A Manifesto of Fruitfulness: Stories

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New York disciples its people through ambition. Etched into the walls of Moynihan Train Hall, the newly renovated front door to the city, is a single word from the New York State seal: Excelsior. It's Latin for "ever upward," and while meant as civic pride showcasing New York's history of excellence, said honestly, in the context of most people's lives in the city, "ever upward" feels more like a mandate than a cheer. Most people here live pinned between two unsatisfying options—apathy or ambition—with both ending in defeat. Jesus offers a third way: fruitfulness. He makes the uncomfortable contrast between what a person produces and what a person's life produces in somebody else, and in turn, the Kingdom. Over eleven weeks, we will hear about the 100x life God intends to cultivate in His disciples.

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    Fruitful Stories | Eryn

    Eryn moved to New York City in 2015 with a dream of performing on Broadway and a desire to prayerfully partner with God in her work and share His love with the theatre community. Thirteen years to the day after first seeing The Phantom of the Opera on the West End in London, she made her Broadway debut as Christine Daaé in Phantom. Eryn continues to perform on Broadway, Off-Broadway, as well as on stages across the country and around the world. Eryn started attending Church of the City in 2016, and has most recently served with Creative.NYC and the Lanphier School.

  2. 1d ago

    Fruitful Stories | Workplace Prayer

    Across New York City there are offices, studios and classrooms where, in the middle of the workday, a few coworkers step away to pray. In this episode of our Manifesto of Fruitfulness series, we sat down with Madelyn, John, Nathan, and Allie, four people from our church who have started or are now stewarding prayer rooms at their workplaces.They talked about how it began, what it has looked like to keep showing up week after week, and the fruit they've seen as colleagues meet the presence of God in places most of us think of only as work. Workplace Prayer is one of the ways we live out Vocational Mission, one of our nine distinctives. We believe the places we work aren't separate from God's mission but part of it, and that the renewal of our city will come through ordinary people praying faithfully in the places they've been given.If you'd like to start praying with others where you work, find resources at cvm.nyc.

  3. Oct 22

    Fruitful Stories | Alexa Cummins

    Alexa Cummins met Jesus in college, in the middle of a season marked by loneliness and isolation. A friend welcomed her, invited her to a Christian ministry event, and introduced her to a community that would change the course of her life. But near the end of college, Alexa entered a deeply painful season of depression and a loss of hope for the future. As she sought healing, she came to understand just how much she needed the presence of God and the people around her. Today, Alexa is an artist whose work explores pain, brokenness, hope, and beauty, and a Program Coordinator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her story is a testament to the way God works through his people, and how a community marked by genuine love can become part of someone's healing.

  4. Oct 12

    Fruitful Stories | Thomas Keown

    Thomas Keown is the founder and CEO of Many Hopes, a non-profit organization rescuing children from injustice and equipping them to become adults of influence able to rescue others. Born in Northern Ireland during "The Troubles," he was educated at Queens University, Belfast, worked for one of the two Nobel prize-winning signatories of the Belfast Peace Agreement, and is a former columnist. His career has spanned the media, politics and for-purpose missions in the UK, USA, Africa and Latin America. His belief that seemingly intractable problems can be solved by bringing the right influences to bear on them is rooted in his faith. He travels more than he wants to speaking on issues of justice and generosity, and has a very patient wife and two children.

  5. Oct 8

    Fruitful Stories | The Tafoyas

    Michael and Beatrix Tafoya moved to NYC just before 9/11 because they were convinced God had a distinct call and purpose for them.  Soon after, they met Jon Tyson and it became more clear that part of that purpose was to begin laying the groundwork for a church which has since become Church of the City.  In addition to serving as church overseers for many years, Michael and Beatrix are the parents of three adult kids.  Michael serves throughout Upper Manhattan and the Bronx as a Medical Director for CityMD, an urgent care network.  Additionally, he serves on the board of the Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, which advocates to strengthen the support system and continuum of learning for children and youth.  Beatrix worked for many years in fashion as a color and concept designer until she became a stay at home mom.

  6. Sep 28

    Fruitful Stories | The Siekmeiers

    Everyone who moves to New York comes with an ache. Most people spend it on themselves — building a name, a career, a life that finally feels like enough. Ben and Ale spent theirs on other people. That's what we're talking about this week with Ben and Ale. They moved to the city in 2015 hoping to see God move among the dreamers and strivers here, and to bring healing to the ones who'd quietly stopped believing they were worth much at all. They've been at Church of the City since it opened, serving on the prayer team and leading the Healthy Soul course. Ben works in workplace culture and events consulting; Ale is a life and relationship coach and the founder of The Nett, a modern take on Christian singleness and dating. They've been married fifteen years and live on the Upper West Side — and for most of that time, their real work has been spiritual parenting. We'll talk about what it looks like to disciple people who aren't your kids, what fifteen years of marriage teaches you about steady love, and why healing a soul is slower work than most of us have patience for. This is A Manifesto of Fruitfulness: Stories.

  7. Sep 21

    Fruitful Stories: Caitlin Post

    There's a version of New York success that works exactly the way it promises. The title comes. The name gets made. And somewhere along the way, you notice that the thing that was supposed to fill you up hasn't. Ambition can run dry even when it's working. Remember, fruit isn't what you produce. Fruit is what your life produces in someone else. And that's what we're going to talk about this week with Caitlin. Caitlin moved to the Upper East Side in August of 2024 for her career as a consultant with a prominent executive search firm. She came with a clear ambition: to make a name for herself in this city. She started attending Church of the City in 2025, and it was there that she powerfully encountered the presence of God. Then, in the middle of a personal crisis, Jesus stepped in and invited her to do something that made no sense on a résumé: lay down building her kingdom, and join him in building his. Today, Caitlin carries a real burden for the Upper East Side. She's seeing God move in power through one-on-one conversations, often with total strangers, in her neighborhood and in her workplace. At Church of the City, she hosts a community group, serves on our connections team, and leads with our Send Saturday teaching and equipping team. In this conversation, we talk about what it actually looked like to lay down ambition, and what that cost. We talk about how a vision for evangelism took root, and what it looks like to start a conversation with a stranger on a New York block. And we talk about what she'd say to the person who has done everything right and still feels the ambition running dry.

  8. Sep 17

    Fruitful Stories: The Caldwells

    A Manifesto of Fruitfulness invites you into real conversations with people from Church of the City New York who are learning what it means to bear fruit. Not in what they produce, but what their lives produce in someone else—in a marriage, a friendship, a block, a job. Doug and Lisa have been part of Church of the City New York since 2019, though their story starts long before that — thirty years of marriage that began in Atlanta and led them to Denver, Amsterdam and Hong Kong, some of those cities more than once, before New York finally became home. Doug spent over 35 years in the insurance industry, starting as an actuary and now serving as Chief Risk Officer for a large retirement and life insurance company — a career built, in his own words, on trusting what he can't fully control. At Church of the City, Doug and Lisa lead a community group and mentor couples preparing for marriage. Doug also serves on the Board of Overseers. We're going to talk about what it looks like to hold money loosely instead of tightly. Why they believe you genuinely cannot out-give God. What it cost them to wait years for New York to open up, and what it meant to quit a job with no plan for what came next. And what thirty years of marriage has taught them about showing up for someone else's life instead of just your own. Doug and Lisa have a lot of hard-won wisdom to offer for anyone who desires to live a fruitful life. We are so grateful for our conversation with them and are excited to share it with you.

  • 8 Episodes

About

New York disciples its people through ambition. Etched into the walls of Moynihan Train Hall, the newly renovated front door to the city, is a single word from the New York State seal: Excelsior. It's Latin for "ever upward," and while meant as civic pride showcasing New York's history of excellence, said honestly, in the context of most people's lives in the city, "ever upward" feels more like a mandate than a cheer. Most people here live pinned between two unsatisfying options—apathy or ambition—with both ending in defeat. Jesus offers a third way: fruitfulness. He makes the uncomfortable contrast between what a person produces and what a person's life produces in somebody else, and in turn, the Kingdom. Over eleven weeks, we will hear about the 100x life God intends to cultivate in His disciples.

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