“Did I think he was crazy? Yes,” said Prathima Ryali-Hancock, a member of Riverwood for 15 years and a friend of the family. “My daughter says he’s not right in the head for doing this, but we’re going to really miss the Lien family at Riverwood.”
The Rev. Tim Lien, pastor of Riverwood Presbyterian Church in Tuscaloosa, is leaving the church that he’s pastored for the last decade to start a new church in Los Angeles.
It will be a markedly different environment. An estimated 86.9 percent of the population in Tuscaloosa identifies itself as Protestant, according to City-Data.com, compared to only 6.8 percent in Los Angeles, according to the University of Southern California Center for Religion & Civic Culture.
“Did I think he was crazy? Yes,” said Prathima Ryali-Hancock, a member of Riverwood for 15 years and a friend of the family. “My daughter says he’s not right in the head for doing this, but we’re going to really miss the Lien family at Riverwood. I know that the Lord is leading him.”
Lien said God is calling him to spread the Gospel.
“Tuscaloosa has been good to us,” Lien said, referring to himself, his wife, Melissa, and their four children ages 10, 8, 5 and 11 months.
“Our kids go to a great school, I have financial security here and it’s a great place to raise a family. So something had to push us to leave. Something in the back of my mind was always nagging me to go back to California to start a church, but I felt that the time wasn’t right. Not many people want to do church planting because of its unpredictability and instability. It’s a hard thing to do.”
Lien said he tried to find reasons not to go to L.A.
“One of the first doubts I had was, ‘Can I even do this? Do I have enough stability to do this?’ ” Lien said. “Our friends asked was I crazy and asked if this is a midlife crisis. There’s been a lot of uncertainty.”
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