Welcome

Welcome to The Shepherd’s Gate Church web site and we want to thank you for visiting us. We are an “open Heaven” church in its most basic sense, i.e. the Lord has taught us how to pray and open the heavens. As we pray, the glory of God and his heavenly host flood the room, and we will enter into worship, ministry and His word. We live in the recognition and anticipation that He wants to fill his children with His Spirit and God never disappoints. Please, join us on one of our Saturday evening services and we can guarantee that your eyes will be opened to the heavens and your perspective on this life will be changed forever (Acts 5:20).

Why Culver City?

We are in Culver City because that’s where He called us first and foremost. However, we must still attempt to understand His plans and purposes for this community and why we are here. We recognize that Culver City is a central player in the activities of the Westside with its borders stretching from La Cienega Boulevard in central Los Angeles nearly to Lincoln Boulevard in Marina del Rey/Venice, but its influence extends well beyond its relatively small population and outward stature.

Culver City's slogan is "The Heart of Screenland” and the movies began here on the city streets and throughout the neighborhoods with the Hal Roach studios putting out 50 comedies per year from such well-known stars as Harold Lloyd, Our Gang, and Laurel and Hardy. Thomas Ince, a famous film producer, was also convinced to move to Culver City where he founded the original facilities for what became MGM Studios, a mini-city in its own right at its peak. Today, it is known as Sony Studios and some of the largest box office films in history were made right here.

But Culver City also has a more sordid side to its history. During the years of prohibition, it became the home for bootleg stills, speakeasies and in the associated activities of prostitution and gambling. The police department apparently looked the other way as many famous bars and nightclubs sprang up on the major boulevards and became Hollywood hotspots for the local studio’s stars. A major shift to change the city's image took place in the early 1980s when plans for a casino backed by Milton Berle were vocally rejected in a town hall meeting when senior citizens remembering the past rose up to do say never again in our town. Today, Culver City is noted to have one of the best police forces in California with an exceptionally low crime rate with criminals knowing that it is easier to avoid capture and conviction a few blocks into the neighboring city of Los Angeles.

Despite its small size of 41,000 inhabitants, Culver City hosts nearly every major world religion either within its boundaries or just across its border and holding influence over the city’s spiritual climate. We have temples/centers for Buddhism, Islam, Hindu, Baha'i, Reformed Jews and various Christian denominations plus a very large Catholic contingent. All this despite the fact that the founder, Harry Culver, was notably against having churches in his city as they did not create revenue, a remaining trait that is especially noisome for ministries to become established in the city. Nevertheless, the spiritual influence for non-Christian religions is quite alarming. For instance, the Islamic Center is often called the most beautiful structure for worship of Allah this side of the Mississippi and is now a major influence in California. Also, a few years ago, the local Wiccans wanted to do their part and made a tour of all other religious institutions in Culver City to "bless" them. We tried to head them off, but found out too late.

So, outside of the interesting information, what does all this actually mean? First, although Hollywood may have the stigma, if not the outward appearance, of one of the prime evil influences on society and the world, where did the principality take its root? It was in Culver City, this quiet bedroom community which has been dominated by movie studios since nearly its inception. Second, in fulfilling its role as influencer and encourager, the city, despite its initial resistance to churches, has now welcomed in practically every religious authority in the world while holding Christian churches at bay.

In our study and prayer for this community, we have come to an understanding of its unique spiritual components and our own unique focus for ministry in the Westside. The Shepherds Gate Church has a calling to change the spiritual atmosphere on the Westside of Los Angeles. The Westside is historically one of the driest areas in the world for the Gospel. It's commonly defined borders are LAX on the south traveling north on La Cienega to Beverly Hills and west across Mulholland to Malibu. This region has nearly one million residents within its borders and many of the wealthiest and most influential people in the world from the entertainment industry. Even if there are some of the rich and famous who do not currently reside here, they either did in the past or will sometime in the future. This is the region that affects the world through movies, television, music, sports, fashion and a host of other cultural trend-setters.

What is even more remarkable is that in the entire history of Los Angeles, there has been only three times that a Protestant Christian Church reached the level of 1000 attendees. (Please remember that a “mega-church” by today’s standards is one of over 2000, so we are not even talking about that level of attendance). In each of these cases, the churches crashed and burned. One went through a moral failure of the pastor, a second through internal division and multiple church splits, and the third actually became a cult.

The dynamic of a mega-church is the evidence of a move of God in a region. When one church breaks through with a large growth rate, it will create both a spiritual and physical impact that will see a multiplication of churches and seeding of congregations in its proximity. Many people are not be comfortable in a very large church and would begin to attend the smaller local congregations, while many individuals would be called to ministry in this move of God yet have a heart for the local community and windup planting another local church. In essence, when the spiritual waters increase, all boats will rise together. To put this in contrast, not in the Greater Los Angeles and Orange County area, nor perhaps in the entire United States, can you find this concentrated a population in an area where the Church has so little growth and impact.

We feel it is our calling to change the spiritual atmosphere in this region to promote the penetration of the Gospel for all those called to work in this geographic area. As perhaps you are aware, there is a spiritual battle taking place for the hearts and souls of mankind. This warfare will continue until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and for us the essence is not to do everything for everybody all the time as is often the case, if not the requirement, for larger churches, but to only do our part. So the obvious question remains, how do you change the spiritual atmosphere and what will it looked like when accomplished?

We believe that it would have the fruit of a greater penetration of the Gospel throughout the region with evidence of salvations, testimonies of miracles, and a renewed awareness of emotional and psychological prosperity-an inexplicable sense of well-being from the presence of the Lord. How this could be measured is through the fruitfulness of His Church as reports of an outpouring occur and multiple locations in churches encourage each other in the work of the Lord.

Tom Wright

Pastor, Worship Leader