Free Drinks For LA and the Birth of Grace Cafe Outreach

As a church planter in Los Angeles I am always looking for creative and effective ways to reach the community for Christ. Since launching Grace City LA last September, I have had the privilege of exposing people in my congregation to the beauty of expository preaching, Christ-centered praise music, and fellowship that mixes people of all age and ethnic backgrounds.Since day one, we also started evangelism, which is one of the pillars of our philosophy of ministry. We have had an exciting door-to-door ministry in which we systematically visit houses, apartments, parks, and even religious establishments next to our church to proclaim the good news of the gospel to our neighbors. We have also experimented with creative ways to connect with Angelenos in the community. The most recent idea was a Sushi Night in which we served free sushi to our neighbors and used that as a platform to preach the gospel to the visitors.Just recently, we decided to do something called Grace Cafe Outreach. The whole idea behind this was giving out free coffee from our little booth to people walking down the streets of Downtown. Our first occasion was on April 14 in Little Tokyo outside the Japanese Village Plaza.We weren't going to give out just any cheap coffee. We wanted to provide some of the best quality stuff and to give it to people at no charge. The menu of the day was simply Peet's Medium Roast with homemade chocolate and oatmeal cookies individually wrapped. Even our half and half was freshly bought and our sugar was organic. Talk about work and dedication! We made everything beforehand at our church campus before bringing it over to Little Tokyo.The goal of this outreach was twofold:One, to demonstrate the charity of our Lord. By giving onto people freely (and giving great stuff!), we wanted people to see the love of Christ in the church, the same love which He showers upon people so freely in His common grace. In some ways, you can say that it is a picture of Jesus' compassion when He provided for the 5,000 with fish and bread (Matthew 14:13-21). Giving free drinks that makes people glad causes them to ask us about our church and our goals.Two, to proclaim the gospel. This testimony is intended to open up doors for gospel proclamation. At times, we were able to have conversations with people about the hope of eternal life in Christ, or at least to invite them out to church so that they can learn more about Jesus. It was a great way to connect with non-Christians, but also with Christians who are searching for a new church in the DTLA vicinity.We had no idea what the reception was going to be. This coffee idea was something that I heard as a suggestion when I was at an old church a couple years ago, but nobody ever acted on it. It turns out this test run was a success. Many people came to our station to grab some free coffee - both hot and iced. All the business cards ran out. People asked about the whereabouts of Grace City LA. AND three people even prayed to receive Christ as Lord and Savior!This has definitely been one of my most enjoyable outreach events. It was a hot spring Saturday, but our enthusiasm to connect with people and witness for Christ made it all worth it. There are a few things we will modify, but Grace Cafe is something that we plan to be a permanent, ongoing ministry for Grace City LA. We see it as an excellent way to serve the community, bring smiles to many faces, and to expose them to Christ.Our start date will be May 5 (Saturday). We will experiment with new drink options, such as Ice Coffee or Thai Ice Tea, made from scratch and from the best quality ingredients. We want to be able to replicate the quality of the drinks you find at cafes and refreshment shops in the area. And to offer it all at no cost. The best way to keep updated on our schedule - time, location, and menu - is to follow our Instagram and Twitter pages, which is updated constantly.If you are in the Downtown area and are looking for a complimentary Thai Ice Tea and to connect with some great people, then visit us at Grace Cafe. Events like this don't come around too often. We delight in serving the city and giving back to the community.Steve Cha is the teaching pastor of Grace City LA.PHOTOS: Grace City LA.

Love LA Launches To Demonstrate and Proclaim The Gospel 24/7

Editor's Note: Below is an announcement from Love L.A., which is "a week of the citywide church coming together to engage the heart of God in worship and prayer and out of His presence to go forth and engage our culture with acts of love and the proclamation of gospel truth," organizers said.Friends of the gospel and lovers of L.A. -

FINAL LIVE TRAINING

It’s almost here. After nine months of laboring, meeting with pastors and building lifelong relationships, preaching the gospel all over the city and mobilizing the churches, we are excited to announce the FINAL LIVE TRAINING EVENT on Saturday (10/28/17) from 12 - 4 pm at St. James Methodist Church which is located at 2033 East Washington Boulevard in Pasadena, CA. You must complete a training event to participate in outreaches throughout the week. You do not need to complete training before the launch outreach, but you will need to complete training to participate in any other Love L.A. outreaches. Spanish translation will be available (Traduccion en espanol sera disponible).

LAUNCH EVENT

Then we will have dinner and re-gather for the LAUNCH EVENT for LOVE L.A. at the same location on Saturday from 6 pm -12 am. We will be engaging God’s heart with believers from all over Los Angeles and establishing a resting place for the manifest presence of God, and then from that place of corporate encounter, we will be sending worship and outreach teams to 20 different locations. A fragrance to Jesus will rise from all over Los Angeles as we begin to gather in the harvest and demonstrate and proclaim the gospel. Please invite friends to come and be part of the launch event.

ALTERNATIVE TRAINING

For those who are not able to complete the live training event (which is preferred), video training will be available online or on location in the training room at the Love L.A. Firebase.

FIREBASE LOCATION

The Firebase is where we will be doing 24/7 worship and prayer as well as 24/7 outreach. After the launch event, 24/7 worship will continue at the Pasadena International House of Prayer (PIHOP) which is located at 1403 North Lake Avenue in Pasadena, CA. Make sure you check in at the info desk at 1401 North Lake Avenue and then go into the prayer room at 1403 or head to the briefing room to go on outreach.

GIVE

Please give generously to Love LA. Take a minute to pray about donating online now at www.lovela247.com.Burning for Jesus and the Harvest,Love LA  

10,000 at SoCal Harvest Ask Jesus Into Their Life at Angel Stadium and Online

ANAHEIM, Calif. — More than 10,000 people made professions of faith in Jesus Christ over the 3-night (Aug. 18-20) SoCal Harvest evangelistic event held at Angel Stadium in Anaheim with more than 138,000 watching in attendance and online.The follow-up to the throng of new believers began each night when those walking onto the outfield grass first prayed to receive Jesus, were met by a volunteer field counselor, and asked to give their contact information, including the church that may have invited them to the event.Richard Garcia, of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, is the lead pastor over the follow-up team for Harvest events and at the church just east of Orange County.Garcia said he enjoys his job so much that it’s hard for him to think of what he does as work. He’s been at every Harvest event since the first one held 27 years ago, first attending, then the next one as a follow-up worker. “I never stopped. I just kept going on,” he said.When asked by TogetherLA.net what he finds most exciting about leading Harvest’s follow-up team, he said, “It has to be hanging around new believers because they have new believers zeal. It’s kind of like that new car smell, but I think of it as times (multiplied by) a billion, that zeal that they have when they first accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. They are on fire.“As much as they need me as the mature Christian, I need them as well because they are on fire and so it’s contagious. I’m contagious to them and they are contagious to me because I get reminded of ‘going back to your first love’ (Rev 2:4). I see them cry (in joy) and raise up their hands during worship, and I’m excited. My passion comes from them.”

This year’s SoCal Harvest came on the heels of the chaos in Charlottesville and high political tension in the nation. Greg Laurie kicked off the outreach on the first night with his message, “A Second Chance for America.”“The solution for America is not a political one, it's a spiritual one,” Laurie told the crowd on Friday. “We need God.”Harvest’s executive pastor, John Collins, told TLA that current events such as the tragedy in Charlottesville coming right before SoCal Harvest often serve as a catalyst for the message of hope delivered by Laurie and musical guests.“Those kind of things provide a great platform from which you can present the Gospel,” Collins said. “The answer isn’t cutting off free speech or protesting. The best option that we have is to simply present the Gospel. This provides a backdrop from which the Gospel can be shared.”He added, “In the Church we all come together under the banner of Christ and there’s no barriers. All those barriers were knocked down according to Ephesians. The Lord did away with those through the sacrifice of Jesus. Even though it seems to be a bad week for the nation, it’s a great rally time for the Church.”

Behind the Scenes Harvest America and NAMB Unify Christians, Churches

Behind the scenes of Harvest America 2017 in Phoenix on Sunday (June 11), a huge urban outreach partnership between the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) Crossover Arizona and Greg Laurie’s Harvest America was a success story on many levels.The two organizations joined forces to host a three-day evangelistic outreach in Phoenix that involved training, street evangelism and service projects before culminating in Harvest America’s Sunday night crusade, NAMB reported.“God is faithful to glorify His name! 38,000 people came to #CrossoverArizona with Harvest America, and 42,305 people watched the live stream from 83 different countries,” stated NAMB. “But it gets better—2,904 stepped forward in the stadium and decided to follow Jesus and hundreds more committed online! All glory and thanksgiving to God as we anticipate what He will do next year in Dallas.”NAMB also reported that another 494 indicated that they had made salvation decisions online.Fifty Crossover volunteers gathered on Saturday (June 10) to fix up Arizona homes, Josie Bingham wrote in an article for NAMB. "They repaired plumbing, cleaned houses, painted walls and landscaped yards during the 'Love in Action' service project at several transitional houses owned by Dream City Church and its affiliate, Dream Center.TogetherLA.net spoke with Joel Southerland, who is the Director of Evangelism with North American Mission Board, backstage at Harvest America on Sunday and was asked more about the partnership with Harvest.“What we’re doing here is called Crossover and it happens every year around the Southern Baptist Convention,” Southerland told TLA. “We do an evangelistic effort around our annual meeting and have been doing so since the late 80s.’He added, “We felt like this partnership would give us the biggest reach we’ve ever had for a Crossover event. Greg and his team met with us and it was great from the very beginning.”More than 400 churches in the Phoenix area and Arizona area partnered to host and participate in Crossover Arizona and Harvest America. More than 5,000 volunteers signed up to be a part of the event from Arizona and from around the nation. “It’s a really Kingdom-minded effort between Southern Baptist Churches and even non-Southern Baptist Churches of similar theologies that are coming together and preaching the gospel,” Southerland said.[gallery type="slideshow" ids="2904,2901,2905,2906" orderby="rand"]“For us it’s been a great experience of churches coming together,” he continued. “When we got together 16 months ago with the Phoenix leadership team and cast the vision, the leadership team from the very beginning was really excited about the ability to partner and have that unity around the city and have that unified vision of reaching as many people as we can with the gospel in the Phoenix area.”Southerland said that NAMB has a “great network of churches,” including in the Phoenix area where the Southern Baptist churches are greatly respected. “Harvest and Greg Laurie have a great reputation in this area. So, I think that when we take our great network and the network and reputation of Harvest and Greg Laurie that already existed it was just easy to match. I don’t think unity was ever a problem from day one.”When asked about the way urban outreach fits into the event, he said, “We have 32 focus cities all around the United States, all major cities, and Phoenix is one of those cities. We have a big church planting effort that goes on in all of those 32 cities. Doing it in an urban context fits right into our philosophy of ministry.”What about non-Southern Baptist churches with perhaps a different theology?“If your main goal is to reach people with the gospel we are willing to partner and see that happen,” Southerland said.

WATCH Harvest America 2017 from Phoenix [VIDEO]

TogetherLA.net to LIVESTREAM Harvest America 2017

When world-renowned evangelist Greg Laurie takes the stage at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona this Sunday, a life-changing message of hope will go global, organizers said. Harvest America 2017, an unprecedented, one-day evangelistic outreach, will bring the love of Christ "live" to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.The TogetherLA.net website has been officially named as a platform to livestream Harvest America 2017 with Greg Laurie, scheduled for this Sunday (June 11) in the University of Phoenix stadium and as a nationwide live simulcast beginning at 5 pm (PT).Simply go to TogetherLA.net to watch the Harvest America 2017 broadcast on Sunday."Just before He returned to Heaven, Jesus instructed His disciples to take His Gospel message to the ends of the earth," said Laurie, founder of the Harvest America outreach. "With state-of-the art technology and the help of our partners, TBN and the Southern Baptist Convention, we are responding to Christ's challenge with a one-night, global outreach unlike anything done before," added Laurie, who has been called "the evangelist of the future" by Billy Graham and has been leading Harvest events for more than a quarter century.While technology will be used to reach a national and international audience, hands and feet will be at work reaching those in the Phoenix area. Thousands of volunteers from the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting, which will take place in Phoenix just after Harvest America, will serve in various capacities to engage and interact with attendees and the wider community before, during and after the one-night event.In addition to the message of hope delivered by Laurie, Harvest America will feature music from top name Christian artists including NEEDTOBREATHE, MercyMe, Jordin Sparks, Trip Lee, Phil Wickham and Brennley Brown. Harvest America is free to attend and open to all who come—in person, online, or via the live satellite broadcast.Founded in 1990 by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside and Irvine, Calif., and Maui, Hawaii, Harvest Crusade events have been attended by more than 7.6 million people worldwide, both in-person and via live Internet broadcasts. In 2012, a new nationwide simulcast called Harvest America was born, expanding the reach of the gospel even further. The 2016 Harvest America event, held at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, was live streamed to more than 7,200 remote host locations and drew a combined 357,000 participants, making it the largest one-day live evangelistic event in American history.

Harvest Crusades Story: ‘I’d Been a Meth Addict For Over 20 Years’