A surprising reality in a city like New York is a feeling of isolation. How is it that living in such a densely populated place, a vertical city, where people live on top of one another in high rise buildings or in homes packed in narrow streets, where subway cars are stuffed with riders, that anxiety and loneliness are so prevalent?

The reasons are many, such as a fast paced lifestyle, suffocating competition, and finding the time to create meaningful friendships is challenging.

Isolation and anxiety attack pastors and ministers, too. The pressure to grow, the exorbitant cost of living and the transient nature of New York can wear on anyone.

This is why MNYBA is renewing its commitment to care for our leaders. Under the leadership of our new Executive Director, Larry Mayberry, we are working on fostering events, cohorts, and retreats to help build our leaders and a renewed sense of family. We are praying about how to connect churches who are ministering in the same neighborhood but for some reason are not aware of one another.

At one of the lowest points in his ministry, Paul felt overwhelmed. His church planting efforts, though successful, were met with fierce opposition. At precisely this moment, the Lord Jesus spoke to him in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you…I have many people in this city who are my people” (Acts 18:10).

Join me in praying that, through MNYBA, the Lord might speak again to anxious leaders, those who feel alone in fighting the good fight to remind them that there are more of us sharing the gospel and planting churches and ministering to people than they might experience through MNYBA abiding friendship, mutual support and godly counsel.

The Metropolitan New York Baptist Association has many partners in ministry. These partners often ask me, “As we partner with you, how should we pray for MNYBA?”

I answer this question by pointing them to pray Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians in Ephesians 1:16-23. I encourage you to pray this as well.

First, that you may know God in Christ more deeply. As you come alongside the church in Metro New York, pray that YOU may know God in a way you have not yet experienced. MNYBA churches can teach you something about God and his Son! The Message says it like this:. “I ask God…to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally.” A deeper walk with Jesus awaits you here!

Second, pray that you will know how He can use you here in evangelism and ministry. Paul calls this “the hope to which you were called” (v.18). In a multicultural, multilinguistic and multinational place like New York, it’s a challenge to know just how you and your church fits in to what God is doing. While you may not know, He does! Pray “so that you can see exactly what it is He is calling you to do” (The Message).

Next, pray that you might appreciate and esteem and honor the believers in our region. Paul calls believers the riches of God’s “glorious inheritance” (1:18). When a New Yorker crosses over from death to life, from pride of place, from suspicion of others, from skepticism to organized religion, from fierce competition, from all the ills that plague the city, into the kingdom, into new life, into the rest and assurance of the gospel, you have one special trophy of the grace of God! In fact, I think that New Yorkers make the most hearty, dedicated, and sacrificial believers than anywhere else in the world! Pray that you might appreciate how special these believers are, the fruit of the sufferings of Jesus.

Finally, pray that you might experience the power of the Holy Spirit. Serving in New York and partnering with a church can be overwhelming, and you will cry out, “Who is sufficient for these things?” Yes, church planting is hard work in hard soil. Ministry is draining, and lonely. Sin and strongholds are daunting, distracting, and discouraging. The temptation to give in, to give up, is real. In our own strength we are no match for this. No amount of human resources will avail. What can we do? Paul tells us to pray that we might know “his incomparably great power for us who believe” (v. 19). That power is resurrection power, the same and the mighty strength God exerted “when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand” (v. 20).

As you serve here, plant here, pastor here, join Paul in praying like this!

"Across the Street...Across the World" was the theme of a recent missions conference sponsored by one of our mission partners. When I had the opportunity to share about the work of MNYBA, I began by saying, "In New York City, when you cross the street you have already crossed the world."

The 2020 United States Census shows that nearly 3.1 million residents of New York City, 40% of the population, is foreign born. Many believe this percentage to be quite a bit higher. Whatever the exact numbers are, it's clear that New York City is one place where crossing the street means crossing the world.

You may wonder, "Why is NYC such an international city? Why has the world come here?"

Humanly speaking, or viewing this from ground level, the reasons are obvious: People are looking for jobs, want an education, or want to use what NYC has to build a personal resumé. Others are fleeing domestic violence, or political and religious persecution. Still others have a dream in their heart to sing or act on Broadway, or to land a position with a prestigious law firm, or bank.

As Frank Sinatra sings in his song, New York, New York, "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere."

This is not the only way to look at what's true of New York City. Biblically speaking, or viewing this from God's perspective, the world is in New York City because God has led, or brought. the people of the world to the city. Paul says to the Athenian philosophers, "God has made from one man all the nations of the earth" (Acts 17:26). "Nations" is actually the word ethne, or peoples. Paul goes on to say that God determines "the exact places where they (all peoples) should live (NIV)"

And why is God doing this? Paul declares, "God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him" (17:27). God moves the peoples of the world to where He wants them to be so that they can hear the gospel, so that they might "find Him."

Looking at New York City from this vantage point changes everything - how we see the city and how we relate to the people of the city - and infuses us with a divine purpose-to be witnesses to Jesus Christ and an instrument of God as He draws the nations, "all ethne", to Himself.