do justice and love mercy as He walked with God. Jesus went above and beyond in His care for people to the point that He poured out His whole life, and He calls us to do the same.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Fall sermon series, The Jesus Stuff, by digging into the most controversial aspect of Jesus's ministry: who He ate with. Jesus created space for people to encounter the Father's scandalous grace.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Fall sermon series, The Jesus Stuff, by taking a deeper look at the importance of communion with God in the secret place. The source of flourishing in Jesus' ministry was His consistent time withdrawing to the secret place to pray and spend time with His Father, and through His death and resurrection we also have access to this source of life.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued our Fall sermon series, The Jesus Stuff, by diving into the importance of being dependent on the Holy Spirit and interdependent on the body of Christ.

This Sunday, guest Pastor Darren Rouanzoin continued our Fall sermon series, The Jesus Stuff, with a powerful and practical teaching on healing. When we look at the ministry of Jesus, it is clear that He prioritized preaching the Kingdom, healing the sick, and casting out demons, and as His followers, we are called to continue this ministry here on earth through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Fall sermon series, The Jesus Stuff, with a clarifying teaching on the what the Kingdom of God actually is and what it looks like to seek it first in our world today. The Kingdom of God is the reality of God bringing about His will on earth. The gospel of the Kingdom is a threat, and pursing it will bring resistance into our lives, but we cannot do The Jesus Stuff without the Kingdom stuff.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Fall sermon series, The Jesus Stuff, by posing three questions we can ask before we walk into any situation that will help lead us to live as Jesus did, not just manage our sin. As we pursue The Jesus Stuff, we must have faith that God is moving so we can join Him, listen for His promptings so we can hear His whispers of where to go, and move in obedience towards where He leads no matter the cost.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon kicked off our Fall sermon series, The Jesus Stuff, where we will examine the kind of disciples Jesus calls us to be by taking a deeper look at how He lived His life. When we obey what Jesus calls us to do, resolving to not only learn from Him but act like Him, we move from participating in generic faith to living explicitly for Jesus. The Gospel is our invitation to burn with passion for the person of Jesus, and our call to the missionary adventure of reminding people of the beauty of the Jesus Stuff.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon wrapped up our Summer sermon series, Defiant Joy: A Study Through Philippians, with Paul's closing message to the church at Philippi. When we study Paul's life and church history, it is evident that the Gospel is always moving along relational lines. Through Paul's relationship with the Philippians we see the Gospel being carried out because of their sacrificial commitment to Jesus and His Kingdom, long, loyal relationships to one another, and generous partnerships to promote the movement. Paul's life of mission was a response to the love that saved him, and he calls us to respond in the same way, giving everything we have for the sake of the Gospel.

This Sunday, Pastor Ashley, continued our Summer sermon series, Defiant Joy: A Study Through Philippians, by focusing on Paul's insight into the peace of God and the God of peace being available to us. Paul's message is not meant to dismiss anxiety, but to reveal our access to peace in the midst of distress. Pastor Ashley taught that Paul first calls us to rejoice in the Lord and what He's done, to be gentle with one another, and finally to not be anxious about anything. The order of these exhortations tell us that peace is not found in the absence of anxiety, but in the reorientation of every circumstance in the presence of Jesus.

This Sunday, guest Pastor, Darren Whitehead, continued our Summer sermon series, Defiant Joy: A Study Through Philippians, and focused in on Paul's call to unity in the church. These verses reveal a conflict between two women in the church at Philippi, but Paul pleads with them to have the same mind in the Lord. This points us to the truth that the beauty of unity is rooted in God's ability to transform our desires towards His. Community is not an absence of conflict, but the presence of God's reconciling Spirit. However, there are cultural challenges that try to stand in the way unity. The church today faces political, racial, generational, and economic divides, but in the Lord there can be a unity in the body that crosses all of these lines. As believers, our loyalty to Jesus should be greater than our loyalty to any political party, we should identify first and foremost as a follower of Jesus, we should honor the generation before us and not look down on the generation after but build them up, and we should extend care within the church regardless of financial standing. These counter-cultural postures foster unity in the church and creates access to new authority. Pastor Darren referenced Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell on followers of Jesus, and before the Spirit came, it is said that the believers were 'all of one accord in one place.' It was after unity was already happening that God poured out His Spirit, and the early church was born. Unity is so important to God that He commands a blessing where His people live in unity with one another. We each have the ability to disrupt unity, but we also have the ability to repair it, and this is God's call to us today.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued our Summer sermon series, Defiant Joy: A Study Through Philippians, by teaching on Paul's call for us to live into our heavenly citizenship. Believers have been given the benefits of being co-heirs with Christ because of His sacrifice on the cross, but we must live up to what we have attained through Him. This passage tells us that we are citizens of heaven, but that we are called to live up to that truth in this life.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Summer sermon series, Defiant Joy: A Study Through Philippians, by unpacking the beginning of Chapter 3. Here, Paul delivers insight into his own transformation of faith and highlights how we can follow his example of being thoroughly converted. Being thoroughly converted calls us to take all of our broken pieces and direct them towards the person of Jesus, trusting that in Him we will one day be made whole.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued our Summer sermon series, Defiant Joy: A Study Through Philippians by teaching on the last section of Chapter 2. Here, Paul commends Timothy and Epaphroditus as men who care deeply about the church and the gospel. Paul makes a connection between the Philippians church, the proclamation of the gospel, and the interests of Christ.

This Sunday, Pastor Keithen continued our Summer sermon series, Defiant Joy: A Study Through Philippians by preaching on Paul's encouragement in Philippians 2 to live as the people of God in the world. Paul wrote to the church of Philippi, whose people were the new Israel. Ultimately, as we live as true disciples of Jesus, joy becomes the mark of our spiritual authority in the world.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Summer sermon series, Defiant Joy: A Study Through Philippians by taking a practical look at what it means to love people like Jesus did. Loving others can seem increasingly difficult in today's world, but this passage urges us to have the same, loving mindset as Christ in our relationships. Jesus loved us in an unreasonable way, and calls us to be like Him, finding joy in someone else's prospering, even when it is at our own expense.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Summer sermon series, Defiant Joy: A Study Through Philippians by examining Paul's call to the church to be a place of defiant unity in the face of the narcissism, contempt, and division in our current culture. Pastor Jon reminded us that while we can love God on our own, we cannot be the people of God on our own. Jesus calls us to value others above ourselves and sacrifice our preferences to become a compelling, alternative community of love and unity for our world.

This Sunday, Pastor Matthew Ro continued our Summer sermon series, Defiant Joy: A Study Through Philippians by looking at Paul's mission statement, "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain," and how it enabled him to have defiant joy no matter what. Paul knew everything Jesus endured was for us, so we have the ability to endure anything for His sake, and our earthly realities can become second by the beauty and glory of Jesus breaking through.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued our new sermon series, Defiant Joy: A Study Through Philippians by looking at Paul's prioritization of the proclamation of the gospel. We find Paul rejoicing at the end of this text because the gospel message was still being advanced even while he was in prison. Paul's letter should not only encourage us to reassess and reorder our own priorities around the glorification of Christ, but also strengthen our courage and resolve to share the gospel in every circumstance.

Guest Pastor Banning Liebscher gave a word about the importance of guarding our hearts against the lies of the enemy. Jesus came to connect us to truth and bring us freedom and abundant life, so the enemy's main strategy against us is to disconnect us from truth through lies and lead us into a life of bondage. By keeping a vigilant watch over our hearts, meditating strategically on God's Truth, praying consistently, and liberally casting our cares and burdens on the Lord, we can disrupt the enemy's schemes to keep us from the life freedom Jesus has for us.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued our new sermon series, Defiant Joy: A Study Through Philippians by looking at the Work of God. As we continue in Paul's letter to the Philippians, we quickly see that, even though he is in prison, he is still able to rejoice. Paul's source of defiant joy was in the work of the everlasting God, not in the work of any one man. As believers, we can share in this confidence and this joy, that God is always working in us, through us, and around us to bring forth the Good News of the Gospel.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon kicked off our Summer series, Defiant Joy: A Study Through Philippians. The apostle Paul is writing to the church he planted at Philippi, a community dear to his heart, and through the themes spiritual mentoring through his own life's examples, defiant joy unshaken by circumstances, steadfast unity in the Spirit, and a reorientation around the worth of the person of Jesus, Paul reveals the secrets of the art of living a life of flourishing.

This Sunday guest Pastor Guy Wasko gave a teaching on the importance of Seizing Divine Moments. Through part of Jonathan's story in 1 Samuel, we learn that sometimes God is asking us to just show up with nothing but an expectation that He will move.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued our 'Seeing Jesus' series with the story of Mary Magdalene's encounter with the risen Jesus outside of His tomb, and revealed how we can see Jesus through our despair. We meet Mary in the depths of her grief, distressed from the loss of Jesus, and find she is on the edge of giving up hope. Through her encounter with Jesus, we are reminded grief in this life is temporary, because Jesus has defeated death and made our hope secure in Him.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon taught on "Seeing Jesus Through Denying Faith" by taking a closer look at Judas' betrayal and denial of Jesus. While Pastor Jon reminded us that while we cannot lose our salvation, we can deny our faith. It is confusing and painful to examine why faith fails, but it is increasingly necessary in our culture where people are rapidly turning away from faith. Judas' story invites us to examine our motives for believing in Jesus.