On the Streets of LA
I've been on jury duty the past few days. It's the first time for me. After years of postponing, because I was either living in Indiana or out of state, my time has come to serve as a juror at the Superior Court in downtown LA. The drive isn't too bad but I don't think I want to spend a couple of hours on the freeways each day.
I usually don't go to downtown LA very much. I don't have much reason to go there. My mom use to live in Los Angeles and tells me that it once was the hub of southern California back in the 50's. Now, all the major department stores have left and those huge buildings they once occupied are vacant. The city officials are trying to lure people back to the city center by renovating buildings into lofts and constructing new music centers and hangouts, but it's still not drawing anyone. I told my mom that I feel like LA has lost something, almost like it has lost its soul.
For those going to downtown area, the courts are usually the main attraction for one reason or another. The immigration and passport buildings are located there, and you can't walk the streets without bumping into a lawyer or a police officer. During my lunchtime, I headed down to the Grand Market on Hill and 4th Street, where there are great authentic food eateries with reasonable prices (I had a falafel with a Pepsi at Schwarmers last Monday!). The people you meet around the area reflect the new LA. They are immigrants from all over the world. Some are from Mexico or Central America. Others are from the Middle East or Asia. They are mostly the old and the forgotten. One of the neighboring communities called Boyle Heights is one of the meanest and poorest sections in California, so bad that one of their public high schools has been taken over by the government so they can finish the school year.
I share all this with you because I hurt for this city. The week before, I had lunch with a friend of mine who oversees a college group in a large suburban church in Orange County, which is south of Los Angeles. He shared that some day he would like to plant a church that would reach a twenty-something crowd. There are no mega churches of twenty-somethings in Los Angeles. There is no one looking to plant a church in the neediest areas of this city. There still are churches that remain in the metro area, beautiful Gothic structures, but they have lost their influence long ago. It's hard to start a church in these places. The language is foreign and the culture is so strange. Every night I watch the local news reporting from the war zones of Los Angeles. I see the faces of mothers, kids, old men wishing things could be different for where they live.
My generation has left the cities to fend for themselves. My prayer is that a new generation will return to restore hope for a hopeless people. Maybe my friend and his generation will be those people. We need a generation of heroes that are driven by the pulse of God, who care enough for His creation to plant His Church. We need to help our churches to look to the future and encourage a younger generation to act for others before it is too late, before all our cities start to resemble the streets of LA.
I usually don't go to downtown LA very much. I don't have much reason to go there. My mom use to live in Los Angeles and tells me that it once was the hub of southern California back in the 50's. Now, all the major department stores have left and those huge buildings they once occupied are vacant. The city officials are trying to lure people back to the city center by renovating buildings into lofts and constructing new music centers and hangouts, but it's still not drawing anyone. I told my mom that I feel like LA has lost something, almost like it has lost its soul.
For those going to downtown area, the courts are usually the main attraction for one reason or another. The immigration and passport buildings are located there, and you can't walk the streets without bumping into a lawyer or a police officer. During my lunchtime, I headed down to the Grand Market on Hill and 4th Street, where there are great authentic food eateries with reasonable prices (I had a falafel with a Pepsi at Schwarmers last Monday!). The people you meet around the area reflect the new LA. They are immigrants from all over the world. Some are from Mexico or Central America. Others are from the Middle East or Asia. They are mostly the old and the forgotten. One of the neighboring communities called Boyle Heights is one of the meanest and poorest sections in California, so bad that one of their public high schools has been taken over by the government so they can finish the school year.
I share all this with you because I hurt for this city. The week before, I had lunch with a friend of mine who oversees a college group in a large suburban church in Orange County, which is south of Los Angeles. He shared that some day he would like to plant a church that would reach a twenty-something crowd. There are no mega churches of twenty-somethings in Los Angeles. There is no one looking to plant a church in the neediest areas of this city. There still are churches that remain in the metro area, beautiful Gothic structures, but they have lost their influence long ago. It's hard to start a church in these places. The language is foreign and the culture is so strange. Every night I watch the local news reporting from the war zones of Los Angeles. I see the faces of mothers, kids, old men wishing things could be different for where they live.
My generation has left the cities to fend for themselves. My prayer is that a new generation will return to restore hope for a hopeless people. Maybe my friend and his generation will be those people. We need a generation of heroes that are driven by the pulse of God, who care enough for His creation to plant His Church. We need to help our churches to look to the future and encourage a younger generation to act for others before it is too late, before all our cities start to resemble the streets of LA.
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on Sunday, December 23, 2007 at 12:43 PM.
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