By Alex Murashko, Special to ASSIST News Service
LONG BEACH, CA (ANS – January 17, 2018) — Pastors and leaders in the Christian-based education community plan to hold a “state-of-the-church” panel discussion on integration at Chosen Generation Church in Long Beach. California, on Saturday (Jan. 20) from 9 am to noon.
The guest speakers plan to tackle the question of whether the church in America has advanced much past the declaration made by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 56 years ago, that Sunday morning services were the most segregated time of the week.
“In 2018, we are still wrestling with the fallout from that statement,” said Pastor Cedric Nelms, who will be hosting the event at his church along with TogetherLA. “This gathering is about starting a conversation dealing with answering the question: How have we advanced the dream?”
Nelms, who is also World Impact’s city director for Los Angeles, described the event as “a meeting at the intersection of the Gospel, the Church, and Race/Culture.”
“My hope is that this conversation will lead us to becoming conscious Christians,” he said.
Last summer, Nelms was one of four pastors participating in a TogetherLA pop-up panel to discuss both hope and brokenness in Los Angeles.
To truly be an urban pastor planting an urban church one must first get to know the broken parts of the city, said Nelms during the discussion.
“We have to get unified in understanding that yes, we can be a different color, we can be a different culture, we can be a different race, we can even have a different creed, but we also have to understand that there is only one gospel and one Lord,” he said.
TogetherLA Invitation
Today, ministry workers and church leaders all over Los Angeles work to glorify God and His Kingdom by advancing the myriad of social justice issues still in existence. TogetherLA seeks to catalyze this group by joining forces, learning from each other, and sharing encouragement.
TogetherLA is a movement of pastors, church leaders and people of faith who love LA. Those who intimately know our city know the depth of this dynamic city, its challenges, as well as its possibilities. The vision doesn’t come without hurdles, but it does come with a pressing reality of what God is already doing to transform communities in LA. Let’s talk about what God is doing through the Church and what still needs to be done… Let’s have a conversation!
To watch a promo video, please go to: https://youtu.be/nLvUGR8OAK0.
Photo captions: 1) Dr. King addresses marchers during his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Aug. 28, 1963. 2) Pastors (L to R) Steve Snook of Santa Monica, Michael Mata of Koreatown, Cedric Nelms of Long Beach, and Brannin Pitre of Pasadena at TLA pop-up last summer. 3) Alex Murashko.
About the writer: Alex Murashko is editor of https://togetherla.net/. He has done media related work for more than 25 years. Murashko is launching “Media on Mission” this year, an organization in support of Christian journalists making a difference in the world by reporting within the faith and secular global communities. He can be contacted by e-mail at alex@togetherla.net, or by phone at (949) 547-0907.
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