This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued our Missional Formation series by unpacking the distinctive of Radical Daily Pursuit through the discipline of feasting on the Word. Often without meaning to, we can lose sight of why God wants us to spend time reading the Bible. This discipline is not meant to be driven by doing things for God so that He will be pleased with us, but out of a desire to commune with the God who desires to commune with us. 

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Missional Formation series with a teaching on the first of nine distinctives and corresponding disciplines of Church of the City’s radical minimum standard for discipleship. We believe compelling missional disciples are marked by three things — tangible presence, counter formation, and sacrificial mission — and the distinctives and disciplines we will be diving into this season make up how to practically live these out in our day to day lives. The first distinctive, sitting under tangible presence, is Revival and Awakening, and the discipline is contending prayer. 

This Sunday, Pastor Jon kicked off our new sermon series on Missional Formation with a teaching on setting a new radical minimum standard for discipleship. He challenged us with a powerful reminder: the true measure of a church isn’t found in its programs or teachings, but in the hearts of its disciples and their commitment to obeying Jesus’ great commission. Pastor Jon called us to elevate our expectations for discipleship, and approach it as a response to God’s love for us, instead of using willpower or performance. As we experience His love, we are transformed and empowered to love Him back.

This Sunday, we closed out our God Comes Where He’s Wanted Series with guest preacher and friend, Zach Meerkreebs, with a teaching on cultivating the altar of the region. Only when we are heartbroken over our region, as Jesus was heartbroken over Jerusalem, will we begin to prayerfully build the altar of our region through Christlike confrontation, conscreted confidence, and faithful contending. 

This Sunday, Pastor Sam Gibson continued our God Comes Where He’s Wanted series with a message on cultivating the altar of the Church. Pastor Sam acknowledged there is often pain and hopelessness tied to conversations about the Church today, while offering a hopeful vision of restoring corporate spaces of seeking God through tearing down false altars, building up spaces for God’s presence, and tending to those spaces as unified bodies of believers.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our sermon series “God Comes Where He’s Wanted” with a teaching on how to intentionally cultivate Godly homes and prioritize the next generation. The Bible focuses on families and households in the context of tribes, nations, and communities at large, extending beyond our modern understanding of families. With this in mind, Pastor Jon called us to commit together, whether married, divorced, single, or currently raising children, to invest in the next generation, however we can, so that they can inherit a legacy of faith and be blessed. 

This Sunday, Pastor Jon kicked off our January sermon series, God Comes Where He’s Wanted. There is one thing we can be certain of throughout the Scriptures and stories of Church history: God comes where He’s wanted. Hunger for the Lord’s presence is the true secret to revival, but before we can ask Jesus to come to our homes, church, or city, we have to want Him in our hearts, and become ourselves, a place where He's wanted. We want to be a people committed to a culture of wanting God, filled with wonder, driven by desperation, committed to celebration, and overflowing with devotion to Him.

Welcome to Church of the City New York's Advent Devotionals.

Jesus was good news in the first century, and He is still good news today.

One of the most iconic passages read during the Advent season comes from Isaiah 9, where the Prophet proclaims the light has dawned for those living in darkness, a child will be born, and a son will be given, the Messiah, who will bring peace with God and with mankind by ruling on David's throne. We hope that during this season everyone listening will gain a renewed desire to walk in intimacy with Jesus and to boldly proclaim the story of God's Son to others.

Song Credits: Isle'r

Written By: Church of the City New York Editorial Team

Welcome to Church of the City New York's Advent Devotionals.

Jesus was good news in the first century, and He is still good news today.

One of the most iconic passages read during the Advent season comes from Isaiah 9, where the Prophet proclaims the light has dawned for those living in darkness, a child will be born, and a son will be given, the Messiah, who will bring peace with God and with mankind by ruling on David's throne. We hope that during this season everyone listening will gain a renewed desire to walk in intimacy with Jesus and to boldly proclaim the story of God's Son to others.

Song Credits: Emily Lindquist

Written By: Church of the City New York Editorial Team

Welcome to Church of the City New York's Advent Devotionals.

Jesus was good news in the first century, and He is still good news today.

One of the most iconic passages read during the Advent season comes from Isaiah 9, where the Prophet proclaims the light has dawned for those living in darkness, a child will be born, and a son will be given, the Messiah, who will bring peace with God and with mankind by ruling on David's throne. We hope that during this season everyone listening will gain a renewed desire to walk in intimacy with Jesus and to boldly proclaim the story of God's Son to others.

Song Credits: Emily Lindquist

Written By: Church of the City New York Editorial Team