NY 13 and Mission to the Cities

Something big is happening in New York City.

Mark Finley is assistant to the president of the General Conference of Seventh-day

Something big is happening in New York City. It's called NY 13, a comprehensive evangeiistic initiative designed to involve each church member, pastor, departmental director, and church administrator in the greater metropolitan New York area. .

However, it is much more than a single evangelistic event. It is a divinely inspired vision of an ongoing evangelistic process. The Atlantic Union, the Columbia Union, and the five conferences (Greater New York, Northeastern, New Jersey, Allegheny East, and Southern New England) comprising the Greater New York/New Jersey area have united their efforts to reach the twenty million people living in this huge metropolitan area. NY13 involves varied outreach approaches, including personal Bible studies, small groups, health, family life and youth ministries, literature ministry, community services, lay evangelistic meetings, and much more. NY13 envisions each church as a dynamic soul-winning center where pastors have a passionate commitment to reach lost people and where church members are equipped and trained for service.

During NY13 approximately 400 evangelistic meetings will be conducted in the metropolitan New York area. Hundreds of churches and thousands of church members will be involved. Pastors are leading their congregations in prayer vigils, earnestly petitioning heaven for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Lay people are giving Bible studies. Small groups are being organized. Health and family life ministries are being launched. Literature is being distributed. Young people are becoming actively involved. Lay evangelistic meetings are being planned, and evangelists and pastors from every division of the world will attend an International School of Evangelism in NY in June.

The Holy Spirit is moving. Something unusual is taking place in New York.

The massive evangelistic outreach in New York City is part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s “Mission to the Cities” initiative. Church leaders at every level of church organization have identified 630 major cities worldwide on which to focus their evangelistic energies and resources during the next three years. This comprehensive evangelistic approach blends biblical principles with the practical, divinely inspired counsels of the Spirit of Prophecy to reach people living in these urban centers with Jesus’ endtime message of hope.

The mission is His, and He invites us to participate in His mission with Him. There can be no higher honor and no greater privilege. Let us together pray for the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise given through His messenger: “When the cities are worked as God would have them, the result will be the setting in operation of a mighty movement such as we have not yet witnessed” (Medical Ministry, p. 304). May that day come soon, and may we experience the mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit in New York and the great metropolitan centers of the world.