Developing Christian Leaders In Strategic Cities
In City of God, Saint Augustine argues that within every city, two cities are simultaneously emerging: the city of good and the city of evil. He argues that everyone, at all times, is contributing to the emergence of one or the other.Unfortunately, in our nation’s most influential cities, the voice of those pursuing the city of good is a mere whisper. Those who more loudly lead in academia, business, entertainment, government, and legal institutions are predominantly secular.
This is why Christian Union launched its Cities ministry—to empower and equip Christian professionals in every field with a bold faith that steadily brings the city of good to bear. CU Cities helps professionals grow as godly influencers while expanding the network and impact of faithful believers.
Click here to learn more about Christian Union New York or here to read about how CU New York has been transforming lives.
Pursuing Leadership Impact ... Together
We are called not only to a new and transformed life - but to be part of the redemptive process of "making all things new."Are you interested in:
- Building a vibrant network of friends in a fast-paced, time-starved city?
- Experiencing the richness of abiding friendship, cultural engagement and seeking the Lord's presence with a group of like-minded leaders in NYC?
- Working with others to engage a complex and diverse city to make it a different and transformed place - a place that God intended it to be?
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Community Groups are small groups of Christian men or women pursuing leadership impact in three specific ways:
- Community: Building a network of abiding friendships with other leaders in NYC;
- Spiritual Cultivation: Developing an intellectually-satisfying and wholehearted pursuit of the God who made them;
- Engagement: Actively engaging and changing the culture around them.
These groups meet every other week with an active Bible study component and periodic projects designed by the group.
Projects range from reimagining a particular vocation in light of the gospel to involvement in a critical social issue in the city.
The intellectually curious and those longing to assimilate their faith in the culture we inhabit will find these groups stimulating and life-changing.
For more information, or to join a Community Group, please cunewyork@christianunion.org or call Scott Crosby at (347) 682-5653.
Christian Union seeks a spiritually vibrant nation marked by Christian values permeating every corner of society. Christian Union New York works to bring revival to America, starting right here in the city.
In Jesus, Christian leaders can be made whole spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, and in their families. Beyond that, they can be strengthened and equipped with kingdom strategy and anointing to be used by God to transform those within their spheres of influence.
From the City to the Nation... and Beyond
A revived and kingdom-minded New York City can begin to turn the heart of the entire nation back to the Lord. To some, this might sound unlikely. But the Lord has done it before. A simple prayer meeting in Manhattan, started in 1857 by a businessman named Jeremiah Lanphier, grew and multiplied in supernatural ways, ultimately leading to what we now call the Third Great Awakening—a revival that spread across America and beyond.
This is why Christian Union New York exists. It serves, ministers to, equips, and connects influential leaders in business, government, finance, law, media, medicine, vocational ministry, and other key industries. The multiplicative power of connecting spiritually vibrant, high-level leaders in every sector of society in NYC can transform the city.
Through seeking God together and stepping out in bold faith, the city-wide and national impact of Spirit-filled key leaders working in tandem cannot be overstated.
CU New York is available to any Christian professional living in the area. God has called Christian Union to particularly target developing Christian leaders, so as to maximize the reach of those believers to impact culture. The ministry also offers a unique continuation of community for alumni of Christian Union's university ministries.
Get Connected
More information regarding our NYC opportunities:- Events, Salons and Forums
- Connect with Us: follow us on social media, join a community group, find a mentor/mentee, receive our Enewsletter, and sign up for our email list
- For questions or to learn more about Christian Union New York please contact us at: cunewyork@christianunion.org
Calendar of Activities & Speakers
Events scheduled in 2017 are provided here. You can also find Christian Union New York on Facebook.
July
7.21.18 — Christian Union Summer Getaway. Registration for Summer 2018 is currently open. From July 21st-July 28th, professionals will come together for a week of water sports, teaching, and fellowship. Click here to learn more and to register.
June
6.22.18— CU Cities Conference 2018. Join us from Friday, June 22nd through Saturday, June 23rd. Formerly known as Nexus Professionals, this conference will bring together influential professionals from across many industries for a life-changing weekend of dynamic worship and compelling ideas about faith and its relevance to our entire lives. Location and registration will be announced soon. February
2.20.18 — Salon with Ken Fish. Ken is an honors graduate of Princeton University. He has also earned an MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary and an MBA from UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management. Formerly a colleague of John Wimber, the late leader of the Vineyard Movement, Ken brings more than 30 years of academic study and practical experience in this discipline.
Join us on Tuesday, February 20th from 7-9pm. Location and topic will be announced soon.
February
2.15.18 — Salon with Ken Fish. Ken is an honors graduate of Princeton University. He has also earned an MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary and an MBA from UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management. Formerly a colleague of John Wimber, the late leader of the Vineyard Movement, Ken brings more than 30 years of academic study and practical experience in this discipline. Join us from 7-9pm on Thursday, February 15th from 7-9pm. Location and topic will be announced soon.
February
2.10.18 — Salon with Ken Fish. Ken is an honors graduate of Princeton University. He has also earned an MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary and an MBA from UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management. Formerly a colleague of John Wimber, the late leader of the Vineyard Movement, Ken brings more than 30 years of academic study and practical experience in this discipline.
Join us from 7-9pm on Thursday, February 15th from 7-9pm. Location and topic will be announced soon.
February
2.5.18 — Forum with Dr. Os Guinness. Space is limited, but admission is FREE please RSVP here.
Join us from 7-9pm on Monday, February 5th in the Union League Club at the Library Room. The address is 38 E. 37th Street (at Park Ave) in New York City.
Os Guinness was born during WWII in China where both his parents and grandparents were medical missionaries. He was expelled with many other foreigners in 1951 and returned to Europe where he was educated in England. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of London and his D.Phil in the social sciences from Oriel College, Oxford.
Os has written or edited thirty books on a wide range of themes, including , Time for Truth, The Call, Invitation to the Classics, Unspeakable, A Case for Civility, and A Free People’s Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future. Os divides his time between McLean, VA and Oxford, England and continues to write, speak and educate.
Dr. Guinness, author and social critic, will address the topic of "The Reformation at 500: The Forgotten Secret of American Freedom." In celebrating the Reformation most commentators have concentrated on the remarkable gifts to the church that it provided. We forget, however the impact the Reformation had on culture. In the context of the universal coherence and centrality of faith in all spheres, Os Guinness makes a case that this movement was also the single strongest set of ideas that made the modern world.
January
1.23.18 — Salon with Dr. Jay Jakub, Senior Director of External Research, Mars Catalyst. Dr. Jakub will speak on "Jubilee Economics: Transforming Buisness for God. For the past fifty years, business leaders have believed their sole responsibility is to maximize profit for shareholders alone, and that for business to do ‘good’ for society or the environment, there must always be a costly tradeoff of profit, thereby limiting scale of impact. This obsessive focus on profit nearly sunk the global economy in 2008, while the many Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives (CSR) emerging from business have shown limited results and are often more for reputational purposes than for transformation. From a Christian perspective, Jay Jakub offers a more complete form of capitalism called the ‘Economics of Mutuality,’ which focuses business on the needs of others (the means) rather than on maximizing shareholder value (the ends).
Join us on Tuesday, January 23rd from 7-9pm. Due to the initmate nature of salons, space is extremely limited. Please RSVP through emailing Kate Gardner at Kate.Gardner@christianunion.org.
January
1.19.18 — Salon with Phyllis Crosby, CORE Real Estate, New York and Sam Lawson Johnston, Managing Director, Real Estate division, LJ Partnership; London, UK. Friday, January 19th, 2018, from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m., the special guest speakers will explore the topic of "Does Space Matter: Faith and Real Estate." Do we have a theology of space - what space means for flourishing, for hospitality, for understanding our need for community, for forming family, for revitalizing neighborhoods and cities? Phyllis Crosby is a realtor in New York largely motivated by how we design and use space as people made in God’s image. Additionally, she has lived and worked extensively in Hong Kong and Shanghai, China addressing these same issues.
Sam Lawson Johnston is a commercial real estate investor and developer based in London and has recently completed a development in central Manchester devoted to building and leasing commercial space leading to flourishing in a community.
The event was held at Manhattan Christian Collaborative Center, Nayack College, 2 Washington Street, 17th Floor in New York City.
September
9.30.17 — Christian Union New York's Fall Young Professional Event 2017. Attendees enjoyed an evening on the water aboard Manhattan II to hear more about what resources Christian Union offers to young professionals in New York City.July
7.22.17 - 7.29.17 — Christian Union Summer Getaway. REGISTRATION IS CLOSED. Put summer 2018 on your calendar!May
5.06.17 — Salon with Bob Doll, Chief Equity Strategist, Nuveen Asset Management, LLC., Faith and Work in Finance.April
4.05.17 — Salon with Dr. Christopher Hancock. The Very Rev'd Dr. Christopher Hancock, Chairman, Oxford House Research, will speak at the Union League Club on "Reading the World: Politics and the Science of Interpretation."4.07.17 - 4.09.17 — Nexus: Professional 2017. Join us for two days of exceptional plenary speakers and seminars on what it means to engage and transform culture as Christians in the marketplace. Vibrant worship and connections with others round out a memorable weekend in Samford, Connecticut.
February
2.07.17 — Forum with Dr. William Hurlbut. This month's forum takes on ethical considerations in biotechnology advances. Dr. Hurlbt will speak on "The Challenge and Opportunity of Gene Editing: Scientific and Ethical Considerations." Event is free but registration is required.For more information, to ask questions, or to join the Christian Union New York mailing list please contact Christian Union New York Director Scott Crosby.
Connects Christian Professionals to Share Life Lessons, Disciple & Inspire
Young professionals crave input from Christians who have faced the challenges they are now confronting.
It's vital that older, established Christians share their spiritual and life lessons, and disciple those new to the city. How wonderful would it be to find someone who has faced many of the same questions you face in the context of the city? Christian Union can help you become a mentor and share your experience and insights, or connect with a mentor.
Young professionals are looking for someone who has walked through the experiences they're facing. They are seeking godly wisdom to the questions they're facing in their work, their own personal life, their Christian growth, and their future. Does this sound like you?
Or, perhaps this is you. A Christian who has been around NYC with insights and lessons learned. You are more than willing to share with those who are just getting started. Perhaps you are looking to be used by God to meet a unique need in a personal way.
Close Christian friendship is vital to spiritual maturity, and a mentoring relationship is an incredibly important tool for developing Christian leaders. Whichever profile you fit, Christian Union can help you connect.
Mentor Program Details
- Would-be mentors and mentees submit an application stating their desire to participate in the Mentoring Program along with some (limited) personal background information. This process will allow us to screen mentors and mentees as well as to gain a sufficient amount of information so as to make the best match possible with waiting mentees.
- The mentor will commit to serve as a mentor to the mentee for six months.
- The mentor will meet with the mentee once a month for those six months in order to introduce the mentee to life in the city and have a context to get to know one another.
- At the end of the six months, there is an expectation that either party may or may not move forward in a mentoring relationship.
- In the case that the mentoring relationship does not continue, the mentor will help find the mentee a suitable mentor.
Get Involved
If you would like to participate in either role, please contact Christian Union New York Director Scott Crosby.Professional & Spiritual Readings to Enhance the Effectiveness of CU New York Mentors
Professional
1. The Importance of Networks• To Change the World, James Davison Hunter, Chapter 4 (especially pp 36-38)
• Tips For Building Stronger Networks
• How Leaders Create And Use Networks
2. Communication – Verbal and Written
• Elements of Great Communication
• Verbal Communication Skills
• Written Communication Skills
• Stories as Communication
3. Managing Up
• What It Means To "Manage Up"
- Harvard Business Review
- Wall Street Journal
• Communications Involved In Managing Up
• Managing Up In The Workplace
4. Problem Solving
• Problem Solving Process
• Nine Steps To Problem Solving
• Building a problem-solving culture that lasts
5. Career Planning
• Connecting To Other Key Leaders
• Leaning In To Power
6. Mentor's Choice
Spiritual
1. Daily Devotions – the how and whyNothing teaches us about the preciousness of the Creator as much as when we learn the emptiness of everything else. – Charles Spurgeon
• Basics On Why Have Devotions
• Avoiding God
2. Community
Questions can make hermits out of us, driving us into hiding. Yet the cave has no answers. Christ distributes courage through community; he dissipates doubts through fellowship. He never deposits all knowledge in one person but distributes pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to many. When you interlock your understanding with mine, and we share our discoveries, when we mix, mingle, confess and pray, Christ speaks. – Max Lucado
• Building Healthy Relationships
• Redemptive Community
• Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
3. Stewardship
Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service, you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already. – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
• Principles Of Stewardship
• Bible References
• Law or Grace?
4. Integrating Faith & Work
The greatest tool God has given you to impact the world: your work. – Institute for Faith, Work and Economics
• A Biblical View of Work
• Faithful Presence at Work
• Rediscovering The Biblical Doctrine Of Work
• Calling and Presence
5. Public Square
People fulfill their individual and collective destiny in the art, music, literature, commerce, law and scholarship they cultivate, the relationships they build, and in the institutions they develop...as they reflect the good of God and his designs for flourishing. – James Davison Hunter
• The Kingdom Story
• A Posture of Public Faith
• The Gospel of New Life
6. Mentor's Choice