{"id":5928,"date":"1999-09-21T10:22:23","date_gmt":"1999-09-21T10:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/los-angeles-metropolitan-churches-organizing-congregations-to-create-change\/"},"modified":"2025-01-06T03:53:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T03:53:37","slug":"los-angeles-metropolitan-churches-organizing-congregations-to-create-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/los-angeles-metropolitan-churches-organizing-congregations-to-create-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches: Organizing Congregations to Create Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/1999\/09\/LAMS-group-2-C-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/1999\/09\/LAMS-group-2-C-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"LAMS-group 2 (C)\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches: Organizing Congregations to Create Change<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n    \n          <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span>CRCC Staff<\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">September 21, 1999<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  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of&nbsp;Watts. Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke had failed to appear&nbsp;at several previous meetings to signal her support of the GED&nbsp;initiative&mdash;a bill before the California legislature that would&nbsp;require, as a condition of probation or parole, that non-violent&nbsp;offenders would have to pursue basic literacy skills. District&nbsp;Attorney Gil Garcetti had publicly indicated his approval of the&nbsp;bill that had been introduced by Assemblyman Carl Washington.&nbsp;But Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches (LAM), the moving&nbsp;force behind this bill, wanted Supervisor Burke&rsquo;s support also.&nbsp;After she failed to respond to their last invitation, members of&nbsp;this coalition of small and mid-size African American churches&nbsp;2 3 staged a prayer vigil on the steps of the supervisor&rsquo;s office&nbsp;building.<\/p>\n<p>As I entered the church nearly every seat was taken. There&nbsp;was a palpable sense of excitement in the air. Mount Olive&rsquo;s&nbsp;choir entered the sanctuary and sang two inspired songs, followed&nbsp;by Pastor E.Winford Bell stating the purpose of the meeting.&nbsp;The agenda was carefully scripted. Praise and worship was&nbsp;to take ten minutes. The call to order and prayer was three minutes.&nbsp;Pastor Bell had five minutes, and from a prepared text he&nbsp;stated what everyone already knew: namely, that seventy percent&nbsp;of all repeat offenders have one common trait: they cannot read!&nbsp;He concluded his statement by saying: &ldquo;The purpose of this&nbsp;meeting is to demonstrate to our public servants that LAM is&nbsp;serious about this initiative. We understand as an organization&nbsp;that large numbers of disciplined people acting together is the&nbsp;most effective method of demonstrating our seriousness. We&nbsp;thank God for your presence and prayers. To God be the glory.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the power of God and the mandate of biblical narratives&nbsp;had been cited at previous meetings I had attended. At one&nbsp;of the strategy sessions, Reverend Bell told how he had been&nbsp;caught that afternoon in the crossfire of youths shooting, and that&nbsp;he had to duck below his dashboard to avoid the flying bullets. This incident was graphic testimony to the turf wars associate&nbsp;with drug dealing, an obvious symptom of what happens to illiterate&nbsp;young men who have difficulty pursuing legitimate employment.&nbsp;Far from being discouraged, however, those present at the&nbsp;meeting began quoting scripture: &ldquo;No weapon formed against&nbsp;thee will prosper. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in&nbsp;the world.&rdquo; And amidst the prayers that closed the meeting there&nbsp;was an overpowering sense that &ldquo;God is on our side.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Remembering these words, I nevertheless worried that&nbsp;Supervisor Burke had not yet arrived. Mary Neal had taken four&nbsp;minutes to explain what the audience should expect to occur at&nbsp;the meeting. Dale Gooden had concisely outlined the ground&nbsp;rules for the &ldquo;action.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>At exactly 7:30 p.m., Erica Byrd extended an invitation for&nbsp;Supervisor Burke to come forward to the podium. The room&nbsp;was abuzz with anticipation, and then the room fell silent when&nbsp;there was no response and no obvious sign of Supervisor Burke&nbsp;or her deputies. In one of the side aisles of the church I noticed&nbsp;Eugene Williams, founder and executive director of LAM, in a&nbsp;quickly called caucus meeting with LAM board president,&nbsp;Reverend Richard Byrd, and several other leaders.<\/p>\n<p>At 7:36 p.m., Reverend Bell walked to the podium and&nbsp;announced, &ldquo;Supervisor Burke has arrived,&rdquo; and he turned to the&nbsp;choir which belted out the song &ldquo;Jesus is Real,&rdquo; while the audience&nbsp;spontaneously jumped to its feet and clapped and joined&nbsp;them in festive praise. During the closing refrain of the song,&nbsp;Supervisor Burke entered the sanctuary with an entourage of&nbsp;three deputies and responded affirmatively to each of the questions&nbsp;asked by Mrs. Byrd:<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Do you agree to make a public declaration of support for the GED initiative sponsored by Los Angeles Metropolitan&nbsp;Churches?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Do you agree to introduce a resolution concerning LAM and&nbsp;the GED initiative prior to the county supervisors&rsquo; recess?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Do you agree to assign a person to assist in the design of a&nbsp;pilot program?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Then a final question was addressed to the audience: &ldquo;Are we&nbsp;satisfied with Supervisor Burke&rsquo;s response?&rdquo;, which was followed&nbsp;by an eruption of applause and a standing ovation.<\/p>\n<p>On September 15, 1998, Governor Wilson held a press conference&nbsp;in which he signed into law the GED initiative, culminating&nbsp;an organizing process that had begun in 1992 when Eugene&nbsp;Williams, an organizer for the Regional Council of&nbsp;Neighborhood Organizations (RCNO), traveled to Los Angeles&nbsp;from Philadelphia. After dozens of one-on-one interviews by&nbsp;Williams with pastors and community leaders, Los Angeles&nbsp;Metropolitan Churches was founded on August 15, 1994. Four&nbsp;years later, twenty-seven small and mid-size churches demonstrated&nbsp;what can happen when civic leadership is developed within&nbsp;the faith community. Currently, there are nearly forty churches&nbsp;partnering together in Los Angeles, and similar movements are&nbsp;starting in San Diego County, Riverside County, and San Bernardino County. In addition, LAM has launched its next&nbsp;major organizing effort, One Church One School, which is an&nbsp;effort to involve parents and churches in taking responsibility for&nbsp;the condition of schools in their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n<p>As part of its documentation of LAM, the Center for Religion&nbsp;and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California asked&nbsp;Jerry Berndt, an internationally renowned photographer, to&nbsp;attend two recent LAM-sponsored public actions in Compton, in&nbsp;support of the One Church One School initiative. The next few&nbsp;pages of photos portray the interface between faith and civic&nbsp;responsibility, followed by the Center&rsquo;s report assessing two years&nbsp;of documenting the organizing process of the Los Angeles&nbsp;Metropolitan Churches. As executive director of the Center for&nbsp;Religion and Civic Culture, I am grateful to The James Irvine&nbsp;Foundation for providing the funding which has allowed myself&nbsp;and research assistants Orlando Love and Lezlee Cox to spend a&nbsp;number of hours observing LAM events and interviewing the&nbsp;inspired leaders of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches.<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"\/crcc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/2015\/02\/lametrolitanchurches.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here to download the PDF of this report.<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Read the report: &#8220;Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches: Organizing Congregations to Create Change&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":813,"featured_media":5931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24,30],"class_list":["post-5928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-black-church","tag-southern-california"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - 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