Cultural Impact. From the Silicon Valley in the north to Hollywood in the south, trends in entertainment, fashion, and technology often begin in cosmopolitan California then spread outward and eastward to the suburban and ultimately rural populations of our country. California’s cities are epicenters not only of culture but also of worldly fads that we warn our young people to avoid. And yet it is in just such major cities of the ancient world that God enabled the apostle Paul to impact the culture of his day at its source with a bold witness of the gospel while living separate from its corruption. Foreign Missions. Without getting a visa and without crossing national borders, a church planter to urban California has the opportunity to reach the world. Twentysix percent of California residents are foreign born.9 (That number is 41% in Los Angeles.10) There are two-and-a-half million college students in California11—many of them from the closed countries that we expend great effort and resources to reach. The world is coming to these cities for jobs, for education, and to experience the American dream. God has placed this vital mission field in our own backyard; the American church would certainly be remiss before our Lord to neglect such opportunities. The Challenge: What Difficulties Exist for Planting in Urban California? There are many negative generalizations about California’s cities that can dissuade prospective church planters and their lay-partners from considering her as a field of ministry. High expenses, crowded living, leftist politics, worldliness gone amuck—these are all challenges, real or exaggerated, that keep the average Bible-centered Christian from residing in the Golden State’s metropolises. The pejorative natter about “the land of fruits and nuts” has created a prejudice that, at best, disregards the remnant of Christians whom God has placed there and, at worst, denies California the labor force of witnesses due her— thus condemning millions of souls to a Christless eternity. But for the Fundamental Baptist to whom God has endued a divine love for souls and for their California brethren, the negative perceptions of California comprise a Biblical motivation to go to her cities and co-labor with God’s remnant to reshape California’s neighborhoods, revive her thinking, and redeem her people with the light of God’s Word. In spite of the culture that surrounded them the Corinthian Christians were exhorted not to faint but to remember their supernatural transformation by God’s Spirit into the likeness of God’s Son, and “by manifestation of the truth commending [themselves] to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Cor. 4:2). If we abandon our country’s most populous state because we don’t like the behavior of the people who live there, we have forfeited the power of the gospel entrusted to us. How many mission fields in the world would we attempt to evangelize if this were our criterion? When missionaries answer the call to a foreign field, they often do so against their natural desires for a nice home in a relatively conservative and safe environment
FrontLine • July/August 2009
with the best Christian schools for their children. They look to the Lord alone for direction and choose to give the next generation the testimony of a sacrificial life, distinctly different from that of their morally upright yet unsaved neighbors, where God is clearly the source of their provision and protection. In the same way, when considering the call to urban church planting in California, one should ask: If God cannot provide for me in California, can He really provide for me anywhere? And if I will not trust God to preserve my family in California, what does that reveal about whom (instead of Whom) I am really trusting? After counting the cost, the answer is clear that God has promised to provide for our every need, and His promises will not fail us. “My God shall supply all your need” (Phil. 4:19) regardless of whether you are in Africa, China, or metropolitan California. Charting the Course: How Does One Get Started in Urban California? Hudson Taylor exhorted Jonathan Goforth as he was headed to the North Honan province of China, “You must go forward on your knees!”12 No good work for Christ shall be done in California or anywhere else without much time in earnest prayer. Nonetheless, much of the practical pioneering work has been done, and a Fundamental church planter starting out today has resources available to him that even ten years ago would have been scarce. Some of God’s servants have caught the vision and have paid the price to open the door for this frontier effort. For example, a number of churches are developing their mother/daughter church planting philosophy and are focusing on California. Bible colleges, universities, and seminaries are presenting California to their student bodies in hopes that not only will God call church planters out of their midst but that scores of their graduates will seek God’s leading in helping a fledgling work. In addition, several organizations now exist for the sole purpose of recruiting, supporting, and sending church planters throughout America. Mission boards such as Gospel Fellowship Association and Baptist World Missions and others are coming alongside local churches as they send out church planters in the will of God. Evangelists who have seen the spiritual wilderness are spreading the Macedonian call throughout the church to “come over . . . and help us” (Acts 16:9). For those who answer God’s call to help church planters in California’s large cities, there are creative ways to defray the exorbitant cost of living. For instance, many positions exist in cities for part-time resident managers who render their services in exchange for rent in apartment complexes. Such an arrangement also affords the new Californian the precious opportunity to learn city living and to make contact with and understand the burdens of their city-dwelling neighbors. Conclusion If the Lord is moving your heart to support, assist, or get involved in California urban church planting, know that there is a legitimate need and that that need is great. So the next time 17