An open letter to the pastors of Santa Clarita:
“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” — James 2:15-16.
Here’s a question I can’t stop asking.
What are your churches doing this week for the people in Santa Clarita who are too afraid to leave their homes?
I’m not talking about politics.
I’m not talking about immigration policy.
I’m talking about American citizens and legal residents who are caught in the fear created by aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations and are now afraid to go to work, stop for groceries, or simply go about daily life.
Have you asked whether anyone in your community needs groceries delivered? Has anyone organized volunteers to bring an evening meal?
Is anyone helping with transportation?
Has a single pastor stood up on Sunday and said, “If you’re afraid to leave your home, call us. We’ll make sure your family has food.”
If that’s happening, wonderful. Tell the community. If it isn’t, why not?
Santa Clarita is home to some of the largest and best-funded churches in California. Beautiful campuses. Professional productions. Expansive children’s ministries. Bookstores. Coffee bars stocked for thousands every weekend.
None of those things are wrong.
But they become uncomfortable to look at when, just a few miles away, families are skipping work and wondering how they’ll put dinner on the table because fear has kept them behind closed doors.
The New Testament never suggested the church would be judged by the quality of its campus.
It asked whether hungry people were fed. Whether strangers were welcomed. Whether burdens were carried. Whether love required action instead of applause.
Imagine if every large church in Santa Clarita quietly adopted just 10 families for the next month.
Groceries delivered. Meals prepared. Gas cards provided. Children driven where they need to go.
No press release. No Instagram video. No sermon series. Just Christians doing what Christians have always claimed Christians do.
Instead, from the outside, there is an uncomfortable silence. Perhaps that silence is misleading. If so, this is your opportunity to tell the community what you’re doing. If not, then perhaps it’s time to ask whether we’ve become exceptionally good at building campuses while forgetting how to build neighbors.
Jesus never said the world would know His followers by the quality of their worship music. He said they would know them by their love.
Right now, Santa Clarita doesn’t need another coffee bar. It needs churches willing to become the hands and feet they’ve preached about for years.
Steve LePore
Valencia
