For the second year in a row our network partnered with the Fifth Avenue Committee during the NYC public school spring break. This year our goal was to create an urban garden in a space behind one of the mixed income buildings that Fifth Avenue Committee owns. Creating a backyard garden obviously benefits our neighbors and the building's residents, but there was a subtle yet important benefit for those who got their hands dirty and participated in the garden project. It was an opportunity to rediscover the biblical imagery of God’s work in ...

Prayer of the Week Lent Week 3 Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversaries which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Lent is intended to be the time in the year when Christians take inventory of our lives. It allows us the opportunity ...

Prayer of the Week Epiphany 2 Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever, Amen. Fresh on the heals of Advent, Ephiphany reveals the nature, character and mission of Jesus. And as this prayer reminds us Jesus isn't just ...

Prayer for Epiphany Sunday O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen It seems like every year having been worn out by the Christmas season and now stressed out by the New Year's goals and resolutions I stumble across Epiphany. And every year it's a happy discovery. It's easy to forget ...

On Sunday evening, January 8th, 2012 Christ Church Clinton Hill will begin weekly worship. Please join us in giving thanks to God for our newest congregation and if you're in the area please join us for worship. You can click here for details.

In May of 2007 my wife and I went through church planting assessment with our great friends and fellow Brooklynites, John and Kathy Sweet. At the time I was an Assistant Pastor at Resurrection and John was an Assistant Pastor at Park Slope. And during this assessment I remember talking about the risks inherent in church planting and I remember feeling queezy. But I also remember John and Kathy Sweet moving through assessment not only talking about the risk but also embracing it. At that time, John was talking about planting the next ...

These days, the pride uniting Brooklynites is palpable. Case in point is the explosion of products boldly christened with “Made in Brooklyn” labels. Another example is the common site of Brooklynites all over the borough wearing college-style “Brooklyn” t-shirts. Spending anytime on the Upper West Side or Astoria reveals the uniqueness of each phenomenon and the underlying pride.< > < > Probing a little deeper, however, the tenuous nature of the unity becomes obvious. After all, there are umpteen competing ideas of who qualifies ...

There are two things you can't escape in the summertime in New York City: the heat and the noise. I don't ever get used to the heat (the window units don't do the job) but I do get used to the noise. And tuning out the noise is no small feat because there is an unending symphony happening on the streets: the car alarms, the sirens, the horns, the kids on their scooters, the airplanes on final approach, the music from the ice cream truck, the one sided cell phone conversations, and the thumping car stereos, are just a few of the instruments....

This recent New York Times article on the increase in clergy experiencing burnout got me thinking about how pastors can survive and thrive in ministry for the long haul. If you've been around the church for any length of time that probably means you have some sad stories about pastors burning out in all sorts of ways. And as BCP brings on pastoral interns and introduces them to the world of pastoral ministry we want to set them on a trajectory that addresses and prevents burnout down the road. The remedy to burnout in clergy, according to ...

Last week BCP hosted our first short term missions team. They were a great group of students from one of our partner churches, StoneBridge Presbyterian Church. This church does such a great job of loving us and caring for us that it was no surprise to us that these students came to Brooklyn ready to work. One of the projects they worked on was painting an iron fence that stretched along the front of an armory in Park Slope that now is home to a women's homeless shelter. There is one word that describes this project: tedious. Scraping the ...

I just finished reading Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places by Sharon Zukin. It's a compelling read about how the desire for authenticity has shaped several New York City neighborhoods. I'm still processing much of what I've read here, but one quote which is really an evaluation of Brooklyn has stuck with me. Zukin writes: "The new Brooklyn is different. It's a place people come to, not a place they come from, and where residents don't have a traditional, urban village way of life but are very proud of the "authenticity" ...

I had the privilege of spending two weeks in Addis, Ethiopia with our global missions partner SIM/MTW Ethiopia. Our churches have been sending folks over there for the past four years and each year I hear all sorts of great stories about the project. This year was my turn and even after several years of hearing these stories about the work it still exceeded any expectations that I had when I arrived in Ethiopia. There is so much to process and learn and I'll share more about the trip here over the next few weeks. But one story is sticking with ...

In The Gospel of Luke chapter 10, Jesus sends out his disciples (in this case, the 72) to proclaim to the good news that Jesus' kingdom is drawing near. Luke notes that Jesus sent these ambassadors in pairs, "two by two." This pattern holds for the second half of Luke's gospel as we see the ministry of the gospel frequently carried forward in pairs – Peter and John, Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Silas, and many other combinations. Without trying to read too much into this pattern, I've always found this practice to be encouraging. I find it ...

I began the church planting internship with Brooklyn Church Project a month ago, and there is one recurring theme that keeps coming up in my experience thus far: practicing the basics. What do I mean by practicing the basics? One of the core values of Brooklyn Church Project is the commitment to the central practice of the Christian church: corporate worship. In worship, we are devoted to the Word, prayer, and the sacraments as the means of grace for God’s people. These are the basics of Christian practice. Peter told the early church, ...

A few months ago I made a big mistake.... On a newsletter that I was working on I typed the following for our mission statement: Brooklyn Church Project exists to build the kingdom of God in Brooklyn by planting new congregations and partnering with existing Christian ministries. My mistake was using the word build instead of embody. It was just one word, one little verb, but it was a big mistake. Thankfully, someone proofread the mission statement and we caught the mistake before it was sent out. But, as I reflected on my blunder, I ...

As an intern of Brooklyn Church Project, I have a reading list that covers a selection of topics: Apologetics and Evangelism, Kingdom Ecclesiology, Worship, Pastoral Ministry, and Urban Ministry. These books were hand picked by the other pastors of our church planting network. Therefore most were chosen because they have something to offer that is particularly relevant to church planting and ministry in an urban context such as Brooklyn. I think my favorite I've read in my year as an intern to date is When the Kings Come Marching In by Richard ...

I pass the cornerstone of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church several times each day and see the year 1884 etched into the stone. This stone serves as a reminder to me of what we ultimately want to see happen through our labors: we want to move from planting churches to laying cornerstones. There are many reasons we want to lay cornerstones. Perhaps the most obvious reason is that to have cornerstones means you own buildings, and while that may happen that’s not what I’m talking about here. Rather the cornerstones upon which these beautiful old ...

In the spring of the year, the time when many college students go out to sow their wild oats, Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) students from colleges across the nation come to New York to visit churches and Christian ministries during the day and enjoy various restaurants and other attractions at night. All in all, these are great trips that expose Christian students to works with which they would otherwise be unfamiliar and some of them move to the city after graduation in order to participate. Today we hosted RUF students from the ...