Christ in the Capital of the World

How global Christians are revitalizing NYC far beyond Manhattan.

Mark R. Gornik and Maria Liu Wong

[ 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.

Read more at Christianity Today

Have you shared the Gospel lately?

USA (MNN) ― You may have heard that U.S. young people are leaving the Church in droves. According to a 2012 report from the Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project, the number of people who don't identify with religion is growing at a rapid pace.
"One-fifth of the U.S. public--and one-third of adults under 30--are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling," the October 9 report states. "In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults.

Read More at Mission Network News

ANAYSIS: Egypt, Coptic Christians & turmoil

EDITOR'S NOTE: Michael H. Edens is professor of theology and Islamic studies at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and an emeritus missionary who served 25 years in the Middle East with Southern Baptists' International Mission Board.

NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- The news from the banks of the Nile River has left many without hope of ever understanding from the outside what has happened over the past several months in Egypt, especially in recent weeks. We live in a small world deeply affected by other places which operate within different cultures. This is true of Egypt. What is important there differs from here. Let's look at various aspects of this reality.

Egyptians expect a stable strong ruler. However, the decades of dictatorship under Hosni Mubarak made them wary of that style of leadership. After deposing the dictator, Egyptians elected Mohamed Morsi by a slim majority, and he soon began to install men in governing functions whose only qualification was their Muslim Brotherhood party membership. The economy and other vital parts of Egyptian life began to deteriorate in his first year of office.

READ MORE at Baptist Press

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