This blog post is written by Josh Stahley who is launching out from Brook Hills to be a church planter in New York City. Below is a post offering compelling reasons why you, a Christ-following college student, should prayerfully consider joining him, his wife and the team in planting churches in NYC.
Many people look back over their time in college and think, “Those were four of the best years of my life.” I undoubtedly share those sentiments. And yet, I sometimes regret not taking full advantage of the opportunities that I had to maximize those years for the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom. In this blog, I want to put forward one suggestion of how you might use your college experience to make disciples of all nations while furthering your education. I’m going to give you three reasons to at least consider spending a semester, a year, or longer, studying in New York City. Let me say at the outset, this course of action is not for everyone. I simply put it out there for your prayerful consideration.
Reason #1: Engage the Nations
NYC is one of the most diverse cities on the planet. Within the five boroughs of the city of New York, you will find residents from every geopolitical nation on earth. To date, missiologists have identified over five hundred people groups living in the New York metro area. Many of these New Yorkers come from unreached people groups, people groups with less than 2% evangelical population.
College and university students have an especially strategic opportunity to engage the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The statistics on international students in NYC colleges and universities are nothing short of staggering. Of course there are the well-known universities like New York University (NYU) and Columbia. While both of these schools receive high accolades for their academic merits, they are also magnets for students from all over the world. Columbia boasts students from 57 countries, while the student body of NYU is comprised of students from 134 different countries.
And then there are the lesser-known schools. The student body at Saint John’s University in Queens County is made up of students from 115 different countries. Or consider LaGuardia Community College, a two-year community college in western Queens. At this school of roughly 17,500 students, you will find students from over 160 countries, speaking 127 languages…and all of them are residents of New York.
Reason #2: Study in the World’s Leading City
The second reason you should consider studying in NYC is the doors that it will open for long-term effectiveness in the Kingdom.
According to Foreign Policy Magazine, New York City is the world’s most influential city. It is the leading global center for business, politics, journalism, art, fashion, media, ideas, and culture in general. In other words, what happens in NYC does not stay in NYC. It flows out to the rest of the world.
Whatever your field of study, whatever your vocational objectives, chances are that NYC is at the center or near the center of your field. With over 130 colleges and universities in the five boroughs, it is highly likely that you will be able to find a school that is a good fit for you. And when you do, you will have not only a school, but the world’s leading megacity as your classroom.
For decades, Christians have fled the great cities. But the great cities are the centers of influence in human society. NYC is at the nexus of a global network of megacities. If we can plant the gospel there, we can see the gospel advance throughout the earth. So, think about this: What would it look like if you decided to steward the talents, the mental abilities, and the educational opportunity that God has given you to work for the glory of God and the advancement of the gospel in the most influential city on the planet? Are you willing to prayerfully consider whether God wants to use you in this way?
Reason #3: Help Plant a Church
Alright, this is where you get to see through to my ulterior motive. In a little over two weeks, my wife Traci and I will load up all of our earthly belongings and move to the neighborhood of Astoria, in the northwest corner of Queens. Astoria is considered one of the most diverse neighborhoods in all of metro New York. It is estimated that there are people from over 120 different nations living in this one neighborhood of 170,000 people. The neighborhood is popular with businesspeople, artists, actors, musicians, film-makers, and a whole host of other professionals who have moved to the city. It is also a popular neighborhood for students. The reason is that living in Astoria is a lot less expensive than living in Manhattan, but you are still only a fifteen minute subway ride away from Times Square.
But here’s the deal. We need gospel-saturated, Kingdom-minded students to help us reach these students in NYC, and we would love to work with you to make that happen. In fact, if you are a member of Brook Hills or another Southern Baptist church, there might be some possibility of financial assistance through the North American Mission Board.
The opportunity is absolutely staggering, and the mission field is ripe, but we need laborers to go out into the harvest. So please pray about whether God wants you to spend this strategic time in your life in this strategic city, for the glory of His great Name among all nations.
Brook Hills NYC Church Plant from Josh Stahley on Vimeo.
If you are interested in exploring the possibility of advancing the gospel in NYC, please contact Josh Stahley at jstahley@brookhills.org or Britten Taylor at btaylor@brookhills.org. You can learn more about The Church at Brook Hills’ church planting efforts in NYC at www.brookhills.org/nyc.
