2 of 7

But New York City's recovery is visible, though still incomplete. When a movie company wanted to show the old New York of burnt-out buildings amid a wasteland of debris, they had to haul in their own debris and burn their own building. Much change has to do with better government. The churches have played a part that has not yet been told.

It slowly began in the 1970s with the creation of new churches and the renewal of old ones. New Grace Center got its start in 1975. At the time, immigrant churches remained isolated from the city, and growth was painfully slow. In 1977, Puerto Rican Rubén Díaz Sr., now a state senator, became pastor of Seward Avenue Church of God (Cleveland). Through this period, Manhattan's evangelicals could count on one hand the number of vital churches, such as First Christian Missionary Alliance, the charismatic One Flock, or the venerable Calvary Baptist.

Starting in the mid-1980s and 1990s, both church startups and church renewals accelerated. Church leaders discovered each other through networking, big events, Communion services, and racial reconciliation meetings. Housing construction, food kitchens, and arts ministries started. The New York Arts Group, a fellowship of Christian artists, started to take off in the 1980s.

Beginning in 1982 on a card table in front of a Chinatown bookstore, Chinese Christian Herald Crusade started its international holistic ministry. Here's Life Inner City, a key group for evangelical networking, started in 1983. In 1985, Nehemiah Corporation began to build new homes and Robert Johansson's Evangel Christian School embarked on a journey to become a full-fledged K-12 institution.

In 1988, Campus Crusade in New York connected a group of urban professionals with pastor Timothy Keller. They formed the core of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. It started services in 1989 and today is one of Manhattan's most vital congregations.

During the 1990s, evangelicals achieved milestone after milestone of growth. On September 22, 1991, 250,000 people gathered to hear Billy Graham in Central Park. That event was the largest single gathering of all Graham crusades in North America.

In 1996, Promise Keepers filled Shea Stadium in Queens and introduced New Yorkers to A. R. Bernard, the founder and leader of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn. One year later, researchers at Columbia University found that more than 50 percent of churches had experienced growth in attendance year over year.

In September 1999, The King's College, a bankrupt evangelical school, was relaunched with 17 undergraduates on the 15th floor of the Empire State Building as a part of Campus Crusade for Christ. This fall, enrollment topped 250. Within the last five years, Nyack College's city-campus enrollment has tripled. Also in 1999, Joseph Mattera, pastor of Brooklyn's Resurrection Church, birthed the City Covenant Coalition, an advocacy and networking organization. This year, its 500 associated churches are developing a broader, pro-family agenda.

In 2001, Keller's Redeemer Presbyterian started a church-planting center that has helped create more than 100 new churches in New York and elsewhere. In 2004 Johansson created the Evangelical Christian School Movement. There are now more than 100 Christian schools and 100 Bible institutes in the city.

According to the Columbia University survey, Christians were at one point in the late 1990s opening one new church every three weeks in the South Bronx. In Brooklyn, one four-block area in the Bushwick neighborhood saw an increase from two churches to twelve churches in less than 15 years. In Manhattan, you can stumble onto a pocket-sized cathedral built by Guyanese immigrants. Nearby, six storefront churches face each other within one block. These churches are straining to keep up with the new members.

next page... |  2 of 7

share this page

December 2004, Vol. 48, No. 12