Nelson Searcy (born October 3, 1971) is an American

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

minister and author. He is the founder and lead pastor of The Journey Church, an evangelical Christian church in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

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, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. 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.

Biography

Personal life and education

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 North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, and currently reside in Boca Raton. Searcy received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in Psychology and a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

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.

Early Ministry

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 Richard Duane Warren (born January 28, 1954) is an American Southern Baptist evangelical Christian pastor and author. He is the founder of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention in Lake Fo ...

in 1999. There he was the founding director of the Purpose Driven Community at

Saddleback Church Saddleback Church is a Baptist Evangelical multi-site megachurch, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, located in Lake Forest, California. It is the largest church in California, and one of the largest in the United States of America ...

, with more than 5,000 member churches, and a key architect for Warren's ''PurposeDriven.com''.

The Journey Church

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.

Church Leader Insights

Searcy founded

Church Leader Insights 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 (formerly known as Evangelis ...

(CLI), an organization that provides training and resources to

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

s and to church

leader Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...

s. more than 16,000 pastors receive his bi-weekly ''Church Leader Insights'' newsletter (formerly known as ''Evangelism Online'') each month, CLI hosts live training-events throughout the United States and online through

webinar Web conferencing is used as an umbrella term for various types of online conferencing and collaborative services including webinars (web seminars), webcasts, and web meetings. Sometimes it may be used also in the more narrow sense of the peer-l ...

s, and offers free resources for church planters and pastors.

Honors

* 2004 Purpose Driven Church Health AwardPurpose Driven Church Health Award - Previous Winners
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Bibliography

*''Launch: Starting a New Church from Scratch'' () *''Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Engaged Members of Your Church]'' () *''Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups'' () *''Ignite: How to Spark Immediate Growth In Your Church'' () *''Maximize: How to Develop Extravagant Givers in Your Church'' () *''The Generosity Ladder: Your Next Step to Financial Peace]'' () *''Engage: A Guide to Creating Life-Transforming Worship Services'' () *''Revolve: A New Way to See Worship'' () *''Connect: How to Double Your Number of Volunteers'' () *''The Greatness Principle: Finding Significance and Joy by Serving Others'' ()

References

External links

The Journey Church - New York website

The Journey Church - Boca Raton website

Church Leader Insights website

Nelson Searcy's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Searcy, Nelson American evangelicals Founders of new religious movements Christian writers Duke Divinity School alumni Writers from New York City 1971 births Living people