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Featured Alum: Nick Warnes
The time that I spent at Fuller Seminary as a Master’s of Divinity student with an emphasis in Worship, Theology and Art was invaluable in preparing my wife and I for the work of church planting in the bohemian rim of Los Angeles. I remember sitting in class with Dr. Dyrness in the winter of 2006 and feeling inspired by the potential for reconciliation through the medium of art in our urban centers. These inspirations were the beginnings of our community, Northland Village Church. What began in Payton 103, is now more fully manifesting itself in our church plant.
The heartbeat of Northland Village is to participate with God in God’s ministry of reconciliation. Following what Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians, verses 5:18-19, we have been articulating that we want to pursue God’s ministry of reconciliation with the “postmodern urban” rim of Los Angeles. As we have been studying this part of the city, mainly Silver Lake and Atwater Village, we have been amazed at the expansive quantity of “dechurched” people in our neighborhood.
As we all know, the church is not perfect and has hurt many people in history. Understandably, this pain that the church has caused has led people to leave the ecclesia. We at Northland Village want to pursue people who have been hurt by the church and create spaces for humble conversations to aid in reconciliation. 92.5 percent of people in America believe in God, yet only 17.1 percent of people in America are in church on any given weekend, and the numbers are even lower in Los Angeles. This is a large discrepancy, and we think that a central reason for the difference in these numbers is that people in America have been hurt. We believe that the church is the hope of the world, and we desire to aid in bridging this gap of hope through art and various other channels of grace.
The Greek word for reconciliation is katallasso. This is a compound word. Kata means “to come alongside”. Allos means “the other”. There are all kinds of “others” in Los Angeles and our hearts break that the church has participated in creating “others” in society. Will you please think and pray about joining us as we participate in God’s ministry of “coming alongside the other”, in order that we might remind all people of God’s great act of reconciliation through Jesus? Our official launch team meetings begin on Sunday, September 13th. If you are interested in hearing more about the details of Northland Village Church, or our dreams of reconciliation, please feel free to connect with me at any time… I’ll buy the coffee!
Grace and peace,
Nick Warnes
818-859-9108
PDF of Northland Village Church's Statements
PDF of Northland Village Church's 4 Stage Launch Process