Report: CMBA NextGen Scouting Trip to New York City
August 2nd, 2006 – August 4th, 2006. Keith Draper & Jon Pennington.


This report is presented as a basic summary of our findings during the interviews we conducted on this trip. As much as possible we are avoiding our commentary, subjective observations, and objective content questions. The purpose of this brief paper is simply to present without critique the views of those we interviewed, and thereby provide information for future dialogue. This information should not be assumed to be the perspective of either interviewer. Clearly all content in the interview needs to be critically evaluated to determine its value to our situation.

Kevin Pounds: The Point Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey
Dealing with the impact of losing SFC funds, wrestling with bi-vocational question.
His church is 1/3 college students, 1/3 “yuppies,” 1/3 young families. Looking at the possibility of a satellite congregation for the young families. Cell church strategy.
Excited about the Leadership Journey system of student missionaries.
Faced problems of adjustments of imported leaders to the northeast, too quickly moving towards a worship service, and overestimating the preparation of students.
Working on connecting both with the community and Rutgers campus.
Prefers serving the community as outreach over mass-marketing approaches.
Ministry outreach examples: water bottles, #2 Pencils, strategic acts of kindness.
Encouraged us to follow up with Aaron Coe in the Gallery Church in NY
Discussed cost/benefits of separate NextGen organization beyond Association.

Paul Gomez: Christ Communities House Churches in Manhattan, New York
Experimenting with developing a multiplying church planting network in center city.
Has structured house churches adequately to receive SBC blessing, but not funding.
Effectively reaching out to young professionals in the center city.
Mobility of population seen as a benefit in blessing the Kingdom.
Focuses on outreach that involves using the natural skills and interests of members to congregate a group for evangelization (i.e. golf outing)
Emphasizes the need to seek to understand the worldview of the people groups.
Appeals to people through their needs: social contact, intellectual conversation, and their drive to be involved in the community.
Discipleship arises through natural relationships focused on these integral human needs.

Andrew Mann: Graffiti Church #2 in Bronx, New York
Ministry in one of the five most dangerous neighborhoods in the city.
Has a history with Armitage, but prefers Graffiti model because it is more personal.
Was working that day with a mission team from down south teaching neighborhood kids how to play tennis.
Gave us a tour of the facilities they are remodeling as a kind of community center.
Discussed briefly the history of their church in spreading service into that community.
Focuses first on ministries, later on attempting to start worship service & programs.
Noted that people in the inner city will not get involved based on material things, but will get involved based on relationships they can trust. [surprisingly similar to 20 something alternatives]



Mark Reynolds: Redeemer Presbyterian in Manhattan, New York
Strongly suggested the leadership network in Dallas as a resource.
Redeemer contextualizes with abandon. Looking for planters w/ catalytic capabilities.
Outlined extensive interview & reference process for assessment. Materials available.
Bi-vocational is not an option since they need planters of a certain level of sophistication in the capabilities.
Focusing their outreach and multiplication on global center cities.
Alternatives and college students are not a people group they focus on because they are too “unstable” and tend to leave the city after a season.
They have more college students attending than “any church on the eastern seaboard” but they do nothing in particular to focus on ministering to them.
Don’t target twentysomethings directly, don’t be a marketer or attractional.
People ministering in the center cities tend to fail because: not contextualized, misinformed, poor methodology, simplistic, lack a robust theological vision, underestimate challenge.
They are looking for plants that are: strategic, financially well supported (millions), higher profile, saturation.
House churches won’t work because of: urban mobility, congregational attrition, demands of gainful employment, and cannot produce leaders.

JR Vassar: Manhattan Christian Church in Manhattan, New York
Met with him in a coffee house near his mid-town Manhattan office.
Compared and contrasted some of the strategies C3 and his church are using.
Discussed his perspective of the vitality of Presbyterian ecclesiology (Acts 29 Network)
Outlined the successes of their attempts (running around 100 after 1 year).
He shared about their first year budget of $1,000,000 and how they raised that kind of money from churches and individuals.
Discussed the ridiculous expenses he is facing in the city (i.e. $1500 per week rent)
He showed me a great idea of a subway map in a business card that they have mass distributed as a service to the community (100,000 of them) through mission teams. Of their 12 baptisms that first year 11 were related to that distribution.

Beyond these five there are a couple of other planters in the area we still need to try to touch base with over the phone or via email. We also can easily think of many other cities in North America and globally that could be of benefit for our team to examine. One conclusion we draw is that it might be helpful to annually gather those working on NextGen projects around the country for brainstorming sessions and encouragement. We would be excited to host that kind of gathering next year.