Recent Blog Posts from Pursuit NYC
Jul 7, 2020
Incomparable. Unprecedented. Overwhelming. And defining. What has taken place these last six months have shaped this year and beyond. As we are writing this midyear report, the world is in transition. It is both returning to and redefining “normal” at the same time — our region is getting ready to reopen whereas other places are closing once more. Streets and businesses are being filled again, but not without masks. And the fight for justice continues on. So much has changed. So much still needs to change. We want to be part of that change. Change that ultimately brings forth the greatest revival the world has ever seen. We have never been down this road before, and frankly, no one has. 2020 has been unlike anything I have personally seen in my life. But one thing remains the same, and it’s that we are still in pursuit after God and His purpose. In moments like this, we are trading doing things “perfectly” for doing them faithfully. And with that, it’s been challenging, but we have been wanting to serve others the best we can with what’s in our hands. In the first quarter of 2020, we were able to continue with our monthly gatherings as planned, but that quickly went out the window. We had grand ideas and goals for what was to come. But obviously, plans and events were canceled, but that didn’t mean dreams and promises had to be. It was then as the world shifted, we made a pivot to go online. For the second quarter of this year, we made that pivot. We hosted plenty of... read more
Jun 30, 2020
by Josh Kim What if I told you that slower is better than faster. You might look at me perplexed. “Slower would get me fired from my job…” Waiting is better than hurrying. You might roll your eyes. “If only people can drive faster…” Single-tasking is better than multitasking. You might be annoyed. “I never have enough time…” In our day and age, slow is disapproved while fast is glorified. As a result, being overbusy has become the hallmark of success. Hurrying is the new speed of life. And multitasking is an expected life skill where we must get more things done in the same amount of time. Alicia Britt-Chole describes the modern world as following: “Ours is a hurried age in which speed is defied and waiting is demonized. Ours is a cluttered age in which noise is the norm and images constantly clamor for our attention. And in our hurried and cluttered age, faster has become synonymous with better, and experience has become a substitute.”1 As a result, we are busier, more hurried, and more distracted than ever. Our fast lifestyle is the norm. CONSEQUENCES OF FAST But while fast produces productive results according to the modern world, how does it affect us as individuals? What does it to our souls? How does it affect our emotional health? Psychologists and mental health professionals, Rosemary Sword and Philip Zimbardo, describe a new modern disease on the rise known as hurry sickness. Here are a few definitions: “A behavioral pattern characterized by continual rushing and anxiousness.”2 “A malaise in which a person feels chronically short of time, and so... read more
May 19, 2020
by Rachel Baik I’ve always loved long car rides. When I was younger, there was a game I used to play from the back seat of my family’s beat up minivan. Soaking in the passing scenery, I would ask myself: which of these would I like to call home? Maybe the glamorous high rise poking out from the Los Angeles skyline, or the mansion nestled into the Calabasas mountainside. Perhaps even — and this was for the days where fantasy and the imagination roamed free — the overgrown bush marking the entrance to the freeway we took each week to church; untold mysteries hidden within its depths. The game evolved as childhood slipped from my shoulders. Instead of unmarked buildings and magical shrubberies, I started to look for home in even less traditional spaces. In cliques and romance, accomplishments and career, I was desperate to find the place where I felt I truly belonged. Homesickness. It’s a concept that transcends culture and ethnicity, a universal human experience so closely knitted with the desire to belong. I found this desire compelled me in more ways than one. The clothes I wore, the way I acted. My manner of speech and the places I invested my time. So desperate was I to find this elusive home, that I shaped who I was around the search. My body broke down in the summer of 2016 during a missions trip to Panama. An unexpected career change into vocational ministry left me abandoning all I had worked for until that point. Void of community and struggling to meet my self-imposed expectations of ministry, the... read more
