Church Plant—Renaissance Church, Harlem

Perched on the porch of a Harlem brownstone sits an elderly woman on a warm Sunday morning. The woman spots Jordan strolling up the block and she immediately smiles.

“What’s up, Ma?” quips Jordan as he climbs the steps and leans in for a hug. No relation, but it doesn’t even matter.

The two chat for a minute—just a casual conversation. The woman asks when Jordan will finally convince her grandson to come over to Renaissance for a Sunday morning service. "I'm trying," Jordan assures her. The whole time her face is beaming.

That’s Jordan in a nutshell. He’s the real deal—a guy who loves the Lord, who knows and loves the people who call Harlem home.

Renaissance is a church plant in the heart of the Harlem neighborhood. Its doors opened in September 2014, and Renaissance has been growing ever since. You can feel the mixing of cultures and the vibrancy of their congregation the minute you walk in for the service. Moses, a college-age volunteer, carries heavy buckets of water to fill the baptistery, eagerly awaiting two baptisms happening that day. A cohort of local musicians rip through a worship set on stage. Floods of others stream into the auditorium. They’ve all come for the same reason—to worship Jesus in the neighborhood they love.

And at the forefront of all this, there’s Jordan. His story is a complicated one. Division I basketball player, former lawyer, widower in his 20's—and that’s just scratching the surface. Jordan’s love for Harlem runs deep, having grown up on the local basketball courts as a kid. But the thing about Harlem is it’s always changing, and the past 20 years of changes have made life difficult for some in the neighborhood.

That’s where Renaissance comes in. Jordan’s dream has always been to plant a church that bridges the block and the brownstone, where everyone is invited to hear the Gospel. At its core, that’s what Renaissance is all about. It’s a place where everyone is known and cared for. A place where a teenager struggling to find an identity and a 40-something investment banker new to town can be in community together. A place where the good news is preached on Sunday and the truth of Jesus Christ is lived out every day of the week. That place is Renaissance.

Get Connected

To learn more about Renaissance Church, go to renaissancenyc.com.