Church Of The City New York

This week, Pastor Suzy Silk continued our Summer sermon series, The Fifth Act, with a sermon on Acts 18 and the ministry of Priscilla and Aquila in the Early Church. By studying their twenty year ministry journey with Paul and other disciples, God shows us that we are not meant to do life or ministry alone. We must ask God to help us be fruitful disciples that lay down our lives to see Him glorified, and faithfully carry the Gospel wherever we go. 

This week, guest pastor, Ben Stuart, continued our sermon series on The Fifth Act by preaching on Acts 19 and the impact of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus. Paul’s time in Ephesus invites us to ask: how does the Gospel take root and expand in a powerful and influential city—and how can we mirror that in New York? When we give God our unrivaled affections, His Gospel goes out in power. Pastor Ben encouraged us to release idols we cling to for comfort and control through confession and repentance, and allow our delight in God to transform our lives and impact the world around us.

This week, Pastor Tim Brown continued our series in the Book of Acts with a look at Paul’s time in Athens and exploring what it means to engage a culture like ours with the Gospel in 2025. In many ways, Athens mirrors New York City today: a place of great beauty and creativity, but also deep brokenness, competing worldviews, and misplaced worship. Pastor Tim challenged us to follow Paul’s example, seeing our city through God’s eyes, feeling His heart for the lost, and stepping into both familiar and unfamiliar spaces to reason, build relationships, and proclaim the Gospel, the only message that can truly transform lives.

This week, Pastor Ralph Castillo continued our series in the Book of Acts, The Fifth Act, with an exploration of Acts 16 and the diverse group of people God welcomes into His unfolding story. As the Gospel spreads beyond Jerusalem, we meet Timothy, Lydia, a slave girl, and a Roman jailer. Each person came from a vastly different background, displaying the power and reach of God's redemptive work, and that the Holy Spirit guides, frees, and saves all kinds of people who say "yes" to His leading. Whether God is calling us to a consecrated life, to open our hearts to Him, to surrender sin, or to trust Him in difficult circumstances, every “yes” helps close the gap between what we read in Scripture and what we experience in our world today.

This week, Pastor Suzy Silk continued our series through the Book of Acts, The Fifth Act, by teaching on Act 15 and the critical role it can play in defining the time in history we are currently living in. The Early Church was still a primarily Jewish community, and as the Gentiles began to be integrated in, it disrupts their normal practices, despite Gentiles receiving the same gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts 10. A council of elders and leaders is called in Jerusalem to discuss how they should handle the influx of Gentile brothers and sisters, and the conclusion they came to should shape how we see people becoming Christians today: salvation is given by grace through faith in Jesus the Messiah—there is no other requirement.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon Tyson continued our series through the Book of Acts, The Fifth Act, with teaching on the history altering birth of the church at Antioch in Acts 11-13 and the roles Barnabas and Saul played in expanding the Kingdom from there. Following the rise of persecution in Jerusalem, followers of Jesus not only began to go to the ends of the earth, but to try and make disciples of all nations as Jesus commanded them, now that the Holy Spirit had been given to the Gentiles. Antioch marks the first place that the Gospel was actively being shared beyond the Jewish community, and it led to a radical move of God that transformed a nearly godless city to the place where believers were called “Christians” for the first time.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy Silk continued our series through the Book of Acts, The Fifth Act, with a message from Acts 10 and 11 on the radical, history-altering gift of the Holy Spirit for all believers. In one of the most pivotal moments in the Early Church, we witness the Spirit of God falling not only on the Jewish believers, but also on Gentiles, revealing that salvation through Jesus is truly available to all. We are living in the fulfillment of what generations of believers only hoped for: the Spirit poured out on all flesh, making the unclean clean, and drawing people from every nation into the household of God.

This Sunday, Pastor Keithen Schwahn continued our series through the Book of Acts, The Fifth Act, with a teaching from Acts 9:36-43, the story of Peter taking a risk of faith that resulted in raising Tabitha, a faithful disciple of Jesus also known as Dorcas, from the dead. The early disciples were not motivated by reputation but by a desire to imitate Jesus, and the same Spirit that empowered Jesus and the Early Church is available to us today.

This week, Pastor Tim Brown continued our sermon series, The Fifth Act, with a teaching on Acts 9:1-22, which recounts the miraculous conversion of Saul. Before he became the Apostle Paul—God’s chosen instrument to proclaim the Gospel of Christ—he was Saul—a devout Pharisee and zealous prosecutor of Christians. Still, the Son of Man came to seek and save Saul, as He did for all those who are lost.

This week, Pastor Suzy Silk continued our sermon series through the Fifth Act, with a teaching on Acts 8:26-40, in which Philip follows a prompting of the Spirit, meets an Ethiopian eunuch, explains the Scriptures to him, and baptizes him in the name of Jesus. This story highlights a key transition in Acts from a focus on the ministry of the apostles to the lives of individuals who came to faith after Jesus’ death and resurrection or even after Pentecost. These accounts show regular, ordinary disciples being moved by the Holy Spirit, explaining the Scriptures, and even performing miracles, and Pastor Suzy encouraged us that through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we can be Jesus’ witnesses in the same ways.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon Tyson brought a report from a recent trip to the Hebrides in Scotland and an impartation from Psalm 126, calling the Church to restored hope for God’s restoration to come not only on a personal level but also communally and nationally. He emphasized the deeply rooted, biblical importance of longing and praying for renewal, and invited us into a new season of hope.

This Sunday, guest teacher, Annie F. Downs continued our sermon series through the Book of Acts, The Fifth Act, with a teaching from Acts 6:1–7, a passage centered around a pivotal moment in the Early Church when administrative changes were needed to keep up with the rapidly growing needs of the community. She noted that the men chosen to serve in this moment were known first and foremost by the presence of the Spirit in their lives and their wisdom. Their lives bore the fruit of the Spirit—a sign of maturity that every believer is called to pursue no matter how or where they are serving in the Body. 

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy Silk continued our sermon series through the Book of Acts, The Fifth Act, with a teaching on the early believers living primarily as witnesses of the Gospel. Acts 5 reveals that the disciples had an internal operating system that enabled them to be witnesses of Christ no matter the circumstances they faced. In considering the decision-making framework of our own lives, Pastor Suzy urged us to evaluate what is driving our instinctive decisions: the pursuit of comfort and a good life, or being witnesses for Jesus.

This Sunday, Pastor Keithen Schwahn continued our series through the Book of Acts, The Fifth Act, by sharing a teaching on the story of Ananias and Sapphira from Acts 4:32--5:11 to illustrate how God is willing to dismantle anything in His Church that claims His name but misrepresents His character. The invitation to the Church today is to believe again that Jesus’ vision for community--marked by worship, learning, love, generosity, and multiplication--is possible, and that confession and full surrender to the Holy Spirit will bring about this necessary revival.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon Tyson continued our series through the Book of Acts, The Fifth Act, with a powerful message from Acts 4:18–31 on how the Early Church responded to resistance with unified prayer. In this passage, we see Peter and John boldly proclaiming the name of Jesus in the face of commands, threats, and pressure to conform.  Today, we are also called to respond to resistance by choosing faithfulness over fear, and pressing in with prayer instead of retreating.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy Silk continued our sermon series through the Book of Acts, The Fifth Act, with a teaching on how Peter, empowered by the Holy Spirit, healed a lame man and faced the persecution from religious leaders by continuing to boldly proclaim the good news of Jesus as Lord. Like Peter and John, we are called us to prioritize being with Jesus, and from this place, boldly proclaim the Gospel wherever we go—not because of our qualifications, but because of God’s power.

This week, Pastor Jon Tyson continued our sermon series through the book of Acts, The Fifth Act, with a teaching through Peter’s bold sermon after Pentecost that launched the Early Church. Through this passage, Peter explains not only how belief in Jesus is possible, but what has been driving the Church forward for the past 2,000 years.

This week, Pastor Jon Tyson kicked off our new sermon series through the book of Acts, The Fifth Act, with a teaching on the Holy Spirit’s ability to empower believers to be witnesses for Jesus to the ends of the earth. Before Jesus ascended into Heaven after His resurrection, He instructed the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came to them. Like the first disciples, we cannot be effective witnesses of Jesus on our own; we need the power of the Holy Spirit.

This Easter Sunday, Pastor Jon addressed our need to become “God conscious” and receive the hope and life found in Jesus’ resurrection. John’s gospel account includes Mary Magdalene’s discovery of Jesus’ empty tomb and resurrected body, and this story displays how a personal encounter with the living God sparked a movement of hope that is still going forth today. Pastor Jon encouraged those grieving the brokenness of the world and seeking hope to investigate the state of their hearts and consider pursuing a life that is “God-conscious."

This Sunday, Pastor Jon Tyson closed out our Missional Formation series with a call to follow Jesus’ lead in making discipleship the heart of our mission. Throughout this series, we have established a radical minimum standard through what Church of the City believes are the nine core competencies of being disciples in the Kingdom of Heaven. While God has done remarkable things in this season, Pastor Jon led us back to the question that began this series: Is our plan for discipleship working?