411: NYC CHURCH PLANT LAYS THE GROUNDWORK IN PRAYER
by Andy Williams
Church planter Scott Rourk wasn't about to tackle the Big Apple and just give lip service to prayer.
When Rourk and his team moved to the heart of Manhattan in New York City to plant The 411 NYC, they were set on doing things differently from Day One...through Day 540.
With a deep desire to become influencers of the entertainment, information, financial and cultural center of the world, Rourk led his team to do something extremely rare in the church planting world: PRAY and SERVE - with no strings attached.
We know, everybody prays and puts together a prayer team and a prayer newsletter. But the 411 team didn't just lift up a quick one on the way to doing the really important stuff, or talk to God for a couple of minutes on the front end of a three-hour planning session.
For 18 months, they did nothing but pray and serve in the community - and did it very strategically.
Rourk and his team mapped out a 300-block section of Manhattan, broke it down into 100-block zones, 25-block areas and five-block sections. They then invited volunteer teams from traditional churches and conventional church plants around the country to come to the city, talk to people they met to find out real needs in those areas...and PRAY.
The volunteer teams interviewed residents of the city, and prayer-walked three to five hours a day while equipped with digital cameras. The were not only able to map the areas, but provide photos of people and places and pass on valuable information to the 411 team, such as:
How can we most effectively pray for these people?
Where are the spiritual strongholds?
Where are the points of light where God is already moving?
What relevant, real community service is needed?
"This was tool for us to analyze the area, join God in where He was already working and lay the foundation with prayer," Rourk said. "That is where we wanted to start." To that strategic prayer cover, the 411 team added intentional service in the community. It started simply, with water and granola bars or Krispy Kreme donuts and Starbucks handed out in sub-zero weather as busy New Yorkers were hustling to work. The group's service expanded from handing out bubbles to kids in the park to weeding the now-famous Daffodil Hill where bodies were brought for identificaiton after the 9/11 attacks.
In a display of "post-modern day foot-washing," the 411 crew even scrubbed rubber mats where kids play in a neglected park and cleaned bathrooms that were too nasty to open before. The group's black T-shirts - which have the appearance of "stage crew" apparel among the area's artist community - got to be so well-known that New Yorkers started asking where the 411 group was serving that day, what they were giving away or if someone would pray for them.
"We wanted to redefine what church is for people in New York City," Rourk said. "we wanted to establish ourselves as a faith community that gives back, instead of taking away."
For 18 months, The 411 NYC prayed and served - before even thinking about "launching" an official Sunday morning worship service. As spiritually right and strategic as that sounds, some of The 411's financial supporters pushed them to move past prayer, and "get something going" sooner.
"Some people wondered when they were going to get some results they could count - like people showing up at a service," said Rourk. The 411 now meets for weekly worship gatherings in a performing arts theater. "I just kept telling them, 'We're not going to battle in a place like this without praying.' That's what we did, and that's what we continue to do."
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