Church of the City New York

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Converting the Church series by unpacking Jesus' critique of the Pharisees' performative religion and revealing how the same self-seeking spirit has crept into today's church, disappointing and disillusioning people seeking truth. Only by being secure in our identity as God's Beloved, as Jesus was, can we recognize the true greatness of a life spent poured out...

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy finished our "Seeking God" series by preaching from Ezekiel 22 about the importance of the Advocate. In the face of sin, God in His holiness must bring about justice, yet He longs to show mercy, and looks for people to repair the broken walls and stand in the breach to advocate for mankind. As believers, we are empowered by the blood and intercession of Jesus, and are call...

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Seeking God series with a teaching on the Worshiper. Through the story of the woman at the well in the gospel of John, we find God's passion for worship, and the lengths He will go to draw worship out of the human heart. Jesus' interactions with this woman reveal the Father's determination to satisfy our deepest desires by thrilling us with Himself; telling us...

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our January sermon series, "Seeking God," by examining the story of Zacchaeus and the lengths that God will go to seek to save the lost. Jesus' Great Commission at the end of Matthew's gospel commands His followers to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," establishing that the priority of Heaven is...

SEEKING GOD: SURRENDERED HEARTS — This Sunday, we began our January sermon series, "Seeking God." Pastor Jon pointed out that though we know God is a "seeking" God, we rarely consider who or what He is seeking. This week we saw that God is seeking surrendered hearts, wholly devoted to Him, by looking at the life of King Asa in 2 Chronicles. Asa's reign over Judah displays both whole-hearted devoti...

This Advent Season, we have been exploring Christmas through different characters in the story of Jesus' birth, and this week, Pastor Suzy took a closer look at Mary in her sermonette for Lessons & Carols. Through Mary, we see a beautiful picture of what happens when the deep longings of both a people, and an individual, are fulfilled. The core longing of each person is to be loved, and at the end...

This past Sunday, Pastor Jon explored the curiosity Christmas stirs up in the human heart through the story of the Wise Men in Matthew's gospel. In their journey we see the importance of humbly seeking answers beyond ourselves and actively evaluating and deciding what is worth our whole life devotion.

This past Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Advent series by examining the story of Joseph and what he teaches us about embracing a spirit of peace in contested spaces. Pastor Jon explained that peace that relies on perfect circumstances is actually no peace at all. Instead, Joseph's life shows us that true peace is disruptive and anti-fragile, is found in the miraculous ordinary, and comes through...

This past Sunday, Pastor Olivia kicked off our Advent sermon series with a message on deferred longing being an invitation to hope. Jesus knows that desires lurk within us, both pure and unpure, and that it is much safer to open up these desires in His presence. Once we acknowledge these longings, we are inevitably led into the reality of waiting and hoping for these longings to be fulfilled.

This week, Pastor Ashley concluded our "The Way of Jesus" series with "The Way of Justice." When Jesus inaugurated His ministry, He announced Himself as the same God of the Old Testament who defended the fatherless, the widowed, the poor, and the oppressed. Ultimately, she taught that Jesus' biblical justice requires us to sacrifice privilege with suspended judgment for the restoration of others.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued in our "The Way of Jesus" series by teaching through "The Way of Gratitude." She focused on a story in Luke's gospel of Jesus healing ten men with leprosy, only to have one of them return and thank Him, and pointed out that we often suffer from a similar lack of gratitude when it comes to Jesus. She encouraged us to create rhythms of gratitude, so that we will be...

This past Sunday, Pastor Jon preached about the personal and intentional steps he routinely practices to encounter the Lord. He used the acronym of T.I.M.E to explain his process which consists of identifying Truth, asking for Insight, going on Mission, and the resulting experience of true Encounter. Through the devotion of our time, patience, and obedience we continue forward on our journey into...

This week, Pastor Jon continued our Fall series with "The Way of Prayer" by preaching about how to become a people of peace in the midst of anxiety. When we look to the example of Jesus, we see that He pursued the promised peace of God by committing to a life of consistent prayer.

This past Sunday, guest speaker Pastor Ralph Castillo preached on "The Way of Mercy," showing us from the story of Jonah how God orchestrates moments of mercy in our lives to draw us closer to Him. Though we may often believe our way is better than His, God reminds us through his kindness that His ways are higher than our ways, and no matter how far we stray, He is always able to redeem our lives...

This past Sunday, Pastor Ashley continued in our The Way of Jesus series by examining "The Way of Dependence." She broke down how we define abiding, how we know if we're abiding, and why the invitation to abide is good news.

This past Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our The Way of Jesus series with "The Way of Remembrance." He taught that remembering who God is and what He has done is one of the most important parts of our discipleship, while one of the enemy's greatest schemes to destroy our faith is to have us forget. Pastor Jon urged us to remember Jesus, our salvation, and our mission as believers by setting the Lord...

This past Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our "The Way of Jesus" series with "The Way of Confrontation." The work of God's formation in us unsurprisingly takes place at the points where we are not yet formed in Christ's image. One of the first steps in formation is that of confrontation: a challenge and call to come out of our brokenness and into the fullness of Christ.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued "The Way of Jesus" series with "The Way of Devotion." She pointed us to two of Jesus' parables about the Kingdom of God being a treasure of immeasurable value that is worth sacrificing for. When Jesus calls us to follow Him, He requires us to give our whole selves, just as He joyfully did for us, to live a life devoted to His Kingdom cause.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our "The Way of Jesus" series with "The Way of Self-Denial." The greatest challenge to our discipleship is the centrality of our self and our desires. Jesus extends us an invitation for a transformed life by denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Him. We must not soften sin to the point of pain management, but rather kill it completely in our pursui...

This past Sunday, Pastor Jon kicked off a new sermon series called "The Way of Jesus." He warned us against the ways our fallen world can trap and form our hearts through lusts, pride, and toxic religion, and instead spurred us to follow in the way of Jesus so that we can be formed, transformed, and conformed to His likeness. We were created to enjoy God and walk with Him, imaging our Creator, and...

This past Sunday, Pastor Suzy finished out our Summer Colossians series by teaching about the "Movement You Long For." She reminded us that, as believers, we have all been called into the God's movement to bring His Kingdom by spreading the good news of the gospel and making disciples.

This Sunday, Pastor Adam Durso continued our series through Colossians by diving into "The Mission You Long For." He broke down Paul's exhortation for the church to be devoted to prayer, watchfulness, and thankfulness as the starting point for living on mission in our daily lives. He pointed out that this heart posture brings an awareness of where God wants us to partner with Him, and that often t...

This Sunday, Pastor Olivia continued our Summer series by breaking down the relationships in the home mentioned in Colossians with "The Family You Long For." She reminded us that we are called to live like Jesus, who came "not to be served, but to serve," and by taking this posture into our familial relationships, we can present a redemptive vision of families to the world.