(ChurchLeaders) When Pastor Jason James and his team planted New Hope Church in New York City at the beginning of this year, they had no idea that God would use the upheaval of a global pandemic to shape the kind of church they would become.
“People in our community lost jobs, couldn’t afford rent or groceries,” said Pastor Jason James. “Local businesses had to close. We all knew someone or knew of someone who died of COVID. And along with all of this was the loss of meaning. But we always wanted to be a church that would share the hope of Jesus Christ with those who lived without him. And we always wanted to serve the most vulnerable among us. And the pandemic, rather than disrupting these plans, became the setting for [them]. It forced us to grow up into the kind of church we dreamt of being.”