I love L.A.
Not too long ago I had a friend visiting me in my city, Los Angeles. As I excitedly drove him down the freeways and through the streets, pointing out all the things I loved, he mentioned that some of it reminded him of traveling in underdeveloped countries. The statement threw me! While I could empirically see what he was saying (the really rough roads, the graffiti, the trash along the highway, the smog, and more), my heart was indignant. Every town, I reasoned, had challenges, but when you peel back the surface, there was so much more to the heart of this city.
This is my city, and here are some statistics: Los Angeles is the second largest city in the US with approximately 4 million people, and LA County, at about 10 million, is the largest county in the country; the contiguous urban area (LA-Long Beach-Santa Ana) has 13 million, and Greater Los Angeles (defined as LA, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Ventura counties) has nearly 18 million human beings. This makes Los Angeles and its surrounding communities the 17th largest urban megacity on this planet.
Even more wonderful, those millions of people represent almost every nation on the earth. Los Angeles city alone is home to specific enclaves of immigrants from more than 140 countries (for context, there are about 196 countries in the world), and we speak 224 identified languages. Besides the fact that I can eat some of the best food and enjoy some of the best of culture from all over the globe within a 15-minute drive of my house, this means that the world has truly come to us, and the opportunity to start to engage our world is less complicated than it has ever been. The nations are at our doorstep.
This would become a long post indeed if I started talking about all the things I love about my city: The topography, the weather, the diversity of communities and commerce, the creativity streaming out of this place, and the optimism and energy present. I was born here, I (mostly) grew up here, and I absolutely love this place.
And I have a call to helping raise up the next generation; this post would be even longer if I unpacked in detail how many young people are here: Scores of Colleges and Universities are serving hundreds of thousands of students, including a handful of globally recognized top-tier educational institutions that equip the elite world-changers and world-leaders of tomorrow; hundreds of thousands more young adults who have moved into our “neighborhood” not for education, but to try to make it big in the entertainment and media industry; and still millions more young adults who have immigrated—both legally and illegally—not to make it big in any industry, but simply to “make it” in a life that has so-far been hostile to them; and in LA, they are hoping for redemption—and a future.
That’s just the start. I believe that for these reasons, and for so many more, Los Angeles is a gateway to the world for the Kingdom of God. I believe that if the Church could get and act on God’s heart for this great city (read Jonah 4:11), we could and would see significant change. We need to proclaim the message of the Gospel of the Kingdom through our lives and words to this city—to the students, the entertainers, and the immigrants; to the old money, the new money and the no-money; to the influencers and leaders of the world as well as those who are influenced and led; to the sinners and saints; to the powerful and the powerless; to those who have never stepped foot outside of Southern California and to those who have deep connections to their country of origin; to the broken, hurt and hopeless.
This is my city. It’s yours, too. But most of all, Greater Los Angeles is God’s city! And I’m fervently praying and contending for the church to rise up and show this city the heart of Jesus, sacrificing and serving, and even laying our lives down, for the 18 million people that God loves dearly.
“For God so loved Los Angeles, that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16—Tim Clark’s Version).