Mega-cities as the Megaphones for a Mega-movement

In the same way that a magnifying glass takes a small object and makes it look big, a megaphone takes a small voice and amplyfies it, allowing masses of people to be impacted by it.

Mega-cities are like megaphones. Little things that happen in them tend to impact how the rest of the world thinks and acts. Mega-cities create culture, they do not respond to culture. Mega-cities serve as the hub of the arts, entertainment, news, business and politics among others. The highest concentration of "experts" in these fields reside in the mega-city. The eyes of the watching world are on these "experts" to see what they do. The city in this sense serves as a labratory for new ideas to which the watching world knows that if that idea "can make it here, it can make it anywhere." Once the idea makes it out of the city, it spreads like wildfire.

MTV has its headquarters just a few blocks from where I am sitting right now in New York City. Every day decisions are made in that company that have world wide impact. The reality is that MTV occupies a relatively small foot print in our city (they take up several floors of an office building in Times Square), but they have leveraged their location to have a monumental impact on the world. All one has to do is travel outside of this country to see the massive impact MTV is having on the rest of the world.

In 1857 a businessman in New York City began to pray at the noon hour. Over time he invited others to join him for prayer in a small room on Fulton Street. Over the course of time this prayer movement grew. According to Mac Pier of Concerts of Prayer Greater New York, over 1% of the American population, at that time, came to faith in Christ as a result of that prayer movement. One man, in one room praying, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, amplified by the influence of the mega-city, eventually led to over 1% of the country coming to faith!

We have seen throughout the history of the church that God has used the mega-cities as a strategic part of his mission. Unfortunately, the city has become a foreign land to many Christians in America today. The world has moved to our cities as we have moved out.

I am praying that God would raise up a generation of people who would move back into the cities and live for His fame there. I am also praying that God would raise up dozens of leaders for His church in the city.

Why Charlie Hall's Leading Worship for us this Weekend is Important to Me

CHARLIE HALL @ GALLERY CHURCH HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO BAD WEATHER IN OKLAHOMA CITY (Charlies home). WE WILL KEEP YOU POSTED ON A POTENTIAL NEW DATE.

In January 1999 I attended Passion '99 in Ft. Worth, Texas. I had never heard of Passion and quite frankly the only reason I was attending the conference was because I had an expense account and thought "Texas is probably nice this time of year". Little did I know that God was going to meet me there in a real way. For the first time in my life, as the result of a John Piper's message and the leading of the Holy Spirit, I knew that the purpose of my life was to "glorify God by enjoying Him forever." Passion '99 ranks as one of the 4 major spiritual markers in my life.

At the conference that year a young worship leader named Charlie Hall was leading us in corporate worship. As I understand it, Charlie was originally not supposed to be leading the main sessions at the conference, but ended up filling in at the last minute. God used Charlie Hall to prepare my heart for the messages that I heard and the "life decisions" that I made during those 4 days. I can still remember how Charlie would focus our hearts Godward and it seemed that he was so different than other musicians I had been around. He seemed to be the real deal.

Fast forward 11 years. I have crossed paths with Charlie and his band on numerous occasions. They have been extremely gracious in partnering with our ministry in NYC. We have probably worked together on 6 different occasions here in the city. I can honestly say they are the real deal. I have seen Charlie up close in times of great joy and times of tremendous trial and his countenance has remained steady through both. I have no doubt that Charlie loves Jesus and is passionate about leading the Body of Christ in corporate worship.

You do not want to miss this Sunday! Charlie and his percussionist, Dustin, are playing a couple of dates in the Northeast this weekend and agreed to come by and lead our church in worship. They will be with us in our 10:30am and 6pm gatherings.

City Uprisng 2010: Are You In?

Register for City Uprising

City Uprisng 2010 from Aaron Coe on Vimeo.

Theological Education in New York City

Dear Friends,

I wanted to take second and introduce myself. My name is Aaron Coe and I and my staff at SendNYC have been asked by The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) to give leadership to its New York City Center. Currently, I serve as one of the pastors at The Gallery Church in Manhattan and as the Executive Director of SendNYC, an organization that is dedicated to mobilizing and equipping leaders to plant churches in metro New York City. I am a graduate of SBTS with an M.Div. from the Billy Graham School (I took the majority of my classes at the NYC Center) and am currently pursuing a Th.M. through the Graham School as well.

This spring we have 3 exciting classes lined up for you and it is not to late to get enrolled. The first class we are offering is Urban Evangelism with Dr. Chuck Lawless. Dr. Lawless is a world renowned missiologist and is the Dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism at SBTS. Dr. Lawless is a personal friend whom I know to have a deep love and passion for New York City. If you have not registered for this class, you can do so by going to www.sbts.edu or you can simply show up the first day of class and register under "special student status."

Urban Evangelism- Dr Chuck Lawless
Dean of the Billy Graham School for Missions and Evangelism
Class Time: Saturdays from 8:00 am – 4:00 pm
Class Dates: January 22 to February 20 (1st session)
Meeting Place: Metropolitan New York Association 3rd Floor
236 West 72nd Street, NY, NY 10023

The other classes to be offered this spring are:
Introduction to New Testament I and II
Class Dates: February 26 to March 27 (2nd session) April 9 to May 8 (3rd session)
more details will follow soon concerning these classes.

Again, if you have not registered, please go to www.sbts.edu and do so now OR show up to class at 8am on January 22 and you can register under a "special student status" (please let me know if you are coming).

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or my Executive Assistant, Rachel (rachel@sendnyc.com) and we would be glad to help you.

Over the coming months our desire is to see the NYC Center of SBTS emerge as a leading provider of theological education in the city. I appreciate your loyalty and dedication to our program. As I close, I need to ask for your help in one thing, please help us spread the word about our program. If you know anyone that is looking for a world-class theological education from one of this country's largest and most revered institutions, please let them know that we exist here in New York City. I would be glad to send them promotional material or even arrange a meeting. You can send them to www.sbts.edu and they can get an overview of all the incredible degree programs we offer.

For His Fame!

Aaron Coe
Executive Director
SendNYC/ SBTS Center, NYC

Vision in Leadership Pt. 2

Pt. 2. "Vision in Leadership"

Enter Nehemiah. Nehemiah, a Jewish man, had never known freedom. He had been born during the days of captivity. As a young man we can see that Nehemiah had won the favor of the King (now Artaxerxes) and was serving in his court as a cupbearer. The role of cupbearer to the king was a very strategic position. It was not uncommon during this time for kings to be assassinated by their enemies. A common tactic for assassination was that food and drinks would be poisoned (Artaxerxes father was poisoned by someone in his court.) The cupbearer to the king of Persia had the same level of influence that the chief of staff would have to our president today. He had worked his self up into a position of influence that God was about to use to change the fate of an entire nation and ultimately change the culture. This was important because when Nehemiah’s trusted friend, Hanani came to him and presented the problems that the people in Jerusalem were facing, he was in a position where he could do something. Hanani said that those who are in Jerusalem were facing trouble and low morale because the wall around the city had been broken down. This would have not been new news to Nehemiah because it was common knowledge that the walls had been down for almost 140 years at this point. What we need to understand from this is that Nehemiah heard the information about the walls in a new way, thus marking that God was doing something in his heart. He was birthing a vision in the heart of Nehemiah, a vision to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls around the city.
What is it about Nehemiah that gave him the confidence to act on the vision that God had given him? We know that he was not the first to try and rebuild the walls around Jerusalem. Why did Nehemiah believe that this time was going to be different? One word: Faith. Nehemiah had faith that God was going to accomplish the things he had set in his heart to do.
Faith is a conviction that leads us to action. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” For Nehemiah faith was being sure of whom God is and certain that he will accomplish his purposes through his people. Here are some lessons about FAITH that I believe we can learn from Nehemiah. First, FAITH meant that Nehemiah had Future Awareness. He had an idea of what it would look like if he did not take action. He did not make excuses and say, “surely someone else will take care of this”. He knew what the future would hold if he did not step up. His awareness of the future propelled him to take immediate action without delay. The second component of Nehemiah’s FAITH is that he Assumed the Risks. He knew that his life would be on the line, but he still acted anyway. Again, as we discussed in the section on courage, nothing great happens for the Kingdom of God without courage. It will take a ton of courage to see a vision come to fruition. The third and in my opinion the most important aspect of Nehemiah’s FAITH is that he had and Infinite view of God. His view of God was so BIG that he did not even consider failure to be an option. His reliance for the accomplishment of the vision did not lay in anything that he could personally accomplish. It was completely rooted in what God could do through him. It is my opinion that if you have a small view of God, you will have a small vision of what God can accomplish through you. Nehemiah had a huge vision of who God was and therefore new that nothing was impossible with God. The fourth component of Nehemiah’s FAITH was his Tenacity. Once his mind was made up as to what action needed to be taken, nothing was going to stand in his way from getting the job done. He set his eye on the prize, he knew what the end goal was going to be and set out to accomplish it. Nehemiah faced opposition from all sides yet he was not dissuaded. He was opposed by those closest to him and those from outside, yet nothing deterred him. Nehemiah even faced threats to his own life, yet he persevered to the end. Lastly, Nehemiah displayed Humility of Heart in accomplishing the vision that God had given him. This humility allowed him to respond immediately to God’s prodding. Nehemiah chapter one says that “When [he] heard” that the walls had been torn down and the city was in ruins, he was able to hear the voice of God and leap to action. There are many leaders who would be great if they would take the time to hear from God, but they cannot hear from God because their pride is standing in the way. Pride says I am self-sufficient. Humility says I can’t be my best, by myself.
Ultimately, God accomplished through Nehemiah in 52 days what others had been trying to do over the last 140 years (this not only a Biblical fact, but a historical one). Nehemiah had a giant, God-breathed vision that God allowed him to see accomplished in his lifetime. Nehemiah shows a mark of great leadership. He was able to hear from God, see what God wanted accomplished and responded to get the job done. Many times he could have given up, but he stayed the course and prevailed.
In many ways, as I have written this paper, I have been preaching to myself. I have been convicted at every turn to stay the course in the vision that God has placed on my life. I have lived in New York City for the last six years. Three years ago God gave me a vision to see a church planted in the heart of the city—a church that would influence influencers. He showed me that there was not a more strategic city on the face of the planet than NYC and that if there were ever a city in need of more churches, New York was the place. About a year or so into the launching of our church God began to speak to me about the fact that New York needed more than just one church. It needed many. Actually, if we were to have one church for every thousand people (states like Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee have similar ratio’s) we would need to plant 20,000 churches in metro NYC, a huge task to say the least. He showed me that we (our Church) could not be content with our one church; we would need to plant dozens if we truly wanted to make an impact. So over the course of time our vision has grown into a desire to see one hundred churches planted in the next ten years out of our church. This is an incredible vision given the fact that in many ways we don’t feel like we have gotten it all figured out yet, but none the less this what God has called us to and he is going to have to put the pieces in place to see it happen. There have been many times that I have wanted to give up, but God has continually drawn me back to the original vision. As He has drawn me back, he has continually shown His faithfulness in providing for every one of our needs.
For me, I feel like I have a ton to learn. I feel like I am so inadequate to lead the vision that God has given us. I am so grateful for the people that God has placed around me to insure that we are actually accomplishing something. My accountability team has ensured that we are moving forward in the right direction and not just spinning our wheels. They have been able to provide correction when I/ we have gotten off track. As I have written this paper, I have been reminded of the courage I need to lead this vision that God has given me. I need to be a man who continually seeks after the heart of God and relies on him totally to accomplish his purposes. I am reminded that it is history that has made the men I have profiled in this paper great. All of them would blush at the pedestal that our culture has placed them on. They would surely be quick to remind us that they were simply ordinary men placed in the hands of an extraordinary God.
All of us need to remember that we are all “successful” only by the grace of God. My prayer is that leaders everywhere would rise to the challenge of leadership. I pray that we would lay aside our fear and inhibitions and pray big, God-sized dreams that would ultimately lead to the “accomplishment of the Great Commission in our generation.”

Vision in Leadership Pt. 1

Pt 1 of 2 "Vision in Leadership"

“If you don't have a vision, nothing happens.” Christopher Reeve


Leaders who accomplish great things for the Kingdom of God are leaders who have vision. They are able to see things that others do not see and articulate an action plan in such a way that gets results.
Several years ago my friend, JD Greear, was serving as the youth pastor of Homestead Heights Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina. During its hey day this church had done some pretty amazing things, running close to 1000 in worship attendance. But for years, the church started declining significantly in attendance. During JD’s time as youth pastor the church had slipped to about 300 in attendance and was without a permanent pastor. After several months of searching, the church came to JD and asked him to consider becoming their pastor. After some prayer and consultation JD agreed to allow his name to be considered. But before he would allow his name to be considered he presented a list of several items that he would be implementing if he were called to be their pastor and if the church did not want to go in that direction, they did not need to call him. Items on the list included things like selling the church building and moving into a school, changing the name of the church and moving to an elder style of leadership, all very radical things for a relatively traditional Baptist church to do. The church did some thinking and praying and determined that they indeed would like to call JD to be their pastor. They felt like he was the right leader for the right time. I am sure the transition has not always been easy, but JD is now in his seventh year as pastor. The church has grown to over 3000 people in attendance currently meets in three locations in the Durham area. They have also planted numerous churches in other areas including New York City. JD’s vision for the next 40 years is that the church would have 10 locations throughout the Durham area and that they would be a part of planting 1000 churches all over the world. What an incredible vision!
Solomon said, “without vision the people perish.” This is so true. People will follow great visions, but often times the vision in our churches is lackluster at best. We have settled for the status quo instead of the heart of God. We have traded in big dreams for small ones. We need men and women who have big dreams leading the church, men and women who believe that the Great Commission could be accomplished in this generation. Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ would sign his letters with the following script, “Yours for the Accomplishment of the Great Commission in our Generation.” Even though Bright did not see this accomplished in his lifetime, he was able to see some great things accomplished for the glory of God through the ministry of Campus Crusade. Today Crusade has almost 30,000 staff in countries all over the world. Men and women committed to evangelism and seeing people come to Jesus. I don’t think that Bright’s vision would have been accomplished if he has simply settled for some small dream. Instead he desired to be faithful to the calling of God on his life and saw God accomplish “immeasurably more than he could ask or imagine” in his lifetime.
All throughout scripture we see great men who accomplished great things in their leadership because they had great vision. My favorite man in scripture is Nehemiah. Nehemiah was a man who displayed tremendous vision that resulted in something amazing happening in the Kingdom of God.
In 605 BC the Babylonians, under King Nebuchadnezzar, conquered the Southern Kingdom of Israel and the destroyed the city of Jerusalem. He had all of the Jews carried off to be his slaves in Babylon (modern day Baghdad, Iraq). His hatred for the Jews was so strong that he had a furnace built in which he would burn those who pledged allegiance to God (Shadrach, Me-shack and Abednigo, Daniel). For almost 70 years the city of God (Jerusalem) sat in ruins. Its temple, built by Solomon and the place where God was to be worshipped, sat completely devastated. And the walls around the city, the equivalent to an army (Proverbs 25:28) where torn down. All sense of national pride had been erased under the harsh rule of the King. Things started to change in 539 BC when the Persians conquered the Babylonians. The Persian King Cyrus who was not believer in God, was however sympathetic to the plight of the Jews. He decided to let a group of the Jews return to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding that city. Over the next fifteen years the Jews who returned to Jerusalem had been able to rebuild the temple. They were able to restore some hope that Jerusalem would again rise as a great city where God would be worshipped. There was still one problem. The walls around the city had not been rebuilt. The walls around the city were the foundation of the civic infrastructure of the city. Without the walls the economy of the city would not be established because the people would not return for fear of being attacked by outside forces.

Courage in Leadership Pt. 2

Pt. 2 on Courage in Leadership

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go .” The Lord spoke these words to Joshua just after the death of his mentor, Moses. The context of these words where in the midst of God giving Joshua a command to enter the land of Canaan and conquer it for His glory. The problem was that Joshua did not know anything about this land he was instructed to conquer. He had just assumed leadership of the people and probably felt he had not earned their full trust yet. He knew that the warriors that they would encounter would be very skilled and would most likely have the upper hand in battle. The bottom line is that the deck was stacked against Joshua. He had every reason under the sun to duck and run. If anyone had an excuse to avoid leadership, it was Joshua. Yet, we see from Joshua a courage that could have only come from God, courage to move forward in the midst of seemingly unredeemable circumstances. In the midst of his nervousness and lack of security, Joshua determined to “man up” and lead as he had been called to do. The scripture says that he gathered all of his officers together and told them to “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your supplies ready.’ Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.” Now that is courage. Joshua had the ability to stand before groups of people, and with confidence, inspire them to motivate others to tackle a mission that had no scientific guarantees for success. Andy Stanley said that Joshua was able to establish “clarity” in the midst of “uncertainty.” If Joshua were honest, he was not certain how things were going to going to turn out, but he had been given a clear direction from the Lord and he was able to convey that clarity. That is courage!
Any leader who has accomplished anything significant for the Kingdom of God has had to have a tremendous amount of courage. In order to get anything done you are going to have to overcome some great obstacles. We live an a culture where people do not like to face any type of hardship. We tend to spiritualize hardship by saying “nothing this hard could be in the will of God.” When the going gets tough, our culture teaches us to cut our losses and move on to something new. This is not the counsel of scripture. The counsel of scripture shows us that all great leadership takes courage. We not only see this evidenced from the heroes of the Bible, but we also see this evidenced in the lives of some great leaders from more “recent” history.
In 1521 Martin Luther stood before the Diet of Worms defending his allegiance to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He stood there on that day to defend for the authority of the scripture. He reasoned that all people needed to be able to read the scripture in their own language and that people had the right and the ability to have a relationship with God without the aid of a Pope or a council. Martin Luther, in the eyes of most everyone watching, was in a lose lose situation. They felt that he had nothing to gain by standing up the Pope. They felt that the Pope had way too much power and that nothing meaningful would ever come from his relentless pursuit. Luther felt differently. He felt that his cause was a worthy one. He felt that if he did not stand up for scripture then no one else would. As he stood there that day he concluded his defense with this famous quote:

"Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason--I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other--my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.”

We know that from that day forward that history was forever altered. Martin Luther, by exhibiting courage in his leadership, was able to stare down the Pope and was able to help usher in the Protestant Reformation. A reformation of the church that we are benefiting from today.
Just 45 years ago another Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Jr., stood and gave a speech in Washington DC. He stood that day for the rights of African Americans and all people who were being ostracized by society. He stood on behalf of freedom for all people, no matter what their background. Again, amongst what seemed to be insurmountable odds, King stood his ground against the government and others who did not reflect his views. As he stood in Washington DC to deliver his speech he knew that he was taking his life in his own hands. He knew that there were plenty of people who wanted to cause him harm if it meant slowing down his movement. But he stood courageously and concluded his speech with these famous words:

"Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring—when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children—black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics—will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Joshua, Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. are all examples of men who valiantly lead. They stood up to what seem liked tremendous odds and followed the spirit of God and saw amazing things accomplished. Theirs was not puppet leadership, theirs was real leadership that got results and we all have benefited from their leadership.