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“Sometimes God calls us to go into the places that people think are hopeless, that people think are beyond fixing or beyond help…”
–SEAN FEUCHT
More than 5,000 people gathered in the heart of New York City last weekend to worship God and hear the Gospel, leading worship leader Sean Feucht to proclaim: “If God can do it in Times Square NYC, He can do it anywhere.”
New York City is one of 150 cities Feucht has visited during the “Let Us Worship” gatherings he started after authorities imposed COVID-19 restrictions that prevented Christians from worshipping together at church services.
Feucht, who is from California, intentionally wanted to bring worship to cities that many believe are lost causes. Let Us Worship started with Feucht encouraging people to gather at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Feucht said on speaker and writer Patricia Holbrook’s podcast that the bridge is known as the cultural epicenter from which bad moral values have spread, but reminded listeners that San Francisco was also the center of the Jesus Movement and the city derives its name from St. Francis of Assisi. He stated:
“Sometimes God calls us to go into the places that people think are hopeless, that people think are beyond fixing or beyond help and God calls us to remind the city of its foundations to remind the city of its prophetic destiny.”
Along Feucht’s journey he has seen many who want to worship God, as well as many who are hurting. Feucht told Christian writer Caleb Parke, “The world is hungry for the Gospel. They are desperate for Jesus. We just need to be unaffordable and unashamed to shine His light in the center of culture.”
Feucht was motivated to start the “Let Us Worship” movement after California Gov. Gavin Newsom, D, not only restricted church attendance but tried to ban singing and chanting in churches. He explained,
“Worship is like the oxygen of Heaven, it’s life, it’s what brings us hope, it’s what connects us to God, it’s what pulls us out of our current situation and shows us Heaven’s perspective, and so I think when the governor said, ‘You can’t worship, you can’t sing,’ that to me was like, ‘Whoa you have gone way, way, way too far.’”
The “Let Us Worship” movement is the subject of the new documentary “Superspreader,” which details the rallies and the effort by Feucht and his team to spread the Gospel during the COVID pandemic. Feucht said he chose to make the film because “I felt like it was important to share, to let people see the journey that we were on, the people that were for us, the people that were against us, but yet in the midst of it, God was breaking out in every single city that we went to.”
Superspreader was released in 500 theaters on Thursday night.
Feucht said of the movie, “We’re going to see [that] this wave of revival that we experience across America is actually going to be in theaters. And wow, we’re going to try to plan to have an evangelist be in every single theater that it’s shown in. So that at the end of the film people can get saved, healed, delivered. That’s what we want to see happen.”
Feucht has experienced sharp opposition from all sides, including being arrested for trying to hold a worship service. Some claimed the Let Us Worship rallies were “superspreaders,” leading to the title of the movie. “Well, we know that that wasn’t true, because you know, there was no single outbreak of COVID related to any of our events, and that’s kind of a spoiler because, at the end, we share that,” Feucht said.
There was, not surprisingly, opposition at the Times Square service. NYC for Abortion Rights distributed flyers smearing Feucht as a “Christo-fascist” due to his beliefs on abortion and other issues. “Sean Feucht and Let Us Worship GET OUT OF OUR CITY!” the flyers said. Their opposition didn’t stop people from worshipping, however.
Feucht tweeted, “REVIVAL JUST HIT TIMES SQUARE No one wants to leave” with a picture of the surrounding crowd.
Eric Metaxas, a radio host and best-selling author who just released his latest book, Letter to the American Church, joined Feucht on stage at the worship service. He reminded the audience that Christians are in a moment of spiritual warfare and gave an opening prayer asking for revival and healing across the nation. He later tweeted, “And keep in mind, we were there praising Jesus loudly not merely in Times Square last night, but at the very moment — sundown — when the Jewish New Year was beginning. Aslan is on the move!”
Worship changes a person’s view from being inwardly focused to upwardly focused. It is essential for Christians to worship God because it provides fuel for the spirit. When authorities shut down churches and singled out singing while they allowed strip clubs, big-box stores, abortion clinics, casinos, and other secular outlets to remain open for business it showed that they are either hostile to religious expression or woefully ignorant of the importance of worship.
As this inspiring situation in Times Square shows us, nothing can encourage believers and seekers like congregational worship of God. Yet worship isn’t primarily about us. It’s about giving thanks to God for His grace and mercy. We praise God because there is no one like Him. Psalm 95:1-6 says,
“O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord,
Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving,
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God
And a great King above all gods,
In whose hand are the depths of the earth,
The peaks of the mountains are His also.
The sea is His, for it was He who made it,
And His hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.”
Whether during a Sunday morning church service, in a field, or in Times Square, let us worship the Lord — and never again let anyone stop His Church from gathering.
Ready to dive deeper into the intersection of faith and policy? Head over to our Theology of Politics series page where we’ve published several long-form pieces that will help Christians navigate where their faith should direct them on political issues.
