Talk with Herb Smith, CEO of LA Mission

This coming Sunday, June 1st, we have the privilege of having Herb Smith, the CEO of LA Mission, talk with us about his organization and Skid Row. It will be an excellent opportunity to hear from someone with such experience on the critical issues surrounding Skid Row. The talk will be right after our 10:30 AM worship service and will be followed by a question and answer time. We encourage everyone to attend!

You can find out more about LA Mission at their website losangelesmission.org.

-djk

Coffee View

Last Saturday my fiancé and I walked into the Coffee Bean at the downtown Ralph’s to get an iced coffee and mocha iced blended. After Priscilla paid for the drinks I moved over to wait for the drinks and noticed a coffee mug that stated in bold letters ”Life Isn’t About Finding Yourself. Life is About Creating Yourself”. I didn’t think much about it at first because we constantly hear inspirational quotable like this in commercials and all over the media but the more I thought about it the more it became apparent that this was a world view casually placed on the side of coffee mug. This sort of relativistic ideology where “what works for you works for you and what works for me works for me” is the norm and most people don’t even notice that they are constantly bombarded by this message. The same message that places the highest importance on tolerance is ironically the same message that is absolutely intolerant to idea of absolute truth and finding significance in something greater than you. As inspirational as it is, the slogan reminds me that this world is a cold dark place that happed by chance unless I make something of myself. The scary thing is that life is short enough where you actually can spend most of your life in this pursuit without realizing its futility until its too late.

-tony

LA Christianity Pt. 1 – “Why Men Hate Going to Church”

When men need spiritual sustenance they go to the gym or the corner bar. They watch their heroes play in the NFL on Sunday afternoons and watch Braveheart for the 7th time. Sadly, the Church is one of the last places men look for guidance, salvation, and inspiration. More than 90% of American men believe in God and 5 out of 6 call themselves Christians, but only 2 out of 6 attend church on a given Sunday. The avg. man accepts the reality of Jesus Christ, but fails to see any value in going to church.

David Murrow, the author of “Why Men Hate Going to Church” says, “Every Muslim man knows that he is locked in a great battle between good and evil, and although that was a prevalent teaching in Christianity until about 100 years ago, today it’s primarily about having a relationship with a man who loves you unconditionally.” Christ’s bold masculine command, “Follow Me!” is now, “Have an intimate relationship with me.” The challenge of bringing back men to the Church can be especially difficult in Los Angeles where we receive a healthy diet of moralistic therapeutic deism similar to Oprah Winfrey in our churches, rather than the “William Wallace Christ” that said, “no one takes my life from me, I lay it down on my own.” The issue in Los Angeles is not the stereotypical pink polo t-shirts and evian water that LA men like to rock, the issue is the kind of Christ we portray.

We need to see that Jesus not only said to turn the other cheek, but said to take up our cross and follow him. We need to see that the Bible encourages men to be leaders and not passive wimps. We need to see that Jesus is the greatest hero of any story, Jesus as our Courage who stood on our behalf like an older brother rescuing his helpless younger brother, and we need to see Jesus as our Commander and Chief who completed the mission we could not complete. The Gospel preached and exemplified will not only get men in the door, but it will develop men of God who are leaders of the church. If your church doesn’t look like that now, just watch it’ll happen if you faithfully preach and exemplify the Gospel.

Women are Murrow’s most popular audience interestingly enough. Why? It’s because women want their men to be God fearing leaders, not children they have to drag kicking and screaming to church. So, men of Los Angeles, go ahead and wear your pink polo t-shirts and your tight seven jeans, but let’s do it on the way to hear about a carpenter that would die for his people in order to lead them home.

-aj

Drink Water! Help Build a Well!

I was listening to the radio this morning and I heard an interview they were doing on a 16 year old teenage skeptic who didn’t believe that humans were contributing to global warming. And she wasn’t some nonsense kid, she was an articulate, intelligent girl who pulls up computer graphs and documents to prove her case. Apparently her website gets tons of hit among believers and skeptics alike who are impressed by her dedication and pursuit of truth (in some crazy sort of way). I’m, of course, not won over by her arguments, I tend to side with the 130 scientists and the United Nations findings that humans play a unequivocal role in contributing to global warming, a true crisis of the century. But it was sobering to hear this morning’s segment and also to hear that over 50% of the population actually don’t believe in global warming either. I guess the part that frustrates me is that we don’t seem to see the connections between our daily human activities and the world around us — the food that we consumer & waste, the factories we build, the cars we drive, the trees we cut down for lumber, the water we pollute with our garbage and the list goes on and on.

So in commemoration of Earth Day, our church is highlighting the water issue. That’s certainly an issue that humans impact and can do something about. The statistics are pretty alarming — 1.1 billion people without access to clean drinking water (that’s almost 20% of the world’s population). Lack of clean water is so critically tied to human health and poverty level. How can a child suffering from malaria, typhoid, or any sort of viruses recover without access to clean water? Some girls can’t even go to school because they have to fetch water for the family (making on average 3-5 trips to a well for 5 gallons of water). WHO states that human beings need at least 5 gallons of water to survive — an African family lives on 5 gallons of water a day; in America we consume an average of 150 gallons of water per person per day. It’s a travesty, even as I am part of the alarming disparity. But to end on a positive note, we’re doing something about it! We’re doing the H2O Challenge — giving up non-water drinks for two weeks and saving the money we would otherwise spend on drinks to give to a well-drilling organization. The goal: raise awareness and collect some money for a meaningful cause! For more info: http://www.theh2oproject.org

Drink some water folks! -Nina

Come one come all – public workshops for LA’s Housing Plan

In some shameless self promotion here, I want to share with you what i’ve been working on at work. When I started my job with LA City Planning back in December, I joined the team that is updating the Housing Element, which is the City’s housing plan. It’s required by the state, and this plan is updated every 5-7 years. It takes into consideration the City’s demographics, the current state of the housing stock, housing needs based on growth projections and existing conditions, reviews past programs, and offers an array of goals, objectives, policies, and programs to meet the housing need. LA is projected to need about 113,000 new housing units between 2008-2014! If you want to see the whole document (it’s 200+ pages!) or read just the executive summary, visit the LA City Planning Website and look on the “What’s new” bar on the right side. Also, there are seven public workshops to get feedback on the Draft Housing Element, one of which occurred this past saturday. for more info, check out the workshop flyer.

Comments are being accepted until April 30, 2008!

- jane c.

LA Live Coming Soon

It’s hard to miss the giant hole in the ground along with the massive cranes while driving to church on Sunday morning. It’s all a part of the multi billion dollar LA Live project which includes the already built Nokia Theatre, the ESPN studios, Ritz Carlton tower, Regal multiplex and a myriad of restaurants. Above is one of the final renderings for the project. It’s the massive tower that includes a hotel and condominiums. The first phase which was the Nokia Theater has already been completed. The second phase which will include the ESPN studio and entertainment center, the Grammy Museum, the Lucky Strike lanes and a host of restaurant is scheduled to be completed by this October. The last phase which will include the Ritz and a 14 screen Regal mutiplex will conclude the project in late 2009.

LA Live is the most glitzy of the downtown projects which is putting downtown on the map. I think it almost certainly will be a success as it will cater to the crowds that are already present for the Convention and Staples Center. More ambitiously it seeks to be an entertainment hub for the entire city. Here are some thoughts of its implications.

One is that it brings a great deal of attention to the ongoing renaissance of downtown. A lot of people believe the future of downtown hinges on the project. If LA Live is a great success it will encourage residents and future development within downtown. It’s success will almost certainly be a great boost to the revitalization of downtown.

However I question whether LA Live will be a central gathering place for the community. LA Live caters to the entertainment impulse of Angelenos. But gathering people to watch a concert or a game doesn’t equate to a community. I can foresee it more as a destination center for people all around Los Angeles than as a gathering place for local residents within downtown. LA Live is a wonderful start but we need more local, diverse and community related places within downtown to complement.

On a practical note it will definitely mean more options for us after church. We’re a stones throw from LA Live worshipping at the Olympic Primary Center. After church we can most definitely frequent the restaurants, bowling allies and eventually the theaters. So all in all, it’s a great start to what will hopefully be a continuing revolution in downtown.

-Dennis

Arts-a-brewin’

 

Spring is here….ooo00 yes…and that just means ONE thing: The Annual SPRING BREWERY ART WALK……oooo yes! This weekend the Brewery Art studios/lofts are open to the public. Artwork for sale include: paintings, jewelry, posters, apparel, things that might reside on your coffee table. So, grab some Froyo, put your tennis shoes on, and w…a…l…k!!!! Also, ANDLAB studio (where i work), will also be participating. We have a delightful exhibition up right now:     oooooooyes!-minders 

Racism

Last Saturday I spent 8 hours in traffic school. Fortunately, our instructor was sympathetic towards us and wanted to make the 8 hours as painless as possible. He opened up by quoting something from the Tao and somehow the conversation spiraled out into politics, evolution, the wickedness of man, and thankfully, anything but traffic. The most prevalent topic was racism. One Christian man said that the world would be a better place if everyone stayed in their own countries, the Africans in Africa, the Chinese in China, and the Europeans in Europe. The irony in the discussions that took place was our own level of ignorance and pride as we critiqued the problems of our society. Racism is a problem of biblical proportions and has been around since biblical times. The idea that we are all equal human beings fails to inspire people to treat each other without discrimination in the survival of the fittest schema. There has to be a greater common thread and a greater love that serves as our power to see colorblind and have a love for our neighbor. There is no better place to start than at the core, such as Los Angeles, one of the Mecca’s for diversity, color, and a bountiful history of racism.

-aj

Where the streets have no name

 No.  I’m not trying to be dramatic with the title.  I’m just excited because I just discovered that in 1987 the greatest rock band of all time U2 shot an ad hoc music video in Downtown LA at Main and 7th Street.  The band setup their equipment on top of a single story building on the northeast corner of the intersection and rocked out one of their soon to be classics “Where the streets have no name.”  The police felt that the band was causing an uncontrollable environment with the mobs of people surrounding the intersection and decided to prematurely shut down the taping but Bono just kept going.  If you haven’t seen it you need to Youtube the band and song name and watch the performance.   

As silly as it sounds, learning this suddenly made me feel a bit more pride in my neighborhood.  I’ll try to remember this the next time I see a dead rat or someone defecating on the street. 

 I was also curious about the meaning of the song and found an interview from Bono which explains his motivation in writing the song. 

This is what he said:  “Where the Streets Have No Name is more like the U2 of old than any of the other songs on the LP, because it’s a sketch – I was just trying to sketch a location, maybe a spiritual location, maybe a romantic location. I was trying to sketch a feeling. I often feel very claustrophobic in a city, a feeling of wanting to break out of that city and a feeling of wanting to go somewhere where the values of the city and the values of our society don’t hold you down. An interesting story that someone told me once is that in Belfast, by what street someone lives on you can tell not only their religion but tell how much money they’re making – literally by which side of the road they live on, because the further up the hill the more expensive the houses become. You can almost tell what the people are earning by the name of the street they live on and what side of that street they live on. That said something to me, and so I started writing about a place where the streets have no name.^[6] 

^-Tony

World Pillow Fight Day in Downtown LA’s Pershing Square

If you’re a pillow fighting lover or in need of some serious stress release, join hundreds at Pershing Square on March 22nd, 2008 at 2:30 pm for World Pillow Fight Day.  Who knew there was a World Pillow Fight Day?! Pillows are not provided. You must bring your own feathers to swing. If you’re wondering if you’re going to get hurt, have no fear there are a few rules. Our fighters can only use soft pillows and swing lightly. Oh, and you’re not allowed to swing at people without pillows or who have cameras. But I wonder, if you’re coming without a pillow, why are you coming? I think those who come without a pillow are just asking to get whacked! Glasses should be removed and you must wait until the signal to begin. I believe those are the rules.

There is plenty of lot parking around. Pershing Square is located at 530 South Olive Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013. For those of you with allergies, good luck! For more information check out www.pillowfightday.com. Here’s also a video clip to get an idea.

I may just invite my older brother for a day at Pershing Square and surprise him! I will have my pillow. He will not. Payback!

- JK