Covenant News

Brooklyn Church Plant Starts After-School Ministry

BROOKLYN, NY (October 24, 2003) - It hasn't taken long for a new Covenant congregation to make an impact on its neighborhood children in New York City, thanks to unique after-school program sponsored by two businesses.

Brooklyn Covenant Ministries (BCM), under pastor Conway Boyce, began its work on June 1 and started BCMquest to help provide ministries to his area in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. This month, the two ministries are hosting a pilot educational program for children in grades 3-9 with help from the eSylvan tutoring program and 1 Economy, a non-profit technology company.

Deborah Boyce, founder and executive director of BCMquestKids, the children's service arm of BCMquest, discussed the tutoring program, stating, "It is a multimedia-based tutorial that rewards in two ways - verbal praise and reinforcement. Personal praise, encouragement and reinforcement from teachers help promote a child's self-confidence and motivation."

Students receive electronic tokens during each session to recognize effort and achievement. Tokens are saved in a student's personal account and they can redeem the tokens for prizes at the online sylvan Store, which is supported by ToysRUs.com.

Conway Boyce, who grew up in Brooklyn, retired from AT&T last year after serving as a sales director in its business markets division. He had attended seminary in 1998, but didn't consider full-time ministry until 2000. He had served part-time as a pastor, working primarily in outreach for a congregation in Brooklyn under pastor Darrell Griffin. He began considering a church plant in his hometown in 2001 and chose the Covenant after consulting with Griffin, now the senior pastor at Oakdale Covenant Church in Chicago.

Along with their educational partnerships, the congregation has collaborated with a local theater group, Salt and Pepper Mime Company, and does outreach via youth programs. BCM youth have performed with the company, having received training during the summer and fall at youth workshops.

BCM has an average worship attendance of between 30 and 50 and has ministered to 75 children via various programs. The church's motto is: Education + Empowerment = Transformation and it seems to start with the pastor's family. Conway's wife Deborah, who is trained in education and worked as a schoolteacher, runs the youth and adult education programs for BCM.

"We are committed to having a seamless ministry that deals not only to bring people to Christ and becoming more Christ like, but also to help them develop their gifts and serve others," said Rev. Boyce. "In traditional models of church, you often have evangelism and service and they're separate. We're trying to both at the same time."

For more about BCM and BCMquest, call Rev. Boyce at 917-224-4773 or email him at Boyceedee@aol.com.

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