My Story
I was raised in Church and became a Christian at the age of 9 years old. I had a pretty early understanding of what it meant to belive in Jesus and accepted Him as my Savior. I’m extremely thankful for my relationship with Jesus and how it continues to grow each and every day.
Call to missions
In high school, I went on a mission's trip to Nicaragua, and missions started to have a special place in my heart. I have always had a heart for missions, but I wasn't sure exactly what that would look like.
Missions has always been a huge part of our church, so it is something I constantly hear about. I started to personally pray and open my heart to the idea that if that is what God was calling me to do, I would do it.
During this time, I also started volunteering in different areas at church and just fell in love with serving in any area I could. I did an internship with our kids pastor at the time, Trevor Williamson, and he poured into my life and was a great leader and example of how to serve the Lord in everything you do. I will forever be grateful for the impact he had on my life.
After high school, I started a job at an engineering firm and ended up working there for 10 years. I was able to grow so much and absolutely loved my time there, but some things started to change with work and the place I was living at the time, and change is something that is not easy for me. These different areas of change started to be heavy on my heart, but looking back, I know that this was God's way of getting me to totally surrender to Him in the area of missions. At the exact same time these changes were happening in my life, we had a missions conference at our church, and God just spoke to my heart and said that this is what I have been wanting you to do.
I completely surrendered my life to him and just started praying that He would give me peace about where to go. One of the nights of the conference, Ron and Susan Taylor were here from New York City, and the night Ron was talking about the ministry and church planting they are doing in NYC, I felt the tug on my heart, and I really began to pray that God would open the door and continue to make this clear.
Fast forward to September 2022, when I went on a mission's trip with a team from our church to NYC, and it was during this trip that I had peace and confirmation from God in a way I had never experienced before. I just knew NYC was where God was calling me to be. While I was there, I met personally with Ron and Susan and expressed to them what I felt like God was calling me to do. They prayed for me, but ultimately with me, that God would keep opening doors if this is what He wanted for my life.
Without any doubt in my mind, I know that God is calling me to NYC, and He has given me the opportunity to be a part of a church planting team. God has given me the gift of administration, working behind the scenes, and a heart for kids, and I will be able to help this team in the area of their kids ministry / administration areas.
Who is ConnetNYC?
We believe the local church is and should be the vehicle of God's grace to each and every community. Our team is dedicated to helping people make relationships that will build them up, find projects that will allow us to learn and grow in the Lord, and be involved in the community that surrounds us as well as stay active in each others lives. In short, we are church planting in an urban setting to help others experience community through a local church.
New York City facts
Population
8.4 Million
Land
The state of New York is approximately 122,283 sq km, while Florida is approximately 139,670 sq km, making New York 14% smaller than Florida.
Denomination
In NYC Metro area only 2% of people claim to be Baptist in tradition.
Demographic
About 40% (or roughly 3 million), of New York’s population, is foreign-born. That means there are about 800 documented languages spoken in NYC.
Info
Roughly 1 in 35 Americans are New Yorkers, and in the state of New York, 40% of the population resides in New York City. New York City is one of the top 10 church-less cities in America
Bible
Only 17% of New Yorkers have read the Bible
Ministry Plan
I am joining a church planting team called Connect NYC with Missionaries Ron & Susan Taylor and Elvis & Emily Leon. Together, our goal is to plant five churches in each of the five boroughs of New York City!
Each church that our team plants will be its own stand-alone church because the demographics of the neighborhoods being vastly different. Our top three goals are to reach the lost, grow the church and equip the people. After all three goals are met we will be able to hand the church off to a local Pastor and he will be able to lead a healthy church.
Reaching the Lost- New York City is home to millions who have not heard of the gospel or of Jesus Christ. We will be building relationships with New Yorkers to help lead them to Christ by living life together, sharing what we believe, and building a foundation on whom God is to them.
Developing Churches- With the potential millions of people that will come to know God, we will need local churches to continue pouring into the people and build relationships within the church. This will give the people of New York a place to practice what Christ calls us to. By serving, giving and reaching others they will be able to grow as disciples of Jesus.
Equipping Leaders- We want to train and grow the men and women of the church to be able to reach the lost people in their community. By helping them grow in spiritual disciplines they will be able to not only reach New York, but anywhere God calls them.
Our goal is to have 25 churches by the time we are done. We believe that once this goal is reached New York will be a better and brighter place because of how God will use these churches.
Doctrine
The Bible - We believe the Holy Scriptures, accepting fully the writings of the Old and New Testaments as the inerrant, verbally inspired Word of God, infallible in all of its parts and the only authoritative rule of faith and practice. (II Timothy 3:16; II Peter 1:19,21)
The Trinity - We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:18- 20; Luke 3:21-22)
The Virgin birth - We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten by the Holy Spirit, born of Mary, a virgin, and is true God and true Man. (Matthew 1:18-25)
Man's sinful state - We believe in the total depravity of man: that all human beings are born with a sinful nature, and in the case of those who reach the age of moral responsibility, are sinners by choice and are lost and have within themselves no possible means of salvation. (Psalms 58:3, Romans 3:10,23; 5:19)
The Holy spirit - We believe that the Holy Spirit convicts of sin, making all believers in Jesus Christ children of God through the miraculous new birth, assuring them of Heaven, and by His indwelling enables Christians to live a godly life. (John 3:1,18; Ephesians 4:30; I Corinthians 6:19,20)
Salvation - We believe in salvation by grace through faith; that salvation is a free gift of God, not by virtue or works of man but received only by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; that all true believers possess the gift of eternal life, a perfect righteousness, sonship in the family of God, and the divine guarantee that they shall never perish. (John 10:27-30; Ephesians 2:4-10; Romans 8:35-39)
The Blood Atonement - We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, and that all who believe in Him are justified on the grounds of His shed blood. (I Corinthians 15:3; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 9:11-22; I Peter 1:18-20)
Judgement - We believe that at death, the souls of the saved go immediately to be with Christ in Heaven; that at the Judgment Seat of Christ, their works will be judged and rewards determined; that at death, the souls of the unsaved descend immediately into Hell until the Great White Throne Judgment, at which time their bodies shall be raised from the grave, and they shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, the place of final, conscious, and everlasting punishment. (Romans 14:7,12; II Corinthians 5:1-10; Revelation 20:4-6,11-15)
Satan - We believe in the existence of Satan as a personal enemy of God and man, the deceiver and god of this present world; that he was defeated and judged at the cross, and therefore, his final doom is certain. (Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:13- 15; Revelation 12:9; 20:10)
The Church - We believe that a New Testament Church is an organized body of born again, baptized believers practicing Scriptural ordinances and actively engaged in fulfilling the Great Commission. (Matthew 28:18-20; Ephesians 5:23-27)
The Ordinance - We believe that the two Scriptural ordinances given to the local church are baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper; that baptism should be administered to believers only as a symbol of their belief in the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and as a testimony to the world of their identification with His death, burial, and resurrection; and that the Lord’s Supper should be partaken of by obedient Christians only to show forth His death until He comes. (Matthew 20:18-10; I Corinthians 11:23-30)
The Second Coming Of Christ - We believe in the premillenial, pretribulational second coming of Jesus Christ; that His return from Heaven will be personal, visible, and glorious, the time being unrevealed but always imminent; that when He comes, He will first, by resurrection of the dead in Christ and the translation of the living saints, remove from the earth His waiting Church, pour out the righteous judgments of God upon the unbelieving world, and afterwards descend with His Church and establish His glorious and literal kingdom over all the nations for a thousand years, ruling on the throne of David in Jerusalem. (Acts 1:10,11; I Corinthians 15:51-53; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20:1-6)
The Priesthood of the believer - We believe in the priesthood of all the redeemed; that Christ is our great High Priest, and through Him every born again believer has access into God’s presence without the need of a human priest; that the believer has the right and responsibility to personally study and interpret the Scriptures, guided by the Holy Spirit. (Hebrews 4:14-16; 7:21-27; I Peter 2:9)
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