What is happening in Compton?

A Current Report by Mike & Tonya Herman, Here’s Life Inner City- Los Angeles

July 8, 2007

The Context

Almost 15 years ago Tonya and I began to serve in Compton. We were young, bright-eyed, and wanted to change the whole world, not to mention Compton.

We had big ideas of what we wanted to see happen and especially what we wanted to help see happen. We had long-term visions. These visions had youth growing into college graduates, staying in Compton and leading the city, families reuniting, staying together, churches connecting, empowering and developing their neighbors in the love of Christ, races coming together, and the city turning into something that looks different, improved -- probably something more like where we had come from. But that was us, our plans. Now we know they were more Mike & Tonya sized plans, than God-sized plans.

However, as time went on we learned that God’s plans often take different forms and have different timelines.

We have had many ups and downs. Some of the families we invested ourselves in moved away, one in particular under darkness of night just hours before their house was shot up by a gang. Some youth went to jail. Some girls got pregnant. Some joined gangs. A few parents were washed away in the tidal waves of drugs and other addictions. The biggest hurt is still leaving our church due to tremendous inner conflict and turmoil, after ten years of blood, sweat and tears. The loss was great for us, but also the kids and the community as well. During that time especially, we went to sleep many a night confused, frustrated and tired.

We have also had numerous joys. They usually took the form of relationships we found here; Tenesha, Tamika and Tamara, sisters who lived in our first apartment complex that accepted Christ in our living room, Louquitta, our oldest Los Angeles S.A.Y. Yes! alumni who recently graduated with her Master’s Degree from Howard University and other long, close relationships with youth like America, Brandy, and Stefan. And especially our adopted family, Ms. Vicenta, Isabel, Ramiro, Jose and Marleny. Isabel had been our first “life-style” disciple. We had her over all the time and she went with us wherever we went. Now, Ramiro lives with us and Jose and Marleny are over all the time. They think we bless them, but they bless us. As Vicenta has allowed us access to their family and children, Ramiro and Jose have blessed us with allowing us to love them and have given us the gift of adopting us as family.

Now

In the last two years, we have seen unprecedented things happen in Compton.

It actually started about four or five years ago when we noticed that ministries all over LA County began independently praying talking about revival, even here in Compton.

We have identified ten areas that express what is happening towards what we believe is the beginning of the transformation of Compton.

1. Churches coming together in unity

From historic relationships of 50 years plus to brand new partnerships, collaboration is the new spirit among the active churches in Compton. This has been modeled by Citizen’s of Zion MBC and Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church whose pastors came together to form W.I.T.H. (Welcoming Intervention Toward Healing to Compton) to focus the Church on the city’s gang situation. W.I.T.H. offers innovation programming and actively reaches out to the schools and all the churches in Compton. The leadership of W.I.T.H. is African-American and Latino, demonstrating a strong model of reconciliation for the city.

The Salvation Army- Compton Corps also emulates unity. Captains Martin and Tori Ross have been overseeing the Compton ministry for the last four years and have repeatedly vocalized to the pastors and churches of the city that we all share the Salvation Army facility. Now it hosts a wide variety of community activities and many community leader and pastor events.

2. Prayer

In any great revival, prayer has been at the absolute core. In Compton, there seems to have always been associations of pastors getting together. However, in recent months the effort has become much more fervent. From local crisis such as the state takeover of Compton Community College to the rise and fall of homicides, and community economic needs, the prayers of spiritual leaders have developed a more crucial and focused intensity.

The monthly Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast has also resulted in a positive upturn in pastoral commitment and involvement.

I believe possibly the most amazing and unifying sign of prayer is the new monthly prayer time hosted by Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church and their newly appointed priest Father Francisco. This time is attended by most of the most active churches in the informally structured transformation network. This, I feel can become the foundation of what will happen in the next few years.

3. Key people in key City positions

With Compton’s history of corrupt local politics, God has done amazing things in the last few years. Currently, strong Godly people are in each major city position. This includes city government, the school board and the Sheriff's Department.

Under the administration of the former mayor, who referred to himself as the “Gangster Mayor” the Compton Police was disbanded and the LA County Sheriff Department were brought in. What was intended for evil God has used for good. Sheriff Baca has brought in additional deputies that he paid for with his budget, and under his leadership the homicide rate dropped from an alarming 72 in 2005 to 38 in 2006. Many of these sheriff deputies are also strong believers, like both Captains that have led the Compton Station as well as many that lead the Sheriff Department’s Youth Athletic League (YAL) and one of the fastest churches in Compton, Faith Inspirational MBC. The pastor at Faith Inspirational, Rafer Owens is a Community Relations Deputy. Pastor Owens Associate Pastor is also a Compton Deputy who he won to the Lord while in the job!

One incredibly innovative thing the Compton Station was able to do was implement a Citizen’s Academy, where local citizen’s are able to attend and graduate from a slimmed down version of the Sheriff’s Academy. In Compton, many clergy have graduated from this program and it has radically changed these perspectives on policing and law enforcement. That perspective change is now being communicated from many of Compton’s pulpits, which is very significant.

4. Mayor’s paradigm shift

As stated above, God has given our city a new mayor that loves Him. In 2007, he has led the city council in changing the city motto from, “The Hub City”, denoting Compton’s important central location within LA County to “Birthing a New Compton” (see the logo at the top of this document). This has sparked a new mindset within the city, not only to its employees but to it’s residents as well. Banners now fly around the city displaying the logo and motto, city hall proudly displays it on a huge sign covering a predominant outside wall.

Building & Maintenance Departments have refocused energy to clean up the city by removing outdated signs and graffiti (See Compton Initiative). The citizens are and will continue to catch on!

5. Economic development

For years, as we have lived here Compton has had one of the highest property taxes in the state. We were once told it was the second highest next to Beverly Hills. This is primarily due to the lack of a commercial tax base with not enough businesses.

Now, under this administration we are getting a brand new shopping complex with a Target, Best Buy, Staples, Chili’s, Jamba Juice, Ross, and many more recognizable stores. This is absolutely huge for Compton! Small name chain stores here can raise prices because residents often do not have transportation. A lack of these resources leads to a lack of options. Now with a shopping center big enough to be a regional draw this will ensure fair pricing and fair choices for Compton residents, as well as provide the City with much more in terms of a tax base. It will also attract other stable companies as well!

Magic Johnson and Starbucks have placed 3 of their Urban Coffee Opportunity Starbuck Coffeehouses in Compton, which are specifically directed to underrepresented areas. Very fun for us!

The faith-sector is getting more intentional as well in this area. July 12^th is the target date for Faith Inspirational MBC’s opening of their Marble Slab Creamery. This store’s proceeds will go to help fund the church and its outreach to the community as well as provide jobs and job training to the community.

6. Sheriff Dept./Crime rates

I mentioned this earlier, but it is significant enough for it to be its own category. The lowered crime rate, specifically homicide rate is extremely crucial and has far reaching effects. From resident safety to business confidence to law enforcement relations this simple statistic is incredibly important. Also incredibly important is the follow-up stat of homicides for 2007. And as of the end of June we were at 17 homicides for the year.

Churches, civic groups, schools, seemingly everyone is watching and/or praying for this issue.

7. Private/Public partnerships

There is a growing awareness and cooperation between private and public entities.

The newest and best example is what is known as the Advanced Surveillance and Protection Plan. This is a 1-2 million dollar, state of the art crime detection system. This will greatly empower the Sheriff Department to effectively carry out its mission with the ASAP programs Acoustic Gunshot Detection Technology and Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) Technology. This is brand new technology that not too many places have.

The remarkable thing of this project is its private funding. The Belkin Corporation and Target Corporation are the sole funders of this endeavor. Belkin is a world-leading computer and electronics peripheral manufacturing company who is intentionally located in Compton. Target is a national leading retailer who is building a brand new store which will anchor a new shopping complex in Compton right off the 91 freeway (see Economic Development).

8. The Compton Initiative

Last December our church in Paramount (where we have been attending for the last 3.5 years) has partnered with the City of Compton.

They had been quite involved in seeing the City of Paramount turn around. A 1982 Rand report spotlighted Paramount's troubles and called it one of the nation's worst cities. In 1988 Paramount received the All-America City Award for its neighborhood upgrading and public safety programs. Emmanuel was at the forefront of this change. The church was asked by the city to participate in city beautification programs such as house painting, and over 500 homes were painted.

The church continued to be involved in innovative solutions such as a city, business and church partnership in an after-school tutoring program and college scholarship venture called the Paramount Education Project (PEP).

After seeing all the amazing God-sized changes in their own city they felt called to turn toward their neighbor, Compton. Just down the street is the Alondra bridge over the 710 freeway and the LA Riverbed where Paramount transitions into Compton. It’s a bridge, but it has often served as a barrier between the cities.

The church's leadership felt God’s call to change that. Their partnership of Compton meant asking permission from spiritual and city leaders to come in and serve and “just do good”.

The Initiative is divided into areas such as “Churches”, “Business”, “Education”, “Prayer”, “Sports” and “Serve Days”.

Every other month, the church brings between 300-400 volunteers to help clean, rebuild or rehab 9-15 worksites. These sites are churches, congregant homes, schools, parks, vacant lots or resident homes in disrepair.

This has had a profound impact not only on the City of Compton but especially on this church from Paramount, itself.

Men in the construction trade called these work days “therapy”, families brought their children; people went into Compton for the first time in years. Congregants began to understand God’s call to love our neighbor like never before.

In Compton, other churches began to catch the vision as well. They not only had their sites improved but brought their members to help in other locations. Neighborhoods begin to be blessed, like Piru Street, infamous for being the birthplace of the Blood street gang.

The pastor was invited to speak before a City Council meeting, a School Board meeting and a keynote speaker at June 2007 Compton Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast.

The next Saturday after this Prayer Breakfast was the first time the City of Compton employees joined in on a Compton Initiative Day and volunteers went to six specific sites for the City to help in their efforts of beautification.

Just a year and a half into this and approximately twelve churches have already participated in bringing out some of their members, now the City has also participated. The intermediate goal for each work day is 300+ volunteers from the Paramount church, 300+ from the City and 300+ from the other Compton Churches, which would get close to 1000 people loving the City of Compton one Saturday, every other month!

9. Compton United Soccer Club

The soccer club has come out of our experiences with the youth here in Compton. We have watched Ramiro, one of our S.A.Y. Yes! kids, grow up at our Calvary Baptist S.A.Y. Yes! Center since he was five. He began to play and love soccer, and we loved to watch him.

He played at Dominguez High in Compton where he excelled and his team went to the state playoffs (CIF) each of his last two years. He became a leader on and off the field. He also maintained a very high GPA throughout high school and was accepted into numerous universities.

However his passion was soccer, but he had no soccer opportunities after high school. This was because he did not play in a soccer club and was not recruited at all, even though he had the skill and determination to play at the college level.

As I began to investigate this on his behalf, I found a hidden injustice that was left ignored; inner city youth are virtually locked out of the US Soccer system. Because Ramiro and so many others exactly like him could not afford the high cost of club soccer they did not have the access to college recruiting, Olympic Development Programs (ODP), tournaments, state championships, traveling, etc. that other suburban players had. After talking to many soccer people in the know, I was challenged to start an urban soccer club in Compton. So we did. We took the principles we learned and built on in our youth development ministry, and adapted them into a youth soccer program.

Compton United focuses on five stages of development; athletic, academic, character/spiritual, leadership and community. This is a community collaboration that brings together different entities in the public, private and faith-based sectors.

Currently, Compton United is working with the City of Compton, Compton Unified School District, adidas USA, Cal South (US Youth Soccer) and Sheriff Baca to build twelve full-sized soccer-only fields and nine practice fields. This would make Compton the second largest soccer center in LA County! Partnerships with Compton Community College, US Soccer Foundation and local businesses are also in the works for the near future.

A soccer club cannot change a city, but a wholistic soccer club in the context of many other similar objectives can make a significant impact, especially for athletic-oriented youth who would rather be playing on a soccer pitch than in a church on any given Sunday morning.

10. Para-church activities

Our ministry, Here’s Life Inner City, has been active in Compton for as long as we have been here. We also know that Youth for Christ, World Impact, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Lift Up America, Campus Crusade’s Athlete’s in Action and Metro Campus Ministries have all also been involved here. I’m sure there are many others that we don’t even know about.

We all have an intense love for the local church; that is why we do what we do. We all want it to succeed and thrive in Compton.

And we are beginning to understand here what it takes to move from typical ministry to transformational ministry.

We not only need to provide food for the long lines in front of our church buildings, we need to help get those people OUT of that line. We need to provide counseling for the single mother but also provide housing and spiritual nurturing and long term discipleship toward the goal of her being self sustaining.

We are seeing that developmental ministry and a wholistic Gospel is more important than ever. While some churches and ministries have practiced this wholistic ministry for years some are just beginning to understanding it. But corporately as the Body of Christ, were now implementing it more than ever.

For true community change and transformation that endures we need to focus on developmental ministry; ministries to the whole person, so he/she/they can choose on their own to experience all of what God has for them and walk in all of what John 10:10 promises.

Para-church ministries can help equip the Church in this end to be all that it can and was intended to be.

Our Biggest Challenges

We are so excited that God has chosen our city to do this work because He will be glorified! A city with a reputation such as Compton will be known around the world as it transforms!

However, the challenges we now face are still enormous. Compton has been a stronghold for the enemy for many years and he will not let go easily. The City of Compton has influenced culture all across the world and too much of that has been negative. Any change Satan won’t take lightly!

Here are some of our biggest challenges as we see them:

• For each of the 10 points above. These are not listed as strengths, just reference points; we need continual prayer for each of these items.
• The blanket of spiritual, emotional and social apathy that covers the city.
• To keep God’s people in office and bring even more into key positions.
• For the school district to continue to make positive changes.
• For additional public and private partnerships and to even more importantly include the third leg of the tripod, faith-based partnerships.
• Even more depth in spiritual leader’s relationships.
• More businesses and economic development into Compton.
• We need more grassroots economic opportunities; job training, jobs, housing, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, etc.
• Gospel/spiritual relevancy to the youth.
• Some point person/ministry to bring/keep all of these activities and endeavors focused and united.

References:

www.hlic-la.org

www.comptonunited.org

www.urbanfocus.net