by Dave Kludt of Kairos Hollywood
So far, 2011 has been spent deepening roots in a city with tough soil. Over the last few years, Kairos Hollywood has rounded the five-year mark as a church plant and we’re now approaching ten, with the last few years being marked by significant change and transition. While instability is one of the more common threads connecting new city dwellers in Los Angeles, and especially Hollywood, this year in particular we have been trying to practice and live into some of the long-term rootedness we feel God calling us to.
Throughout the summer, we have limited our large (usually weekly) Sunday Gathering to every other week in order to give our community the time, space, and energy to engage our neighbors and city in new ways. In the last few months, our mid-sized communities have adopted “City Ministries” – long-term, regular partnerships or commitments to join God’s redemptive work with a specific demographic or location in mind. We desire to see these ministry partnerships grow deep into the DNA of Kairos Hollywood and our neighborhood.
We’ve continued to prune and cultivate our church structure to be more conducive to discipleship. We are now working to begin the third round of “discipleship workshops,” intentionally small, committed, and closed groups focused on spiritual formation and discipleship. While we don’t think there is a “silver bullet” that can cure the church’s discipleship problem, we are moving forward in faith that the people of Kairos will “clothe themselves in Christ” allowing our community in Hollywood to better reflect Christ’s redemptive work.
While there’s always more room to grow and live into God’s new reality for our city, it’s exciting to see that “it’s happening.” Our desire to see our community experience life and breakthrough in our relationship with God – it’s happening. Our desire to grow deeper in our relationships with each other – it’s happening. Our desire to see Kairos Hollywood move past the walls of the “church building” and “be the church” in our city – it’s happening.
Our prayer is that, God-willing, these things will continue to happen as our community continues to live into God’s faithful promises.