Acts 29 is deeply committed to planting healthy, gospel-centered churches around the world—including cities like New York City, where the need for faithful, local churches remains great. Urban centers present unique opportunities and challenges for church planting, and we’re grateful for pastors who are serving faithfully in these strategic places.

Josh Wall is the lead pastor of Crossroads Christian Church, an Acts 29 church in Brooklyn. Read below as Josh shares his insights on urban church planting, ministry in Brooklyn, and why there is still a great need for more churches in New York City.

What makes New York City such a critical place for more gospel-centered churches right now?

Keller said cities (and NYC is a big one) have more of the image of God per square inch than any other place. (Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City by Tim Keller)

Our church is one of only a few reformed, evangelical churches in a radius of 400,000 people. Our neighborhood is affectionately called “Little Palestine,” and in a few square blocks, there are over 60,000 Muslims from Yemen, Palestine, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Turkey, etc., and if you listen between street traffic, you can hear the call to prayer. 

From your vantage point on the ground, where are you seeing the greatest gaps—or opportunities—for new churches in the city?

There is an incredible need for “neighborhood” churches. 

NYC has a lot of great “subway” churches, which are when a church sits at a major subway intersection, so people can come from all over the city to attend. 

Many of these churches are our friends; we regularly pray for them, but their weakness is that, within NYC, there are these “invisible lines” most people won’t cross on the weekend (or to attend home groups). 

Most people commute over an hour each way every day for work, so on Sunday morning, they don’t want to get back on the subway to go eat a good brunch, let alone get out the scooters for their kids to go to church. Therefore, many people (especially new believers or seekers) won’t ever make the trek to one of these churches. 

Neighborhood churches are churches that go to them, bring the gospel to their spaces, and look like them. It’s no secret NYC is very diverse, so neighborhood churches don’t have to be beige; they can look like the neighborhood they are in (which is why our leadership team is me, a guy from Mexico, a guy from Singapore, a Puerto Rican guy from the neighborhood, and a transplant from Minnesota). 

Right now, I know of multiple “subway church plants,” but only one “neighborhood” plant in all of South Brooklyn (which is over 1 million people). 

You’ve expressed a desire to see more churches planted in NYC and across urban areas on the East Coast. What fuels that vision, and what do you believe is at stake if we don’t plant more churches?

What fuels that vision is that I’m here, and I can see an incredible gospel disparity. 

I can honestly say I lived in the Arabian Gulf, and we had more healthy churches there than we do in Brooklyn. 

NYC is hard. That’s no secret. The grind of the city burns pastors left and right. It’s not easy for my wife to walk three kids under 6 a half a mile to church by herself in rain or snow every Sunday, because I went up early to help turn an elementary school auditorium into a church. It’s not easy to constantly be wondering where your church will meet. It’s not easy to know that this city is so expensive; the vast majority of my church puts a widow’s mite into the offering plate because everyone is living on their last cent. 

And yet, there are actual unreached peoples who sit in coffee shops from countries that are very, very difficult to reach as missionaries. There are so many people who only know what the word evangelical means by what is described in the news. And after being here, I have seen firsthand that when you hand them living water, they drink it as if they have never tasted anything so good. 

Yes, it is very hard to put down roots, but when you do, there is the possibility of so much fruit. 

You’ve recently brought on a pastoral resident with the hope of sending him to plant. Why is investing in future planters such a priority to you right now?

Most churches in NYC, because of the high cost of everything, can afford 1.5 people. Some people use that half for worship, kids, or admin. For me, the #1 need in this city is men willing and able to pastor, so if I’m not using my .5 budget on pouring into someone to do that, it will never happen. 

I also learned there is a grandfather effect here: transplants are sometimes looked down upon because they don’t last… people see them come and go. But if you’re here, even for 6 months, they don’t see you as a transplant, they see you as someone that is trying to be here, so by bringing someone on, even for a year, when they go to plant or replant a church, they aren’t debating whether to “bring you in,” they are like oh… that’s that guy at Crossroads, they are just a few neighborhoods over. 

And, honestly, going back to how hard it is, it helps someone get their sea legs and see if they can make it. 

For those considering church planting in an urban area, what are the key qualities, support systems, or convictions they need to have?

I grew up in an affluent, suburban mega church in Oklahoma, and to make it there, you needed this “cult of personality”—you needed to be larger than life. That’s not true here. You just need to be here. People have so much grace here with your preaching, your pastoring, if you’re here in the neighborhood with them, eating at the same deli they are. To make it, you need to have a deep conviction that God is calling you here. In my first 6 months, when things got hard, I caught myself constantly window-shopping for online jobs and easier places, like people window-shop on Zillow for houses. But as I put my heart before the Lord, he said to me, “I thought you put your ‘yes’ on the table? Are you taking it back now?” Because your ‘yes’ is here for now. Maybe not always, but now. If you have that, the Lord will keep you. 

Secondarily, having a missionary mindset is really important here. There’s little to no transfer growth unless someone just moved to the area, because there aren’t any churches. It’s not like you can be a cool church and people will come; if you want people in the seats, you have to be a fisher of men. 

If you have a strong sending church, great. If you’re good at fundraising, great. If you have family in the area, great. But honestly, all you need is a deep trust that the Lord wants to build his church alongside a healthy dose of grit, and you can make it here. The city is scrappy, and the longer you’re here, the scrappier you learn to be.