Hollywood Church Musings

January, 2008

by: Chriss Barksdale

• Hollywood Church

Tonight I sit at my computer thinking how I can communicate in a letter how amazing our God is. I am honestly shocked and amazed at all that He has done in a matter of just three months here in the great city of Hollywood. I remember before this church began I heard from the naysayers exclaiming that there was no possibility of a church being planted and succeeding in the Hollywood area. Some had simply wrote off this area as forsaken by God. I am happy to announce that what began as my wife and three kids and a lot of prayer has turned into over 100 people in three months! And all of this has been a credit to Jesus and His grace alone. He called us as a family to move here and moved in the heart of Calvary Bible Church to plant this church. He said “I will build my church” and my friends, that is exactly what He is doing!

The most exciting thing about the church here is the people we are being able to reach. The core of our church, which consists of around 15 or so CBC people along with 15 others, is really just a small portion of the people who are coming! So who is coming? It is quite an eclectic group with many people being “de-churched” people. What I have found is that those people who used to go to church in the past and had a time in their life where they quit going seem to want to give it another try when a new church pops up. Many of those coming seem to have had some type of church background. And they left because they either got burned or just simply loved the world too much. What is most exciting about this is that our people are reaching out, welcoming these individuals, and caring for them.

A good sign of the health of the church is the fact that our community groups that meet during the week have exploded and kept pace with the rise of the Sunday morning services. We now have five groups meeting during the weeks with around ten in each group and have had to create new ones because of the response of the people to want to get plugged in. I have had individuals share with me that for the first time in their lives they feel like they are able to open up and let people know them. They find themselves being honest with who they are before God and finding hope in the Gospel.

Another exciting trend in the church is not just the spiritual needs of the people being met but also the tangible needs as well. We had over 15 of our people join together on a recent Saturday to help out an elderly gentleman who lives in Hollywood with his house. Though he does not know Jesus, he invited us in and allowed us to serve and help him. What was most impressive to him was the diversity in age and ethnicity amongst the group. He had never seen such a sundry group of people come together and love one another and someone like him. As a result he opened up his home and invited us to use his home for our Christmas party to which he invited five of his friends to come and meet us and hear the Gospel!

On top of all of that we have been able to meet the needs of everyone from the homeless to the disadvantaged children of our city. For Christmas we gave away toys to virtually 1,000 kids who otherwise would not have had a Christmas gift and also introduce them and their parents to the church and the Gospel. We combined efforts with Hope Again to have a coffee house where people off the street came in for free music and food as well as a warm change of clothes. Even the LA Times took note of some of our people as back-to-back issues of the Times had front page articles in the California sections on individuals from our church. One of our gals had a column written on her for loving and caring for the elderly while another young guy was unable to find a place to live but came to our church and we found him a place.

To many in the city we are an anomaly. They don’t understand how we could be so dogmatic on truth and yet loving and caring of people. Churches are placed in the category of either being dogmatic on doctrine and unkind to people or weak on doctrine and loving to people. In other words, in the world’s eyes the church is either liberal or conservative, republican or democrat, inclusive or exclusive. Our answer is that we strive to be like Jesus who was “full of grace and truth.” He stood firm on the Truth yet reached out and loved the despised of society. My prayer is that He continues to use us here and keep us firm on doctrine yet compassionate and loving towards the people of the city!