Who We Are +
Why Fort Lee
In 2014, Exilic Church began with five people in a New Jersey living room. In the past twelve years, God turned this tiny group into a thriving community of almost one thousand people in the heart of New York City. As a church in midtown Manhattan, our community gathered from all over the Metro NYC area—all five boroughs, and beyond to Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey. We viewed our growing North Jersey population as fresh opportunities for faithful evangelism and discipleship right back to where it all began. Fort Lee is not only the home of the world’s busiest bridge, but we hope it will also serve as a bridge for Exilic to continue its mission to be a faithful gospel presence in the Garden State.
One of the unique challenges of doing ministry in NYC is how transient the community is- people are constantly coming and going. Fort Lee provides ministry context that can be much more rooted and truly multigenerational.
The Exilic NJ Team
Pastor Gene Joo
Pastor
Gene is the founding pastor of Exilic NJ. He served as an associate pastor at Exilic Church in NY for over 11 years. Gene grew up right here in Fort Lee and is excited to pastor in his hometown. He graduated from Columbia with a B.A. in History and received his M.Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary. He and his wife Genie have their hands and hearts full with four boys.
Daniel Kong
Worship Director
DK is the worship director at Exilic NJ, overseeing both the praise and sound teams. DK received a B.A. in Philosophy from Boston College and Juris Doctorate from Fordham University School of Law, currently working as a corporate attorney in NYC. He lives in NJ with his beautiful wife Connie and their beautiful cats.
Rebecca Kim
Exilic Kids Director
Becca serves as the Kids Director for Exilic NJ. Born and raised in Jersey, Becca holds a B.S. in Elementary Education-iSTEM from TCNJ and an M.A. in Curriculum & Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University. She was a public and private school K-12 teacher for several years before transitioning her career to corporate learning and development. She and her husband, Dylan, have a daughter named Aria Dasom and currently reside in Teaneck.
Genie Joo
Operations + Communications Director
Genie is the Operations and Communications Director for Exilic NJ. Prior to this role, she served as the Family Director and Systems Manager at Exilic Church in NY for 10 years. Genie graduated from UC Irvine with a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Education from Biola University. While she misses her teaching days, she is quite busy chasing after the four boys she has with Pastor Gene.