Go West, Young Man, Go West!

A few years ago, while hosting a tour of 33 people on a “Footsteps of Paul” journey, I found myself in ancient Philippi. You remember Philippi, right? Paul was preparing to go east into Asia with the Gospel. But the Holy Spirit said, “Go west young man! Go west!” So, trying his best to follow the leading of God, the mission-minded apostle traveled westward to Macedonia. (I imagine that Lydia and the Philippian jailer, to name two, were eternally thankful for the diversion of the Gospel in their direction.)
The chain of events that followed was quite remarkable. The wind, currents and faithful couriers took the Gospel to Rome, the center of the Roman Empire, then to the rest of Europe and eventually, the founding fathers brought it to America. Paul’s decision to be obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit, proved to be monumental.
So often we, like Paul, have our plans set, yet God, through His wisdom and Spirit, leads us in another direction. It is my hope that God would direct others to a destination that has the potential to impact the entire world.
As I stood in Philippi giving a brief devotion to 33 travel-weary pilgrims, my mind flashed back to when I lived in the Midwest. I was fresh out of Bible college, comfortable in knowing I was safely and securely positioned to minister in the area of our nation known as the “Bible Belt.”
The Bible Belt is a little like the Milky Way. It’s this shadowy gray mass of shining stars that forms a large swath of light across an otherwise dark and dreary background.
Oh there are indeed Christians all over the U.S.A. but in the Bible Belt, pardon the expression, they are “thick as thieves.” It seems like, in some areas, there are churches on almost every corner. It is a very safe and comfortable place to live and raise a family. God is so good!
Having been raised in Kansas and educated in Missouri, as well as having pastored my first church in the good ol’ Midwest, I was set for a life of helping the Bible Belt acquire a bigger belt buckle.
And then, I heard the call! Oh no, not me Lord! Yes, He was talking to me. Just like He spoke to the apostle Paul. Go west, young man. Go west!
So just like Jed Clampett, of The Beverly Hillbillies television show (minus the money from his black gold, Texas tea) I loaded up my family and headed to Cal-i-for-ni-a!
It was a long way from the wheat fields and of Kansas but, just like the Apostle Paul, I was on a real live missionary journey, except that I’d have indoor plumbing. Yeah, God!
For about 20 years, I have been ministering in perhaps one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse, as well as highly populated areas of our nation, the City of Angels, or, as most people call it, the city of Los Angeles. And like the big cities in which Paul ministered, Los Angeles features the materialism and focus on worldly values that bring unique challenges to the ministering of the Gospel:
• Outrageous housing costs
• Soaring car expenses
• High crime rates
• Crowded freeways
• Hollywood, the entertainment capital of the world, pumping it’s immorality to the entire world.
Even with all those minuses weighed against the plus of having year-round warm weather, California (the west) remains the burden of my heart.
Unlike the Bible Belt, in California, it is very difficult to find a church that holds the biblical positions we hold dear.
In 1990 there were only 300 Christian churches in California. Now mathematics has never been my strong suit but, the way I see things, with an estimated 38 million Christian residents of California, those numbers don’t bode well.
Alarmingly, the numbers are worse today. According to the most recent Christian Church Directory, there are currently only 217 Christian churches in the entire state of California. Friends, we are headed in the wrong direction, both spiritually and numerically!
Our churches in California are closing their doors in record numbers. We are a more endangered species than the spotted owl of Washington.
Even in the San Fernando Valley, where I live, with a population of 1.5 million people, the last 12 years has seen the number of Christian churches decrease from 13 to five. Hey, I can count that on one hand!
You say, “Come on preacher, get to the point!” I thought you’d never ask.
In America, the focus on trends is sometimes annoying, yet often times revealing. If measured accurately, we are able to make wise decisions that enable us to reverse certain trends that otherwise may have a negative impact.
How many times have we seen a certain fad or trend take root in California and then sweep across the rest of America? In fact, because Hollywood is the media capital of the world, such trends have the potential to become international in scope.
If this is true regarding churches closing their doors then watch out, for church closings may soon sweep the nation reaching epidemic proportions. What is needed is an understanding of the urgent. We are losing both the battle and the war.
In Matthew 9:35-38, after seeing the crowds in the towns and villages of Palestine, Jesus was moved with compassion to issue this edict to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, the workers are few.” I’ve often wondered what He would say if He saw the mass of lost humanity in Southern California.
If He asked for workers to be sent forth into the fields of Israel, ripe for harvest, what would His prayer be for the fields of our nation’s most populous state?
Knowing that only God can truly speak to one’s heart, I pray that God himself would speak to others’ hearts as He has spoken to mine saying, “Go west, young man! Go west!”
You can call me idealistic but I believe you’re not going to change America, unless you change California. We need workers, missionaries, preachers, teachers, youth ministers, worship leaders, financial resources, church builders, church planters, and Bible college graduates to find themselves heading west--not for the wealth of the 1849 Gold Rush, not for its beautiful beaches and mountains, but for the purpose of making a difference in our world at large.
Just as the spread of the Gospel, recorded in Acts, was the strategic plan of God, to utilize the largest pagan, metropolitan centers to begin the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20, today California, holds the greatest potential to reach the world as part of the Lord’s final harvest.
People by the tens of thousands move to California each year seeking fame, fortune and good weather. Yet the glitter and gold of Tinseltown, (which, by the way, is nothing more than a mirage) will ultimately never satisfy the longings of one’s heart.
Jesus said, in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
If you want to invest in your heavenly bank account and make a strategic, end-time contribution for all eternity, and you’d like…
• To be used of God, to take the Gospel to a land that is spiritually bankrupt
• To minister in an ethnically diverse culture and yet still live in America
• To stem the tide and reverse the trend of churches closing their doors
• To understand the ripple effect the west coast produces and the influence we have on the rest of the nation
• To have the joy of knowing you’re on the front lines
• To know that the only thing farther west is the Hawaiian Islands (smile)
Then, I echo the call… Go west, young man. Go west!

- By Dudley C. Rutherford

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