new city brings new religious life to downtown
New City Church of Los Angeles is hoping that Downtown loft dwellers aren’t cynical about religion. In fact, it’s counting on them not to be.
Held up as a non-denominational, multi-ethnic Christian organization, New City Church will be having its grand opening this Sunday when it takes over Club 740 inside Broadway’s historic Globe Theater for holier purposes. (The church will be renting and operating there on Sunday mornings only.)
The launching of a new church in Downtown is yet another sign that the neighborhood is beginning to thrive as a diverse center for civic, cultural and religious life.
As part of its core mission in being grounded in Downtown, New City seeks to reach a cross-section of the population, from those living on the streets to residents of the new luxury condo towers in South Park.
Kevin Haah, a former Downtown attorney turned pastor, leads the the assemblage each week and aspires to appeal to diversity of all kinds — laying out a “come as you are” welcoming mat to his Sunday morning sermons.
Children’s services are available, and the church also offers smaller Bible study sessions and a newly-established food pantry ministry.
New City Church
Grand Opening September 14, 2008
Sundays at 10:00am
newcitychurchla.com
Club 740
740 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014
15 comments
This is cool
there is a Multi thousand church in one of the buildings on Santafe and 7th
I’ve gone to that one…
Just want to let you know that the entrance to the church (Club 740) is behind Broadway in the alley between Broadway and Spring. It is a come-as-you-are church. I hope you can join us this Sunday for our Grand Opening. Check out our website for tons more information: http://www.newcitychurchla.com
Kevin
Lead Pastor
Does this mean the club will no longer be active?
What does this mean for the future of the Globe?
It is one of the theaters that collectively form the Broadway Theater District, the third largest theater district in the world.
True, ours is a lot more under-utilized than either New York’s or London’s, and one could argue that as long as it is used as a church it is not being demolished, like the California Theater was back in 1989. And having been here for that demolition, I never thought I would live long enough to to see someone put up the money to restore theaters like the Orpheum, Million Dollar and Palace. But over the past few years, people have. And with the Bringing Back Broadway initiative, one could hope that even more of these old theaters would be restored and reopened for either movie screenings or live performances. One could even hope that in the future, when someone comments that L.A. has the third largest theater district in the world, that the comment is no longer met with laughter because those theaters are once again functioning.
So for that, I am sorry to hear that this theater is now being used as a church.
I agree with Tim. These theater owners should be actively putting capital into the theaters like Steve Needleman did for the Orpheum and attracting entertainment-oriented programs to give these once electric-theaters a second chance at life.
However, the Globe unfortunately has little hope because the Club 740 apparently uses the actual theater space for their clubbing area. Unless the owner poured in millions and millions of dollars, it wouldn’t be able to go back to its original function as a theater.
Regardless, churches, etc. should not be taking over these theater store fronts. There are plenty of empty spaces elsewhere, on Broadway even, that could be revamped and used as church space with church signage.
The theatre is actually not being “taken over” by the church. It’s only being rented for a few hours on Sunday mornings. It’s the same thing that has been happening with the Mayan Theatre on Sunday mornings which is being rented out by Mosaic Church. I think you should clarify this in the article so as not to have people up in arms.
740 club is not a place for religion. i find this to be a weird choice for a religious service.
Kevin Haah,
Have you attended 740 club at night?
Hey guys, Club 740 is not shutting down. New City Church is just renting the space from Club 740 on Sunday mornings only.
Ken, I’ve dropped by Club 740 during a concert the other night.
We’ve chosen the space because it works for us in terms of size, space, ambience, parking, location, rental price, etc. We wanted to be at the center of downtown because we are a downtown church and we wanted to be close enough for people in lofts and skid row to be able to walk because we are an inclusive multi-socioeconomic church. We have people walking from various parts of downtown.
I think if you get to know us that we are a come-as-you-are church, you’ll understand why we decided on Club 740.
It takes some work to set up for church on sunday mornings. We start the set up process at 7am. But, it totally gets transformed into a sacred space. We don’t have pews; we sit around tables. We have candles. We have warm lights. You should come and check it out, it’s unexpectedly warm.
Also, we transform the basement for children’s ministry every Sunday morning. It becomes very different than what it is and very kids friendly. You can see some pictures from our website: http://www.newcitychurchla.com and click on newcitykidz. We’ll have more pix up after the Grand Opening this Sunday.
The New City Church people came into my gallery during art walk on Thursday and started handing out flyers to my visitors, right INSIDE my business. We had to ask them to leave, then they tried to do it right in front of our door, so we asked them to move away from the front door.
Not exactly a good first impression.
Dear Bert,
I am so sorry about that. The last thing we want to be is pushy because that’s not what we are about. As anyone can find out by visiting us, we are a very inclusive congregation where people can come as they are and not feel any pressure.
Thanks for letting me know.
Kevin Haah
Lead Pastor
Its not unusual for theaters to be rented out on sunday mornings for religious worship. Not just theaters like this, but normal movie theaters as well.
Great, just what we need, a space for a bunch of deluded irrational people to practice their ridiculous, primitive and historically destructive superstition. This is good why exactly?
it brings more people into the neighborhood, hopefully supporting other businesses in the vicinity. i tend to roll with a large crew (11 disciples) and i know that after service i’m famished and we’ll likely be seeking out nearby restaurants with brunch offerings that can take a party of 12 guys.
The more use for the venue the better. The Theater is still in pretty good shape inside and deserves all the eyes it can get.
Funny thing is I’ve gone to Shts and Giggles a couple of times but I’m more attracted to the theaters eye candy then the guys hehe.
The point here is that downtown redevelopment is more than just about new retail and restaurants – it’s also about the development of cultural and civic life, of which religion is a hallmark institution. Unlike Mosaic, which draws many from outside the community to downtown, New City is specifically targeted at downtown. This is significant. From what I know, it joins First Methodist (on Flower and Olympic – a tiny congregation- http://firstlaumc.cal-pac.org/) and the Cathedral, along with Mosaic and some of the Latino storefront churches on Broadway. Are there other churches (temples, or whatever) downtown other than these?)