God Hates the NY Yankees!

Here is a selection from a report given by Matt Brown (Senior Pastor, Brooklyn Church Project) at General Assembly (the PCA denominational gathering) about Brooklyn:

I’m sure most of you know that Brooklyn is one five boroughs in New York City, but many of you might not know that Brooklyn is God’s favorite borough—and I can prove this beyond any shadow of a doubt. You know that God loves people more than he loves anything else and with 2.5 million people we have more than any other borough by far. Queens is the second largest borough and Manhattan is a distant third. Given this logic you might assume that God loves Staten Island the least because it has the fewest people, but the Bronx is dead last because, like Esau, God hates the New York Yankees.

Ebbets Field, God loved the Brooklyn Dodgers!

All kidding aside, Brooklyn is an exciting and challenging place to do ministry.

• Brooklyn teaches us how to love our neighbors: there are 35,000 people per square mile. I’m often asked at GA why I love raising my kids in the city and I always say its because they learn how to share. They share their walls and ceilings, sidewalks, recreation, transportation with people from every walk of life. Just on our block, we have rich and poor; gays and lesbians; whites, blacks, Latinos and Asians; Christians, Jews, Buddhists, agnostics and atheists.    
• Brooklyn cultivates our imaginations. In the 19^th Century, it was nicknamed the Borough of Churches because vibrant faith led to the construction of many beautiful church buildings. A century later, some of those buildings have been torn down or converted into condominiums or civic theaters. Those remaining are often empty on Sunday mornings. They are constant reminders of what was and what could be. We hope and pray that Brooklyn will again be known for its vibrant Christian faith. We want to see these churches come back to life. We want to see justice come to our borough in the name of Jesus. We want to see artists and writers and musicians working for the glory of God. We want to see the Gospel going into all the world through our immigrant communities. This is what we imagine and we know if this happens God will accomplish it through his people.