How global Christians are revitalizing NYC far beyond Manhattan.
[ posted 8/30/2013 8:52AM ]
On a brisk October Saturday in 2012, hundreds of teenagers, young adults, and youth leaders gathered at Battery Park in Manhattan. In earlier days, the historic public park facing New York Harbor was the first place to receive immigrants from Europe and elsewhere. But this morning, it received members of black and Latino Pentecostal churches nestled throughout Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. The crowd donned T-shirts and jerseys proclaiming God Belongs in My City (GBIMC). They were embarking on a rolling prayer meeting that would make its way from the southern tip of Manhattan up to Times Square.
The youth were not tourists. They did not gape at architectural
landmarks like the Flatiron and Empire State along the way. Instead,
they sang and laughed as they walked and talked, texted, and tweeted
about their journey. Many stopped to scribble GBIMC and John 3:16 in
chalk on the sidewalks. They walked the city with purpose and
possibility. They knew where they were going.
