Love LA Launches To Demonstrate and Proclaim The Gospel 24/7

Editor's Note: Below is an announcement from Love L.A., which is "a week of the citywide church coming together to engage the heart of God in worship and prayer and out of His presence to go forth and engage our culture with acts of love and the proclamation of gospel truth," organizers said.Friends of the gospel and lovers of L.A. -

FINAL LIVE TRAINING

It’s almost here. After nine months of laboring, meeting with pastors and building lifelong relationships, preaching the gospel all over the city and mobilizing the churches, we are excited to announce the FINAL LIVE TRAINING EVENT on Saturday (10/28/17) from 12 - 4 pm at St. James Methodist Church which is located at 2033 East Washington Boulevard in Pasadena, CA. You must complete a training event to participate in outreaches throughout the week. You do not need to complete training before the launch outreach, but you will need to complete training to participate in any other Love L.A. outreaches. Spanish translation will be available (Traduccion en espanol sera disponible).

LAUNCH EVENT

Then we will have dinner and re-gather for the LAUNCH EVENT for LOVE L.A. at the same location on Saturday from 6 pm -12 am. We will be engaging God’s heart with believers from all over Los Angeles and establishing a resting place for the manifest presence of God, and then from that place of corporate encounter, we will be sending worship and outreach teams to 20 different locations. A fragrance to Jesus will rise from all over Los Angeles as we begin to gather in the harvest and demonstrate and proclaim the gospel. Please invite friends to come and be part of the launch event.

ALTERNATIVE TRAINING

For those who are not able to complete the live training event (which is preferred), video training will be available online or on location in the training room at the Love L.A. Firebase.

FIREBASE LOCATION

The Firebase is where we will be doing 24/7 worship and prayer as well as 24/7 outreach. After the launch event, 24/7 worship will continue at the Pasadena International House of Prayer (PIHOP) which is located at 1403 North Lake Avenue in Pasadena, CA. Make sure you check in at the info desk at 1401 North Lake Avenue and then go into the prayer room at 1403 or head to the briefing room to go on outreach.

GIVE

Please give generously to Love LA. Take a minute to pray about donating online now at www.lovela247.com.Burning for Jesus and the Harvest,Love LA  

'Because of Grácia' True To Teen Life; Moriah Peters Shines Light

It's been a long time since I've been a teenager.However, while watching an advanced screening of Because of Grácia (film released this weekend) I was transported back to my high school days rather seamlessly in this engaging movie that challenges the commonly accepted focus of teens and offers up the truth in the form of one student in particular who is living out their faith in God.In its promotion, Because of Grácia may try too hard to avoid being tagged a Christian film. I root for efforts like these often, but mostly pray for a good film irregardless of its label.Chase Morgan would love to live up to his own name and pursue something great. It's his senior year and he’s still as insecure as ever but Eastglenn High's newest student is about to turn that around. Grácia is a girl with charisma, intelligence and conviction but she’s not as “put together” as Chase and his best friend OB might think. A dark past gives her a unique connection with Bobbi, a misunderstood classmate with a pushy boyfriend and disconnected father. As Bobbi struggles with a life-and-death decision and Chase risks rejection, Grácia challenges her friends, teachers and even herself to step outside the status quo. Because of Grácia’s inspiring strength, those around her are finding it easier to speak up and fall in love.In the end, it's not about how the film is packaged, but the fact that it is well made, funny, real, and carries an important message about life.Writer/director/producer Tom Sines, who teaches film in Canada, said he originally wrote the story as a stage play. When interviewed by the 700 Club, Sines said, "There is a demographic that I don't see in films that I see in my classroom every day and that's Christian young people trying to live out their faith. So, I started writing out a story about a kid named Chase Morgan and all I started with was the premise was that he was in his bedroom trying to get up the courage to call a girl and ask her out."Because of Grácia stars former American Idol contestant, Moriah Peters, who says her appearance on the show mirrors the experience of her character in the film.The Hollywood Reporter stated that Peters, then 16, tried out for American Idol and told judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi and Avril Lavigne that she was a Christian who was saving her first kiss for marriage.Peters said the celebrity judges praised her looks and her singing, but belittled her chaste lifestyle. One judge told her, "You're trying to be too perfect," while another told her, "Go out, kiss a guy, come back," she says.Peters' character is similarly saving herself for marriage. She also sings and is called “perfect” in the movie, just like on American Idol seven years ago."I honestly thought the director built Gracia’s character around my high school experiences," she said. “I was allowed to simply be myself, and it wasn’t difficult to dive into the controversial and tense circumstances."There is more than one hot button topic brought to the surface in Because of Grácia and that makes the film very gratifying to after-movie discussion lovers. Go see and discuss amongst yourselves.

Is the Gospel Making a Run in High Schools? ‘The Jesus Club’ Author Says ‘Yes’

At a time when Christians in America who are living out their faith, especially within institutions such as public schools, often feel threatened, One Voice Student Missions has successfully established lunchtime Bible studies at more than 70 high schools in Los Angeles, other areas of California, and in other states.It is because of youth groups such as One Voice that high school students in the L.A. area and beyond are being exposed to the gospel at a greater rate than many may presume.Enter The Jesus Club.Brian Barcelona, 26, who is the One Voice Student Missions founder and author of the book, The Jesus Club - Incredible True Stories of How God is Moving in Our High Schools, leads the youth organization by example, teaching Bible study in four L.A. high schools weekly. He said that his success in sharing the gospel is not so much about his own words or preaching style but the fact that he “shows up” on a consistent and regular basis.In the book, Barcelona recounts that in 2009, at the end of Spirit West Coast, “a huge weekend event, with some of the best Christian bands and speakers from across the country,” he had an encounter with God during which he received his marching orders—It was like a stern order from a general to a soldier, yet His words also felt like a father asking his son for a favor.“As I listened closely, the Lord said, ‘Brian, I want to release a movement that will save the high schools of America. And I want to use your life to do it. This movement will take your city. It will take California. So goes California, so goes the nation,’” writes Barcelona in the first chapter of his book. Farther on, he states, “God continued to speak: The movement I am about to release is going to restore prayer in public schools again.”Barcelona told Together LA that students have many of the same issues today, such as drug abuse, gang participation, family problems, and emotional trials such as depression, as in previous generations, but also face a different problem.“This generation faces a unique hurdle that no other generation has faced and that is social media,” Barcelona said. “Adding to their own problems, people are now going through other people’s feeds and seeing what’s going on in their lives. Studies have shown that this is the ‘loneliest generation’ ever but no one feels lonely because everyone is connected...If that makes sense. The relationships are not really that deep. That’s what I see going on at schools.”When asked how he approaches high schools for the first time, considering that the current political climate includes a large adversarial component, he said, “I don’t think that there is as much hostility towards the gospel as there is towards religion. I think defining those two (gospel and religion) and separating them from the beginning and realizing that a religious agenda is not the same as living out the gospel.“What we find in going into a campus is that we bring the Good News of the Kingdom,” he continued. “The Good News at its core is that we don’t have to be bound and linked the same as we once did. There is freedom in Christ. That’s not just modeled in a sermon or ‘Let me do worship in your school’ or ‘Let me go preach to all your kids.’ That’s modeled first in my response to how I will serve an administrator or my willingness to obey even some of the laws that already exist.“Sometimes, it’s not even [about] laws, but confusion about what separation of church and state really means. When we go into a campus we are there to serve… whether they let me preach the first week or let me preach in 5 months, I’ll do whatever I can to serve that campus and to bring the love of Jesus onto that school.”The Jesus Culture’s church and movement lead pastor, Banning Liebscher, states in an endorsement of Barcelona and One Voice: “I am so encouraged by the work that Brian Barcelona and One Voice Student Missions is doing to impact campuses across the nation. Nothing is more critical in this hour then to reach the youth of America where they are at every day. I am grateful for the heart and passion to lay down their lives for the next generation.”On the WebJesus Club Author Talks to Together LA [VIDEO]One Voice Student MissionsThe Jesus Club - Incredible True Stories of How God is Moving in Our High Schools