{"id":1616,"date":"2006-09-28T10:48:30","date_gmt":"2006-09-28T18:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2006\/09\/williamsburg_brooklyn_or_williamsburg_virginia.html"},"modified":"2006-09-28T10:48:30","modified_gmt":"2006-09-28T18:48:30","slug":"williamsburg_br","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/09\/williamsburg_br.html","title":{"rendered":"Williamsburg, Brooklyn Or Williamsburg, Virginia?"},"content":{"rendered":"

An evangelical group targets rootless Brooklyn hipsters<\/a>:<\/p>\n

While Greenpoint hipsters sip lattes and leaf through the Sunday papers at Caf\u00c3\u00a9 Grumpy on Meserole Ave., a fervent group of young neighborhood churchgoers prays behind them.<\/p>\n

“I am evil, born in sin,” chant worshipers in the newly established Williamsburg Church.<\/p>\n

Since July, a congregation of 15 has been gathering on Sunday nights in a nook in the back of the cafe, an area that operates as an art gallery the rest of the week.<\/p>\n

“A church isn’t a building, it’s a people,” said pastor Robert Elkin, who moved to Brooklyn six months ago to open the church.<\/p>\n

Elkin is a member of the Heritage Bible Church, a 1,400-person evangelical group based in Greer, S.C. The born-again missionaries hope to open churches across the country, particularly in areas where religion isn’t at the top of people’s to-do lists.<\/p>\n

“It’s a ripe environment, but it’s a challenge,” said Elkin, who sees “hedonism” in Williamsburg and Greenpoint’s youth culture.<\/p>\n

The group’s target audience is hip, young New Yorkers who have ignored God for too long — and have been overlooked by God’s messengers.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

Caf\u00c3\u00a9 Grumpy owner Caroline Bell didn’t want to talk about her new tenant. “Anybody who wants to rent out the back can,” she said.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An evangelical group targets rootless Brooklyn hipsters: While Greenpoint hipsters sip lattes and leaf through the Sunday papers at Caf\u00c3\u00a9 Grumpy on Meserole Ave., a fervent group of young neighborhood churchgoers prays behind them. “I am evil, born in sin,” chant worshipers in the newly established Williamsburg Church. Since July, a congregation of 15 has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brooklyn","category-what_will_they_think_of_next"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}