![]() ![]() They had considered factory buildings, warehouses, and the Daily News building on Third Avenue and Carroll, but in each case the expense of bringing the facility up to code was prohibitive. During a sermon last July, standing before a large screen displaying an artist’s rendering of the Tabernacle’s new home, Cymbala recounted the search for a suitable structure. Then Pastor Cymbala had visions of an exodus to someplace roomier. They added a fourth Sunday service, at 9 a.m., to the lineup (12:00, 3:00, 6:00, and the blockbusting Tuesday night Prayer Meeting), and this early session soon became the best attended. In 1996, after more than 20 years of ministry, Cymbala and his co-pastors (there are currently eight) discerned that God wasn’t nearly done growing the Tabernacle. They credit hard work, faith, and God’s grace with their survival of this early wilderness period it’s a kind of Reverend Horatio Alger story that the mainstream media would eat up if they could somehow tease out the Jesus part. When Clair Hutchins, who was busy preaching at and starting up churches elsewhere, asked them to take over the faltering Brooklyn franchise, Jim, a lifelong Brooklynite of Polish-Ukrainian descent, was a college graduate with no Bible college or seminary education, and Carol was a young mother and a talented albeit untrained pianist to this day she cannot read music. The Cymbala husband-and-wife team started out in the top floor of a two-story building in a downtrodden, drug-ridden strip on Atlantic Avenue. Still, some congregants stand, and some are turned away.įor the benefit of lay folk and baffled fellow clergy, Jim Cymbala documents the Tabernacle’s success story in his 1997 book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire (published by Zondervan, a Christian press in Grand Rapids, Michigan). A team of about 30 friendly volunteer ushers does an efficient job of packing in the worshippers, who file in from lines wrapping halfway down the adjacent Prospect Place. The rampart-like rows of comfy tapestry-upholstered pews hold 1,400, but each of the four Sunday services is like the reenactment of a biblical parable in which the number of pews, like loaves and fishes, appears wholly inadequate for the arriving multitude. Huge brass chandeliers hang from elaborately filigreed grilles in the ceiling, a confection of rosettes and acanthus leaves in pink and white. Youth groups, Promise Keepers, and entire out-of-town congregations pilgrimage to the Tabernacle throughout the year tour buses, taxis, and ice-cream trucks clog Sunday traffic on Flatbush.īehind its unassuming modern brown brick façade, which (apart from the large plain white cross) resembles that of a dental practice, the Tabernacle’s splendid interior testifies to the building’s former life as an old-time movie theater. ![]() ![]() Its pastor, Carol’s husband, Jim Cymbala, is a best-selling author of five inspirational titles and a frequent guest on Christian radio and television shows such as the 700 Club. Its choir, led by Hutchins’s daughter Carol, has won three Gospel Grammys (and was nominated again this past year). Hutchins, a globetrotting evangelist, the Tabernacle has grown from an all-time low of 20 members in 1971, to more than 7,000. Evg.Church and temple attendance has reportedly fallen off again nationally after a post-September 11th spiritual surge, but you wouldn’t notice it on Sunday at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Ravi Zacharias GOING BEYOND MINISTIRES Gospel Musicians Hillsong Hymes LIFE WITHOUT LIMBS Ministries Nathaniel Bassey NIGERIA Out Reach Pastor Honour Joseph Pastor Steven Furtick Prayers Prayers for financial breakthrough Prayers for Government and Nations Prayers for great harvest Prayers for healing Prayers for marriage Prayers for ministry Prayers for miracles Prayers for prosperity Prayers for protection Preachers Priscilla Shirer Prophet TB Joshua Prophetic Pst Chris Oyakhilome Pst. Jakes CHRIST EMBASSY Crusades Deliverance Don Moen Dr Myles Munroe Dunsin Oyekan Evg. Apostle Gino Jennings Audio Bible BAHAMAS FAITH MINISTRIES Bible Lectures Studies BILLY GRAHAM EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATION Bishop T.D. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |