By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
TRIBECA — The idea for Liberty Church came to Andi Andrew in a dream.
It was five years ago, and Andrew and her husband Paul were living in Australia with their young son.
But Andrew dreamed that she and Paul were in New York City — a place they had never visited — riding the subway home from a church they had founded. She also dreamed they had three children.
"We didn’t just move here because Andi had a dream," Paul Andrew said with a laugh this week, in a lower Manhattan coffee shop. "But it was the spark. It began a five-year journey of dreaming and planning."
The couple, who now have three children, moved to Brooklyn in June, and this Sunday they are officially launching the nondenominational Liberty Church with weekly services at Tribeca Cinemas.
While a downtown indie movie house might seem like a strange place to praise and worship, Paul Andrew said they picked the location because they wanted to be in the heart of lower Manhattan, a community he said he and his wife "fell in love with."
The services, which include music and teaching, will be held in a dining and events space at the cinema, which is not usually in high demand on Sunday mornings.
Andrew said he wasn’t anticipating any conflicts between the theater’s potentially risqué films and the family-friendly church. Back in November, Liberty Church held a smaller gathering at Tribeca Cinemas that coincided with the New York City Horror Film Festival.
"They were great about it," Andrew said. "They made sure that signage related to the event wasn’t plastered all around the room."
On the other hand, Andrew added, "You don’t come to New York to plan a church and then somehow think you’re going to live in a bubble. We have convictions, but we live in and among people with all types of world views."
Paul, 36, an Australian native, and Andi, 32, from Washington State, met in bible school at Hillsong College in Sydney. They are both ordained pastors and share a vision of a church that provides a sense of family and meets people wherever they are.
In that vein, the church has placed a strong focus on outreach: in addition to building an audience via Twitter and Facebook, the church’s leaders have a standing offer to meet anyone interested in the church in a local cafe and buy them a cup of coffee.
More than 30 New Yorkers had taken advantage of the offer so far, Andrew said.
Andrew and his wife hope to expand to a series of churches around New York City, but Andrew also plans to keep his day job as a corporate leadership trainer, which he said keeps him grounded.
Andrew’s business sense kicked in at the moment he and his wife discovered in May 2009 that they had separately arrived at the same name for their future church.
"I bought the domain name the same day," Andrew said with a smile, referring to libertychurchnyc.com. "That’s the age we live in."
Liberty Church will hold weekly services at Tribeca Cinemas, 54 Varick St., Sundays starting Jan. 23 from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Doors open at 10 a.m. and separate children’s programs will be available.
