Biola partnered with the TogetherLA conference in an effort to spread God’s love to the city of Los Angeles. The conference features different speakers with insight on addressing issues present in LA and will take place from Feb. 26-28 at West Angeles church on Crenshaw Boulevard.

The idea for the conference emerged in June 2013 when five pastors of churches in LA desired to invite keynote speaker Tim Keller to Los Angeles to discuss church planting, said conference director Tommy Lee. The idea later shifted from church planting to a city engagement of Los Angeles that discussed issues and culture in Los Angeles. The general vision of the conference involves understanding how God is at work in the city of LA to emphasize the importance of culture and diversity in LA.

Impact Los Angeles

The name of the conference originated from the idea of learning to partner and work together to address important issues in Los Angeles and bring the Gospel message to Los Angeles, said Lee.

“It talks about this whole idea of learning to work together — how one person, one church, one organization cannot do it alone, but that we have to work together, learn to communicate and respect each other,” Lee said.

TogetherLA centers specifically around Los Angeles, since it is a major city that impacts other cities culturally.

“When you think of Los Angeles, you think of culture, you think of entertainment. LA by itself is one of the major cities in the United States. What happens in LA. has a direct influence on what happens throughout the rest of the country,” Lee said.

The conference focuses on different topics each day, beginning with the topic of church on Thursday, social problems and culture in LA on Friday and faith and works on Saturday. The conference is composed of general sessions, breakout sessions and roundtable discussions.

A selection committee specifically chose the 60 speakers for the conference. They come from a range of disciplines in order to incorporate perspectives from various professions. Besides Keller, who will come from the East Coast, all speakers are from LA.

“We’ve been very intentional in these 20 to 23 months to put together groups of people that really define all these caveats of Los Angeles,” Lee said.

Give to LA

Biola sponsors the conference and provides funding, video crews, volunteers and student groups who help with marketing for TogetherLA, including 6th Street Public Relations.

Senior communication studies major Rachelle Manthei contributed to the conference. As an intern for TogetherLA, Manthei worked on different projects, gathered information, compiled a list of charities in the LA area to partner on projects for the conference and found communities in LA interested in helping out with the conference. Manthei plans to attend the conference and looks forward to the discussions that will take place.

“The whole idea behind the conference is really neat. It’s basically about learning to come together as Christians and to put aside our denominational differences and basically resource each other,” Manthei said.

Brian Miller, University Communications and Marketing Senior director of brand marketing and creative production, said Biola first became involved with TogetherLA after a group of church leaders approached the university during the early planning stages of the conference, with the concept of bringing people together to better the city of Los Angeles. Originally located in the center of Los Angeles, the university hopes to continue serving the area and ministering to the city.

“Biola’s heart is in the city — it’s where we were founded. Sixth and Hope is literally the heart of Los Angeles, almost the dead center of Los Angeles,” Miller said.

As part of the University Plan, Biola hopes to provide students with on and off-campus opportunities for cross-cultural engagement. This includes an initiative to reach out and serve the LA area. Biola also hopes to give students opportunities to minister to the community and encourages students to become involved with student ministries on campus. Miller said the TogetherLA conference provides an opportunity to serve the city of Los Angeles.

“There’s this sense of redirecting ourselves so we are reengaging where we came from,” Miller said.

Biola contributes speakers to the conference, including President Barry Corey, who will speak on social and cultural dynamics of Los Angeles. Other Biola speakers include alum and founder of Urban Youth Workers Institute, Larry Acosta, adjunct professor Jeremy Treat and Entertainment Task Force board member Karen Covell. Miller also said the university hoped to provide opportunities for student involvement in the conference with a video contest open to Biola students of any major.

Miller said Biola hopes to extend its educational reach around the world through live streamed events as the conference’s main sessions will stream live to other countries.

“We want to be able to have a conversation about all kinds of topics, and this is just one of them. How we can show love, Christ’s love, to the city of Los Angeles. This is a good fit for us, and a good fit for our students as well,” Miller said.