The Orchard Group

Dave Smith, director of development for Orchard Group, is also a Professor of Church Planting at Ozark Christian College.  Dave and his family live in New York City.  Every semester 50-60 students travel to the city for intensive classes in church planting, leadership and/or urban ministry offered over a four day period.  Here's the latest update from Dave...

Except for bits of confetti along Broadway, you would hardly know there was a parade attended by some 1.5 million Giants fans in early February. The excitement surrounding the Giants' Super Bowl victory over the Patriots has disappeared. The sports page now trumpets the beginning of baseball's spring training.

But there is an excitement in New York City that persists: the excitement of students coming to the city to learn about urban ministry, and urban church planting, health, and growth.

The second week of January marked another first in our New York City ministry. An urban ministry class came to the city for the week. What better place to study urban ministry, than in our nation's largest and most influential city.

The students arrived Saturday night. After a taxi ride to the David Deane House to drop off luggage, we took the subway to our apartment for dinner. It was fun to squeeze some 20 people into our place to eat. We finished off the night with a view of the city from the top of the Rockefeller Center.

Sunday was a day of diverse church experiences. The first stop was Redeemer Church on the upper west side of Manhattan. Many people consider Redeemer the most influential church in the city. Its style is high church and liturgical. The next stop was Forefront Christian Church in midtown Manhattan. They meet in the Blender theater, a concert venue. It's style is much more edgy and casual.

Mid afternoon, we headed up to Times Square Church. This church was started many years ago by David Wilkerson, author of the book, "The Cross and the Switchblade."

It was a two hour service filled with people of color and charismatic praise. We finished off the day with a visit to Church of Park Slope. This service was much more low key and relational. It was exciting to see people from the city worshipping our Savior in so many different ways.

Monday began with a lecture from our primary instructor, Gordon Venturella. We met in Kings College on the 15th floor of the Empire State Building. It was great to talk about the noise of the city as sirens blared and a union shouted protests below. That afternoon we visited Jews for Jesus. After dinner, we went to Teen Challenge, a ministry that works with those struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.

We repeated the pattern of lectures followed by visits to churches and ministries throughout the week. We went to the New York City Rescue Mission, our nation's first rescue mission. We visited churches like Crossroads Christian Church in Brooklyn, and attended the Tuesday night prayer meeting at the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church. We heard from Brian Moll of Forefront, and Jeff Butler of Community Christian Church. David Weston told us of his adventures in large cities throughout the world, including Baghdad, Iraq.

The students came away with both a sense of the need and the opportunities in the city. God stirred in many of them a passion to serve in the urban environment. They learned critical concepts like the importance of awareness, flexibility, and compassion.

A few weeks later, we hosted a "Strategies for Church Health and Growth Class." The class learned different means through which God works to build and grow His church. The weekend began by hearing from one of their peers, a student who recently graduated from Ozark and had served as an intern in one of our New York City churches. He shared what he had experienced about church health and growth, as well as what it meant to intern here.

Next we went to Crossroads Christian Church to hear from Paul Curtis. They are finishing up an artists' studio that will be a focal point of their outreach. Over lunch, Brad Canning shared insights from Postmark Café, as well as his church. That afternoon we learned from Steve Wolma, who is seeking to build a healthy church DNA before they officially launch next year.

While our class was going on, a team from Southeast Christian Church was helping to renovate the Orchard Group office. Eugene DePorter, who is on Southeast's staff, came over to share principles from what the largest church in our movement has discovered about health and growth.  We finished off our day with a nice dinner and a look around our nation's largest city.

Sunday morning found the group worshipping at Forefront Christian Church and a church called "The River." The students were able to reflect on how God works through different kinds of services and people. Later that day we heard from Gregg Farah, who planted Mosaic Manhattan and after a series of challenges, is relaunching the church.

Our last teaching team of the day had an Albanian flavor. Steve Galegor planted a church in Albania several years ago. One of the men who became a Christian under Steve's ministry is now helping Steve reach the thousands of Albanians in greater New York City. Steve took us back to the book of Acts to show us how God builds health and growth into His church throughout history and around the world.

Monday morning kicked off with Mark Reynolds of Redeemer church, a church of 6000 in Manhattan. He presented their three pronged model of theological reflection, renewal dynamics, and a contextualized philosophy of ministry. Mark always gives us so much to think about.

Our next teacher was one we had not seen before. Scott Rourk planted 411 church in the Times Square area a few years ago. This church takes prayer seriously. They have mapped out all of Manhattan into different zones with different prayer needs. Some of our classes have prayer walked part of the city using Scott's prayer maps. They look for prayer needs, strongholds, points of light, and points of service. In short, this church combines serious prayer with serious service.

Our final teaching team was from Forefront Christian Church. Brian Moll and Jacob Lange spoke to the importance of holistic small groups and servant evangelism. The students heard how Forefront fleshes out its vision to live by faith, be known by love, and be a voice of hope in their community.

This was another tremendous weekend. I am always amazed at how much I am inspired and challenged. You would be pleased with the kind of students God is bringing on these trips. They are of exceptional quality.

Thanks to those of you who are investing in them. It is people like you who make this kind of ministry happen. If you are not currently giving, I challenge you to do so. You will be able to take satisfaction in knowing that you are helping to build the next wave of urban church leaders.

"Seek the peace and prosperity of the city...Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper " (Jeremiah 29:7).

For more information, email Dave Smith at