Finding Churches in Brooklyn

It's been 2 months since we've moved to Brighton Beach. While still going to Redeemer East Side, I'm amazed how hard it is to find gospel centered church in Brooklyn. They either cares more about the hipodeehops of pop culture or totally converted to heretics (e.g. gay pastors) as many old reformed churches in America do. Well, at least I haven't met one with an atheist pastor, which is in Canada, I think.

But with God's grace, I will make a catalog of churches in Brooklyn. A preliminary of the project to rate all churches in New York and beyond online.

Since our move here, we haven't attended a single Brooklyn church. So here are my pre-reviews of churches I found/researched online, I'm doing this so that I am not going to waste my time researching the same churches again (reviews are based heavily on others' review - Christ centered or just merely "inspiring", church website, sermon samples, history+numbers):

Churches to visit:

Bethel Baptist Fellowship: 2304 Voorhies Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11235 (reviewer said it's faithful to the Bible, the first Baptist church I've gathered that seems to lean towards Russian community, I've briefly listened to the well documented sermon on the site)

Brooklyn Community Christian Church: 1504 Gravesend Neck Rd, Brooklyn, NY 11229? 2287 East 15th St. Brooklyn, NY 11229 (Not sure if Chinese means Cantonese or Mandarin, not much said online other than bio of the senior pastor)

Resurrection Sheepshead Bay: 3076 Emmons Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11235
EPC church, so, nothing much to expect, but liturgy is extremely similar to Redeemer's.

Brooklyn Alliance Church of C&MA (布碌崙宣道會): 1413 Avenue T, Brooklyn NY 11229 (Chinese church, it's former mother church is famous in Queens, I cannot tell much from their website, would not mind checking it out when convenient)

Messiah's Covenant Community Church: 2662 E 24th St, Brooklyn, NY 11235. This looks very much like a reformed church according to their links (Bahnsen's stuff, Pressup, etc.)...REALLY?! I just found now now? (2/25/2018). MUST VISIT....service time appears to be 12:15PM. Hold your horses, this is a Messianic Jews church or congregation, and there's a kind of dullness in one of their services posted on their Facebook. But interestingly, they put more focus on the reformation material than dispensationalism.

OCM Community Church of Brooklyn (中宣會傾恩堂): 6505 Bay Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11204 (of OCM, but not much said online)

Brooklyn Chinese Baptist Church (布碌崙華人浸信會): 5123 7th Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11220.

Grace Chinese Alliance Church of C&MA (恩典華人宣道會): 5623 7Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11220.


Churches I have no clue of:

New Utrecht Reformed Church: 223 Bay Ridge Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11209 / 1827 84th St, Brooklyn, NY 11214 (Possibly to stay away from, based on the site, it looks dead, will only check it out if it's really convenient for me)

Saint Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church: 2801 W 8th St, Brooklyn, NY 11224 (No idea whatsoever, called (718) 266-1831, left message for getting schedule, seems like a dead church)

Comforting Church of Christ: 2865 W 15th St, Brooklyn, NY 11224 (Black version's of Seven Day Adventist+Messianic Church? Service only on Saturdays, listed as Pentecostal, will only check it out when very convenience, but am tending towards avoiding)


Churches to stay away from or will not go (All PCUSA, possibly all RCA, United Methodist Church):

Homecrest Presbyterian Church: 1413 Avenue T, Brooklyn, NY 11229 (used by 布碌崙宣道會?) (PCUSA, and if they're watching "The Shack 2017" as a fellowship...it's a movie where the Trinity is represented by a black woman, some open minded guy and a Hawaiian type lady)

Armenian Evangelical Church: 1009 Brighton Beach Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11235 (Website doesn't work, called (646) 703-1820, no clue who they are, they only speak Armenian, the one answering the call sounded like I was calling his private home or something, so I don't think I would go even if I'm Armenian)

Catholic Churches or Eastern Orthodox Churches are plenty in my neighborhood. I am interested in their culture. But I do not have time to do this research now.

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7 Responses to Finding Churches in Brooklyn

  1. timlyg says:

    Bethel Baptist Fellowship:
    Service: 10AM
    I went a couple of month ago. I have recorded video and will put on youtube soon. Small church. Everyone was nice. And old Jew named Amos loves to swim at Brighton Beach like I do. That's not important. I love the Gospel centeredness of the church, well it is after all an evangelical Baptist church. They seem to have connection with Russian Messianic Jews. Russian Service's next time, I didn't get to see any Russians somehow. They don't mingle much I suppose. I'm curious though. Staffs that reached out to me or peeked my interest: Pastor Jim Bickel (whose son went to Kalimantan, I think), Hunter Konkle, Pastor Ben & Andrea Hamilton (the couple didn't reach out to me but their ministry in church planting in Bronx is quite impressive, their kids of no older than 10 reached out to people on the streets). Hunter's welcome reminded me of Arkansas.
    I wouldn't mind returning.

  2. timlyg says:

    BCCC:
    Chinese Service Sunday 9:30 am
    English Service Sunday 11:30 am

    So I didn't go to Grace Chinese Alliance Church of C&MA or Brooklyn Chinese Baptist Church today as planned, due to lateness. However, I was able to make it (15 mins late) to BCCC, a convenient church by the Q train Neck Rd. Station. Their website's post of Pastor Andy's photo did discourage me a bit, it gave the impressing of a hipster pastor. But perhaps it's their youth webmaster messing around. The pastor does preach almost like a hipster, though one can tell his had a reasonable background in Chinese/Hong Kong culture. I saw a few blacks and latinos, maybe one or two whites, which was interesting. I thought it would be all teenagers, but the age group is diverse. And I appreciate that Pastor Andy's methodology welcomes different age groups, despite being hip. Worship music is contemporary, singers, drummer, lyrics on projector, which was probably the only unfortunate part I could see for now. Theology-wise, I would just say that today's sermon is Biblical centered. Even if doctrinal accuracy could be off, which I do not try to examine at this point, the message does provoke me to think and get into the Word:
    1. Daniel was an Eunuch? (possibly, though Pastor Andy appears to be sure of it)
    2. The rich young ruler broke the 10th commandment (well, not quite. Yes and no. there's an important step that I think the pastor skipped, and that is the Lordship of Christ. Without authority of God's command, the pharisees would just interpret the law however they saw fit, though it should raise concern of where they get the authority of unpacking the Law) A country just can't hide their law from foreigners and find them culpable for breaking them. One cannot simply just relinquish his worldly gains without recognizing that it was commanded by the Owner of his "gains". In fact, recognition of Christ's Lordship here trumps playing with the technicality of the 10 commandments here.
    3. Jay Sekulow, attorney for Trump, a Christian Jew. Sounds like a cool guy. Gotta look him up.

    They certainly welcome new comers as Pastor Andy personally gifts them pumpkin colored cups. I could feel that there's a sense of closeness in fellowship, something I feel that the Chinese churches once had but now loosing.

    I loved that they planned trip to visit the Bible Museum in DC. Though it would be better if there's an experienced guide among them.
    I would love to return to this church. I walked away pondering upon issues raised from the sermon, love it.

    What's not on the website:
    1:30PM Youth fellowship (mandarin) after service.
    Saturday 9AM: Mandarin Bible Study.
    I have yet been to any of the two but intend to in the future.

  3. timlyg says:

    Brooklyn Alliance Church of C&MA or
    BAC:
    They have combined service (English / Cantonese) today, 2PM. I think it's a once a month thing. So was the adult (Cantonese) Sunday School at 1pm. I think they would have mandarin at 1:30PM and service at 3pm at other times.

    Worship music is contemporary. Confusing at times (mix of Cantonese English at the same time). Worse than BCCC, I would say, the Chinese translations are questionable, though not too seriously in err theologically. The sermon was rather boring, long winded pastor giving the message in Cantonese. Not as biblically focused as Pastor Andy from BCCC. The problem is similar to those pastors who try to be over careful with their sermon, so nothing new, lots of repeats.

    The church however is Gospel centered as they plan a street gospel tracts giving next Saturday. I walked away with their year book as well as free Calendar. They are definitely trying. Gospel Centeredness is the beating heart. I wouldn't mind returning for another round.

  4. timlyg says:

    Resurrection Sheepshead Bay
    Service @ 10:30AM
    So, I've gotten a chance to visit this church last Sunday (2/11/2018). I'll make another entry for that Sunday for everything else. So this post is just about the church.

    This church is about 20 mins walk from home. It was established since Hurricane Sandy, as an effort to help the neighborhood recover from the storm, and the Alabama/Georgia sent pastors were asked to stay. This church is affiliated with EPC (Evangelical Presbyterian Church), so it's a little better than PCUSA, but many still consider them watering down. After talking with Chuck and looking around, I learned that they are trying to start a men's group, but I'm not sure if it's been a while ago or not. Doesn't seem like it's a Christ-centered, Bible-centered church to me (I made the comment about having prepared for the sermon's scriptural reading before listening to the sermon and the response I got was - some people who have kids can't do that), but perhaps it's too soon to tell. The sermon was delivered by perhaps an assistant pastor (David), because Pastor Brian was sick. So, basically, pastor David just read the senior pastor's sermon. I didn't get much of it as it wasn't quite paying much attention to the Biblical passage or Christ-centeredness.

    I may or may not visit this church again, especially when Pastor Brian's actually there. It's located in a boat club, so that's something new. The church size is about 20 people that day, with about 5-10 kids heading to their "workshop" during last half of the service. The Redeemer-like liturgy, I was told, was due to some Redeemerites' helping out.

    Holy Communion was an interesting one. One can choose to take the shared wine chalice or those tiny communion cups (I presumed it's red wine as well), up in the front.

    Mid service greetings was as long as Central Presbyterian Church, better, I would say, than Redeemer.

    I would probably listen to some of their sermons on their website before I go again. But it is very convenient distance-wise.

  5. timlyg says:

    Brooklyn Tabernacle
    It's not really something I concerned myself with, despite it's popularity. But I did finally go with my wife this past Sunday (2/18/2018).
    Sermon is grade C, choir is great. One song much is better than the others.
    I would give Pastor Cymbala the benefit of doubt that his kindness was probably the reason for his church growth from less than 30 in the 70s to over 16000. I've elaborated the BT in an entry of its own with the title Brooklyn Tabernacle.

  6. timlyg says:

    Brooklyn Chinese Baptist Church (布碌崙華人浸信會): 5123 7th Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11220.
    Pastor: Mark Hui, the seemingly quiet one.
    His wife: Florence Hui is in administration/Education, according to the website. She was also the pianist.

    Went today. 2PM Mandarin.
    They have English Sunday School 10:15AM.

    I was late, so I only received what was perhaps the 2nd half of the sermon by Minister David. He seems to have the heart to preach, but the depth is not too great. I may detect even some hint of Arminianism...but I could be wrong. The passage of the day was from the first part of Romans 5. On joy, happiness, peace (something about his recent car accident and finding peace there). It also appears that his car was a gift from the generous pastor.
    During the end announcement given by David, the pastor's wife interrupted a few times, for good intention, on having an experimental 8:45AM Mandarin service & on the meaning of of their denomination "Baptist" = Bible, Autonomy, Priest, Tithing, Immersion, Spirit (Holy Spirit), Telling the story about Jesus. I find the acronym funny, though google shows it exists, though the last parts are somewhat different than hers, but she uniquely nailed the letter "I" on Immersion. So, I'm not sure what their take on other mode of baptism was. Would it be extremely opposing or like the regular SBC though autonomously? However, I would definite just talk about the Immersion part when asked of the word "Baptist" in the denomination. I wouldn't even want to start making acronyms for R-E-F-O-R-M-E-D.

    The love is definitely there. From Pastors' family (pastor + wife & daughter). Proud of their SBC heritage, a rare but good thing, at least it's prominent from the wife, who's really into education, teaching. She welcomed me after the service. I was taken by the pastor upstairs to meet the young adults (Heather, Gavin, Kayla, Vivian, Micah, Harrison & Simon). It would appear that Florence really needed me to be in the English group, a typical Chinese (usually ladies it would seem) American church move.

    For what it's worth, I am inclined to return either for another service or Sunday School: Anything on the Word of the Lord, please, no other distractions...we've had too much of that in other churches.

  7. timlyg says:

    OCM Community Church of Brooklyn
    3:30PM. Cantonese (or maybe Mandarin) with Mandarin translation by Dixin.

    The preacher maybe a temp Cantonese pastor from OCM. I cannot determine the quality of the church as of now (3/11/2018). Although, they did stress that their location is a strategic one, with focus on the Gospel to the new growing Chinese community in the area, where there's no other Chinese churches yet in the neighborhood. The Mandarin preacher would be 孔庆昌教士.

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