New York, USA. [Adventist Review; Mark Finley; CD EUDNews]. Hundreds of Seventh-day Adventists from the Greater New York area – where the overall population is estimated at 19,015,900 people, more than 50 percent above the population of metro Los Angeles – gathered at a series of January 18-20, 2013, meetings to prepare for a major evangelistic outreach called “NY13.”
The numbers, throughout the region, were impressive: 2,000 gathered at an auditorium at Hunter College in Manhattan for worship and training; 560 packed the Linden Seventh-day Adventist Church in Queens to attend Ernestine Finley’s, “Light Your World for God” Seminar on how to become an effective Lay Bible Instructor.
More than 300 people – double the expected number – flocked to Harlem’s Fort Washington Spanish Seventh-day Adventist Church to hear Denzil McNeilus, a banker from Dodge Center, Minnesota, who represented the Adventist-laymens Services and Industries organization along with Robert Costa, General Conference Evangelism Coordinator, present a “New Beginnings” Seminar to train lay preachers.
Commenting on the attendees’ enthusiasm, McNeilus said, “I am convinced that there are thousands of lay people waiting to be challenged to do something significant for the Lord. They just need to be trained and equipped.”
Noted Seventh-day Adventist evangelist Mark Finley, taught a class on how to organize home Bible Study groups focusing on the book of Daniel. His seminar was attended by more than 170 people, and was held in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village Seventh-day Adventist Church, which in June will see General Conference president Pastor Ted N.C. Wilson preach an evangelistic series there. Wilson began his pastoral work as a ministerial intern at the Greenwich Village church.
Along with the Lay Training events, over 1,400 youth gathered in two locations sponsored by the Greater New York and Northeastern Conferences. These young people were challenged to be part of something great for God and use their influence to touch their friends with the Gospel during NY13.
Don King, president of the Atlantic Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, declared, “NY13 is a united approach bringing us all together to focus on reaching people in this great metropolitan area for Jesus.”
During NY13 approximately 400 evangelistic meetings will be conducted in the metropolitan New York area. Hundreds of churches and thousands of church members will be involved, Adventist leaders said.
The massive evangelistic outreach in New York City is part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s “Mission to the Cities” initiative. Church leaders at every level of church organization have identified 630 major cities worldwide to focus their evangelistic energies and resources on in the next three years. This comprehensive evangelistic approach blends Biblical principles with the practical, divinely inspired counsels of the Spirit of Prophecy to reach people living in these urban centers with Jesus’ end time message of hope for our time.
More information about the New York city outreach is available online at
http://www.ny13.org.