They are showing a film about Skid Row artists in which OG is featured this Thursday night at 7 pm at the Los Angeles Theatre Center! More info on the film and the artists featured in the film, go to http://www.humblebeauty.com/
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
My Friend OG featured in Skid Row Artist Documentary
I have known OG for several years. He is a community activist and artist in Skid Row. I have one of his drawings hanging in my office.
They are showing a film about Skid Row artists in which OG is featured this Thursday night at 7 pm at the Los Angeles Theatre Center! More info on the film and the artists featured in the film, go to http://www.humblebeauty.com/
They are showing a film about Skid Row artists in which OG is featured this Thursday night at 7 pm at the Los Angeles Theatre Center! More info on the film and the artists featured in the film, go to http://www.humblebeauty.com/
An Article in Downtown News about our very own Ron Crockett, Skid Row Activist
Toy Story
New Skid Row Program Gives Kids a Chance to Play
by Ryan Vaillancourt
Downtown LA News
The Huntington, at 752 S. Main St., is home to about 240 low-income residents, including approximately 20 families. When Manning, the hotel manager, first thought of bringing new activities to the children in the neighborhood, he turned to Skid Row activist Ron Crockett.
Crockett, whose penchant for teaching sports to area youth brought on the nickname Coach Ron, lives blocks away from the Huntington in another South Main Street hotel. He too had been eager to do something positive for the youth in the community, he said.
After consulting with Manning, Crockett went to County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who then linked the hotel with the toy loan program, Blachman-Benitez said.
At the Huntington, Crockett, who runs the program with the nonprofit Pasadena Altadena Community Youth Association, has tinkered slightly with the county's toy loan model by combining it with a fledgling reading program.
Children who participate earn points by reading and writing short essays about their book. Once they've amassed enough points, they become eligible to sign out a toy from the loan program, he said.
He hopes that in the coming months, the program will attract the attention of Downtown Los Angeles residents interested in volunteering to read aloud at the twice-weekly sessions, or propel some book donations. The hotel's library consists of two small boxes containing about 50 titles, most of which are tattered and worn. But that did not deter Judee Suazo, 10, whose mother keeps a room at the Huntington
For the rest of the article click here.
If you want to volunteer to read to kids in Skid Row, let Ron know!
New Skid Row Program Gives Kids a Chance to Play
by Ryan Vaillancourt
Downtown LA News
The Huntington, at 752 S. Main St., is home to about 240 low-income residents, including approximately 20 families. When Manning, the hotel manager, first thought of bringing new activities to the children in the neighborhood, he turned to Skid Row activist Ron Crockett.
Crockett, whose penchant for teaching sports to area youth brought on the nickname Coach Ron, lives blocks away from the Huntington in another South Main Street hotel. He too had been eager to do something positive for the youth in the community, he said.
After consulting with Manning, Crockett went to County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who then linked the hotel with the toy loan program, Blachman-Benitez said.
At the Huntington, Crockett, who runs the program with the nonprofit Pasadena Altadena Community Youth Association, has tinkered slightly with the county's toy loan model by combining it with a fledgling reading program.
Children who participate earn points by reading and writing short essays about their book. Once they've amassed enough points, they become eligible to sign out a toy from the loan program, he said.
He hopes that in the coming months, the program will attract the attention of Downtown Los Angeles residents interested in volunteering to read aloud at the twice-weekly sessions, or propel some book donations. The hotel's library consists of two small boxes containing about 50 titles, most of which are tattered and worn. But that did not deter Judee Suazo, 10, whose mother keeps a room at the Huntington
For the rest of the article click here.
If you want to volunteer to read to kids in Skid Row, let Ron know!
Monday, September 8, 2008
The Grand Opening of New City This Sunday (9/14)!
The Grand Opening is coming up this Sunday, September 14. God is doing some amazing things. He has taken a small group and grown us to a group of about 50 people committed to the church as core team members and about 70 people attending on Sundays. Our worship services actually look reasonably creative and organized. Our Community Groups are growing in number and intimacy. We have laid down some of the basic framework and are ready for the Grand Opening of the church.
Here are a few recent pictures of the new venue at Club 740:
Please pray for us, and if you can, drop by the Grand Opening this Sunday, September 14 at 10am. I'd love to see you.
Here are a few recent pictures of the new venue at Club 740:
Please pray for us, and if you can, drop by the Grand Opening this Sunday, September 14 at 10am. I'd love to see you.
Today, I dropped off the third direct mail postcard invitations at the post office.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Second Direct Mail Postcard Invitation to the Grand Opening
I dropped off the second batch of direct mail invitation postcards today. Here they are:
We also put up posters all over downtown residential area and talked to many people inviting them to New City.
Please pray that God will continue to use New City to connect people to himself.
We also put up posters all over downtown residential area and talked to many people inviting them to New City.
Please pray that God will continue to use New City to connect people to himself.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
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:
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.
Monday, August 25, 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
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!
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!
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