Blog Contributors

Taylor Field

For more than 25 years, Taylor Field has served as the pastor director of Graffiti Church and Community Ministries in New York City, where he has been recognized for his church and community ministry. Working with more than 10,000 people a year, Graffiti Community Ministries serves and empowers children, youth, and adults in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Taylor has a PhD from Gateway Seminary and an MDiv from Princeton Seminary. He is the author of Upside-Down Leadership, Upside-Down Freedom, Upside-Down Devotion, Mercy Street, and Squat. He works together with his wife Susan Field, and they have two married children who are both working in ministry in New York City.

Susan Field

Diversity is the highlight of Susan Field’s life. Having lived and worked in the Lower East Side of Manhattan for more than 25 years, she has worshipped with a diverse group of people. It is this love for diversity, and seeing it as a picture of what heaven will be like, that inspired her to write. She and her husband, Taylor, helped the ministry site, Graffiti, become a church, which now ministers to more than 10,000 people a year and has assisted in some way with starting more than 30 new churches. She has ministered to hundreds of college students through her affiliations with Columbia University United Campus Ministries and New York University Chaplains’ Circle. She has two married children, both working in ministry in New York City.

Andrew Mann

Born and raised in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, Andrew always had a fascination with New York City. Entering college, Andrew attended New York University. Over the course of that year, Andrew became involved with East 7th Baptist Church/Graffiti Community Ministries. Transferring to Wheaton College, he graduated with a bachelor’s of music education degree in December 2004. Despite the change of venue from New York to Chicago, during his collegiate years, Andrew plugged into ministry with Betty Cherry and the ARMS ministry of Armitage Baptist Church. Over those three and a half years, Andrew helped develop and lead a Bible study with boys from the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. These years of ministry were formative for his sense of calling and philosophy toward meeting the needs of urban children. In February 2005, Andrew joined the staff of East 7th Baptist Church/Graffiti Community ministries to assist with youth programs and begin preparing for the new ministry plant of Graffiti 2 Community Ministries. In August 2005, Andrew moved to Mott Haven and currently oversees the mission, vision, strategy, and implementation of Graffiti 2 Community Ministries. As a result of this ministry, Graffiti 2 Baptist Church was planted and continues to grow. Andrew pastors this body of believers.