As Fortner walked back that night from a sparsely attended prayer meeting, he prayed as he walked. New Yorkers showed unprecedented openness as they began to recognize their vulnerability. Yet Fortner, who would be leaving soon, felt small and helpless to meet the city’s staggering spiritual needs.


“Send someone else to pick up where I left off,” Fortner prayed.


God has spent the last decade answering that prayer. They’ve come from many states and denominations to the universally acclaimed capital of the world to share Christ and start evangelistic churches.


According to a study by the Values Research Institute and written about on a new Web magazine covering religion in the city (nycreligion.info), 40 percent of Manhattan evangelical churches started after 2000. (That’s about 80 churches.) During a two-month period in 2009, at least one new Manhattan church started every Sunday. In that same year, evangelicals in New York City planted churches at a faster rate than the entire SBC started throughout North America.


ON MISSION • Fall 2011 13

Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52