Alberto Bello is lead pastor of The Gathering LA in North Hollywood, California. He spoke with Influence about how his urban church plant is reaching the millennial population of Los Angeles.

Influence: How have you used your personal testimony to attract others and multiply the Kingdom?
Alberto Bello: I came to church planting from the fashion industry in Hollywood, and my wife, Ashley, came from the makeup industry. This gave us a pretty good gauge on the culture and allowed us to bridge our hearts to those in our community through our story. We get L.A. culture, and we understand the implications of attempting to walk out our faith in this city, along with the challenges it produces.

What is the greatest challenge to church planting in an urban area, and how have you overcome that?
I planted in a community that was predominately single young adults from the ages of 24-29. I believe millennials are amazing, but reaching them presents its own set of challenges. They’re very passionate about things, and that passion can be deceiving, leading them to make emotional decisions, as well as a lack of commitment.

Attempting to build a church in a community that doesn’t necessarily place a high value on regular church attendance can be difficult. I’ve overcome the challenges by shifting my perspective, my approach and how I measure the “wins.”

Explain how your church’s values lead to discipleship and growth.
I quickly realized that most of our growth would not come from a Sunday morning experience. Traditional models that may have worked 10 years ago or in a suburban context were not working for us. I stopped attempting to grow the church from the outside in, and began to grow from the inside out.

Knowing that the average church attendance is once every three weeks and sometimes once every four weeks, I realized that it wasn’t fair to count Sunday attendance as the major win. I began to change our focus to how many new people we are serving, how many new people are tithing, and how many new people are making the move into our core. This really revolutionized our approach.

I stopped attempting to grow the church from the outside in, and began to grow from the inside out.

What would you say to another urban church leader who feels discouraged by lack of results?
Stay in your lane, and keep your eyes on your lane. It’s easy to get distracted by someone else’s results. Stay engaged in what God is doing in you and through your community. Not every story is that of an overnight success, so don’t expect your urban church to fall in that category.

Sometimes only the overnight success stories get printed and promoted, so it’s easy to think that what you do doesn’t matter or have value. That’s a lie. What you do matters, and you’re making a difference in the lives of people. Anything of worth and value takes time to build.

What are some ways that anybody can be involved in urban ministry?
As an urban church planter, I know there has always been a need for high-caliber leaders with a vision. It can be difficult to find high-level leaders who are willing to work for free, as many of us must in the beginning, due to the nature of planting in an urban context.

Find a planter in your area, and give yourself to serving wholeheartedly. It will be frustrating at times, but it will be one of the most rewarding things you ever do.

This article originally appeared in the April/May 2017 edition of Influence magazine.