DO WE HAVE A STAKE IN PHILLY?

Last Friday and this past Monday evenings, I was able to join two of our Philadelphia churches. One was for a cool coffee house and the other for a message and prayer. Thirty to fifty from children to grandparents attended the one and tweleve dear, committed disciples the other.
One was composed of more fringe and new people and the other by a faithful, fervent core. Both are located - from the persective of an outsider - in the fourth of perhaps five rings of residence in Philadelphia: still urban, yet somewhere in the middle class. Both are located in one of the major cities in the northern Atlantic - "our neck of the woods."
I have an answer to my question in the title. It is yes. One reason the answer is yes relates to what was once said in one of our more rural churches, "God loves people - Cities have lots of people - God loves cities a lot!"
Another reason is that we have five works in Philadelphia, led by and composed of people like the rest of us, believing and teaching what we believe and teach. We have high stakes in Philadelphia.
Please join me in praying how we and you can step up our and your involvement in Philadelphia, and in other major cities in the northern Atlantic, too. God has called them to do the work, but we should bear our part of the burden (consider Galatians 6:2). Please pray, too, for the Crossroads Community Church-Northeast, led by Jim Brown with Dan Browning, and for First Grace Brethren Church, led by Shawn Kidder, both meeting in Philadelphia, PA.