I borrowed the title of this blog from a pastor friend I admire. He used it as a theme in his church to generate a greater, practical love for the city of New Orleans among his congregation.

Another pastor who ministered over a hundred years ago in Birmingham, England by the name of Dr. R.W. Dale knew what it was to love the city where God placed him. Birmingham was a working class, industrial, dirty city. He wrote this to his wife while he was taking a nice vacation in the country.

The Lake of Lucerne… is before me–the noblest scenery, as some think, in all Europe; but I declare that there is nothing in this magnificent view which makes me feel half the thrill I have sometimes felt when I have looked down on the smoky streets of Birmingham from the railway, as I have returned to my work among you after a holiday. The thought of having to do, more or less directly, with all that mass of human thought and action, which is covered with the ceaseless smoke which hangs over us–the thought that you and I together may, with God’s help, save multitudes–sends the blood through one’s veins with an exultation and glow which the most magnificent aspects of the material universe cannot create.

I certainly know something of how he feels because I love to visit the country. I love to visit my home town in the fall. It’s beautiful, but as I’m coming down the Twin Span from a vacation, something always grips my heart and tells me I’m exactly where I need to be. Sure, I have times of discouragement and wonder if it wouldn’t be best for everyone involved if I were to leave the “Ministry”, but as another Baptist pastor used to sing, “Sometimes I get discouraged and think my work’s in vain, but then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again.”

I don’t know how you’re feeling right now, but I do know that you will sometimes get discouraged in your ministry of loving this city. You may even wish you were some place easier to live. New Orleans can be tough–crime, public education, housing, taxes and insurance; but for the people of Grace Baptist Church, God has called us to the ministry of loving this city. And, I am convinced Galatians 6:9 is true: Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Now, get out there and love this city!

Note: I found the above quote from Dr. R.W. Dale in Warren Wiersbe’s book Walking with the Giants: A Minister’s Guide to Good Reading and Great Preaching (Baker Book House Company, 1976) on page 47; and no, I don’t think we’re related except by the blood of Christ.