Why NYC?
Would he have heard the Gospel if he had not moved to the NYC? I spent 45 minutes one morning sharing the gospel with Felipe, a man who was born in Venezuela and had only in the US for a period of 10 years or so. Although originally a violent man, an alcoholic, he has been attending services and many outward changes show that he has had an inward change. I believe Felipe’s changes have come from the inside out; his new birth through faith in Jesus has changed him eternally. There are millions of others like Felipe in NYC that must be reached. They are the mission field among us. God is glorified when we reach the mission fields of NYC.
My first experiences in NYC as a sophomore
in College were life-changing. I was so moved by the multitudes of people that teamed in this melting pot of the world - so many people, so diverse! How can I reach them? In the years since that time, as I have ministered in the city I have observed this same reaction in nearly everyone that I chauffeur around the city for their first experience. This missionary vision is what I wanted to try to communicate for anyone who has not yet had the opportunity to survey the needs of NYC or who has had this opportunity but would like to have their desire rekindled for Christ’s glory among the Nations of NYC. Why should you be burdened to reach NYC? Let’s look at a couple of reasons:
Reason 1: Because God Desires to Glorify His Name among the Nations.
To the Nations . . . What?
To the Nations . . . How?
To the Nations . . . Why?
Reason 2: Because the Nations of the World are in NYC.
Foreign Missions in the US?
A Dangerous Mindset
Because God Desires to Glorify His Name among the Nations
To the Nations . . . What?
You want us to go to the nations? The men who heard those words were completely astonished. They had been raised in a Jewish home in the small fishing village of Capernaum. Five or six of them were men who had followed their father in the family trade; perhaps they had not been ‘good enough’ to be chosen by the local Rabi as an understudy. Another young man had been chosen to follow the local Rabi on a full time basis and they were content to learn the Torah during the weekly gatherings in their synagogue. But things changed when this Rabi came to town. They were all young men at the time that Jesus first came to them. He hand-picked His own followers – and He chose four cousins from this fishing village to join His close band.
In this passage Paul gives the reasons that Jesus served Jews (15:8) and the nations (15:9-12). Jesus came for the Jews to show that God is faithful to His promises to the Fathers of Israel. He showed mercy to the Gentiles so that they would glorify God for His mercy. God wants to save a people out of all nations so that people of all nations would glorify His name for His abundant mercy. God saves the nations to glorify His mercy on the earth!
God also wants to glorify Himself in the heavens. This is exactly what Paul is talking about in Ephesians when he states that he was chosen to preach the gospel to the nations so that the angels in heaven would be amazed at the wisdom of God in saving a people of all nations. They watch the church being constructed throughout the ages and are amazed at the building blocks God uses. The church is like a masterpiece of many different colors and textures of people from all walks of life and cultures (Eph 3:8-10). The angles in heaven look down at the church and praise God for His multifaceted wisdom.
God will be glorified for His mercy to the nations in eternity. When we get a glimpse in heaven we hear the same chorus resounding to the praise of God’s multifaceted mercy.
Revelation 5:9-10 9 And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 10 "You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth."
For ages to come we will be praising our Savior for His great wisdom and mercy among the nations! That is the biblical foundation for our philosophy statement – To Glorify God through Making Disciples of the Nations.
Because the Nations of the World are in NYC
Where do we go to reach the nations of the world? As a teenager I had a difficult time trying to decide which mission field the Lord would have me spend my life. With every missionary presentation I heard I was burdened to go to a new land. What was the answer? Don’t pick one. Pick them all. The Lord called me to go to the nations of the world in NYC. The fact is that in the cities of the US you can be a missionary to just about every nation of the world!
You have heard that there are many people in NYC. The NYC metro area is one of the w
orld’s largest population centers. The 21 million people equal the fourth largest metropolitan area in the world. It is difficult to comprehend just how many people are represented in that figure. If you were to take the population of Alabama, Idaho, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia combined it would not equal the population of the metro area of New York City. However, it is not just the great number of people that drives us to the city. There are many cities in the world that are exploding with population. NYC is unique in its diversity.
Foreign Missions in the US?
Although NYC has long been recognized as a place to reach many needy people and a great place to reach people of other nationalities - there is still a lack of understanding as to the degree that this is the case. There is no other place on earth where more nations can be reached in one place than in NYC. Of course, the goal is not the most nations; the goal is to glorify God through fulfilling what He commissioned. However, the fact still stands. There is no better place on earth to reach the nations of the world than in NYC. NYC has a larger foreign born population than any city in the world. These are people who were born on the mission field and have moved to NYC. Although Tokyo, Japan has millions more people than NYC, it has a far smaller foreign born population (those living in Japan who were born in a foreign country). In fact NYC’s foreign born population is larger than the foreign born population of the entire country of Japan. The same is true of Mexico City. It has a larger population than NYC, however NYC’s foreign born population is four times larger than the entire country of Mexico. And the foreign born population of NYC is very diverse. They are from the mission fields of the world! What a melting pot of mission fields!
Perhaps we would need to think of these people who were born in a foreign country as still living in their country in order to demonstrate that they are still a mission field. What about those Haitians living in NYC that were born in Haiti. All those who were born in Haiti that now live in NYC would comprise the second largest city in Haiti! What if they still lived in Haiti? Would we not consider planting a church to that city a missions endeavor? Of course! We would target the second largest city in a country as a great place to plant a church to reach that city.
For some reason, in our minds there is often a gap between foreign missions and missions reaching the cities of the United States. If someone is reaching the Chinese in China well that is missions. If someone is reaching the 800,000 Asians in NYC then that is, well, sort of missions. Is there a great difference between reaching them there and reaching them here? There is no difference in their soul. There is no difference in their need. The greatest difference stands in the ease with which we can reach them here. Often when a person comes to the US, leaving their foreign culture makes them more open to new ideas. They are not as chained to the dominating religion of their culture. They open their hearts to the pluralistic society of NYC. This results in a readiness to hear the gospel. I don’t know how many scores of people I have witnessed to while sitting in the subway – people from all over the world. And yet they will hear me out (if they understand English) because they are used to experiencing different ideas in this pluralistic society. They realize that the only rule in the United States is to be tolerant to every view.
For some reason we have two different types of missionaries - those who have crossed a large body of water to reach the Chinese, and those who have not crossed a large body of water to reach the Chinese. When someone is a missionary to the West Indies they are not going in order to reach that body of land, right? Of course not. We understand that they are going to reach the people of the area. The 550,000 West Indians of NYC need to be reached just as much as those that live across a large body of water. So is someone who is a missionary to the West Indians of NYC a missionary to the West Indies? He better think of himself in that way.
A Dangerous Mind Set
I am afraid that in trying to reach other nations in our US cities as we would anyone who grew up in America we jeopardize reaching these nations for the Lord. We cannot ignore the same culture and language barriers that exist whether or not the person is living across a large body of water. A person who is trying to reach the Chinese people of NYC should strive to learn Mandarin and should be well versed in their culture. This is not being done in our circles. We are planting American churches in American tradition in our American cities when we need to be reaching them as we would reach a mission field.
Take Ben, for example; we want to reach him with the Gospel. How would we reach him when he is in the Ukraine? We would spend years raising money and prayer support for a missionary to leave the US and migrate to the Ukraine. That missionary would then have to spend years learning the foreign language and culture. He would probably spend his entire first term learning that language and culture. The missionary would then spend years trying to plant a church in the Ukraine that would reach out to Ben. That is a great amount of effort expended to reach someone in the Ukraine, and all of that effort is definitely worth it! However, what happens when our friend gets on a plane and flies to the US? Now things have changed. For some reason he is no longer the mission field. He has to spend years learning our language and culture then eventually he may stumble into a church that preaches the gospel. What has changed during the flight from the Ukraine to NYC? His soul is just as needy. Why don’t we expend the same energy to reach Ben in our city as we would in his home town, because he has moved closer? That is no reason to make it more difficult for him to come to know the Savior. I believe we should be expending the same effort to reach him on our soil as we would on the foreign soil. When people come from other countries they often leave the clutches of their world religion when they leave their home culture. Often, they are more open to the gospel.
As believers in the US we have an unprecedented opportunity and an unprecedented responsibility to reach the many nations of the world that are pouring into our borders. As believers in US churches we should:
• Recognize that making disciples of the nations brings glory to God.
• Accept Christ’s commission as our responsibility to reach our cities.
• Target areas in our cities that are saturated with the nations of the world.
• Bridge language and culture gaps just as we would if we were in a foreign culture.
• Plant cross-cultural churches that reach out to the nations of our cities.
My first experiences in NYC as a sophomore
in College were life-changing. I was so moved by the multitudes of people that teamed in this melting pot of the world - so many people, so diverse! How can I reach them? In the years since that time, as I have ministered in the city I have observed this same reaction in nearly everyone that I chauffeur around the city for their first experience. This missionary vision is what I wanted to try to communicate for anyone who has not yet had the opportunity to survey the needs of NYC or who has had this opportunity but would like to have their desire rekindled for Christ’s glory among the Nations of NYC. Why should you be burdened to reach NYC? Let’s look at a couple of reasons:Reason 1: Because God Desires to Glorify His Name among the Nations.
To the Nations . . . What?
To the Nations . . . How?
To the Nations . . . Why?
Reason 2: Because the Nations of the World are in NYC.
Foreign Missions in the US?
A Dangerous Mindset
Because God Desires to Glorify His Name among the Nations
To the Nations . . . What?
You want us to go to the nations? The men who heard those words were completely astonished. They had been raised in a Jewish home in the small fishing village of Capernaum. Five or six of them were men who had followed their father in the family trade; perhaps they had not been ‘good enough’ to be chosen by the local Rabi as an understudy. Another young man had been chosen to follow the local Rabi on a full time basis and they were content to learn the Torah during the weekly gatherings in their synagogue. But things changed when this Rabi came to town. They were all young men at the time that Jesus first came to them. He hand-picked His own followers – and He chose four cousins from this fishing village to join His close band.
They followed for three years and learned from walking in the Rabi’s steps. The first great commission had been different (Matthew 10:1-7). He gave them authority and commanded them not to go to the nations. What would they have thought now after years of following this commission? What would they have thought after years of watching their Rabi go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel instead of the nations? They were astonished. They were confused. Why did God want to reach the nations?
To get the full effect of God’s burden for NYC we must examine what He has told us about ministering to the nations. The most well known Bible passage dealing with ministr
y outreach is the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus’ last command to His followers was to make disciples of all nations. Making disciples is exactly the activity they had observed Jesus undertaking His entire ministry. However, the revolutionary words in that commission that shocked Jesus’ disciples that day were that they were to make disciples of “all nations”. Most of these men were raised as religious Jews and therefore were taught to ignore the nations of the world. In fact, Jesus had done that for most of His ministry (Mt 15:24; 10:5; 23:37). But now Jesus commands them to expand their horizons and enlarge their tents to encompass the nations (Is 54:1-3)!
To the Nations . . . How?
How would this small group of people reach the nations of the world? They knew very little of the culture of the nations of the world. They did not know the languages of the world. They must have been overwhelmed by the task ahead. But they knew one fact for sure - Jesus said that He would be with them and that was the consolation they needed. He also promised a Helper - the Holy Spirit. This Helper was instrumental in empowering to meet the command that God gave. In what way did the Holy Spirit help in Acts 2? He gave them ability to speak in other languages. This was one of the greatest roadblocks standing in their way of taking His Word to the nations - they could not communicate with the nations. God supernaturally took away this difficulty giving them the ability to speak in all languages.
When walking my daughters to the park just over two blocks from my apartment I am amazed at how many languages I hear. I hear Russian, Mandarin, Italian, and Spanish, just to name a few. Just as the nations of the world descended upon Jerusalem at Passover, the nations of the world have descended on the cities of America. In fact, in the borough of Queens there are approximately 138 different languages spoken. How would they reach the nations? Through the Holy Spirit’s enabling to speak in their languages. How will we reach the nations? Well, not exactly the same way but we must still rely on the Holy Spirit's enabling. Bridging this gap is difficult, with over 47% of New Yorkers speaking a language other than English in their homes ; but it is not impossible.
The Lord also reached the nations through spreading the believers in the first century through persecution. When persecution came the thousands of members of the early church spread throughout the world. God was burdened to send His glory to the nations even if it caused the blood of His saints. He also called a promising young Jewish leader who was involved in persecuting the Jewish believers who had ascribed to “the way.” God sent Paul out to the nations. The cities of the world were targeted in Paul's missionary journeys.
To the Nations . . . Why?
Why does God want His Word known to the nations of the world? There are several passages that we can turn to which reveal the answer to this question. One of the clearest is Romans 15:8-12.
Romans 15:8-12 8 For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, 9 and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, "THEREFORE I WILL GIVE PRAISE TO YOU AMONG THE GENTILES, AND I WILL SING TO YOUR NAME." 10 Again he says, "REJOICE, O GENTILES, WITH HIS PEOPLE." 11 And again, "PRAISE THE LORD ALL YOU GENTILES, AND LET ALL THE PEOPLES PRAISE HIM." 12 Again Isaiah says, "THERE SHALL COME THE ROOT OF JESSE, AND HE WHO ARISES TO RULE OVER THE GENTILES, IN HIM SHALL THE GENTILES HOPE."
To get the full effect of God’s burden for NYC we must examine what He has told us about ministering to the nations. The most well known Bible passage dealing with ministr
y outreach is the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus’ last command to His followers was to make disciples of all nations. Making disciples is exactly the activity they had observed Jesus undertaking His entire ministry. However, the revolutionary words in that commission that shocked Jesus’ disciples that day were that they were to make disciples of “all nations”. Most of these men were raised as religious Jews and therefore were taught to ignore the nations of the world. In fact, Jesus had done that for most of His ministry (Mt 15:24; 10:5; 23:37). But now Jesus commands them to expand their horizons and enlarge their tents to encompass the nations (Is 54:1-3)!To the Nations . . . How?
How would this small group of people reach the nations of the world? They knew very little of the culture of the nations of the world. They did not know the languages of the world. They must have been overwhelmed by the task ahead. But they knew one fact for sure - Jesus said that He would be with them and that was the consolation they needed. He also promised a Helper - the Holy Spirit. This Helper was instrumental in empowering to meet the command that God gave. In what way did the Holy Spirit help in Acts 2? He gave them ability to speak in other languages. This was one of the greatest roadblocks standing in their way of taking His Word to the nations - they could not communicate with the nations. God supernaturally took away this difficulty giving them the ability to speak in all languages.
When walking my daughters to the park just over two blocks from my apartment I am amazed at how many languages I hear. I hear Russian, Mandarin, Italian, and Spanish, just to name a few. Just as the nations of the world descended upon Jerusalem at Passover, the nations of the world have descended on the cities of America. In fact, in the borough of Queens there are approximately 138 different languages spoken. How would they reach the nations? Through the Holy Spirit’s enabling to speak in their languages. How will we reach the nations? Well, not exactly the same way but we must still rely on the Holy Spirit's enabling. Bridging this gap is difficult, with over 47% of New Yorkers speaking a language other than English in their homes ; but it is not impossible.
The Lord also reached the nations through spreading the believers in the first century through persecution. When persecution came the thousands of members of the early church spread throughout the world. God was burdened to send His glory to the nations even if it caused the blood of His saints. He also called a promising young Jewish leader who was involved in persecuting the Jewish believers who had ascribed to “the way.” God sent Paul out to the nations. The cities of the world were targeted in Paul's missionary journeys.
To the Nations . . . Why?
Why does God want His Word known to the nations of the world? There are several passages that we can turn to which reveal the answer to this question. One of the clearest is Romans 15:8-12.
Romans 15:8-12 8 For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, 9 and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, "THEREFORE I WILL GIVE PRAISE TO YOU AMONG THE GENTILES, AND I WILL SING TO YOUR NAME." 10 Again he says, "REJOICE, O GENTILES, WITH HIS PEOPLE." 11 And again, "PRAISE THE LORD ALL YOU GENTILES, AND LET ALL THE PEOPLES PRAISE HIM." 12 Again Isaiah says, "THERE SHALL COME THE ROOT OF JESSE, AND HE WHO ARISES TO RULE OVER THE GENTILES, IN HIM SHALL THE GENTILES HOPE."
In this passage Paul gives the reasons that Jesus served Jews (15:8) and the nations (15:9-12). Jesus came for the Jews to show that God is faithful to His promises to the Fathers of Israel. He showed mercy to the Gentiles so that they would glorify God for His mercy. God wants to save a people out of all nations so that people of all nations would glorify His name for His abundant mercy. God saves the nations to glorify His mercy on the earth!
God also wants to glorify Himself in the heavens. This is exactly what Paul is talking about in Ephesians when he states that he was chosen to preach the gospel to the nations so that the angels in heaven would be amazed at the wisdom of God in saving a people of all nations. They watch the church being constructed throughout the ages and are amazed at the building blocks God uses. The church is like a masterpiece of many different colors and textures of people from all walks of life and cultures (Eph 3:8-10). The angles in heaven look down at the church and praise God for His multifaceted wisdom.
God will be glorified for His mercy to the nations in eternity. When we get a glimpse in heaven we hear the same chorus resounding to the praise of God’s multifaceted mercy.
Revelation 5:9-10 9 And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 10 "You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth."
For ages to come we will be praising our Savior for His great wisdom and mercy among the nations! That is the biblical foundation for our philosophy statement – To Glorify God through Making Disciples of the Nations.
Because the Nations of the World are in NYC
Where do we go to reach the nations of the world? As a teenager I had a difficult time trying to decide which mission field the Lord would have me spend my life. With every missionary presentation I heard I was burdened to go to a new land. What was the answer? Don’t pick one. Pick them all. The Lord called me to go to the nations of the world in NYC. The fact is that in the cities of the US you can be a missionary to just about every nation of the world!
You have heard that there are many people in NYC. The NYC metro area is one of the w
orld’s largest population centers. The 21 million people equal the fourth largest metropolitan area in the world. It is difficult to comprehend just how many people are represented in that figure. If you were to take the population of Alabama, Idaho, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia combined it would not equal the population of the metro area of New York City. However, it is not just the great number of people that drives us to the city. There are many cities in the world that are exploding with population. NYC is unique in its diversity.Foreign Missions in the US?
Although NYC has long been recognized as a place to reach many needy people and a great place to reach people of other nationalities - there is still a lack of understanding as to the degree that this is the case. There is no other place on earth where more nations can be reached in one place than in NYC. Of course, the goal is not the most nations; the goal is to glorify God through fulfilling what He commissioned. However, the fact still stands. There is no better place on earth to reach the nations of the world than in NYC. NYC has a larger foreign born population than any city in the world. These are people who were born on the mission field and have moved to NYC. Although Tokyo, Japan has millions more people than NYC, it has a far smaller foreign born population (those living in Japan who were born in a foreign country). In fact NYC’s foreign born population is larger than the foreign born population of the entire country of Japan. The same is true of Mexico City. It has a larger population than NYC, however NYC’s foreign born population is four times larger than the entire country of Mexico. And the foreign born population of NYC is very diverse. They are from the mission fields of the world! What a melting pot of mission fields!
Perhaps we would need to think of these people who were born in a foreign country as still living in their country in order to demonstrate that they are still a mission field. What about those Haitians living in NYC that were born in Haiti. All those who were born in Haiti that now live in NYC would comprise the second largest city in Haiti! What if they still lived in Haiti? Would we not consider planting a church to that city a missions endeavor? Of course! We would target the second largest city in a country as a great place to plant a church to reach that city.
For some reason, in our minds there is often a gap between foreign missions and missions reaching the cities of the United States. If someone is reaching the Chinese in China well that is missions. If someone is reaching the 800,000 Asians in NYC then that is, well, sort of missions. Is there a great difference between reaching them there and reaching them here? There is no difference in their soul. There is no difference in their need. The greatest difference stands in the ease with which we can reach them here. Often when a person comes to the US, leaving their foreign culture makes them more open to new ideas. They are not as chained to the dominating religion of their culture. They open their hearts to the pluralistic society of NYC. This results in a readiness to hear the gospel. I don’t know how many scores of people I have witnessed to while sitting in the subway – people from all over the world. And yet they will hear me out (if they understand English) because they are used to experiencing different ideas in this pluralistic society. They realize that the only rule in the United States is to be tolerant to every view.
For some reason we have two different types of missionaries - those who have crossed a large body of water to reach the Chinese, and those who have not crossed a large body of water to reach the Chinese. When someone is a missionary to the West Indies they are not going in order to reach that body of land, right? Of course not. We understand that they are going to reach the people of the area. The 550,000 West Indians of NYC need to be reached just as much as those that live across a large body of water. So is someone who is a missionary to the West Indians of NYC a missionary to the West Indies? He better think of himself in that way.
A Dangerous Mind Set
I am afraid that in trying to reach other nations in our US cities as we would anyone who grew up in America we jeopardize reaching these nations for the Lord. We cannot ignore the same culture and language barriers that exist whether or not the person is living across a large body of water. A person who is trying to reach the Chinese people of NYC should strive to learn Mandarin and should be well versed in their culture. This is not being done in our circles. We are planting American churches in American tradition in our American cities when we need to be reaching them as we would reach a mission field.
Take Ben, for example; we want to reach him with the Gospel. How would we reach him when he is in the Ukraine? We would spend years raising money and prayer support for a missionary to leave the US and migrate to the Ukraine. That missionary would then have to spend years learning the foreign language and culture. He would probably spend his entire first term learning that language and culture. The missionary would then spend years trying to plant a church in the Ukraine that would reach out to Ben. That is a great amount of effort expended to reach someone in the Ukraine, and all of that effort is definitely worth it! However, what happens when our friend gets on a plane and flies to the US? Now things have changed. For some reason he is no longer the mission field. He has to spend years learning our language and culture then eventually he may stumble into a church that preaches the gospel. What has changed during the flight from the Ukraine to NYC? His soul is just as needy. Why don’t we expend the same energy to reach Ben in our city as we would in his home town, because he has moved closer? That is no reason to make it more difficult for him to come to know the Savior. I believe we should be expending the same effort to reach him on our soil as we would on the foreign soil. When people come from other countries they often leave the clutches of their world religion when they leave their home culture. Often, they are more open to the gospel.
As believers in the US we have an unprecedented opportunity and an unprecedented responsibility to reach the many nations of the world that are pouring into our borders. As believers in US churches we should:
• Recognize that making disciples of the nations brings glory to God.
• Accept Christ’s commission as our responsibility to reach our cities.
• Target areas in our cities that are saturated with the nations of the world.
• Bridge language and culture gaps just as we would if we were in a foreign culture.
• Plant cross-cultural churches that reach out to the nations of our cities.
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