Nelson Searcy | |
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Born | October 3, 1971 |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Pastor, Author |
Website | www.ChurchLeaderInsights.com |
Nelson Searcy (born October 3, 1971) is an American evangelical minister and author. He is the founder and lead pastor of The Journey Church, an evangelical Christian church in New York City and Boca Raton, Florida. Founded in 2002, The Journey Church has grown to include multiple campuses across metro New York City (in Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island) and a campus in Boca Raton, Florida. The church continues to grow and innovate and serve the people of metro New York City and beyond. The Journey has been featured in articles in Time Magazine, [1] Rolling Stone, [2] and The New York Times. [3] [4] In addition, he is an author of many Christian books on church leadership and numerous resources for pastors and other church leaders. He is also the founder of Church Leader Insights, an organization that provides training and resources for pastors.
Southern Baptists |
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Nelson Searcy grew up in North Carolina.
Searcy met his wife, Kelley, on a blind date while they were in college and the two were married in 1994. They have lived in North Carolina, Southern California, Manhattan, and currently reside in Boca Raton. [5]
Searcy received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. He received his Master of Divinity (M.Div.) from Duke University and has pursued additional study at North Carolina State University, Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
After becoming a Christian while in college, Searcy entered full-time ministry in 1990.
Searcy served with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and pastored churches in North Carolina from 1990 to 1999.
Searcy went on staff with Rick Warren in 1999. There he was the founding director of the Purpose Driven Community at Saddleback Church, with more than 5,000 member churches, and a key architect for Warren's PurposeDriven.com. [6]
Searcy and his wife, Kelley, moved to New York City in late 2001 to start The Journey Church of the City.
On Easter Sunday of 2002 a handful of people gathered in two Manhattan locations as The Journey launched weekly services. From the very beginning, The Journey was "one church that met in multiple locations" - on the Upper West Side on Sunday mornings and in the East Village on Sunday evenings.
From there, The Journey has steadily grown in numbers and ministries . Over the years the church has met in comedy clubs, church basements, off-Broadway theaters, public schools, hotel ballrooms and even in larger concert venues. As of July, 2012, The Journey meets in two locations in the Metro New York area.
Most recently, The Journey launched a new campus in Boca Raton, Florida, on February 13, 2011.
The Journey has always been a diverse group of people united by their desire "to give people the best opportunity to become fully developing followers of Jesus".
Over 1,200 people attend services each Sunday and over 1,400 people get plugged into a Journey Growth Group each semester. [7]
Searcy founded Church Leader Insights (CLI), an organization that provides training and resources to pastors and to church leaders. As of 2014 [update] more than 16,000 pastors receive his bi-weekly Church Leader Insights newsletter (formerly known as Evangelism Online) each month, [8]
CLI hosts live training-events throughout the United States and online through webinars, and offers free resources for church planters and pastors.
Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 97,422 in the 2020 census and it ranked as the 23rd-largest city in Florida in 2022. However, many people with a Boca Raton postal address live outside of municipal boundaries, such as in West Boca Raton. As a business center, the city also experiences significant daytime population increases. Boca Raton is 45 miles (72 km) north of Miami and is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which had a population of 6,138,333 at the 2020 United States Census.
The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is an international Holiness–Pentecostal Christian denomination, and the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. Although an international and multi-ethnic religious organization, it has a predominantly African American membership based within the United States. The international headquarters is in Memphis, Tennessee. The current Presiding Bishop is Bishop John Drew Sheard Sr., who is the Senior Pastor of the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ of Detroit, Michigan. He was elected as the denomination's leader on March 27, 2021.
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Church Leader Insights (CLI) is an organization, founded by Nelson Searcy, that provides training and resources to pastors and church leaders. A pioneer in using the internet to equip pastors, Searcy's CLI Newsletter is distributed to more than 46,000 pastors each month. To date, CLI has trained more than a thousand church leaders—of all sizes, denominations, and backgrounds—through its seminars.
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Nelson is an active church planting coach, church growth consultant and publisher of the semi-monthly online resource Evangelism Online, which is distributed to 16,000 pastors each month.