The First Postcard Invitation to the Grand Opening of New City on 9/14

Last Monday, I dropped off at the post office the first of four postcard invitations for the September 14 Grand Opening of New City Church to go out to all of the residents of Downtown LA.

Here it is:

Please pray that the Spirit of God will convict the recipients to come and take the first step towards reconcilation and wholeness.

An interesting article on why the church in America is still segregated

The vision of New City Church is the break the mold of the segregated American church. We are a multi-ethnic, multi-socioeconomic Christian church. Our vision is not only to be an inclusive church of people from all racial backgrounds, but also people who live dramatically different economic lifestyles. Why? Because we believe becoming one because of our common brokenness and need for redemption is the greatest way to demonstrate God's love for us.

Here's an interesting article from CNN about why church in America is still segregated:

(CNN) -- The Rev. Paul Earl Sheppard had recently become the senior pastor of a suburban church in California when a group of parishioners came to him with a disturbing personal question.

They were worried because the racial makeup of their small church was changing. They warned Sheppard that the church's newest members would try to seize control because members of their race were inherently aggressive. What was he was going to do if more of "them" tried to join their church?

"One man asked me if I was prepared for a hostile takeover," says Sheppard, pastor of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Mountain View, California.

The nervous parishioners were African-American, and the church's newcomers were white. Sheppard says the experience demonstrated why racially integrated churches are difficult to create and even harder to sustain. Some blacks as well as whites prefer segregated Sundays, religious scholars and members of interracial churches say.

Americans may be poised to nominate a black man to run for president, but it's segregation as usual in U.S. churches, according to the scholars. Only about 5 percent of the nation's churches are racially integrated, and half of them are in the process of becoming all-black or all-white, says Curtiss Paul DeYoung, co-author of "United by Faith," a book that examines interracial churches in the United States.

Click here for the rest of the article.

A Great Story--The News Is Getting Around!

I was talking to this guy who started to come to our church recently and he told me this story.

He said that he went to an AA meeting in downtown LA recently and shared his struggle that he was much more transparent and real in the AA meeting than at his own church. He wanted to be more real at church but had a hard time doing so; but at AA meetings, he felt accepted and freed to open up and be real. Then, someone who heard him share in the group approached him after the meeting and said: "Hey, have you checked out New City Church of LA?"

Man, I love that story! Praise God!