Tell us about your congregation.
Park Slope Presbyterian Church (PSPC) is an urban parish in every sense of the word, in that at least 80 percent of the congregation walks to church on Sunday, the pastoral staff and interns live in Park Slope, and our worship site and office space are both located in the neighborhood (www.parkslopechurch.com). Also significant is the fact that the congregation closely resembles the demographic makeup of the neighborhood with a mix of single adults, young married couples and young families—all from various ethnicities. In addition, many occupations are represented in the congregation, including architects, artists, lawyers, musicians, schoolteachers, and stay-at-home parents.

What do you see God doing in and through this church?
I see that God is knitting together a church family in Park Slope which is attempting to live faithfully as citizens of his kingdom. I have seen this congregation care for one another in remarkable ways. Our meals ministry has provided hundreds of dinners for families with new babies and for those who are ill. Our small groups pray faithfully for one another and for the people of the neighborhood, including friends, teachers, politicians, and police officers. We actively serve the community in dozens of ways, and we have created a non-profit organization called Brooklyn Jubilee which is committed to advocating for low-income tenants and working toward reconciliation between tenants and landlords.  

Most importantly, God is forming a new worshiping community in a neighborhood where many people, if not completely hostile to Christianity, live as though it is irrelevant to their lives. Through our worship and our service, PSPC is striving to provide a foretaste of God’s kingdom in this world.

Your vision statement contains some robust gospel-centric themes. How do you as the pastor of this church keep this vision before your people and implement this vision? (view vision statement)
The vision of our church is formally cast in the following three ways: worship, leadership development and church structure. The primary way we communicate the gospel in our church and neighborhood is through the public re-enactment of the Christian life in the liturgy. The church has long believed that people are shaped through their worship and that’s easy to see. When we hear God call us into his presence at the beginning of the service, we are reminded that God graciously calls everyone in Park Slope to worship him. When we confess our sins together, we are reminded of our need for God’s mercy and then engage our friends and neighbors with humility. The sermon is a weekly explanation of how the gospel shapes our lives, but mere words are never sufficient. The power to put this good news into action is found in the body and blood of Jesus, where we are given his strength to live in his Kingdom. The Holy Spirit uses the entire service to shape us into gospel-centered people.

In addition to weekly worship, we strive to shape our key leaders through formal times of training and informal relationships in which we consider together how to live out the gospel in this neighborhood. These times together must involve casting vision and listening because my leaders are “putting feet on the gospel” in ways that I am not.

Thirdly, I believe that gospel vision is communicated through the “structures” of the church. By this, I do not mean the church buildings (though that does happen), but the way the church prioritizes its time and talents. We want to make sure those things we say are important to our church are reflected in the way we spend our time and money as a church. For example, we tell our congregation that its important to spend time loving and serving our city so we build this into our small group structure. Every small group is engaged in a regular community service project. Our vision is also communicated by what we don’t do. If loving our neighbors is important, then the church must provide people with the time to get to know their neighbors. Therefore, we try very hard not to “over program” our church. If the congregation is expected to know and love their neighbors, then we cannot simultaneously demand that people spend a majority of their discretionary time doing “church stuff.” When that happens, the message is undermined and people come to see that the real priority is maintaining “what we have built.”

One striking dimension of your vision statement reads: “The gospel changes our attitudes toward the city, making us a church that serves the people of Brooklyn. We have not come to use the people of Brooklyn for our own advantage, but to strive for the improvement of others…We will teach love and respect for the city. This church is being planted in Park Slope and for Park Slope.” Why was this important to include in your vision statement?
Two years into this church plant has caused me to re-think this statement a little bit, and I probably need to re-write it. I still believe that the gospel changes our attitudes toward the city and that Christians are called to love a city by giving themselves to it. This happens as we sacrifice time and money for the sake of others who may never acknowledge our work. It happens when the people in this church make career choices that enable them to stay and work in the city rather than chasing promotions all over the country. But I would alter this statement by saying that we are not just “in” and “for” Park Slope. We are also “with” Park Slope. This sounds insignificant, but it is not. While our church has unique gifts and talents that we bring to this community, there is reciprocity here. As we live and worship here in Park Slope, we are given eyes to see what God is doing through this neighborhood—with and without our church. Park Slope is good for this church and we will never be “for” this community until we are “with” our neighbors in their joys, fears, and aspirations.

What are sources of growth for your church?
People discover our church through various sources. Many people hear about us through other churches in our network. They have a friend attending Redeemer in Manhattan or Trinity in Rye, New York and ask if there is a similar church near them in Brooklyn. We get a lot of recommendations from people outside of the city who have heard about our church or listened to our CD and then encourage their friends or relatives to come check us out. Many of our visitors are just looking for a church in Brooklyn, and our website is one of the first that comes up on a Google search. Word of mouth in the neighborhood is still the primary way people find our church. People know a neighbor who attends or they see one of our community groups at work and they want to investigate further

Now that your church is two years old, how if any have you needed to adjust your role or leadership style?
That’s a great question, and I’m just starting to figure that out. As the church gets older and matures, I am forced to be more intentional about including others in the decision-making process. My natural tendency is to do everything myself and rely on my own instincts, but that is a recipe for failure at this point. For example, this past year I initiated topical seminars devoted to teaching biblical truths about various biblical themes (such as money, sex, politics, etc); but the time I chose to offer the seminars (Friday evenings and Saturday mornings) and the format I used (mostly lecture) proved too difficult to sustain. Because I didn’t get proper input from my leaders, the seminars didn’t accomplish what I had hoped and had to be abandoned. Instead of relying only on my own instincts, all of our key leaders are now trying to figure out the best ways to offer more intensive study to those who want it. I am just beginning to see concrete examples of what I have known theologically, that this church cannot develop naturally if others’ gifts and insights do not inform my decisions.

What challenges do you continue to encounter?
Most of the challenges I continue to encounter are not unique to church planting. I continually struggle to balance church responsibilities and family life, and this is all the more difficult in a neighborhood parish where there are no hard lines between being at work and being at home. Park Slope represents an ideal pastoral context that I wouldn’t trade for anything, but it is much different than working in the suburbs where it was easier for me to delineate work, family time and recreation. Another challenge unique to this context is the transience of the urban population, which affects everything about congregational life because people watch friends come and go and are reluctant to invest themselves in people who are likely to leave in short order. This transience poses problems for leadership development as well, because many of the people who develop relationships, influence and skills within the congregation move to other parts of the country as soon as they are able to assume greater responsibility. Then the cycle begins again. This transience affects the stability and momentum of the church as well. The church grows and relationships deepen throughout the year and then dozens of people leave every summer.

What have been some sources of joy for you in planting this church?
This church itself is a source of joy for me. I truly love pastoring this congregation and would be a member if I didn’t work here. The congregation is compassionate and caring, and they strive to live out the gospel in the context of community. I take great pride in watching friendships develop, and I have been humbled by people’s willingness to care for the sick, share their lives with each other and work for the good of this city. The camaraderie that I enjoy with other pastors in Brooklyn has been one of the best aspects of this church plant. Soon after starting worship, John Sweet joined me on staff here in Park Slope, and his friendship and labors have made my job easier and more enjoyable. In addition, I have enjoyed working with Vito Aiuto and Chris Hildebrand, pastors of a sister church in Williamsburg, who have encouraged me in my vision for church planting in Brooklyn. Finally, and most importantly, it has been a joy for me to watch my family acclimate to life in the city and make friends with classmates and neighbors. My wife and I have never been more united in vision and purpose as we are at this moment of ministry in Park Slope. 

In summary, the challenges of church planting have been great, but I am thankful that God has allowed me to lead this church plant and look forward to what God will do in and through this congregation in the coming years.