From Survival Mode to Serving Others: A Brooklyn Pastor’s Story

A man and a woman fighting in the street. Teenagers getting high. Rats burrowing into the sidewalk. Danny Torres had learned to block it all out.

“I’m just walking by because it’s just another day, and you’re just in survival mode in New York City.”

But in one defining moment, God got Danny’s attention, and his heart became broken over the state of his Brooklyn neighborhood.

Learn more about Swerve Church in Brooklyn.

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Transcript

Danny Torres:
00:00:00 I was walking down the street and just, you know, there’s this guy just yelling at his girlfriend. You know, there’s this guy shooting dope or getting drunk or whatever. And just you know, you just see all this noise all around you. I’m just walking by because it’s just another day, and you’re just in survival mode in New York City.

Phil Fleischman:
00:00:15 Danny Torres had gotten used to the dysfunction and poverty he saw every day in Brooklyn. Until he got an unexpected wake-up call.

Danny:
00:00:23 In that one moment, I felt like my eyes opened up. I was like, oh, my goodness. Look at all this brokenness around me. And so, I just remember in that moment praying to God. I said, God, give me the eyes of a missionary. Allow me to see my neighbors the way you see them. 

Phil:
00:00:39 Today, Danny is taking us into his New York City neighborhood in Part 3 of our “Christ to Their Community” series. I’m Phil Fleischman.

Kristy Etheridge:
00:00:47 And I’m Kristy Etheridge. This summer series is part of GPS: God. People. Stories…an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. For this episode, I went to the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick, where Danny Torres’ lives, to hear his story firsthand. And it is powerful.

Phil:
00:01:06 I’m excited to hear it, Kristy. We’re also going to hear Billy Graham with a word on what the Bible says about the kind of work that Danny is doing. 

Billy Graham:
00:01:14 And Jesus said, "Go back to the street where you live, go back to your friends, go back to your neighborhood, go back to your community and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you."

Kristy:
00:01:27 We’ll hear more from Billy Graham later on. But first, to make sure you never miss an episode of GPS -- including the final one of our summer series, coming up next week – be sure to subscribe to it on you podcast app. Search for GPS: God. People. Stories.

MUSIC TRANSITION
V.O.:
00:02:17 G.P.S. God. People. Stories

Natural sound 00:01:49 - Car music and honking in Bushwick

Danny:
00:01:55 This is Bushwick right here. This is a great representation of it. I mean, you’ve got the trash out on the street. We’ve got huge rats the size of, like, possums. They kind of like, they burrow holes. You can see the holes right on the street. I mean, we’ve got rats out here that can probably eat a chihuahua, straight up.

Kristy:
00:02:10 Bushwick, Brooklyn…New York City. Just five miles from the skyscrapers and Wall Street traders of Lower Manhattan. But when Danny Torres showed me around the neighborhood, it felt like a world away from the New York that tourists know and love.

Danny:
00:02:24 High school aged kids smoking weed. They’re literally there all day, all night, smoking weed. Um, the music, the blaring in the background…

Natural sound 00:02:33 - Car music and cars driving by

Danny:
00:02:31 The hip hop, the salsa, the loud … the loud mufflers and motors. This is Bushwick in a nutshell. 

Kristy:
00:02:37 There are still dilapidated housing projects, there’s still crime and there’s still garbage on the sidewalks. But this two-square-mile wedge of Brooklyn has come a long way from what Danny remembers as a boy…

Danny:
00:02:50 Growing up, I remember waking up to, you know, bullets, um, through my dad’s windshield. Uh, you know, the violence. You know, hearing stories of like my grandfather living in the projects, uh, you know, being stuck up, knife point. Um, you know it was a very dangerous community to live in. You couldn’t pay someone to come to Bushwick, you know, in the ‘80s and ‘90s. 

Phil:
00:03:10 That’s when Danny was growing up. He’s the son of Puerto Rican immigrants, and he’s thankful that they helped lay a foundation of faith for him from a young age. 

Danny:
00:03:20 I mean, I have memories of, uh, as early as seven or eight years old just crying out to Jesus, you know, to forgive me of my sin and making Him Lord and Savior. 

Phil:
00:03:29 So Danny grew up in the church, but he wanted no parts of ever leading one.

Danny:
00:03:35 I had no desire to pastor a church, to plant the church, to be the pastor, be a leader. I come from a faith tradition where everybody wanted to be a leader. Everybody wanted to be a pastor. And I hated it. And so, like the call to plant a church meant … was a call to leadership. And that’s … I was running away from that.

Kristy:
00:03:53 Danny established a successful career as a master barber in Manhattan. When he and his wife Melissa started having children, Danny worked for his dad’s dry-cleaning business to be closer to his family. Then he went to work at a Christian school, manning the front desk and teaching computer classes.

Danny:
00:04:09 I mean, I’m a jack of all trades, master of none. You know, I did a little bit of everything. 

Phil:
00:04:14 His resume doesn’t exactly scream “pastor” or “church planter,” as Danny is the first to point out. 

Kristy:
00:04:19 Yeah, but you know as the Bible shows us, Phil, some of the most unlikely people can become effective leaders. Think of Jesus’ disciples – they included four fishermen and a tax collector. The key is that God had bigger plans for each of them.

Phil:
00:04:35 Yeah, and as for Danny, he remembers becoming aware of God’s “bigger plan” for his life back around 2013. He was on Knickerbocker Avenue, which cuts across Bushwick.

Danny:
00:04:46 I was walking down the street and just, you know, there’s this guy just yelling at his girlfriend. You know, there’s this guy shooting dope or getting drunk or whatever. And just you know, you just see all this noise all around you. I’m just walking by because it’s just another day, and you’re just in survival mode in New York City. And then, you know, in that one moment, I felt like my eyes opened it. I was like, oh, my goodness. Look at all this brokenness, um, around me.

Kristy:
00:5:10 God was changing Danny’s heart.

Danny:
00:05:12 And so, I just remember in that moment praying to God. I said, God, give me the eyes of a missionary. Allow me to see my neighbors the way you see them. Allow me to identify the brokenness, you know, in my community. That I’m not just numb to what’s going on, but that my heart breaks for my neighbor. And then, show me. You know, show me what is the Gospel response, you know, to what I see, to the brokenness around me.

Kristy:
00:05:37 As Danny and Melissa prayed, they began to sense a clear calling to the very thing Danny had never wanted to do: start a church.

Phil:
00:05:45 In fact, God brought Danny and Melissa to a place where they were asking—even begging—God to use them in their community.

Danny:
00:05:53 We had the dream. The desire to plant a church. And we incorporated. That was a huge faith leap that, you know, Melissa and I went, “We really believe God’s calling us to do this. We’re going to incorporate, you know, the church.” Then, we didn’t know what we were going to do next. 

Phil:
00:06:08 So, they spent the next two years praying and planning.

Danny:
00:06:12 I knew I didn’t want to plant the church by myself. I didn’t want to be a solo like a … a lone ranger. I knew that. And so, it was like, “God, guide me to the right network. Guide me to the right, you know, uh, denomination or church planting network.”

Kristy:
00:06:25 In the meantime, though, Danny and Melissa didn’t wait to start serving their community. 

Danny:
00:06:30 I rallied some friends together. We got to our home. And we said, how can we be Good News to our neighbors? And how can you do that with zero dollars? With no budget? So, we went and bought some Wonder bread and bought some peanut butter and jelly. We made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Put it in brown paper bags and gave it out to our neighbors. 

Kristy:
00:06:50 Those were the humble beginnings of what became Swerve Church. It was established 2016. 

Danny:
00:06:56 The name Swerve popped into my head. And I looked up the definition. I Googled it. And, uh, and the definition I found was an abrupt change in direction. And I said, man, that’s exactly what I want to see in my neighbor’s lives; I want to see an abrupt change in direction. 

Phil:
00:07:12 And that’s especially fitting because Bushwick itself has abruptly changed direction.

Kristy:
00:07:17 Mmhmm, like so many parts of New York City, gentrification has come to Bushwick. Now you see run-down, low-income housing right across the street from pristine apartments that rent for 3 or 4-thousand dollars a month.

Phil:
00:07:31 Longtime residents point out that gentrification didn’t happen overnight. But there were some key turning points. One that stands out for Danny is when a famous fashion magazine put Bushwick on the cultural map in 2015.

Danny:
00:07:44 Bushwick is, you know, two square miles, about 120,000 people here in the tippy top of Brooklyn. Uh, it’s … it’s a minority majority community. We’re predominantly Latino, uh, this community. Puerto Rican, Dominican, South Central American. About 30% Blacks. A minority majority. It was the seventh most impoverished neighborhood in all of New York City. But in 2015, Vogue Magazine published an article, uh, trying to list all the coolest neighborhoods in the world, not New York City but in the world. And according to Vogue Magazine, Bushwick ranked seventh. All right. So, how can you be the seventh most impoverished neighborhood in all of New York City and seventh coolest neighborhood in the world?

Phil:
00:08:24 It does seem like a mind-boggling contradiction. But that hasn’t stopped creatives and affluent young professionals from moving into the neighborhood. 

Natural sound 00:08:31 – Subway train - “Stand clear of the closing doors, please.” Bing-bong. Click.”

Kristy:
00:08:36 That’s the sound of the L train stopping in Bushwick en route to Manhattan. It only takes about 20 minutes to get there on the subway—one of the big draws of living in Bushwick. But Danny says, despite the gentrification…

Danny:
00:08:49 Old Bushwick is still here. The need is still here. There’s still a lot of poverty in our community. There’s still a lot of drugs; there’s still a lot of violence, unfortunately. But it has changed dramatically.

Kristy:
00:09:01 As a result, Danny and Swerve Church find themselves uniquely positioned to reach longtime residents and new arrivals.

Danny:
00:09:09 I’m a second-generation Latino. English is my first language. I’m from this community. I’m able to navigate some of these waters really well and communicate in a way that can bridge some of these cultural gaps. And so we’ve been trying to be very intentional about how we can create an environment, a space where people from all different backgrounds and ethnicities can come together. Uh, the way I see it is the only thing that can bridge the gap between hip hop and hipster is the Gospel. And so, that’s what we try to do here. We try to create a space where both old Bushwick and new Bushwick can come together and ultimately celebrate what makes us different. Celebrate the different ethnicities and backgrounds. But at the end of the day, surrender that and submit that to the foot of the cross and formulate this new family under the Gospel. 

Phil:
00:09:53 The members of Swerve Church have found one of the best ways to come together as “a family” is to simply serve their community.

Danny:
00:10:00 Serving is a big part of what we do. It’s part of our core values. We say love God, love people, serve our community. Showing Gods’ love in practical ways. And we’ve done that in a number of different ways. You know, for example, one of the biggest ways we do this is through partnerships. All right. Um, we don’t have tons of resourcing. We don’t have tons of, uh, of the dollars, right, to do the ministry that you would like to do. But there’s lots of organizations in your community that aren’t necessarily faith based but are doing great work that we can come alongside of and partner … partner with them.

Phil:
00:10:32 For example, every Thursday, people from the church help out at a local food pantry and shelter for mothers and children. They also partner with a local public school.

Danny:
00:10:41 Which by the way, in New York City, it’s like unheard of, right? It’s like… partnerships between churches and schools is, it’s just not a thing. But by the grace of God, we have this great partnership. And so, we’re able to come alongside them and serve their teachers. And, um, we mobilize a lot of mission teams to come and love and serve them as well.

Kristy:
00:11:01 The church also holds a lot of community events, which is not easy to pull off in New York. Space is extremely limited. Swerve doesn’t have a “fellowship hall” or a big lawn out front. But they make the most of what they do have.

Danny:
00:11:14 Events are a huge thing because there’s a lot of broken families in our community. A lot of baby daddies not a lot of fathers, right? Which leads to cycles of poverty in our community. So we do fall festivals, Easter egg hunts. We just did a big concert at the park. We just love and serve people. Give out popcorn, snow cones. Try to connect with neighbors, share the Gospel.

Kristy:
00:11:31 One of the church’s events caught the eye of a young engineer from Bushwick. He was scrolling on his phone, looking for something to do one day back in 2018.

Omar Ramos:
00:11:40 It was, uh, um, the Meet Up app where it has like you can check the radius of your neighborhood and see what’s going on. And, um, of all things Swerve Church popped up.

Kristy:
00:11:50 That’s Omar Ramos, and he was not looking for a church. He and his cousin wanted to find a place to party or do some salsa dancing. But the name Swerve Church intrigued Omar. He knew Bushwick, but hadn’t heard of Swerve Church.

Phil:
00:12:04 He didn’t go to the event, but Omar did end up finding the church on Facebook and sending a message. Which went straight to Danny.

Danny:
00:12:12 I remember clear as day, Brother. You said something along the lines of, “I don’t know why I’m reaching out to you. I don’t know why I’m sending you this message, but I am. Going through a tough time” or whatever. Something along those lines. I wrote him back. I said, “I’m sorry you’re going through that. I’m praying for you. I’d love to connect with you in person if you want to have a cup of coffee and talk to me some more. If not, I invite you to come to church and join us on a Sunday, you know, if you want to come and hang with us.”

Phil:
00:12:40 Omar had traveled the world and accomplished a lot through his career. He was used to success. But 2018 showed him he didn’t have as much control over his life as he thought.

Omar:
00:12:51 I was going through a rough time in my life. So, um, health wise, relationship, the economics. Um, I would say the normal person would probably say I was losing everything.

Kristy:
00:13:04 Omar didn’t have the kind of hope that comes from knowing God and trusting Him with your life. But that’s the kind of hope Danny and his church were trying to hand out in Bushwick, along with those peanut butter sandwiches.

Omar:
00:13:15 I was openly an Atheist. I didn’t believe. And even there were times where I knew that there might have been a Creator, I thought it was a very hands-off Creator. 

Kristy:
00:13:25 There was an emptiness in Omar’s life that he couldn’t fill, no matter how successful he was. And something about this church and its pastor—a regular guy from Bushwick around the same age as Omar—just intrigued him.

Phil:
00:13:37 He and Danny sent messages back and forth for two or three months. During that time, Omar had some really difficult doctors’ appointments. At one of them, a nurse asked him something unexpected.

Omar:
00:13:49 “Do you believe in Jesus?” And I said, “No.” I blatantly said, “No.” And she says, “Well, whether or not you believe in Jesus or not, I would advise you pray, just this once. I’m going to pray for you because that’s going to make the difference.” So, my prayer was as simple, because I didn’t know how to pray, I said, uh, “Hi, God. Uh, I don’t know what I’m doing, but I hope you’re with me. Amen.” Later that week, my results came awesome. Awesome medical results. All the lab results were great. And I said, “Well, the least I can do is attend church on Sunday.”

Phil:
00:14:32 So that Sunday, Omar walked up to the school where Swerve was meeting.

Omar:
00:14:36 I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I really did not. And as soon as I came into the doors of PS-299, it was hugs. Like at that point in my life, I wasn’t really a big hugger. And I’m like, “Whoa, what is this?” You know. It’s affection…and you feel the love.

Kristy:
00:14:52 He wasn’t quite sure what to make of it all, but the first sermon Omar heard at Swerve hit him in the gut. He showed up again. Then he started serving, which was right up his alley.

Omar:
00:15:02 And I’m like, “Whoa, they’re serving the community. Why else other than they love the community?” There’s this love for the community. There’s no profit involved other than just being able to engage the community and just let them know that God loves them. And in summary, that’s the beginning. That’s how I joined Swerve.

Kristy:
00:15:21 Omar surrendered his life to Jesus; and this past Easter, he was baptized in an inflatable pool at the church’s tiny new location on Stanhope Street. Then, he recently led someone else to faith in Christ.

Phil:
00:15:34 And now, he’s studying the Bible as well as apologetics—which the defense of the Christian faith—to better equip himself to talk with his fellow engineers.

Kristy:
00:15:55 In the meantime, Swerve Church is finding itself needing to rebuild its own community. During the COVID pandemic, 95 percent of the regular attendees moved out of the city. Danny says it’s only by the grace of God that Swerve still exists. 

Danny:
00:15:58 We’ve lost more pastors, leaders, church planters, and missionaries in New York City in the past two years than … that have come to the city in the past ten years combined. So, there’s a huge need. There’s a huge void in New York City. Um, and it just breaks my heart that, you know, like what the Scriptures say. The harvest is plentiful; the laborers are certainly few.

Kristy:
00:16:20 Danny is praying that more New York Christians will see themselves as missionaries in their own communities. Meanwhile, he remains laser-focused on where God has placed him.

Danny:
00:16:30 You have New York City as a whole, the five boroughs, maybe 9 million people that call New York City home. Um, Brooklyn is the most densely populated of the five boroughs. Almost 3 million people live in Brooklyn. 2.8, 2.9 million people. Our neighborhood, 2 square miles, 120 thousand people in this community. Our street, not the block, our street, Stanhope between Knickerbocker and Irving, there’s 1500+ people that live just on my street, not the entire block. And so when you consider like the amount of people that live here, and you realize the vast amount of lostness that’s in our community, you know, it’s a huge need.

Phil:
00:17:07 Swerve Church is relying on God’s provision to help them meet that need. A lot of the serving they do happens at The Hub. That’s what they call their new location in the heart of Bushwick. It’s small…but it’s theirs.

Kristy:
00:17:19 Yeah, it took them five years to find a space they could rent. And that’s not an unusual story for a new church in Brooklyn. My church has been looking for a space for seven years. A lot of commercial landlords won’t rent to a church. Or the cost is so astronomical, it’s just out of reach. So Swerve’s new location is a huge blessing, possum-rats and all.

Danny:
00:17:41 By the grace of God, we signed a five-year lease on this tiny, little closet of a space. And we’re just trying to use it to be Good News to our neighbors, which is why we call it the Hub. You know, it’s not just church. It’s a place where community can happen, and we can serve our neighbors. So, we’ve gotten donations of produce, and we set up tables in the Hub. And people come, and we serve literally hundreds of people who come and grab food. We have a partnership with North Carolina Baptist. And every year, they bring up coats to the city. We gave about 200 coats this past December right out of the Hub. And then, we do simple things like set up coffee in front of the of the church, of the Hub, and just give out coffee and cookies and try to connect with our neighbors.

Kristy:
00:18:20 I could see that Danny really cares about the people in his neighborhood. He serves with no strings attached, and trusts God to move. 

Danny:
00:18:28 Yeah, we seek out intentional ways to try to connect the Gospel and have spiritual conversations and invite people to church, of course, we’re intentional about that. But we never go in with a “bait and switch” mentality. We’re not trying to dupe people into coming to church or becoming a church member or coming to our church. We’re trying to reach people that are lost, people that are broken, people that are very far from God. And one of the ways that we can begin some of the relationships is by engaging them and just showing God’s love in a tangible way.

Phil:
00:18:54 And the things that God has done through his church, they continue to amaze Danny. 

Kristy:
00:18:59 Here’s a Bible verse that Danny brought up. It’s from the book of Acts, when Jesus’s disciples Peter and John boldly tell some very powerful people that Jesus is the only way to salvation:

Phil:
00:19:11 Yeah, it says, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” That’s from the book of Acts, chapter 4, verse 13.

Danny:
00:19:27 I’m not a seminary grad. I don’t have a college degree. You’re lucky I have a high school diploma. Because statistically, coming from this neighborhood, you know, I shouldn’t have a high school diploma. I should have three or four baby mamas, you know? But by the grace of God, He’s gotten me here. So when people come here, they’re not coming for bells and whistles. We don’t have the money. We don’t have the means. We don’t have the resources. I’m just a boy from Bushwick that loves his neighbors and loves Jesus. And God has continued over and over and over again to bless our socks off and provide what we need.

MUSIC TRANSITION

Phil:
00:20:04 Danny Torres is motivated to love others because he knows that God loved him first. If you want to know more about God’s love for you, you can go to Find-Peace-with-God-dot-net. It explains who Jesus is and what that means for your life. The address again is Find-Peace-with-God-dot-net.

Kristy:
00:20:25 And if you’re a Christian who’s wondering how you can serve your community, keep listening because Danny has a word of encouragement for you.

MUSIC TRANSITION
V.O.:
00:20:32 You’re listening to GPS: God. People. Stories. A podcast production of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Billy Graham:
00:20:42 When I was taken to some of these areas of disadvantaged people--people that don't have as much as maybe some other people, maybe some of them involved in certain types of crimes. 

Dave Meffert:
00:20:54 Billy Graham.

Billy Graham:
00:20:55 But there are people out in the suburbs just like them; they just live in better homes, maybe drive a better car--but their hearts and their souls are in torment from their own conscience. But Jesus moves among both groups. He moved among the wealthy; He moved among the poor. And He was unafraid, always tender, always loving. And Jesus said, “Go back to the street where you live, go back to your friends, go back to your neighborhood, go back to your community and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you." You see, we're to go back home tonight and tell people what God has done for us. Because Christ is going to do something for you tonight that you never expected before you came here. You can have a brand-new life when you walk out of this stadium. 

Kristy:
00:21:45 A brand new life wherever you are. That’s what happens when you ask Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and take control of your life. If you’d like to know more, visit us at Find-Peace-with-God-dot-net. It shows you what a relationship with Christ is all about, through some short videos and other content, and even the option to chat with someone in real time.

Phil:
00:22:06 Now, one last word from our guest on this episode of GPS, Pastor Danny Torres. He has some advice on how to serve your community—even if you feel inadequate or unequipped.

Danny:
00:22:18 We’re talking about serving our community. And a lot of times when it comes to that like, oh, but we don’t have the money. We don’t have the resources. I want to do an Easter egg hunt, but we can’t! We don’t have the volunteers! Listen, you have everything you need to do whatever God’s called you to do right now. God is not insane. He wouldn’t call you to do something that you don’t have the resources to do or you’re not equipped to do. If He’s actually calling you to do something, you have whatever you need to do it. You might need to change and shift your way of thinking of what you think it's going to look like and what the results are going to be. But God is not crazy. He’s going to equip you. Where … where … God guides, He provides.

Phil:
00:22:53 “Where God guides, He provides.” I love that. We want to thank Pastor Danny Torres and Omar Ramos for taking time to share their stories with us and for all they’re doing to serve their community in Brooklyn. By the way, a quick reminder not to miss the final installment of our “Christ to Their Community” series next week. And the best way to do that is to subscribe to GPS on your favorite podcast app. And when you search for GPS, be sure to use the full name, GPS: God. People. Stories. I’m Phil Fleischman.

Kristy:
00:23:26 And I’m Kristy Etheridge. This is GPS: God. People. Stories…an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association – Always Good News.

CLOSING MUSIC

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