The final stop was my New York City Church Tour. It’s been such a privilege to visit the extended family and learn from what the wider church is doing, just across the pond. In this post, I cover Redeemer and The Journey. Two very different churches but both having a great impact in the city, and wider afield. You can also check out the churches I visited in Atlanta in my previous blog post.
Redeemer Presbyterian Church
Top of my list to visit while in New York was Redeemer, Tim Kellers church. Not Time Square Church (as I keep hearing in reference to Tim Keller), it does exist, I just can’t see any link with Tim Keller. Redeemer isn’t even in Time Square.
I attended a Faith & Work event during the week at Redeemer’s main offices (see my post on the Extended Family for more details). On Sunday I went along to the 10:30 am service at Hunter College auditorium. The morning services are traditional, which isn’t my preferred service type, but we can always learn from styles we don’t prefer.
On arrival I was handed a service sheet with the bars of music included (in case I brought my recorder from primary school and felt led to join the worship team) and the various responses (liturgy) that were part of the service. Redeemer do have a contemporary service later in the day, but my flight didn’t allow for that. Tim Keller gave a heartfelt exposition on Justice (Startling importance of Justice, Justice as a Force of Nature, Our Ability to do Justice) based on Isaiah 58:1-14.
“[On the cross] God didn’t just suffer for us he suffered with us.”
“God deserved vindication and justice. On the cross he received condemnation, so in return, we could received vindication and justice.”
– Tim Keller
The Journey NYC
I first connected with The Journey at their Easter Outreach event in Union Square (you can read more about that in my post of here). When I went along on Sunday morning I attended The Village Campus, hosted in a local school. Everyone gave me a very warm welcome and it was great to see a familiar face from the outreach event when I arrived.
I spent some time chatting with Mark Edington, Journey’s Growth Groups Pastor hear his story a snippet of what God was doing in his life and through Journey Church. The Journey was smaller than other churches I had visited, their 1pm was also one of their smaller services (I can only assume due to the fact everyone is having Sunday lunch, but that might just be in Britain) so there was plenty of space.
The message was very simple, and what I loved about The Journey was it always led to an action, and it was an action you could take. Before we went in we were all given a message outline, and a giving envelope. Kerrick Thomas referred to both throughout his message giving each person an easy way to connect into what the church was doing and become part of it.