by Sam | Mar 21, 2014 | Inspiration, Reflection
My favorite annual sporting event has to be March Madness. Although it pales in comparison to the World Cup and the Olympics, it is by far my favorite out of all the annual championships. It’s full of upsets, inspiration, and excitement (especially this year since you can win $1 billion!). Through the years nothing has pumped me up more for March Madness than “One Shining Moment” sung by the one and only, Luther Vandross. Just watch the video above. How can you not be motivated? I think it’s natural for every single one of us to want to have a shining moment of our own – to have a moment where everything just comes together. We might be the underdog, yet we’re able to come through in the clutch and overcome our challenges. However, what I’ve experienced in life is that the moments where we shine on the big stage are rare. Yet each day we are faced with small decisions to be faithful, to do what’s right, and just be the person God has intended us to be. I’d like to think while shining moments are few and far in between, defining moments are there every single day. Defining moments are those times that truly shape who we are and define who we will become. It’s usually those moments when we are alone and are away from the limelight. It has been said that character is who you are when no one is looking. Every day, there are plenty of opportunities for us to be discouraged, disheartened, and even distressed. We can be brought low by our circumstances, or...
by Josh | Mar 14, 2014 | Events
Hello all! This is Josh and I’m here to update you on the PursuitNB (New Brunswick) spring break missions trip happening in 3 days. I will be leading 15 other Rutgers University students who have decided to sacrifice and commit their week of spring break (March 16th to March 21st) to serve the city of New Brunswick, NJ. For the past 2 years, I’ve been doing homeless outreach called “Sandwich Runs” in New Brunswick where Rutgers University is situated in. I would grab sandwiches from Rutgers dining halls, go out to into the city, and build relationships with people on the streets by offering sandwiches, praying for them, and getting to know them. Through these Sandwich Runs I’ve been able build unexpected, but awesome relationships with people on the streets, and also witness God healing people. Last year, I led the first spring break missions trip for NB and it was an awesome time as we saw God do some amazing things and some of the college students gain a heart for the city. It has been crazy but good experiences for the past 2 years. This year, the PursuitNB missions team will be primarily serving through homeless and inner-city kids outreach with local ministries. We have partnered up with Elijah’s Promise, a soup kitchen that has been serving the homeless in New Brunswick for the past 25 years. We will be volunteering there every day to prep, cook, serve, and share a meal with the homeless. We hope to be a blessing and an encouragement to the staff at Elijah’s Promise as we serve with them and also build...
by Sam | Mar 5, 2014 | Inspiration, Reflection
“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you…” – James 4:8 There are many great promises in the Bible, and this is definitely one of them. When we draw near to God, He promises to draw near to us. Can you imagine that? The Great Pursuer Himself desires to be pursued; so He invites us to come as close as we want. As we enter into the season of Lent, we want to be a people who desires to seek God and draw near to Him above all else. Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent. What is Lent you ask? Lent is part of the liturgical calendar that marks the beginning of 40 days (46 if you include Sundays) until Good Friday and Easter Sunday While Lent doesn’t appear in Scripture, it has been a practice of believers for centuries. Forty days is a significant number because that’s how many days Jesus spent in the desert in preparation before His ministry began. Traditionally people have taken this time to prepare themselves through prayer, fasting, self-denial, and repentance Often times Lent is all about what we give up and our efforts to keep our promises. Yet Lent is more than having self-control and giving something up for the sake of giving something up, nor is it to try and appease God. Religion is man’s attempt to try to control God; to make an unpredictable God predictable based on our behaviors. People do this out of fear… fear of punishment or circumstances or of “missing out”, but we celebrate Lent out of love and devotion. Devotion...
by Sam | Feb 28, 2014 | Pursuitcast
We did it! We launched our very own podcast called, Pursuitcast. Although we just started, it’s already been an adventure full of fun and excitement. So far we released 2 episodes on our SoundCloud page (iTunes is in the works!). We had the privilege of interviewing some of the leading voices in our region about what God is doing in the Tri-state area. The first interview was with the worship pastor of The River, Andrew Meher, and the second was with director of Worship as 1, Sam Choi. We have many other awesome interviews lined up as well as sermons, roundtables, and much more, including giveaways! The mission behind Pursuitcast is that we will be able to share what God is doing in our midst and in our region to help listeners join in and partner with what God is already doing in their region and in their midst. Our vision is that this podcast will encourage, provoke, and stir hearts for revival. Pursuitcast is an extension of our ministry that we believe will really minister and bless the listeners. It is a way to go deeper with a wider audience, especially those who cannot physically attend any of our gatherings. Yet in order to keep moving forward in all that God is doing, we need your help! For instance SoundCloud puts a cap on how many minutes you can upload unless you upgrade to a Pro account. If you click this link, you can see that it costs $135 to upgrade. With just 2 episodes, we are almost maxed out on our upload limit. To help us continue...
by James | Feb 21, 2014 | Inspiration, Reflection
“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” – Genesis 12:1 When I have looked at the heroes of the Bible, I have always read their stories in awe of the trust they had in God and what God was doing. It has always been easy to read stories like Abraham’s or Moses’ or Joseph’s forgetting that these people were human just like I am, and at the time they didn’t know the end of their story, just like I don’t know the end of mine. The past couple of years have brought me through a myriad of experiences, good and bad. I’ve been put into situations where I’ve had to trust God with everything, and more times than not, I’ve chosen to doubt. Instead of battling the temptation to doubt God’s plan for my life with peace, patience and self-control, I’ve often found myself dealing with my doubt with anxiety, restlessness, and to an extent, idolatry. In my shortsighted and self-dependent faith I had failed to grasp that God constantly uses a theme of displacement and a journey into the unknown . While in a culture where one’s identity and worth was heavily tied down to family and land, Abraham was asked at an older age to travel to a foreign land all for the sake of a promise he would just barely see the fruits of in his life. Even when Jesus calls His disciples, He doesn’t tell them exactly what they are in for, He doesn’t give them an...
by Sam | Feb 18, 2014 | Pursuitcast, Worship
The Bible says that the Father is looking for worshipers who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth. I believe that God is truly raising up men and women who are lovers of His presence in these last days. These are the people of God who genuinely walk with Him daily. Without a doubt, one of those worshipers is Andrew Meher, who is currently serving as the worship pastor at The River. Andrew Meher & The River practicing for the Open Up the Roof release event This past Sunday I had a chance to sit down and talk with Andrew about worship, revival, and his new album, Open Up the Roof. It was an awesome time of just hearing his heart for the Lord and the region. Many times we want to have great songs rather than a great move of God. Yet we forget that every move of God births new creative expressions of who He is and what He is doing in the here and now. In a way these songs are markers of where we were and where we are going in the things of God. Whenever God moves, He births new anthems. And you definitely get a sense of that when you listen to Andrew’s new album. Interviewing Andrew for Pursuit NYC’s podcast Andrew’s new album will be coming out this Friday, February 21. There will be a special album release event and worship night coinciding with the release. For more information about this event, click the link posted above to be redirected to Andrew’s personal website You can hear more about his album and the rest of...
by Sam | Feb 13, 2014 | Events
These past three weeks were full of obstacles, opposition, last minute changes, and tons of snow (is it spring yet?). Through it all though, we were still able to successfully launch our Liftoff services in both New Jersey and New York City! We had over 20 young adults from all over the NYC Metropolitan area at each meeting . It was truly a time of powerful worship and intercession on behalf of our region. KCC Englewood @ 01/29/2014 In order to make both services happen, we had so many people step up and serve. From worship team to set up all the way to faithful prayer warriors, we can say that we are blessed by so many amazing people who share the same dream and vision for revival. Also we could not have had such a great time of seeking God’s presence without the help of local churches. A special thanks to KCC of Englewood and Little Flock Church of Queens, NY for opening up their facilities for us! Little Flock Church @ 02/12/2014 We are super encouraged by those who are willing to stand with us to see God do what only God can do. As we look forward to all that is ahead, we are full of excitement and expectancy. In every step of the way, we are in awe of His goodness and faithfulness! Stay tuned for more information on upcoming gatherings and events. Surely the best is yet to...
by Sam | Jan 31, 2014 | Reflection
“For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.” – Galatians 5:4 So many times we associate the phrase “falling from grace” to a moral failure. Someone is caught in sin, makes a mistake, etc., and the next thing you know, “So-and-so falls from grace” is all over the news. It has become a headline we see way too often. It’s always tragic to see that happen. Yet the Bible does not consider someone failing morally to be the same thing as falling from grace (nor any sin for that matter). We only fall from grace when we try to earn God’s love, His favor, and His salvation. It’s never the “sinner” that falls from grace as much as it’s the self-righteous and proud. When our Christianity becomes about us, that’s when we start to fall. We fall from grace because we rely on our merits and efforts more than we do on the grace of God. Our Christianity isn’t based on our performance, but simply on the person of Christ. We can never make ourselves right with God. Galatians 2 says that if we can be made righteous by keeping the law, then Christ died for nothing. Yet it’s so easy to make it about discipline, duty, and what I am doing and not doing in the name of Jesus. Even when it comes to our identity, it’s much easier to find it in being a leader or a minister or even a Christian. But the truth is,...
by Josh | Jan 21, 2014 | Inspiration, Reflection
“The spiritual life cannot be made suburban. It is always frontier, and we who live in it must accept and even rejoice that it remains untamed” -HOWARD MACEY “Safe? Who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.” -C.S. LEWIS The past few months, I’ve been reading and processing John Eldredge’s book called Wild at Heart. A great book that has impacted the season of life that I am currently in. Though the primary audience for this book is Christian males, I believe it speaks to everyone (male or female) and how our faith is being lived out. I’ve been personally reflecting on my own faith and what it means to live as a Christian. There’s many different ways to answer and describe that question of course. But from what I’ve experienced and seen, a few general words to describe it would be: safe, comfortable, and settled. I think a lot of us resonate with those descriptions of our Christian lives but give two different reactions. One reaction is that we simply agree with the description because it’s true and are satisfied with the way things are. The second reaction is that we realize that it describes us so well yet we’re unsatisfied reading that description. We’re left wondering why our faith and life isn’t described as bold and fearless like the stories we read in the Bible. And if we’re honest with ourselves, we all feel like that there is something missing and yearn for something deeper in our Christian lives. I think this desire of wanting something more and deeper reveals that we have...
by Sam | Jan 20, 2014 | Inspiration
Today we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A man who literally changed the world. We are thankful for his life, his example, and his legacy. In celebration of MLK Jr. Day, here’s a look at some of his most powerful quotes… The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend. Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve… To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing. Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase. There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for. If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?” Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Some more powerful reads by Dr. King | Letter from a Birmingham Jail | I Have a...
