Good News from Gotham - Revival?

A few months ago Chuck Colson's editorial featured some startling information on church growth in New York City.

He wrote it after the New York City officials excluded prayer and members of the clergy from the 9/11 10th anniversary service.

One former city official (deputy mayor when the terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers on 9/11) commented, "To have a memorial service where there is no prayer, this appears to be insanity to me."

 [I think most of us agreed with that -- that was not the case here in Bay City, where clergy and prayer were prominent in our anniversary service!]

Here's some more of Colson's article:

While it is easy to get upset at the decisions like this of timid city leaders, Christians can rejoice at some good news in Gotham. As the Washington Post reporter earlier this yer, 'New York is exploding with religious fervor...It's hard for many folks outside the Big Apple -- who write off the country's largest city as hopelessly secularized -- to grasp this.

...According to the Values Research Institute, Central Manhattan has nearly 200 evangelical churches today--with 39% of them started since the year 2000. During one two-months period in 2009 researchers found that one new evangelical church was opened every Sunday in New York.

Colson asks, "What, besides the Spirit of God, explains all this recent vitality?"

     Well, 9/11 itself was part of the answer. LifeWay Research has     found that 38% of Americans are more open to considering  matters of faith after national crisis...The Sunday after the 9/11 attacks, attendance at the great Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan jumped from 2,800 to 5,400, and on the spot pastor Tom Keller decided to add another service.

Colson goes on to cite some other reasons....

      Despite the fact that many white Christians were leaving NewYork in the 60's and 70's because of crime and other factors, huge numbers of immigrants were coming in -- and many of them Christians. They came from Eastern Europe, from Asia, Africa, Latin America. People saw an opportunity to start churches and spread the gospel.

 There was also the emergence of powerful voices raising the public profile of Christianity in New York -- like Keller himself and my hear friend, the late Father Richard John Neuhaus.

Colson goes on to tell a story about a young man, Michael Carrion, whose parents were incarcerated. When he was 6 years old, one of Colson's Prison Fellowship angels Tree volunteer came to him with a Christmas gift and a special message: "Your dad loves you and so does Jesus." He prayed with Michael.

That one prayer, Michael told Chuck, changed the course of his life and the life of the South Bronx, where he is now the Rev. Dr. Michael Carrion of Promised Land Covenant Church. and Michael has helped plant four churches in the Bronx. His goal is to plant 20 within the next 5 to 8 years.

Colson concludes, "So even if city officials keep God off the dais at the 9/11 ceremony, there's no stopping Him from building His church-- in New York or anywhere else.

I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
(Matthew 16:18)

Pray today for:

• Prison Ministries of Chuck Colson and  those prison outreaches our church supports.
• Revival - all over this nation - and wouldn't revivals in prisons be a great place to start?