Church of the City New York

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Manifesto of Fruitfulness series by exploring the fruit of evangelism and what it means to share the good news of Jesus with the people around us. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul describes us as ambassadors for Christ, entrusted with the message of reconciliation. But how we share that message can look different from person to person. Whether through our own testimony, an invitation into community, honest conversations about faith or a prompting from the Holy Spirit, we are called to meet people where they are. Pastor Jon reminded us that evangelism begins with the heart of Jesus, who pursues those who are far from God and welcomes people in the midst of their brokenness. As we learn to share the hope we have found in him, we are called to do so with gentleness and respect, trusting that the work of bringing people to Jesus is not ours to accomplish alone.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued A Manifesto of Fruitfulness, teaching from Galatians 5:13–26 on the fruit of the Spirit. We are all being formed by something, but we are also being deformed. Sin teaches us to organize our lives around ourselves, while the Spirit transforms us from the inside out. The fruit of the Spirit isn't something we manufacture by trying harder. It is the evidence of a life being transformed by Christ. Fruit comes through union, not imitation; by beholding, not striving; in community, not isolation. As we remain planted in Him, the Spirit slowly forms us into people who reflect the character of Jesus.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon returned from sabbatical and opened a new series called, A Manifesto of Fruitfulness, starting with Jesus's words in John 15: "Abide in me." He named some of the places we try to root our lives instead: self-preservation, achievement, religious performance, and the quiet exhaustion each one leaves behind, especially in a city that trains us to keep building, proving, becoming. But Jesus offers a different picture entirely: a branch doesn't strain to produce fruit, it simply stays connected to the vine, and the fruit follows on its own. Pastor Jon called this his life ambition—becoming, in his words, a "black belt in abiding"—learning to receive the love of Jesus rather than spend a lifetime trying to earn it. The invitation this week is that simple: stop building your life around what you can do for Jesus, and start receiving what he has already done for you.

This week, Pastor Ralph Castillo continued the FREED series with a teaching on freedom from idolatry. Drawing from Jeremiah 2, Pastor Ralph traces God's grief over a people who abandoned Him for lesser things. The passage is startling in its intimacy. God isn't issuing a legal verdict, He's asking a relational question. "What happened between us?" He speaks in the language of a wounded covenant, the devotion of youth, the love of a bride. Idolatry, in God's framing, isn't just disobedience, it's betrayal. The quickest route into it is simply forgetting who God is and what He's done. The text calls us to respond to idolatry the way God does, appalled, heartbroken, undone. Jeremiah 2:13 gives us the clearest picture of why. God is a fountain of living water, and our idols are cracked cisterns that can barely hold what they promise. The sermon concludes by saying that in God's wrath, He remembers mercy. Like the father in Luke 15, He doesn't wait for us to close the whole distance, He runs.