Church of the City New York

 This past Sunday, Pastor Jon taught on Christ’s words of blessing over those who are persecuted and His calling to rejoice in the midst of it. In a world that is offended by righteousness and claims of Christ’s exclusivity as the way to freedom, our efforts to follow Jesus and cling to His words will increasingly set us against the current of our culture. Yet in this we rejoice, remembering that we are exiles in this world and following Christ’s example of enduring persecution with joy and humility.

This past Sunday, Pastor Jon Tyson preached about Jesus’ call to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9). At a time when the world thought leadership meant violence and military prowess, Jesus declared that peacemakers were the children of God.

This past Sunday, Dr. Derwin Gray, lead pastor of Transformation Church in South Carolina, preached on the fifth beatitude: “Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.” In the divisive times we are living in, he encourages us to take up a mantle of mercy, and through the parable of the Good Samaritan, shares with us how to truly love our neighbors as ourselves.

This past Sunday, Pastor Jon examined the fourth beatitude and its vision for righteousness as both personal holiness and social justice. In the midst of our current cultural decline, he exhorts us to become people who are desperate to see biblical righteousness break into our world today.

This past Sunday, Pastor Suzy illuminated the third beatitude in Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the meek, and walked us through how to become more like Jesus by posturing ourselves toward meekness so that we can inherit the New Jerusalem.

This past Sunday, Pastor Olivia, our new pastor of discipleship and formation, shed light on Christ’s blessing and invitation to enter into redemptive mourning. As we mourn the brokenness of this world, as well as our individual and collective experiences of it, we are comforted by the promise and hope of Christ’s resurrection life.

This past Sunday, Pastor Jon reminded us of the importance of maintaining our relationship with God by recognizing our spiritual bankruptcy. Being welcomed into the kingdom of God requires us to relinquish our pride and choose humility, else we are blind to what is above us.

This week, Pastor Jon set the foundation for our season-long study of Jesus’ teaching of the Beatitudes. In the face of the crises around us, we need to be rooted more deeply than ever in the core teachings of Jesus about discipleship and the Kingdom of God.

This week, Pastor Jon cast a vision for our church as we head into the fall season. We are tired, but resolved to regroup and rebuild through pressing deeper into our core values--Presence, Formation, and Mission. However, in this season, we are taking these values to a deeper level. We are pursuing the tangible presence of God, understanding that no human solutions can rescue us from our cultural trauma; we are committed to counter formation, recognizing that there is no neutral ground and fighting against culture's attempting to pull us away from becoming like Jesus; and we are pursuing sacrificial mission, adopting the "I sacrifice, we win" mentality of Christ and embracing the high cost of living for the good of this city. New York needs a community of champions, and now is not the time to shrink back but to rise up.