Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART III: P LANTING U RBAN C HURCHES • 403

at Biola. Three students from one of her classes were on a team together with the assignment to pick an area in LA County to research in depth, explore, observe, participate in, then report on. These three students not only scrapped the work they had been doing in another area to come work with me and start over in Hollywood, they were also excited to do so, had a disproportionately large amount of experience in missions work for their young age, and committed to working with me and helping me through the entire school year in whatever way they could (way beyond the limits and responsibilities of their research project). Lastly, John Suarez, a powerfully evangelistic and prayerful brother in the Lord with me was interceding for me in a group prayer meeting on Friday of that same week. The group was specifically praying for me and for what area God might lead me to in my church plant. John relayed to me how while he was praying and listening to what God might have to say about this, all he could hear from him repeatedly was “Hollywood.” This was the strongest and most overwhelming confirmation to me of all of them. After confirming Hollywood through these means and having it approved of by the leadership, all of which took about six months, the specific target area within Hollywood had to be chosen. After a few months of processing through all the issues with leadership which go hand in hand with the seriousness of choosing a brand new church plant area for the Los Angeles ministry, in January of 2003 the official and final stamp of approval was given to the Church Plant Team (CPT) to go ahead with Hollywood as the target area. The CPT at that point consisted of myself and Susie Kook, but we had a generous helping of volunteers, intercessors, and a few support members (who were also interested in possibly joining the team when the time was right). In February of 2003, over the course of two Saturdays, two different groups of 10 people each gathered to canvas 5 different areas of South Hollywood. A week of survey development and strategic neighborhood location scouting was done before this in preparation. The goal was to get a good idea, through surveying a goal of 500 households, which neighborhoods were the most open, fitting the category of urban poor, with the least representation of existing churches and church members. The five areas canvassed were the “Tropicana area,” “LeConte MS area,” “Hollywood Rec Center area,” “Lemon Grove Park area,” and the Ramona Street ES area.” Teams of two went to each area to collect as many surveys as possible in the course of a few hours. The goal in this was quantity, not necessarily relationships. We were open to seeing what doors might be open in the future to develop relationships, but our primary goal was to get a good snapshot of each area. After the two Saturdays were over, the surveys were compiled, summarized, and