Your Heart For...

A couple weeks ago I met with a future church planter. I do that all the time. A few days later he sent me an email thanking me for meeting with him. That happens all the time too. In his email he mentioned one thing in particular he was grateful for. That happens all the time too. Typically it's something like my thoughts on contextualizing church services to the people you're hoping to reach, or for providing a strategy for fundraising. But that's not what he said. He told me he really appreciated hearing my heart for Las Vegas.

I loved that. It's what I want to have. I blogged about this recently, but in the Bible, it's very obvious that God has a heart for cities. And he seems to have a special place in His heart for cities that have "fallen away" from him. (Think Jonah being sent to Ninevah.) And we see Jesus weeping over cities. What I want is to have a heart for Las Vegas.

And I appreciate other people who have it. Like I love working with Jake Keck, because he has a heart for Las Vegas. And I'm grateful for Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos) for what he's doing with his downtown project.

If for some reason you'd like to learn more about the history of Las Vegas, and maybe even develop a heart for this great city, here are some books and a website you may want to check out:

• Sun, Sin, and Suburbia: An Essential History of Modern Las Vegas, Geoff Schumacher
• Resort City in the Sunbelt, Eugene Moehring
• Sharks in the Desert, John L. Smith
• The People of Las Vegas: One City, Many Faces, Jerry L. Simich
• More People of Las Vegas: One City, Many Faces, Jerry L. Simich
• www.1st100.com