Leading In The City

From our Pastors Prayer Summit 2019, Pastor Justin Mattera, Zion NYC, Bay Ridge Brooklyn, NY, shared on “The Lord of Hosts”. Psalm 23:5 says “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” Psalm 25 says that God prepares a table before our enemies, but some pastors today have sacrificed the truth of God for a false peace that allows the lies of the enemies to stand. Pastor Justin says, "the main sins of his generation of pastors is that we don’t want enemies, even the enemies the gospel creates. As leaders, we cannot compromise the gospel in order to stave off our enemies.

From our Pastors Prayer Summit 2019, Pastor Jamaal Bernard, Christian Cultural Center, Smithtown, NY, shared on “Immutable God”. Psalm 23:4 says “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Our decisions will always have consequences, but what happens when our decisions lead us to the valley of shadow and death? Pastor Jamaal takes us through his exhortation of Psalm 23:4 to remind us that even if we run off track of God’s anointed task for us, God is still with us.

In the Valley God Does His Best Work, Exhortation on Psalm 23:4, Pastor Steve Milazzo. From our Pastors Prayer Summit 2019, Pastor Steve Milazzo, Bethlehem Assembly of God, Valley Stream, NY, shared on “In the Valley God Does His Best Work”. Psalm 23:4 says “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Pastor Milazzo invites you to put aside all of your titles and listen as the sheep of the Good Shepherd as he explores why it’s a good thing to be led to the valley by God. God does His best work through you while you go through the valley, and it’s after this process that you will then be ready to do the work of ministry.

From our Pastors Prayer Summit 2019, Mart Green, Founder & CEO, Every Tribe Every Nation, Mardel Christian & Educational Supply , shared on “Intimacy with God leads to Refreshment and Generosity”. Psalm 23:3 says “He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” How can you get closer to God? Mart Green shares how through his brokenness God spoke to him in such profound ways that it revealed something that was in his heart. During this moment of intimacy with God, Mart’s ministry was then revealed.

From our Pastors Prayer Summit 2019, Bishop Duane Durst, Network Superintendent, NY Ministry Network of the Assemblies of God, shared on “Willing Participants”. Psalm 23:3 says “He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” ESV. Doing good works to the point of exhaustion is not the way God calls us to be good and faithful servants. We must be willing to pause the work and allow ourselves to rest in Him, for He is the restorer of our souls. Bishop Duane Durst says, our spiritual growth is stunted when we don’t give all our hurts and resentments of our lives to God. But by resting and willingly putting those hurts into God’s hands, we can mature in our faith.

From our Pastors Prayer Summit 2019, Jimmy Mellado, President & CEO of Compassion International in Colorado Springs, CO, shared on “Capacity and Challenge”. Psalm 23:2 says “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.” What happens when you have too much challenge but not enough capacity? Or how about when you have too much capacity but not enough challenge? Jimmy Mellado shares the importance of having a rhythm of work and rest, to stay away from an emotional or adrenaline escape. It’s out of the restored soul we then bear fruit of doing what the Lord tells us.

From our Pastors Prayer Summit 2019, Pastor Marlinda Ireland, from Christ Church, Montclair & Rockaway, NJ, shared on “Go Ahead, Lie Down”. Psalm 23:2 says “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.” When we cease from striving and begin to rest and be content as leaders within our churches and organization, it greatly affects those around us. Others will sense that we are at peace as leaders of the flock, and the flock then begins to feed out of our peace.

From our Pastors Prayer Summit 2019, Rev. Dr. Marc Rivera, from Primitive Christian Church in New York, shared on “The Personalization of God”. You can spend your entire Christian walk studying the Bible, serving the Lord, and being at every church event, and yet not know God in the fullness of who He is. Psalm 23:1 says “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” In this Psalm, King David says God is “my Shepherd.” Knowing that God is your personal God takes you deeper in your pursuit of Him. We lack effectiveness in our leadership when we just think of God as “our” God; it’s when we make it personal that it takes us to a whole different dimension where we can lead others to as well.

From our Pastors Prayer Summit 2019, Pastor Jon Tyson, lead pastor of Church of the City in New York, shared on the “Good Shepherd”. Psalm 23:1 says “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” We must ask ourselves, who is our shepherd? As leaders we also need other godly leaders to guide us to the right path, mentor us, and influence us. Pastor Jon Tyson says, if you are not intentionally getting shepherded by someone, you will unconsciously be shepherded by our culture. We won’t thrive on the shepherding of culture, but we will thrive from the influence of a godly leader who will put a vision in front of us and work to draw us into it.

Join Adam Durso as he interviews Jurie Kriel and Dr. Craig Snider as they discuss how to retain the effectiveness of the gospel in the modern century.

How can Senior Pastors make room for Next Gen Leaders to thrive? Paul Coty (Vice President of NYC Initiatives for Young Life), Vinny LiVecchi (Youth Director of Bethlehem Assembly of God), and Steve Milazzo (Lead Pastor of Bethlehem Assembly of God) share their insight on our latest Leading In The City episode.

Interview By: Adam Durso

Join Adam Durso as he interviews Raymond Harris, Chip Roper and Dr. Craig Snider as they discuss what it looks like when you are anointed and called by God to stand in the marketplace as a Christian.

Investing your time and resources into breaking the cycle of poverty displays the love of Jesus and radically transforms our hearts in the process. Our newest Leading in the City Podcast dives right into this powerful topic with Mark Pellingra, the Church Relations Director at Compassion International Inc.

There are several statistics that reveal the alarming rate at which young people have been leaving the church. But if that’s the case, then why are new reports claiming that we are currently in the middle of the largest Gospel opportunity in the history of North America? In this eye-opening episode of our Leading in the City podcast, we got to sit down with Joshua Crossman, Mac Pier, and Zach Lembke to discuss the unique moment in history that God has given us to make kingdom impact in our city.