PastorProfile: Eddie Anderson

Church: McCarty Memorial

How Long at church: 7 years

Hometown: Atlanta

Family: Married to wife, Clare

What prompted you to consider a run for a seat on the City Council representing the Tenth District…

Yes, because I believe that the best days are ahead for Los Angeles. For too long residents have accepted the status quo especially in district 10 where we have seen a deliberate shutting out of citizens in the political process with appointments, without fully hearing what the residents want. Without City Hall listening we cannot have change. So, I’m ready to make sure the residents of district 10 are fully heard. To make sure that historically rooted black communities and communities of color in the district are not displaced.

What do you say to those who believe that politics and religion don’t go together?

I would say that as long as African Americans have been in this country, politics and religion have been together. We cannot legislate morality, but we can legislate equity and there is no position in the community that understands what equity looks like more than pastors and clergy who deal with the brokenness of the system every day.

How did you get into the ministry?

My grandfather and father were both pastors, so I'm a third generation PK, but I really felt the call once I got to college and was doing community organizing. Having your Dad and grandfather as role models, what did you like about ministry?

Helping people and seeing lives transformed. My grandfather was also a county commissioner, so he was very much changing everything lives through policies. And then my father, I saw him bring couples to our home and needy families that were going through hard transitions and seeing their lives changed. That drew me but if I'm being completely honest, I didn’t think of going into ministry. I was going to go to law school or maybe politics.

What changed your mind?

I went to Claremont School of Theology and my colleagues–who’d heard I could preach–invited me to preach in chapel. Well, after I preached, the bishop of the school asked if I was sure I didn't miss my calling. When I asked, what he meant, he said, ‘That was one of the greatest sermons I've heard’. For an entire week it seemed like everywhere I’d go people would ask the same question, "Are you sure you didn't miss your calling?” That's when I began to take ministry seriously. So, growing up you wouldn’t have thought you'd end up where you are today?

No, my friends would probably say a politician or a lawyer, but a pastor–they did not see that coming. My perspective was that pastors gave a lot and got little in return. They were very impactful in communities, but I didn’t see a lot of gratitude. Then too, I found the church to be a little rigid and dogmatic. We put God in a box so that we can control what goes on in our church and community instead of allowing God to be really relational to everyone in the church no matter where they are. The church preached about justice but always prayed more on their knees. Like Martin Luther King Jr., my grandfather and my dad, I wanted to be more about action.

Is that to say you don't think today's churches are living up to their powerful legacy?

When I got to Los Angeles one of the things, my first church was white but then I get to the black churches at about the time when Black Lives Matters was hap pening and Mike Brown had just been killed. People in L.A. were dying as well, and I didn't understand why churches weren’t doing more. I thought the churches must have be- come comfortable and instead I walk very close to the legacy of civic engagement that has happened in Los Angeles and part of what I see myself doing is not anything new, but just activating the fallen legacy of all those years.

What do you think it will take for churches to rise to the occasion?

What's pushing the church now is the mass exit of millennials. People are wondering why isn’t my church full. We've preached the gospel of transformation but when people come to church, we only raise their awareness. We don’t give them tools to do that transformation. People of my age group are very social active. They're in the streets. The millennials are pushing us to have that conversation again and not just raise awareness, but actually show up in the streets.

What do you find most hopeful about what's going on in black churches today?

That black churches continue to carry their culture–in our songs, our liturgies– in the sermons that we preach still talking about resilience and hope on the other side of darkness. That's one of the treasures we continue to offer Los Angeles at a time of transition and a time full of a lot of change especially with gentrification and other factors–the message of hope and faith. If you had a theme, what do you want people to take away most from hearing you preach?

My messages are pretty much three points. One, you were made in the image of God, and that you are the hands and feet of God in this world. Two, that no matter your background or if you've been hurt by the church for your sexuality or anything else, that God welcomes you. And three, that together in our families and neighborhoods we co-create the kingdom of God.

What do bring to the city of the Los Angeles?

I believe we can be that bridge in the community where we can understand our history and legacy while understanding that our future is beyond the four walls into the streets with the people who are most impacted.

In taking over the church, what was the biggest challenge for you and what helped you past it?

The biggest challenge for me was that I was the youngest pastor McCarty Memorial had ever picked and I was the youngest pastor in the denomination on the West Coast. They took a chance on me and I thought because I was young and moved to the city that I could have had an impact in a city that had so many established churches. So, there was some trepidation. What helped me get through it was prayer and God telling me, "I've called you for this time and I've got you."

What will define your success?

If the community feels empowered and more people are inspired to speak up, stand their truth and challenge our elected officials.

What plans do you have for McCarty Memorial?

The goal–when I first came– was to fully integrate community engagement into our ministry–and to build a multiracial church based on black theology that actually able to help structure people on the outside as well as to restore people on the inside. In the time since we have created a Black and Jewish coalition–the Partnership for Growth Los Angeles and we have three major programs. The first is Freedom Schools. The second is Project Jubilee, where we partner with the CA violence intervention program and take 18-26 year-olds from high violence neighborhoods through a 12-week course offering mental health, life skills and job training. Then we place them in jobs.

The last program is Freedom Farms, which has received $7 million in funding from the state of California to create an urban agriculture system – a cooperative farm to table pipeline to address the health problem of food desserts in South Los Angeles.

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Evening Service: 7:00pm

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