Since that very first time we gathered in 2010 in a typically small downtown apartment, it’s impossibly hard to put into words the journey we have found ourselves on – I mean, where do you begin? And where does it end!? It has been nothing short of unusually miraculous. From homes and apartments, to clubs and theaters, our church has grown to reflect the very streets that connect us, and the melting pot of cultures and people who occupy them. As much as the world may want to break it down into formulas and blueprints, headlines and hearsay, the real story is quite simply: GOD IS MOVING! Yet we find ourselves in every way an extension of what has been the story for 30+ years from humble beginnings in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, and before that, the story of God’s church throughout the history of the world. It’s nothing new, but it’s completely new!!!!! And here we are positioned in 2016, square in the middle of what God has always, is, and will continue to build – His Church!

In NYC we are only just getting started. Ours is a story made up of thousands of individual stories and counting, woven together as witnesses and participants in the outrageous scandal that is GOD’S AMAZING GRACE and His RELENTLESS DESIRE to BUILD HIS CHURCH! His Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven!

Not a day goes by that doesn’t leave us completely astounded and grateful at His faithfulness and provision every step of the way, and yet all the more wide-eyed in faith-filled-anticipation as we look toward the future. This is in no way more evident than the heart and soul faithfulness, commitment and unwavering passion of the very people God has brought along side us and who call Hillsong NYC “home”. Together we have laughed and cried, carried the weight, and found ourselves at times being carried. We have celebrated the wins, and stood arm in arm when the battles have come. Together we have walked through fire and walked on water, and it is ONLY together that we can step into this next season! There is no limit to the God-open-doors and opportunities that lay ahead of us as a church. As we reflect and refocus around our “Heart For The House” offering, we are again reminded that “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain”.

It is with this rock-steady confidence that God is indeed and most definitely building His House that we move forward. What could be better than living our lives building what Jesus Himself said that He would build! Our vision and our plan remains simple: Love God – Love people – Serve this city and every one in it every way we can – Keep open house – Continue to make room for the “whosoevers” as we seek to create an atmosphere where people can truly find home and community. If the church is God’s “house”, we pray that this one would always be open and ready to help people hear and discover for themselves the Good-news-Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the hope and freedom that can only be found in His unconditional love and ever-abounding grace.

Our church isn’t perfect, but our humble prayer is that together we would continue to grow daily in “being perfected” into the visible image of our Savior – His Life-Light shining ever brighter in and through our lives as we open up to others. We have a well-versed saying that; “what we are a part of is bigger than the part we play” – in 2016 this remains as true as ever for each of us personally; as one room of many within our global Hillsong family; and as one church working side by side with the MANY churches in this city, nation, and around the world that are lifting up the name of Jesus! The call therein is for EACH and ALL of us to know we were designed individually with a specific part to play, that we would choose to play OUR part!

Our prayer is that Hillsong NYC would be YOUR HOME, and that you would take ownership of what God is doing in our church, and prayerfully consider how you can be involved. If we all simply do what we can according to what God stirs in our hearts, there is no end to what God can and will do with what we bring to Him. Above all, our desire is that this would be a place where YOU and those in your world would continue to grow and flourish, and that personally and collectively we would see God’s “unusual miracles” continue to astound the world as MANY more find HOME in the HOPE that is HIS Church!

With Love,
Carl & Laura, Joel & Esther – Lead Pastors Hillsong NYC