Incubator Collective New Jersey

Incubator Collective: New Jersey

Academic Year 1: 2025-26

Cohort Overview

Welcome to our Incubator Collective Intensive for New Jersey COGIC! The Incubator church planting program has trained church planters and replanters serving almost exclusively in New York City’s five boroughs, as well as New York City-facing urban centers. The program combines elements of City to City’s proven church planting curriculum with new insights from multicultural leaders who understand the nuances of ministry in urban contexts. We look forward to partnering with you to bring shalom to communities in New Jersey!

Meet Your Instructor

Michael Carrion,
Vice President, Movement Leadership

Serving as the VP of Church Planting and Leadership Development Michael oversees the NYC team prayerfully and discerningly recruiting, training and resourcing church planters called to plant healthy missional churches in the five boroughs of NYC. Michael has successfully planted several churches and charter schools across the South Bronx. He is a social justice activist, community organizer who has been nationally recognized for his work among the poor across the city. Prior to working with CTC Michael held appointments with the city of New York HRA/CAS and the Fedcap Group as the Senior Director of Workforce Development. As well as a prior role as the Deputy Director of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (VRS). Michael is a native of the South Bronx and brings 30 years of urban pastoral ministry experience to the team.

Meet Your TA

Ajalon Tinsley
Pastor, Spiritual Leader, & Community Advocate

Ajalon is a spiritual leader and community advocate committed to cultivating spaces where people can grow together toward spiritual and social wholeness. Drawing on his roots in Harlem, New York, he pastors an intimate church community in the Rutgers University–New Brunswick, NJ area. He also leads educational engagement initiatives for a public service company, collaborating with local schools and non-profits on environmental programs. Ajalon holds a Master’s degree in Theological Studies from Westminster Theological Seminary and a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from Southern New Hampshire University. He is married to his beautiful wife, Trinity, and together they have two amazing sons, Zion and Imri.

Meet Your TA

Craig Okpala
Lead Pastor

Craig and his wife Kaitlyn moved to Jersey City in the spring of 2017 with a vision to plant a vibrant, diverse, Christ-centered church to serve the people of their new neighborhood. A Texan by birth, Craig grew up in Nigeria, where he first received his call to ministry, before moving to New York in 1996. For nearly 10 years, Craig served as a Worship & Creative Pastor, eventually helping launch the Hope Church NYC movement and equipping and training worship and production teams before taking the next step of planting a church on his own and taking on the role of Planter/Lead Pastor at Hope Jersey City. Craig completed his Masters of Divinity at Alliance Theological Seminary in New York.

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eBook

See below for the link to the Incubator Year One eBook for your reference and review. This contains all of the course materials for the year. It is organized by module and contains the module materials as well as any pre-reads for class discussion and tools for implementation.

Class Materials

PLEASE NOTE: 
Based on speaker availability, some modules may not be sequential. 
In order to prepare for sessions, please follow the class schedule below.

Homework Submissions

Incubator Homework Submissions Form 
Policies and Schedule

Program Policies

  • To do this, simply click "Add to Google Calendar" (or the +) on the Google calendar below. Each invite contains important location information on class format, virtual or in-person.

  • Because Incubator Collective is structured as a learning cohort, interaction with the content via class discussion is essential to maximizing your experience. Consequently, if you accumulate more than two absences, you may not be allowed to continue in the program. Please review the Class Schedule below, and notify your TAs via email ([email protected],
    [email protected]) if you anticipate being unable to attend any of these sessions or if a conflict arises during the program year.

  • You will get out of this cohort as much as you put into it. Prepare by reading any recommended pre-class materials, participating in class discussions, and completing post-class homework assignments. It's worth the investment!

  • The eBook includes all course content including pre-reading assignments, presentation decks, and tools for implementation of what you're learning. Please review this before class and come prepared to interact with the content and your classmates.

Program Schedule

We recommend integrating these dates into your personal calendar to stay on top of upcoming classes. Those who accumulate more than two unexcused absences may be asked to re-enroll when they are able to commit to this attendance standard.