OUR VISION
We are a neighborhood church on a constant quest to discover what it means to love God and love our neighbors. We believe church is a place to be a family that brings healing to ourselves and others. At First Love, you will find people who care about hearing each other’s stories. Our vision is to love, heal, equip, empower, and send people into our neighborhood and to the nations. We believe that the Church is God’s plan to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to our world and to East LA.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to make Jesus and his Kingdom our Primary Devotion
OUR VALUES
Love God
We desire to be ever growing in our love for Jesus. Nothing else matters if we stray from this value as a church. Loving Jesus is our first and foremost priority. We renew our devotion and affection for Jesus regularly by making our souls available to His love and purposes for us. We make our lives available to him through various spiritual practices such as prayer, reading the Bible, confession, getting around other people who love Jesus, taking virtuous risks, serving the poor, sharing our faith and other such practices that help us know and love God more. In the end we love God more as we first experience His great love for us! Thanks Jesus for loving us! We want to respond and love you in return.
Love Others
Loving others is inseparable from Loving God. When God created us, He intended for us to enjoy deep relationships with one another. Unfortunately, healthy relationships are now the exception rather than the norm. We so often lack the character and love to make relationships last beyond our hurt and frustrations. Instead, we often have families that are marked by fighting, friendships scarred by selfish interests, and romantic relationships that don’t last, leaving us disillusioned. We desire to be a church where people become the best version of themselves and discover meaningful relationships in every area of their lives.
Love the Lost
We are passionate about helping people connect to God. We have a God who loves us and is sacrificially committed to having relationship with us. There is no greater joy than to have an encounter with God’s love and begin to enjoy Him forever. As a result, we are a church eagerly and urgently committed to the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ in both word and deed. We enjoy seeing people connect to Jesus again and again and therefore work hard to help people discover His love.
Love the Poor
We believe people’s living environments (both their homes and their community) have a significant impact on their souls. Often in inner city communities, people experience significant relational fractures that are compounded by the weight of poverty. We are a church committed to walking in solidarity with our neighbors so that we might experience a prelude of heaven here on earth. It’s what Jesus asked us to live out when he prayed “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We are a church working to have people experience God’s power and love in every aspect of their lives.
Love Growth
Christianity is not a religion about praying a prayer so you can get to heaven when you die, nor is it a set of rules to learn. Here at First Love, we care about growth. We believe that Jesus transforms people's lives daily, shaping our hearts in many ways—from deep spiritual and physical healing to the subtle ways we care for our friends. This comes from developing integrity and a deep inner life with God. Our church makes growth a priority.