In a season of being so busy that I’ve easily forgotten things, it’s felt so good to take a break (well kind of a break…) from all that is going on with ministry, school, and work so that I could fill my cup. Too often in ministry one gives, gives, and gives…yet doesn’t take the time to refill their own cup. So when the opportunity presented itself for me to get away with thousands of other pastors, and some good friends with a focus on Christ, fellowship, and worship…I had to jump on it. And boy, did it do wonders!

Last year there was a group of homies (some pastors) that agreed we’d go to T4G (Together for the Gospel), so when tickets were made available, I quickly registered. I got an early bird student rate… $99… but in the end, everyone bailed and it left me alone…but I didn’t want to cancel, I really needed this. I love being a church planter, I love the challenges that it brings in trying to be more and more missional in all aspects of life, being there on call 24/ 7 to the church, the community, and friends… but it can take a toll. I can’t continue to pour into folks and not fill my own cup…eventually the source of fresh water dries up or gets polluted…so I was blessed to be able to head to T4G and sort of disconnect for a few days and refocus.

A couple of friends would be helping me out by letting me crash with them! Shout out to the homie Darrin Slater from Missouri and my brotha Pastor Matt Jones of Del Rey Church in L.A. who offered their hospitality but in the end, God made it possible for me to hang with my friend and fellow seminarian Ben Kampeier and his crew from Faith Church in Dyer, Indiana. We’re RCA (Reformed Church in America) and gave us a chance to connect and talk about denominational stuff too, share with each other what’s happening in our corner of the world and how we’re fighting to make much of Jesus. These dudes took me in and we shared a room, meals, and drinks… remind me later to tell you about our experience at GAME (alpaca, kangaroo, wild boar, and moose burgers…YIKES!!!).

The hi-light for me was the worship… I was able to not be in charge of anything, not pressured to prepare in advance, but simply be present, lift my hands as high as I possibly could and sing beautiful songs to my God at the top of my lungs, feel a huge knot in my throat and savor the tears streaming down my cheeks as I worshiped my God in spirit and in truth…not caring about the 12,000 + believers that surrounded me… it was life giving, it was so uplifting… every note sung, every harmony, every stroke of the piano was a drop into my cup… refilling it… strengthening me… and building me up… We sang songs like “In Christ alone”, “Jesus, thank you!”, “Be thou my vision”, and “Come thou font” amongst others. . . there was something about hearing thousands and thousands of voices all singing the same words to our God, grateful to be alive, honored to serve Him, and thankful He chose us to co-labor with Him to reach the world, one community at a time.

Mark Dever kicked things off, Matt Chandler challenged us, David Platt called out racial injustices, Al Mohler came correct, HB Charles Jr. brought fire…Kevin DeYoung literally made my brain explode, Thabiti did his thing, Ligon Duncan preached one of the BEST sermons i’ve ever heard…and John Piper and Johnny Mac did NOT disappoint either.

I wasn’t able to sit in on every teaching and panel because I still had homework to do, sermon prep work, and remain in contact with our leadership team for issues pending at home. . . but man oh man, did I enjoy my time there. I missed my family, I missed my church, but I am grateful to have spent a week in Kentucky at T4G, so thank you to the organizers, to the many, many volunteers that served…and thank you to my wife and kids that allowed me to go and get my cup refilled. . . oh, and all the free books were super dope too. Here’s a picture of the books I got (I only purchased 4 of these…the rest were free to all those that attended)… everytime we’d walk in or out of the building, even for lunch, we’d get a new book. . . (shhh… don’t tell anyone but I purposely took as little stuff as possible so I could be just a tad book gluttonous)…

Friends, encourage your pastors to refill their cup… the kingdom is much bigger than our local churches, and it’s great to hear other pastors stories and challenges. I talked to at least a 1/2 a dozen brothers that were considering/ contemplating/ praying through whether or not to plant a church… oh man, guess what I told them?!?!? I was telling errybody they needed to plant a church… I was sharing our story and what God was doing in Lynwood through RCLA and our team. I’ll be sharing these experiences this week in the podcast too that I share with my homie Celah on “Grace And Two Fingers“… check us out. Be blessed family!

Counting down to our official launch/ Grand Opening this Sunday (3-25-18) has got us (our CORE Team/ church family) super busy with the remodeling of our nursery (even though the building is not ours), evangelizing and outreach, multiple promotional/ ad campaigns, coordination of guest/ visitor invitations, putting together 300 gifts bags for guests, building on relations within the community at all levels… all while doing the regular work of being missional with my friends, neighbors, and anyone else in the community that will exchange in convo with me for a couple of minutes…it can all be pretty exhausting. Yet, I’m currently traveling and in Holland, Michigan for some training that is specific for religious fundraising for Latinos…all this while being just a few days away from our big day. . .all these kinds of things added to trying to date my wife, hang out time with my son, date my daughters, AND…AND full time seminary and part time hospice chaplain can be alot… but then I received this text from a good friend with this picture attached:

I know that some of you are looking at this and not knowing why it’s a big deal… I got another text from the homie Chris King who’s an Elder at The Church at Del Aire in Hawthorne, an ACTS 29 church plant, and his text read, “Driving into Hawthorne this morning on the 105 and saw your ad pop up on the Plaza Mexico marquee…” this is the typa’ stuff that’s a game changer, this is the typa’ of stuff that makes all the other stuff worth it, this is the typa’ stuff that allows me to see God’s hand all over what we’re doing for Him at RCLA and affirm our calling yet again. This sign right here is located in one of Lynwood’s greatest attractions. . . Plaza Mexico, which is home to over 250 shops and restaurants, has thousands of shoppers there daily, maybe even tens of thousands. . . it is a venue for many Latino festivals, especially those that arise from the Mexican culture… but this is an even bigger deal because this huge sign/ marquee rests just off to the side of one of L.A.’s busiest freeways (105 Freeway) that runs directly through Lynwood and Watts on the way to LAX airport… so hundreds of thousands of people drive by this sign everyday. . . this is really cool, and God has placed His special people in our lives that have helped make things like this happen, things that have surpassed anything we’d ever anticipated. . . God’s sense of humor is this though, that in our original prospectus and business plan for what we felt God calling us to at RCLA in Lynwood, Plaza Mexico was a large part or focus. We hoped and prayed Plaza Mexico would be a part of whatever we do in Lynwood to be a blessing to our new community, and then this happeed… just days before our official launch. . . ya’ll don’t even know, I got goosebumps when I saw this. An answered prayer to what we’d hoped to eventually do here…and this sign before we launch just leaves me in awe of God and His mercies… (Lamentations 3:22-23)

One of my new friends, Fernando Martinez owner of Global Cuts Barbershop in Lynwood, is someone I’ve been cultivating a friendship with and have been blessed to have him come to church with  his family, getting to know him, and his hunger to get closer to God is an amazing experience for me. I remember the first day he visited us at RCLA it just so happened that we had a guest preacher that day (doesn’t happen too often) but when it does, you know it’s a big dog in the faith, and we were honored to have had the Rev. Dr. Tim Brown, President of Western Theological Seminary bring some fire to the pulpit. This was the first of many times Fernando and his family have come hang out, I pray that our relationship would grow, and he would get to know Christ like I do…one of Fernando’s barbers is a young homie that comes from the same type of background as mine, Franko is a recent addition to the shop and we’ve had great conversations. I was able to recently help get him plugged in with one of my boys at Homeboy Industries where he’s getting multiple tattoos removed from his head, face, and neck. I’m hoping he’ll be at our launch this Sunday along with Fernando, Yesenia, and Mykol to praise God amongst friends and family.

If you’ve helped us out, prayed for us, supported us financially, encouraged by our posts, motivated to do more for Christ, or simply like us… please continue to pray for us and know that you’re invited to join us this Sunday at 12 Noon at:

Reformed Church of LA

3801 Cortland Street

Lynwood, CA. 90262

“How’s the church?”

This has become one of the most common questions asked by folks…

Before people ask about the family, school, my walk with the Lord, or my marriage, it’s usually… “How’s the church?”, to which I usually reply, “Pick a day!” If this has been you, please don’t feel bad, it’s actually my fault because I’m sure I post more about the church then my family, my walk with the Lord, or school, right? When I say “pick a day” it’s not being said with sarcasm, I promise… but because there’s not one specific pattern of things going either really good or really bad… it truly reminds me of  the words of the famous Prophet Forrest Gump who said, “Life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get…” but the difference here is that we know exactly what we’re gonna get and what the outcome will be… the only trouble is the path to get there. But because we’re firm believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can stand upon Scripture like:

Psalm 28:7 that says,  “The Lord is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.”  

What exactly am I talking about? Let me give you a taste… Pastor Chris and I underwent some training for church planting and were given certain warnings about church planting and that our CORE Team wouldn’t look the same after a year, some people would back out, fall through, etc… but we were like, “Nope, that’s not gonna happen with us! Our team is as solid as they come.” One of the difficult things in planting was that prior to being sent out, our sending church said we could only take “X” amount of people, so we prayed and asked God to guide us to the right folks, and that they would be sold out for Jesus, and willing to give up comforts, give all of their efforts, monies, and truly sacrifice to help plant this church. We’d originally planned to have 3 meetings of interest and hoped to have “X” quantity of people committed by then; we never got past the first one.  We actually had to tell many people that they could not come with us, we wanted to respect our sending churches expressed wishes. Since there wasn’t any wiggle room, we had to make every adult and child count…but we trusted the Lord and approached folks that we’d been walking with and discipling for some time, others approached us and said they felt God calling them to join us. Others still said that they just couldn’t shake the thought of Lynwood and whether or not that is where God wanted them. Beause we anticipated lots of hard work, potential burnout, and the reality of grief and loss, we had a good friend from City Church of Compton stop by our house and speak to our CORE Team and talk to us about their experience, what it looks like, the realities of the difficulty of church planting…we wanted to make sure our CORE Team knew what they were signing up for.

Praise God we got the full team allowed to leave with us and approved to join us in planting and were sent out on July 2nd… before we’d even launched services in the park one family backed out and before the end of the year, yet another would fall out. There’s no going back and saying, “Hey, those two families changed their minds, so can we get two more?” So we suffered the losses of people that had committed to pray, serve, and give…we blessed them and encouraged them to seek the Lord wherever it was He’d lead them to. But it really sucked because there were so many others that wanted to come with us… So if you’d asked me on those days how the church was going, you can imagine what my answer would be. But… that’s NOT the end of the story, you see God works in ways we’ll never quite understand, but as two families abandoned our journey to plant, God brought others in…not just to worship on Sundays but to also join our CORE Team and work their butts off to help plant this church. And if you’d asked me after they’d joined, you can imagine what my response would be to, “How’s church?” Overall, I’d say that as a Pastor I am so blessed to have an amazing team surrounding my brother Chris and I as we spearhead into Lynwood to plant RCLA, there are times that I feel really lonely (see my last blog) and then there are times that I feel super protected by our team when we’ve been tried to take advantage of (yes, that’s happened too).

So how’s church? I’d say it’s awesome! Our team is growing, new people are coming every week, there are folks who had some pretty serious struggles when we first started this journey and by way of prayer and God’s sovereignty He’s providing for all of our needs according to His glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). There was a very well known conference hosted at Biola this past weekend, The Legacy Disciple Conference, and there was a large part of our CORE Team present to support Pastor Chris and I as we taught workshops on the “Need for Effective Preaching” and “Practical Discipleship in an Urban Context” respectively, as well as sit in other workshops to learn, grow, and practically apply those things learned to our personal walks with Christ and our church plant. Planting a church is NOT easy, and it can take a toll… but to see our team representing with RCLA hoodies, hanging out at Starbucks, eating lunch at The Habit, and strollling through Biola University grounds, I was one proud pastor… onlookers knew we were together and it felt damned good.

So when we bump into each other, instead of asking, “How’s church?” just say you’ve prayed for us. We’d be really grateful! Follow us on social media, encourage us, continue to pray for us, like our posts, and share what God is doing here in Lynwood. But please, I beg of you, don’t be one of those people that troll us, watch our videos, and never bother to click on the “like” button or comment… that’s not cool because there are ALOT of those people too. We could really use your love, encouragement, and support. Thanks for taking the time to read this and pray for us along this crazy journey of church planting.

Church planting can be lonely…

I’ve been in some rough places before, isolated places, literally. . . I’ve done hard time in prison, spent extended periods of time segregated in a cell all by myself as punishment. . . but that ain’t got nothin’ on church planting. Although it can be lonely, and perhaps even seem dismal, that’s not where the story ends, there’s actually hope and lots of it. . . but first, let me tell you a bit of why it can be lonely.

The first and foremost reason it can get lonely is “out of sight, out of mind”. . . we know the deal, right?  I think that everyone just assumes you’re doing good and they don’t bother to check in…the second reason it can get lonely is that there are many people you thought would be there for you and even expressed their support no matter what and then come to find out that they in fact don’t have your back. . . And the third reason I believe it can get lonely, is that I’m the pastor, and I can’t open up as easily as others can, so I can again feel isolated even though I’m no longer in a cell.  There aren’t many “safe” zones or people for me to be open and transparent with, there are many that want to know your business, but there’s usually some sort of vested interest and they’re not truly concerned about how I am as a pastor/ friend/ peer/ Christian, they’re not really concerned with how my family is doing, how my marriage is, or how my walk with the Lord is going. It’s more of a superficial, “How are ya’?” type of question, or they’ll ask out of curiosity, being a “metiche” or they just don’t understand how one can possibly be doing so much all at once or involved in so many things at the same time and think something just isn’t right, let’s see if we can find what it is. . .

Reason 1 – I guess that because am quite active on social media and people can see what we’re doing, folks will be like, “Ah, he’s okay!” but not really know all it took to make something work out. Truth is that there have been so many ups and down, more so than a heart monitor that goes up and down. There’ve been so many disappointments where I’ve wanted to scream and bash my head against the wall (literally, true story)…and when I’d reach out to someone, most folks wouldn’t have the time, need to schedule an appointment, or really just not be interested. But let me put my big boy pants on. Let me stand upon Psalm 38:9 that says, “O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you”. How can a pastor, who serves the Lord, studies the Lord (still in seminary for goodness sake) be so connected to God and yet forget that He is always with me…crazy, right? I know, I can be a hot mess at times…but I’m sure you can relate to this too. But I need to be more cognizant that “He will never leave me, nor forsake me…” (Deuteronomy 31:6).

Reason 2 – Well, it’s just flat out hurtful. I guess because of my background, the loyalty one learns growing up on the streets and because I consider myself to be a loyal person I kinda’ expect the same from everyone. . . but I’ve quickly learned that that’s not the case. The love, respect, and loyalty is not always reciprocated! I’ve learned that there can be cultural differences that contrast greatly how people can see the same things, be involved in the same things, or even understand the same situations so completely different. I still can’t understand it…when I start to get upset, or start to get angry (yes, I get angry. . .  I know I’m such a horrible person) my wife reminds me to just love these folks,  “Just love them Rudy!”… and I do. My pastor Eddy Aleman always modeled that out to me. I never understood how to practically live that concept out, I only knew how to retaliate and respond tit for tat. . . but God has been molding and shaping me so much since we’ve planted RCLA. So I guess I should take my advice that if we place our hope in people, we will be disappointed, right? Because that’s what people do, I know I’ve disappointed many, if that’s you reading this, please forgive me. But even though we know folks will let us down, it doesn’t stop it from hurting when it does. When  people you thought were friends and then find out, they really weren’t, well it still hurts. But let’s keep it pushin’ right?

Reason 3 – Pastors are not exempt from sinning, having crazy thoughts, or even doing stupid things. . . I really wish that were the case, but it’s not. As a matter of fact, I think we are tempted even more so, struggle even more, deal with more difficult situations and even absorb other peoples’ pain and suffering, and honestly sometimes it feels like I just can’t catch a break. I’ll look up to the heavens and be like, “Really God!?! that’s how you get at yo’ boy?”. Oh, how quickly I can forget that what I am going through for Him, is nothing in comparison to what He went through for me (Romans 8:18). How quickly I can make it all about me and my struggles instead of being reminded that it’s not about me at all, instead it’s about Him and what I’ve been entrusted to do on His behalf. But since we have this perception of having to “have it all together” it can be difficult to find people with whom we can be open and transparent with. So it can be lonely at times, feelin’ like there’s just nobody you trust that you can share with about how you’re doing…

BUT…like I said at the beginning…there IS hope. You see, there are people who get paid to check in on me, others who do it because they feel obligated to do so, and then there are some people that you know God smiled down upon you from heaven for placing these people in your lives. Those relationships that are organically grown, nurtured, and bring joy to your life are encouraging and life giving.  I really love my church family, God has placed some amazing people in our CORE Team that selflessly give of their time and talents for the sake of buiding up the Lord’s church here in Lynwood. There are people that are seriously talented and make no excuse to serve and always remind me of what it is to be kingdom minded and not selfish with how I spend my time, resources, and energy . . . I actually learn from them ALL the time. When things have gone not so well in our planting, I’ve felt protected and cared for. Like back in the days when someone would mess with me on the streets and I’d look back and all the homies are standing there behind me saying, “WE GOT YOUR BACK!” Some of you know what i’m talking about.

But outside of my church, there are also some pretty amazing people that continuously check in on me, ask how I’m doing, care about my marriage, my walk with the Lord, how I am doing personally, how I’m doing as a seminary student, pastor, and whether I’m resting enough, working out enough, or taking care of my health. Some of these people are brand new in my life, others have been there a bit longer and there are so many I’ve been blessed with, but I just wanna share a couple of them with you today and ask that as you pray for me, my family, and my church; that you would also pray for these dudes that are and will be playing a significant role in my life, my self-care, keeping me accountable to how I represent Christ and grow in my love of Him, obedience to Him, and imitate Him at all times. #IAmMyBrothersKeeper If you’ve been one of those people that check in on me, thank you so much! It’s greatly appreciated…If you’re one of the ones that have NOT checked in on me, it’s all good, I still love you…but when you get a chance, holla’ at yo’ boy. Please use this as a reminder that everybody needs love, encouragement, and a call or text every now and then, it does wonders.

The lil BIG homie Barry Cunnigan has blessed my life with his friendship and accountability in more ways than one…he’s part a church plant, City Church of Compton

Pastor Jose Hernandez of Hope Central Watts has a heart for Jesus bigger than almost anyone I know, we come from the same background and his love, care, and concern for me and my family have always made me feel like true family.

The homie Rev. Kyle Blake of The Gathering Lutheran Church in Long Beach and the homie Celah, my partner in crime as we record weekly podcast episodes on “Grace And Two Fingers” I’ve come to know them so much, love them as I know their stories and feel their love for me and mine.

These brotha’s right here from NW Iowa have impacted my life personally as well as that of our church plant in an amazing way. Chris Godfredsen is a pastor to pastors and one of the best friends and cheerleaders a man can have.

Pastors Kris Brossett and Tommy Forrester are also church planters of Refuge LA and Epiphany LA respectively and are beginning to be such a powerful presence of God in my life as they pour into me, share their experiences with me, and offer a safe place to just be me.

Montell Ricks – and this dude right here…what can I say, we don’t talk as often as I’d like, but when we do, it’s like we just spoke 5 minutes ago… love him and his bride.

Yesterday morning, after having dropped off my kids at school here in Lynwood, I saw a couple of things that got my attention, made me sad, and got me to thinkin’ (I guess I need to do more of that). Although we’ve only been here for a short period of time, we have already managed to fall in love with the city of Lynwood, it’s amazing people, the long standing culture of warmth and kindness, the businesses that love their clientele, the local government and law enforcement that works so hard to make this a better place…  the love of this place does not make us blind to the issues, but instead more aware of the work that needs to be done here. We know that NONE of it will be possible without the help and guidance of Christ Himself and that all solutions begin and end with Him.

I believe that identifying specific needs, partnering with those passionate about making a change, hard work, and God’s guidance will help to get things done. We’re honored to already be connected to many people with the same vision, and in the continual process of trying to figure out how to make it all happen. This part of our church planting journey, this morning, I just ask you to take a moment and help me pray for our city. Please join me in praying for our Mayor, City Council, City Manager, Sheriff Department, School Board and schools, businesses and owners, the community itself, but especially, especially the local churches, that the people of God would come togther and help build up the kingdom by lovingly and ecumenically working to see that happen.

There’s so much good here…but still much to be done.

When the people of God come together it is amazing at what can happen!!! We’ve witnessed this first hand with our neighbors next door through the Compton Initiative and we’re looking foward to what can and WILL happen here in Lynwood.

This is our home and we want to love it, serve it, and bless it…

In the book of Hebrews Chapter 11, the Bible tells us that people of God left their homes in faith…vs. 16, “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.”   I pray that RCLA would imitate our forefathers in being men and women of faith going into a city, with hopes of receiving what God has promised…may all we look forward to in faith be heavenly, not merely physical… and may we give our all to bring a bit of God’s heavenly kingdom to this place we call home.

Church planting has not been easy, at times it’s been difficult and we expect times to get more difficult, but God is faithful through it all and we are secure knowing He’s brought a great team together to help partner with all the great work others are already doing here in Lynwood. Our CORE Team rocks, all with different gifts, skills, and backgrounds to help “make” something happen here… thank you so much for reading this, for thinking of us, and for praying for us, we are extremely grateful. #RCLA #ReformedChurchLA #HoodGrace #ReformedChurchOfLosAngeles #Lynwood #ForTheGoodOfLynwood #ChurchPlanting #UrbanChurchPlanting #Blogger #HoodBlogger #BloggingPastor

One day while working as a Substance Abuse Counselor many years ago, I heard about a function coming up in which Lecrae would be performing and I was like, “YO!!! I’m going.” I’d first heard of his music while I was in prison and it really impacted my walk. I later learned that Francis Chan would also be present along with some local spoken word artists. I didn’t really know what spoken word was at the time but I would soon find out. As usual, I never roll alone, and I managed to go to this event with about 10 people from the Spanish ministry at our church and all I can say is that I was blown away….seriously! We were driving by and searching for the addrress, it was in downtown Glendale and as we drove past the venue I assumed it had to be the wrong spot, you see there were easily over a hundred young people lingering about outside. Not just young people, but I mean hip, good looking kids… I was like, “This can’t be it!”. But why Rudy? Why can’t this possibly be the spot? Because in my overly religious mind, Christians didn’t really dress this way… and there can’t be that many young people looking like they’re anxious to get in and hear about Jesus. This moment truly changed the course of my outlook on what Christianity looks like practically lived out. Not hiding our ethnicity, not working around our cultural differences, but instead using the very nature of who we are as a people…black, brown, Asian, and everything in between for the sake of the Gospel…reaching our own people in a way that only we can. Speaking in a language we can truly understand and identify with.

(Below is a picture of a panel discussion held at that event in Glendale, shown are JSon of Lamp Mode Records and Francis Chan)

I’d later find out that P4CM (Passion 4 Christ Movement) and SoundVision Entertainment were involved in putting this together and/ or promoting it. What truly blew me away was the spoken word poets, not that I didn’t enjoy Lecrae and Francis Chan…but I need to be very transparent, I was a closet poet…. I loved poetry, it was a way that I’d learned to express myself and this was something that really manifested itself while I was in prison. With so much time on my hands and being stuck in a cell, I started writing in ways I never knew I could, but… I couldn’t let the homies know I was a poet, that wasn’t gangsta’… however those that did know where always asking for poems to write to their wives and girlfriends for anniversaries, birthdays, and whenever they’d get caught up. So now for me to witness black, brown, and Asian brotha’s and sista’s spitting some of the dopest poetry I’ve ever heard in my life was amazing… and they were love poems too… but a different kind of love, they were fueled by their love of God and His love of us. Some of these poets, organizers, and promoters would later become some of my really good friends. Cats like Jose Palos, Chris Webb, Montell Ricks, Steve Ross, Celah, TQ Senkungu, AD Williams, Shai Linne, Chris & Morgan Davis, Thi’sl, NIQ, and many others are valued friends whom I love, care for, and respect in their ministries and personal lives.

So what does any of this have to do with church planting in the hood?

Absolutely everything!!!

Why? Because people like these are influencing people that look like me, that come from backgrounds like mine, and these folks need to be taken seriously in ministry. And to be honest, this is not something that’s happened quite often. The Anglo culture has not always been too receptive and has even been somewhat hesitant to deal with these types of ministries, genre of music, and it’s not because they’re bad people… this is just something that’s foreign to them. My previous church is a historic Dutch Reformed Church and to say it was easy to incorporate spoken word poetry and Christian hip-hop into the culture there would be a lie. But it wasn’t impossible! All of what I’ve said here is to lead up to this… my church allowed me to start an annual spoken word poetry and hip-hop show every year for my last 5 years there. It was an annual church plant fundraiser…all monies raised went towards helping fund new church plants and existing church plants into Compton and heading west towards South L.A. and even the Hollywood area. They took a chance on doing something different and I’ll always love and respect them for that! Did these shows make millions? No, but the Gospel was preached, money was raised, connections were made, networking happened, and ALL of it in the name of Jesus.

My heart has always been with church planters… I just didn’t think I’d actually be planting one myself…I’m blessed to have been a part of a movement in Paramount, and now as we’re planting RCLA (Reformed Church of Los Angeles) in Lynwood I don’t know when we’ll be hosting another show…but best believe something BIG is stirring up in our hearts and minds. We plan to bring all that we’ve learned, all our relationships, and resources to use these types of ministries to impact our new community for the Kingdom of God and let everyone know it’s all about Jesus, our Christ and King. Without Christ at the center of our lives, all we do is in vain. But if we keep our eyes focused on Him and His finished work on the Cross…if we truly are obedient to His teachings, commands, and open to being used in different ways and embracing folks just as they are and point them towards Him…all will be well. We’ve got a great team whom I have a deep love and respect for…we’re a diverse looking bunch, maybe even weird…but a beautiful sight to God, folks that normally wouldn’t be together are now together in an area they probably shouldn’t be…doing His work ya’ll.

This was our final show last year… it was so dope as we also added a conference component to it with some of the most solid theology from Christian Hip-Hop artists who are also theologians, pastors, and servants. Check the whole conference here, Chopping Block Conference Q&A

If you feel led to partner with us in prayer, please do so…. feel free to connect with me so I can offer some parts of our ministry to lift up. If you’d like to partner with us financially, we’d be so grateful, please see any of the options listed here: G I V E

Thank you for reading this, feel free to subscribe and/ or tell a friend who might be interested in our story. Grace and Two Fingers !!!

My original attempt to plant a church in South Central Los Angeles didn’t go very far. One of the things we didn’t want to become is a struggling church plant that cannot secure a location, so we researched and found out there was an old RCA (Reformed Church in America) church in the heart of South Los Angeles, on Florence Ave. just off the 110 Fwy. . . you CANNOT get more urban than that. Nestled between Broadway Ave. and Figueroa, in the heart of some of the worst gangland war zones and prostitute “tracks” as well, was found old Hope Reformed Church, we were hoping to see if we could use that building to meet there but we got shut down by the persons in charge of the building. At about the same time (late Spring of 2013) we were extended an invitation to come onto staff at our church in Paramount, not just as an elder but on staff… a paid position, there had been some recent changes in pastoral staff so my role was not very clear at the beginning and we knew it’d be an evolving situation.

My wife, kids, and I prayed for a couple of weeks in trying to discern if we should move forward with trying to find a location in South Central LA to plant or come onto staff at our church. We asked God to make it clear where He wanted us to be and if we were to remain at our church to shut the doors at Hope Reformed, and they never opened so we came on board at our church. It would lead us to some of the best times we’ve ever spent in ministry, great friends being made, amazing learning opportunities… I honestly never thought we’d leave our church. But God had other plans for us… but we’ll get to that later. If I were to say that we assimilated into our church perfectly, I’d be lying, but the folks were so great in accepting us, almost everyone made us feel at home.

I’d been under the mentorship of my spiritual father, Rev. Eddy Aleman for approximately 4 years (since 2010), God had such an incredible way of bringing us together and him pouring into me, trusting me, and really giving me freedom to grow. God was too gracious in giving me such an awesome mentor and coach and it was a challenge to move over to the English side (or whole church) of our church, you see I’d been serving as an Elder for the Spanish Service only, having little contact with the English part of the church. I knew our Senior Pastor loved Jesus and had a heart for planting churches going westward into Compton and Los Angeles. Even though I’d actually considered planting a church, I still had no real concept of how that worked, or what that looked like but I knew that if the Apostle Paul did it, well then so should we. By God’s grace I wanted to give all I had at our church to bless our new community. At the time we came on staff we’d been living along the Lynwood/ Watts part of town and then moved into a church parsonage in Paramount, which is a much nicer part of town. It was quite a change for us, the streets were so quiet, almost zero crime, and we enjoyed opening up our home for discipleship and fellowship. As we settled into our new home and community in Paramount, there was a huge difference from the Lynwood/ Watts areas we were living… it was pretty good for a while, it would last a little over 4 years. Total time at our church was almost 8 years, wow… who’da thunk time would go by so quickly.