We usually write about way of life in East Hollywood, but I want to share about California churches that have helped shape who I am today. 

On Sunday Ed, Katie, Meri and I visited with our brothers and sisters of the Hollywood Church of Christ (the church that sent us out to reach “the ones in this city who won’t come to us”) and told them stories and testimonies about what God is doing through us and in us so far in East Hollywood.  What a loving family!  It was during our ten years (and Ed and Katie’s seven years) journeying with the Hollywood Church of Christ that we fell more madly in love with Jesus and his simple, counter-cultural and dangerous ways of living.  God used the Hollywood church to show us we are “blessed to be a blessing” and (to quote a famous song) that Jesus had “friends in low places.”

Being back at this Hollywood congregation reminded me of an observation I often hear when I visit some other States or converse with transplants from other States.  After all these years I still hear Americans cracking jokes about Californians (I know, I know, Californians make fun of other States too).  But what’s sadder is that I still notice many Christians in America look down on Californian churches, like we’ve sold our souls to the devil by nature of being Californians.  Add to this the weirdness of telling people I live and worship in Hollywood, and you can imagine the looks I get in return.  To all who look down on your California sister churches I want to say, come and see! 

You might think it odd, but I suggest you include on your tour of California churches the Hollywood Church of Christ!  Don’t be fooled by the California mission style of the building, or the traditional format of their services.  Established in 1938, this is no ordinary traditional congregation.  Despite its unique quirks (it is after all located in Hollyweird), this urban church should be commended for being one of the only churches in Los Angeles to hold out during the “White Flight” of the sixties (and the so-called “Black Flight” that came later, as more people groups moved in).  In the face of social pressures from community and despite the dismay of other Churches of Christ, they intentionally chose to be an integrated church.  Personally, I think this is an example of how this California church chose not to sell its soul. 

Today, when asked the awful labeling question, “Is your church a Black, White, Hispanic or Asian church?” the Hollywood family gets to happily answer, “Yes, and then some!”  One thing I’ve learned from this California church is that I’m ready to be done with labeling churches by their ethnicity and race! 

To emphasize how “new” this kind of inclusiveness still is to churches in America, I will share this story:  I will never forget a few years ago, when I was worshiping regularly with the Hollywood Church of Christ, greeting an Anglo guest from another State (I won’t say which one to avoid the whole stereotyping thing).  She was visiting the area and had looked up our church in the phone book, obviously assuming that any church building bearing the same name as her home congregation meant she was going to get the same experience she gets back home.  Was she in for a rude awakening! 

As she approached me on the front steps, an African-American church member joined me in greeting the woman, to which she abruptly asked me to show her where the restrooms are.  As I walked her downstairs to point her to the restroom, she turned to me (with anxiety in her face) and asked, “Is he a member here?”  “Yes,” I said, confused by the question.  She went to the restroom, came out muttering something about ”them” not having “their own church”, then exited the building before the service even began, never to return!

In addition to its ethnic and racial diversity, there is a spirit of humble “one another”-ness that defines this congregation of ninety members.  More and more people in that congregation are preaching grace and learning to be Jesus with skin on.  I hope these characteristics will be evident in the future churches of East Hollywood.

Well, after visiting the Hollywood Church of Christ, I can think of lots of other churches in California I’d like people to visit for lots of other reasons.  (The future churches of East Hollywood being some of them.)  But I just thought I’d put in a plug in for what God’s Spirit has so capably done in one of the churches we’ve journeyed with in this country’s “God-forsaken” State of California! 

To those who have spent time in my State, what are some of the exciting things you have seen God doing in his churches?

Categories: stories
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