The Loft LA The Loft LA

Compassion was fundamental to Jesus’ ministry and the primary lens through which he engaged his community. At The Loft, we strive to follow Jesus’ spiritual path of radical compassion and view compassion as one of our guiding values. We invite you to join us this Sunday as we explore why compassion is fundamental to our spiritual practices and essential for both inspiring and guiding our actions.
Question to Consider: How would you distinguish between restorative actions guided by compassion versus actions guided by saviorism?
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In this episode, Julia, Westley, and Rev. Dr. Carter talk about one of the four values that shape the theology of The Loft - Decolonization. We discuss what we mean by “colonial theology” and explore the ways colonial theology shapes how many of us practice Christianity. We end our podcast by unpacking the decolonial strategies that we see modeled by Jesus in the gospels.

At The Loft, we have a conversational approach to “doing” church and our hope is that this approach helps build and deepen relationships throughout our worshiping community. But what exactly do we mean when we say we are a conversational community? In Matthew 18, Jesus tells his disciples that “where two or three are gathered in my name, I’m there with them.” Indeed, relationships are at the core of Jesus’ spiritual path of radical compassion, and conversation is one way we build relationships. We invite you to join us this Sunday as Pastor Molly is joined in the center by Liberty and Jay Worth to explore the role and importance of conversation in constructing a liberatory theology.
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At The Loft, there are four fundamental values that we draw from the teachings of Jesus that inform how we practice Christianity: Compassion, Decolonization, Belonging, and Conversation. We have spent the summer exploring belonging and in our current series, The Loft 101, we will explore how the remaining three values inform who we are and who we aim to be as a faith community.
This Sunday’s gathering will focus on decolonization. Jesus was a Jew who was born and died in subjugation to the Roman Empire. His body was and remains marked by gender, culture, and religion. Given this, we must ask ourselves how Jesus’ cultural context as a colonial subject shaped his religious and social practices. A decolonial analysis is one of the four key values that inform the theology of The Loft community. We invite you to join us this Sunday as we examine the importance of decolonial thinking and practicing Jesus’ spiritual path of radical compassion.
Question to consider before we gather – How would you respond in a situation where your supervisor (or someone who is your superior) asks you to do something that goes against your moral standards?
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We invite you to join us for our annual Homecoming Gospel Concert at The Loft. Homecoming is an opportunity to celebrate our community, reconnect to our spiritual roots, and cultivate a culture of belonging. This will be a musically driven worship service led by Dedrick Bonner and the Singers of Soul. Rev. Dr. Carter will conclude our summer sermon series on Belonging by exploring how belonging is a central part of our calling as people of faith.
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In this episode, Julia, Westley, and Rev. Dr. Carter are joined by Rev. Dr. Nikia Smith Robert, assistant professor at the University of Kansas and founder of Abolitionist Sanctuary to discuss the intersection of abolition and Christian praxis. We discuss how abolitionist thinking can help us imagine strategies of resistance and repair for the writers and actors who are on strike and those who are impacted by the devastating wildfires in Lahaina.
You can find more information about the Abolitionist Sanctuary at their website: https://www.abolitionistsanctuary.org.
Additionally, here is a link to the CNN article about restaurants that are trying to recover from the wildfires https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/23/business/maui-fire-restaurants