Thoughts After Long Beach City Watch

I got to connect with the intercessors of City Watch this morning. We began affirming a common sense that the Lord was raising up the next generation - the youth and young adults - to prepare for a generational transition within the Church. What would it look like if young adults felt "called" to Long Beach?

What would it look like for bridges to be built between the seeming segments of our city - the arts district, the homosexual community, the homeless, the marketplace, the gangs, city hall, the Church? What if the Church stopped viewing "outcasts" as the unclean and people to be "changed", and instead began to see a collective city wide community - all unique and gifted - welcome as a valued part of the Body, and able to be transformed by God Himself in His own timing. This generation is highly relational. If God would form bridges to reconcile people to each other - this is the generation primed to do it.

In theory, we all accept that Jesus hung out with the "outcasts" and that he used the foolish to dumbfound the wise and that he uses the lowly to humble those with pride. But can the Church live out this paradigm? What would it look like if God used these very people to minister to those already in the Church? They can surely be used to minister to those not yet in the Church. Would the Church welcome a genuine word from a former gang member? What if God's intent was to raise up future pastors of the city from these fringe groups? We always pray for workers for the harvest. What if God raised up workers for the harvest from within the harvest? Now that would be a city who's Church lived out the Great Commission!

God is stirring, preparing, moving...he's building an infrastructure within the city - a relational infrastructure that will be ready to live out faith and worship as a lifestyle with Christ as a firm foundation. The younger generation can handle this paradigm of being Church. It's time for the current and older generation to invest in them, because relationally, they will stir change and direction in our city regardless.