Learn evangelism skills in New York

USA (MNN) — New York is the United States’ most culturally diverse city, and it’s also home to the collaborative immersion program between Pioneers and International Project.

A Year in New York

In the NYC Immerse program, participants spend a year working and learning alongside experienced church planters in New York City.

The program’s goal is to provide participants with practical tools to not only share their faith, but to also disciple others and plant churches here in America and overseas.

It’s this very combination of hands-on ministry and mentorship that makes this program unique.

Yet, in today’s day and age, training like this is invaluable. Because of the current refugee crisis, cultures are mixing across the globe. It’s important to know how to engage with them.

Kevin King with International Project says, “What we’re seeing is God sovereignly moving people around the globe in ways we’ve never seen before actually. In the United States, we have hundreds and hundreds of unreached people groups living amongst us…. God uses migration and moves people around to bring the Gospel to the nations.”

What It’s All About

The NYC Immerse program is all about this idea of loving the foreigner among us. You can check out International Project’s video on the topic HERE. It’s why New York is an ideal location for training because of how many people groups live there today and have never heard the Gospel.

“As people come to the city, we put them on teams to reach a specific ethnic people group. And as a team, they learn skills such as oral storying, they learn disciple-making movement principles, they learn church planting principles. They learn how to do cross-cultural ministry, such as contextualization of the Gospel; how do we contextualize it so it’s understood to people of a different worldview,” King explains.

“They learn a lot of these skills, but the primary focus is on developing these skills through actual ministry. It’s not a classroom or academic environment. We’re actually teaching skills and people are going out and implementing them. They’re sharing the Gospel with people from all different nations on a daily basis.”

This training prepares individuals to start churches in their simplest form — house churches.

Why?

Because in some countries and cultures, Christianity is blasphemy. People can’t start a traditional church. There may not be funds or the freedom to do so. There are also cultural barriers which would make the West’s traditional churches obsolete. But they can start house churches.

Impactful

This training is impacting not only the trainees of the program, but the people who are receiving the Gospel in New York.

King recalls how there have been people who’ve accepted Christ after interactions with those who are part of NYC Immerse. On their trips home, both local and overseas, some of these same new Christians have chosen to take the Gospel with them and share it with their friends and families, too.

One of the best parts about this program is anyone can join. Anyone can experience a year of transformation, watching the Gospel go out, and seeing lives changed in the most precious and important of ways. Pray and ask God if this is what could be next in your life.

But, if taking a year for the NYC Immerse program isn’t a possibility, will you pray? Pray for people to answer the call to share God’s Word, grace, and love, and for people to willingly engage with the numerous immigrants making various countries their homes.

To apply to the NYC Immerse program and learn more, CLICK HERE!

Trainees come away from the program enriched in:

1. A greater theological understanding of God’s redemptive love and the Church’s mission.
2. Practical skills for church planting.
3.  A personal transformation from reflecting on the Gospel for both life and ministry.

Facts and Answers:

1. The program begins and ends each August.
2. Participants are required to raise funds for the year, about $2,200-2,500 a month.
3. Costs included expenses for living in New York, ministry costs, etc. It does not include personal spending, transportation to/from NYC or to the orientation/debriefs held in Florida.
4. Not applicable for college credits at accredited schools.
5. Minimum age limit is 21-years-old for this program.