Dream Awakener

My Faith Community
The name of the local church that I serve is Kairos Hollywood. We are a congregation located in Hollywood, California. We are part of a new network of churches called Kairos Los Angeles, which I also serve. Kairos Los Angeles is part of a larger network called the Ecclesia Network, which is a network of missional churches. If you want to learn more about what I do, you can look at my bio, or visit the staff part of our website at Kairos Los Angeles. These are the staff that serve at our three locations - Kairos Hollywood, Kairos West LA and the newly developing Kairos South LA.

My Neighborhood
I live in Los Angeles, CA. The Greater Los Angeles area has a population of 17.6 million, metro area is home to 12.9 million residents; the county of Los Angeles has just more than 10 million people living in it, while the city proper has just over 4 million residents. You can find some of these details at LA Almanac.

The East Hollywood Neighborhood Council Governing Board

The city of Los Angeles is divided up into seven areas and Hollywood is located in what is known as the Central Area. Hollywood is divided into roughly three primary sections. There is West Hollywood (its own city), Hollywood, and East Hollywood. Our congregation is located in East Hollywood, which was just certified as a neighborhood within the city of Los Angeles in 2007, although its history goes back much further. I was elected to be a part the first East Hollywood Neighborhood Council. You can see the diversity of our board in our group photo. I have to say that it has been a real pleasure to serve with this board, and I feel that as I have gotten to know each of them better, I have gotten to know my neighborhood better. For each of our council members represents various parts of our neighborhood. And each of us have a desire to help our neighborhood become all she was designed to be.

East Hollywood Neighborhood Boundaries

With a population of 51,000, East Hollywood is a 1.8 square-mile area, which is bordered by the famous Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards to the north, Hoover Street to the East, the 101 Freeway to the south, and Western Avenue to the West. Our neighborhood is diverse in ethnicity, culture, and worldviews. East Hollywood is home to Little Armenia and Thai Town as well as a diverse group of immigrants, including El Salvadorians, Mexicans, Filipinos, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Indonesians, Eastern Europeans, as well as Middle Easterners. Each of the various people groups bring a little of their culture and faith to our neighborhood. For example, if you are Armenian, Thai, Korean, El Salvadorian, or any other major people group in the area, you are likely to find businesses that cater to your particular needs. One can enjoy cuisine from around the world, delivered by people from
that particular country.

Not only do people bring their food and businesses from across the ocean, but they bring their spirituality with them as well. For instance, in our little neighborhood of East Hollywood, you will find a Thai Buddhist monastery, a Self Realization Fellowship (a mixture of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism), a Jewish Temple, a Japanese Tenrikyo church, as well as a huge Scientology training center, and t our border is the Islamic Center for Southern California.

While various faith traditions are represented in our neighborhood, you can also find churches from each of the three major branches of Christianity – Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. We have a Russian Orthodox and Ukrainian Orthodox church in our neighborhood. There are many flavors of Catholics including a Polish Catholic congregation, a Ukrainian Catholic congregation as well as Catholic Evangelical Pentecostal congregations. The traditional Roman Catholic Church in our neighborhood
has services in Spanish, English, and Tagalog.

The Protestants are represented in a variety of ways, too. From the Trinity Episcopalian Church to Christ Presbyterian to Korean Full Gospel. There are Armenian churches as well as a Japanese church. We have non-denominational and inter- denominational groups. We have large churches, neighborhood churches, house churches, and simple churches. East Hollywood is a very spiritual place, though according to percept, 49 percent of the people here have no faith, as opposed to the 35 percent national average.

It is also a very artistic place. Being in Hollywood, there are many people who are involved in the entertainment industry in one way or another. There are writers, actors, singers, and set designers. There are radio producers, musicians, costume designers, and producers. It is home to Barnsdall Park, which has rotating art exhibitions as well as the Hollyhock house - the first Los Angeles project designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

East Hollywood is an educational place, for it is home to Los Angeles City College and close by is the University of Southern California. It is also a place to get physically well, for we are home to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and Queen of Angels – Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. Our neighborhood is a transitional place. The cost of living is high, but the median family income is low - $24,206, while the estimated median house value is $720,000 for the Hollywood area. The vast majority of people are renters – 88 percent, with only 8 percent of the population living in homes they own.11 It is not uncommon to find a couple of families living together in one house or finding more people living in a one bedroom apartment than is legal. We also have a number of illegal immigrants who live in the area as well as some people who are homeless.

East Hollywood is a young neighborhood: 46 percent of the population is 29 or younger, and only 10 percent of the population is 65 or older. The next-largest segments are as follows: there are 18 percent between the ages of 30-39, 14 percent between the ages of 40-49, and finally 12 percent who are between 50-64 years old. The male/female ratio is even at 50 percent, and the major ethnic groups in order of presence are 55 percent Latino, 22 percent White, 15 percent Asian, 5 percent mixed, 3 percent Black.

So this little neighborhood of 51,000, tucked into the huge metropolis of Los Angeles, is diverse, spiritual, artistic, blue collar, and transient. It is a place of legal and illegal immigrants, a place well known yet unknown. It is a church planter’s paradise.