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The Try Tank Podcast is about innovation and the church
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: From Tritank Experimental Laboratory. This
is the Tritank podcast, where we talk
about all things related to innovation in the
church. I'm Father Lorenz Lebrija Uh, thank you for
joining us,
and welcome to the Tritank podcast.
This is episode zero one six, episode
16 on, um, Social
Enterprise. And joining me on the podcast
today to talk about social enterprise and now that could be
a source of revenues for the church is
the Reverend Canon Jamie Edwards Acton.
Jamie is the rector of St. Stephen's Episcopal
Church in Hollywood, California, and he is also
the priest in charge of St. Barnabas
Episcopal Church in Eagle Rock,
California, which is right next to where Occidental College
is. And he is the executive director of the Jubilee
Consortium, which you'll hear a lot about all of these things.
He's a busy man. He keeps busy. Uh, on the
call today, on the call on the podcast today, where we to talk
about what happens when the church is no
longer able to pay for itself
because the number of people continues to go down, and the
things we've tried always aren't always working
now. So, this is what Jamie was facing
when he first took over the church at St.
Stephen's in Hollywood. And the winds were
definitely changing, and they tried just about everything, you might imagine,
from rentals to, uh, doing
all sorts of things, just to try to figure out how do we get
more revenue into the church? Because they wanted to
be able to do mission, missional work that was
important, and they found something. They
found a way of doing mission in the church
that connects both his church to the community and
the community to the church, and it's able
to provide revenues for the church. So that's
all I'll say from here. Just when the
benefactor model doesn't work, what do we
do? Uh, what this podcast episode
aims to show is that perhaps social
enterprise is the end. So, without further
ado, let us go over to the podcast with
Father Jamie Edwards Acton
and myself as we talk about social
enterprise
and the Reverend Jamie Edwards, actor and otherwise, just known as
Jamie, my friend, welcome to the Tri tank
podcast.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Thank you, Lorenzo. Good to be here.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Good. Um, I'm so glad, because, you know, you're someone
that I've thought about having on the podcast for quite a while,
because it's all about two things, which I know
you're passionate about and really good about.
One is about how do we do church differently. The church
needs to change, and how do we do. How do we, uh, are able to
afford ministry differently. That's. And two,
you're probably one of the most practical people I've ever
met. Like, I'll come to you with an idea, and you're like, I see your idea. How's it
going to work? You know, it's like, oh, yeah, step one, step two.
So. And that's exactly what this podcast is about. So I'm
glad that we finally get to have you on the podcast.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Wonderful. Well, I mean, it's funny that those, you say
those two things because I think back to
the, you know, um, I'm in
my 27th year ordained ministry, and, you know,
was, um, a minister of sorts
for at least five to seven years before that. And,
um, and then I'm celebrating 25 years
this summer here at St. Stephen's in Hollywood.
And that's basically the two driving
factors is my own kind of
desire to want
to do church differently for reaching people
we typically don't reach and doing things we
typically don't do as the church. But, uh, then
there's really the bigger driving force for me when it came
to St. Stephen's was this practical aspect.
How do we survive?
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: And let's begin there. Yeah, let's begin there. When you first got to St.
Stephen's 25 years ago now.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Yep.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Let's, let's, let's do a little try tank, podcast, time machine
here.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : You're gonna be testing my memory here. But, yeah.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: What was it like when you first walked in? What was the church like?
Were you a full time person? Could they afford a full time person? What was
the congregation like?
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Well, let me back up a little bit before that and give you
kind of set that table. Um, so
St. Stephen's was, uh, formed as a
parish in 1904. I'm actually only the
6th rector in that town.
And, uh, my predecessor, um,
took over at a time, you know, St.
Stephen's in its heyday, it's in Hollywood. It was like, you
know, one of the big, uh, you know, big
players right in, in the church scene. Uh, as
you know, Cecil B. DeMille was on the vestry
here, and he, you know, other
Hollywood types, and they were very, they very kind of
paid attention to that community. I looked up giving
records at one point in the forties and fifties, and St.
Stephen's was at the top, like the top three or four
churches, dollar amount, not percentage dollar amount
in terms of giving to the diocese. Um,
so, you know, it definitely was. This is a
familiar story, right, in the episcopal church. It
was, ah, packed to the gills. You know, they even had a,
they had a television ministry that happened
sometimes. And um,
uh, in the. As far as I can tell, in the mid
sixties, late sixties set through the seventies,
eighties, you know, there was kind of this convergence of a lot of
things happening, right. Just the uh, what was
happening in this country in the sixties, right. With. Particularly with young people
and stuff. Uh, and then where the
mainline church kind of found its way in the middle of
that, typically just not really paying much
attention to it, you know, at all, I guess, in creative ways.
But what happened was that was a kind of
a, you know, a time when there was
uh, a people leaving, trying to make sense of the
church. And in 19, uh, 70,
the church actually, when they were going to look for. When their fifth
rector left, they were going to look for someone else. But they were really
having some financial difficulties, challenges.
And one of their leadership on the
vestry stepped up named Forrest
O'Reek, um, who was an engineer
and grew up in that church and then went and became
a. Got ordained as well and became
a worker priest. And he offered in
1970 to the congregation
that he, uh, could fill in on
Sundays for a while so that they wouldn't feel
this urgency, this sense of urgency either
financially or pastorally, uh, to
fill that gap or look for the next person.
Um, and so I think it was.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Bishop, it sort of gave him a little bit of space, if you will, to try to figure out
what do we want next, exactly.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : A really generous kind of offer. And I
think Eric Blois at the time was the one that
made him chaplain. Right. Uh,
at. So chaplain of the diocese or
bishop's chaplain at St. Stephen's. Got it.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Eric Lloyd, for those who are listening, was the bishop of Los Angeles
at the time.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : I believe it was Eric, whoever was bishop in 1970.
And, uh, I think that's right. And um,
so that was supposed to last for a year,
maybe two years at the very outside to give them lots of
space and room. Well, what ended up happening is
that arrangement went on for 30
years. And so,
yeah, so, uh, that
created kind of like this, uh, situation,
right, where, ah,
those factors I was talking about, whereas the church got smaller and
smaller and smaller. That was about, you know, what was happening
on the national scene or international scene, what was happening with young
people, what was going on in Hollywood, like the environment,
if people haven't ever been to Hollywood, uh, the
actual physical, you know, uh, barrio of Los
Angeles, uh, it is
not the Disneyland. It was not always the Disneyland.
It was portrayed to be right on
tv or the movie screen, and particularly in the
seventies and eighties. And it was a very kind of
seedy environment. And only in the late nineties did it
really, uh, a lot of investment under Eric
Garcetti when he was the council person,
and, uh, a lot of investment went into,
uh, Hollywood and actually could see from where we're at just like
skyscraper after skyscraper going up in the last
25 years. Um, so
anyways, that situation went on for 30
years. The congregation got smaller, smaller, smaller,
smaller. And nevertheless, they were able to
put away money a little bit at a time, and they could survive on
the handful of families that were still here
giving people, you know, they rented out.
Uh, they had, uh, a group, by the
time, you know, I came, they had aa groups that were
helping to sustain their budget. But, uh,
in a nutshell, uh, they had money in the bank,
they had very little operating money, and very, very,
very few people coming by the time they
wrote their profile, um, that
they maybe had 20 people
in their english service and maybe
another 30 in their spanish service. But,
uh, that was problematic, too, because, uh,
they were seen as second class, the spanish
servers, for much of their existence. At the beginning,
they met in a. In the parish hall
instead of the sanctuary, although nothing else was
happening in the sanctuary except that the morning english
service. Um, so it's that one of those
unfortunate, familiar stories. And so in their
profile, they. They had, you know, as kind of a
Hail Mary pass, right? Because they could see the writing
on the wall. They wrote that, we want to
take this. We were able to save up during
this time, $220,000,
I think it was, that they had tied up in savings and
stocks and stuff, or bonds, rather, and we want to
cash that out. We want to put it into our
operating account, because their operating budget was only,
like, 47,000 a year.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Yeah. When you're not paying for much anything else.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : I was just me alone coming. Was going
to blow out that out of water. Right. And
they wanted to hire someone full time. They felt like they had
three years worth of operating funds, and so
they were willing to bet all their chips on trying
to find someone, uh, that could help lead the
community in a new direction. Um, and before
that clock and that money, that financial clock ran
out.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: So, like, what you called it a Hail Mary pass, right? And.
Yeah, and I'm sure to those listening that this sounds familiar. They're like,
oh, yeah, been there.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Yes. Um, yes. And
as you know, too, we. You know, I'm. I oversee a second
church, and it has a very, you know, it's a. The
storyline is very familiar, uh,
or, you know, pretty much the same as what happened here at St.
Stephen's. So, um, so
when I got here, you know, um,
they, you know, as. As my wife Suzanne likes to joke, when
we first got here, you know, the first
Sunday when the rector's here, that's when they pull out all the stops. And, you know,
everyone shows up. They come out of the woodworks. You know that. But,
you know, we had still under ten people in the english
service for.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: That person was them pulling out all the stops.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : That was pulling out all the stops.
Um, and in the spanish service, by that time. By the
time I did get here, because of some good interim work done
by, uh, clergy, Jim Preston, I think Jim
Preston is named, and m
they had moved the spanish service inside the sanctuary,
and they had about 35, 40 people on
that first Sunday. And, um,
so that's kind of. That was the starting
reality. Right. And, um,
I could quickly see, I mean, it doesn't take a
mathematician, that kind of just a little
back of napkin calculations, and you realize, I got
this much time. We need to do something. And, um, in seminary,
they had just finished teaching us that
really, you know, to. To make. To turn
this around financially. You just gotta. It's about,
you know, stepping up people's pledges and about
getting people in the pews. Right. It sounds
easy.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: The most traditional thing doesn't even sound.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Easy now, but then it sounds. Sounded easy.
Right.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: More simple than easy. Right. It's like, once you get going,
it's like, oh, it sounds very simple, but it's
harder.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Yeah. And so, you know, the first. The first
problem I ran into was about stepping up on the pledges.
I realized, well, you know, this is primarily an
immigrant church, right. Working in lower class
church. Everyone was already pledging at that.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: To be clear, the mills, the
Hollywood producers, were no longer there.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : No.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: No longer one of the top three giving to the diocese.
Meaning your budget was huge. You were on
the opposite end, if you will, of that spectrum. You were the people
that cleaned the places where the producers live and stuff
like that.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : That's right. That's exactly right. Um, and
so, um, they were already giving,
blowing out of the water, most
pledging members of episcopal churches in this
diocese, at least. And so I was a
little reluctant to put too much emphasis on that.
And, um, although we did talk about
stewardship and that this was one of the
ways we were going to kind of get healthy
again and have a kind of a long term,
uh, success here. Um, and then I thought
about, you know, the other piece of that is getting more people in the
pews, you know, stuff, which, again, is easier said than
done. Right? And, um,
but although we were successful at that, and we've had
different seasons over time.
Um, so. But never did we get to the point
where we could depend on the.
The community, the membership for our
financial health. Right. And success.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Yeah. Because in the backdrop of that, not only is
it what was happening just at St. Stephen's, you
also have to realize that the country itself was changing, right?
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : That's right.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: We saw the post colonial sort of church,
uh, the world becoming much more secular, the
church being pushed to the side. So it wasn't just like,
all of a sudden they had you full time. And you were back in the
1950s where people. You just. All you had to do was have a
red door and people just, like, flock to it. You had a
society that at the same time was vastly
changing. And I would imagine that in Hollywood, it was probably
exacerbated because there are many of them, let me
just say, many of them are driven by different goals, different
gods, if you will, different idols than going to church on
Sunday.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : I mean, not only that, but Hollywood is the
epitome of a transitional community. You know,
uh, there's, uh, not many people come to set
up roots in, you know, thinking, I'm going to put down roots in
Hollywood. Um, so, um.
So it quickly became clear that we had to come up with
something else in addition to, uh, this benefactor
model, right. Traditional, uh, on the church of
the pledge and plate and stuff like that. And, um,
the first thing, again, just with my experience and
where I'd come from, I said, okay, well, let's see if there's any
grants out there, right? And we'll write a grant. And, you
know, I mean, anybody, especially back then, if anybody
knows, you know, the only grants available for churches, this is not the
case anymore, though. But, uh, then at least
we're in the church, right? So we're in the
diocese. And so I got a grant to, you
know, I remember the first grant I got in my first,
like, year here, I got a $20,000 grant to
repaint the outside of the church, which looked like it
was on the verge of, you know, literally
falling apart. And so we were going to. We painted the whole
thing bright white with teal trim
and, uh, in, you know, in hopes of,
you know, in addition to putting up signage and stuff like that, right.
This is all the.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Being able to attract people, being. Looking more attractive, at
least.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : That's right. And, uh, so we felt like we
were checking the boxes. And, um,
that helped a little bit. Um,
but still, there's only so many grants you can
write pledge, and plate wasn't really going
anywhere. So
I didn't have language for this back then. So back then
it was like, okay, well, um,
let's, uh, see if we can rent out some of our
spaces in creative ways. They were renting out to AA
groups, but that was. God bless
AA groups. Um, but they're not
known for their financial engine, uh,
capabilities. Okay.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Right.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Yeah.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: It's more of a missional, sort of, uh,
mission. We want to help.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : The criteria you're not a. Is not going to solve our
financial woes. And, um, so
turn to some other possibilities, some that
stumbled in my lap and really it was just about
being open to that. Right. Uh, two that stand
out for me is my first week here, there was
a nomadic repertory company named. Right.
Repertory company now has a company
on the east and west coast. And uh, they were
looking for kind, ah, of a place to call
home. And so they would rent
space. Uh, they started by renting space
kind of at like six or seven weeks at a time when they had a. They
were going to do a run with rehearsals and stuff, and they would rent our
parish hall and sometimes our sanctuary space.
And, um,
and that eventually, over time, over, they were here
probably 1517 years
total. And over time, they ended up taking. They converted our
perish hall into a 99 seat theater, looked like a
black box theater, and with the full
rigging and everything. And that became
really kind, uh, of a staple for us.
Right. Like they paid monthly rent, you know,
that was significant. Um, and then we
turned to some other, uh, things. A caterer
came, uh, uh, who ended
up. He's this giant, successful event
planner, caterer now. Um,
uh, but started here at St. Stephens
in our kitchen and has been very
generous, uh, along the way. Not in only upgrading
our kitchen, but helping
us kind, uh, of succeed as a community. And he
would probably consider himself a member of this community.
Um, but, uh, I think one thing I would
point out as we were looking for these relationships is one of
my criteria was not just for people to pay the church,
but it was. It had to be some kind of mutual, uh,
mutuality, right. We would help each other mutually
succeed in what we were trying to do. So we would help the theater
company mutually, you know, we'd help them succeed by
offering them the space at probably a rate that was less
than they'd have to pay at some theater, fancy
theater or something like that. Same with the caterer, right. And what we
got in there in return was, you can
imagine the catering stuff we got in return,
get to this day in return. But um, you
can. The theater, what they did, the theater members,
they like ran our Christmas plays, they
did our programs, you know, that kind of stuff that they
loved and they were passionate about and they did
well. And so they, you know, always
for more than a decade, you know, and a half, they
dressed up as the Easter Bunny and, you know, on Easter
Sunday and would hide eggs, you know, and just little
things.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Relational. It wasn't just a transactional sort of
thing, but it was also a relational sort of things. Like we're,
we're partners in this. It isn't just for the
money.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : That's right. And I'm big about that. Right. Because
I think that just simply transactional stuff gets
you in trouble. Right. You're going to bump
heads. Uh, inevitably. It feels like, um.
We ran into a lot of nonprofits
now. Nonprofits, there's some. We started a couple of
those nonprofits here and, ah, one of which I'm the
executive director of now, one which is a big
La county regional, uh, la Voice,
which is a big player in LA, uh, faith based
organizing and politics and um.
So, uh, and other stuff. And
so, um, we housed the
Jubilee consortium. When it got going, it uh,
became based here. And then we housed also
the uh, Episcopal urban intern program that used to be
called, now known as Jubilee year Los
Angeles, which is the longest running year, uh, of
service program in the Episcopal church. And it's 33rd year
now. And I was in the first year of the program.
Um. So we
try to move into that area. We did
parking. We did a lot of parking first with our
neighbors that were impacted by no place to park on the street. And
they didn't have. They were apartment living
or houses that they couldn't park in, driveways and
stuff. And so we offered that,
uh, kind of that service to them.
It felt like a service that uh, we were offering and they paid
us. And um. That, that turned
into some other opportunities working with parking, uh,
like valet companies. Right. And we are in the heart of
Hollywood. And as Hollywood started to come back,
right, um, that we became
parking for the Pantages theater and the Henry Fonda theater and
stuff like that. So. Which we still are.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: I happen to be a big fan of that
because I take advantage of when I go to the pantages
here to see Broadway.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Yes. You and a lot of my colleagues. Yeah.
So, uh, but uh,
so, but still, nevertheless, all
that, um. I think the big change for
us was when those are all what, you know,
again, I didn't have this language. Uh, Lorenzo,
I'm sure you did, because you studied this probably before
I did. And. But just the whole idea of
social enterprise, right, like a social business.
And, um. And that really came
from because. Because the money
did run out right before the, you know,
it didn't run out, but it wasn't enough to sustain me full time. So I had
to get a half time job as. And so I was half time
rector, half time executive director of Jubilee consortium.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Okay.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : And on the nonprofit side, it was. It
was going through some really hard times,
too, in the. If you remember those great years,
2006, 2007, all those, you
know, uh. And so when it did so
well, you know, was saying, you know, we won't be
giving this year or we won't be doing any grants, you know.
And so it blew our kind of business model
up. And so we. We turned to social
enterprise at that time, too. So it was like two
entities that I was in, you know, kind of in
charge of the church and Jubilee with
different kind of stories, but the same need, right, to find
an alternative way to generate revenue while
still doing mission. And this is. This is
where this whole. This is where I really kind of. My
heart caught on fire, you know? And, um.
And, um, in that
meantime, when that was all going on,
my sister, in the mid two
thousands, you know, early to mid two thousands,
she, uh, was wrapping up her
career, um, as a kindergarten
teacher for over 20 years and was sharing with
me on. She lived in San Diego. And when she was sharing with me,
uh, on one visit, as we were walking around the property,
her dream of opening up preschool, she was going to retire
early and she was going to use, uh, some of
that retirement, uh, funds that she could access and stuff
to start this preschool. And she was looking at different places
in San Diego and where to do that. She was telling me all about it,
and I remember the day when we were walking around and just
said, you know, well, why have you thought
about maybe doing one here, like in Los Angeles, you
know? And, you know, because I know a place.
And, uh, so she hadn't thought about
it, but started to think about it. And that
evolved into us kind of entering into
this partnership together after talking to the
church, uh, leadership about it. And
we had to do some, uh, work with the
city to get some, uh,
conditional use permit stuff done with the
building is safe. When you were.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Let's take a pause here for a second on this, because the good
news was that it was someone you knew and trusted that could tell
you how it works in the background, which was great,
but when you were first looking at it, because you used the word
partnership, and I want to get to that in a moment. When you were first
looking at it, was it just like another
rental? Were you looking at this could just be another rental that
we could do. And how did you all of a sudden go from
there to this could actually be a partnership where
we could be part owners, if you will.
Let's talk a little bit about that.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Well, like everything, these things are kind of,
uh, these situations come at us
and we respond to them. Right? So
a lot of things. Until you get smart and then you realize, oh,
well, we could be proactive on this. Right? So
the evolution of it was, yes, it was a kind of
a landlord tenant responsibility, but
a little more, uh, involved in that. We
provided her the administrative kind
of, uh, infrastructure, right, for her school,
in terms of an administrator, someone answering
phones, someone doing the payroll,
all that kind of stuff. We had the maintenance, we had the
custodial, we had all that. So we had kind of
like the infrastructure, not just the place, but we had the
infrastructure that she just leaned
into and we provided. And
then she then started to. She would
pay rent, um, on a monthly basis
based on the, uh, amount of
students she had enrolled. Right. And so if we got to
capacity, we got licensed for, uh, the
monthly income
looked very attractive, um,
I think back at that time, and we're talking about mid two
thousands, and it was something like, on the
order, over maybe
$120,000 a year in rent. That's
just what we would get. Which, again,
the kind of budgets we're running now, that seems
pretty in terms of free
and clear. That's not a bad strategy either.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Renting out to another nonprofit. You can partner with
one, and all of a sudden end up with getting $120,000.
That goes a long way. And I'm sure a lot of the listeners, you
keeping in mind the number of small congregations in our
country for, uh, our denomination is like,
$120,000 is more than our annual budget type
thing. So. Absolutely. So great. So you decided to
partner to start.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : This, uh, a little footnote here, too, Lorenzo, just so
that folks can. Again, I talk about the importance
of this is. But because there was that relationship there, not just
with my sister, but because of the kind of more
than tenant landlord relationship we were creating from the get
go, that we had access to one
another's communities openly, willingly.
Right. And so we, uh, it gave me an
opportunity to kind of get to
know the kids and the families,
uh, of the preschool and vice versa,
is that, you know, the teachers and my sister and the
families, they got to know our community. Right.
Especially the staff that was working here on the regular
or that were at special events or stuff like that. And we, you
know, occasionally we would do things together where
everyone was, you know, like, uh, doing
karaoke, Christmas carols became a thing for
us. Uh, that was something that, it was an all out, you know,
kind of.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Church school, and they did it together,
which is, again, that's. That's worth a pause there for a
second, because I've spoken to so many people that have a
relationship with the school or where they may not even get
along. They. It could be just a
landlord, uh, tenant relationship, which is
one thing, but I've seen, quote unquote, episcopal
schools that don't get along with the church, where
they're literally based, where they're, like, seen as two totally
separate entities that don't even talk to each
other.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Yeah. I mean, yeah, well, I won't name any, but
I've seen the exact same thing. Yeah.
M. You know, when I was here, I mean, here in this
diocese, and also when I was in seminary in Texas, because I taught
at a, um, at a suzanne. Ah,
and I taught, ah, as kind of a part
time job at one of the seminaries, too. Um,
so, um,
anyways, this evolved, and
then that's how we ran it for the first
probably four, uh, or five years like that, with
that kind of arrangement. My sister in charge, she had
relocated temporarily from San
Diego, uh, and with my niece, who's an artist.
And it was great because a fine arts preschool. And so
she completely
transformed the walls inside the church
and, you know, inside the church buildings and
classrooms and stuff. And, um, so it was, it was
really nice, and, and that's how we did it. It
was working out for everyone. And then, you know,
after five years, anybody who's done
city stuff, uh, the conditional use, we get a
notice about the conditional use permit, right? That,
uh, in the. After the fourth year, you got one year,
basically. And the conditional use, those are
temporary. This is a temporary permit. Now, if you
want to make it permanent, here's the changes you
need to do, right? And I'm like, oh, I
don't remember this part.
And, uh, the changes they want us to
do. The city, which I found incredible
at the time, uh, maybe it's just a
normal thing, but they basically wanted us
to do
upgrades on the outskirts of
our property, around our property, adjacent to
our property, like the sidewalks, the lighting,
the, we're next to an
alleyway that, you know, is now a community garden,
Lorenzo. But it's on an angle and it happens to be historically part
of what's known as Gower gulch. And so there's
these um, you know, these, there's
these kind of flooding, uh, or kind
of where water goes. Kind of concerns that we had to
address and we had to redo and uh,
we're, we had to redo curbs and we, they, on
the top part of our property, they wanted to take a sec, they wanted to
us to give a section of the property to the city, just
give it to them. Oh, that's not.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Of course, you know.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Yeah, yeah.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: So was someone in the city just writing a list of things I
want is like, oh, I'm just going to.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Write those little, I know, I don't, I don't know how they, I don't know how
they arrive at this, but you know, just kind of, again,
just starting to add these things up. I just went to
my sister and I just said, look, shelly, there's um,
um, you know, I'm going to investigate this further. But what
they're asking us, this has got to cost, you know,
200, 5500 thousand dollars or something like that, what they're asking
us to do and which we didn't have anything
close to that, you know, um, I don't
think we've ever had a savings
account, you know, said, sorry, I don't, I hope this is probably
going to go out on the podcast. But we've never, you know, it's
just uh, uh, so we never had
anything like that. And so, but I did talk to city, I had, I
called all kinds of people. Finally I
got uh, you know, a
little piece I left out. There's always, there was for years, there was always
a head start here, uh, that when I got here
and they, when I first got here, they were paying like $300
rent a month and stuff like that. And they were in a one
room, uh, area and they had an office
and uh, which,
you know, so it pertains to what I found out. But
I ended up getting, contacting the head
of zoning for Los Angeles or one of the higher ups of
zoning we were talking about. The possibility, Bill is I said, look, is there any
way, you know, that we can save this thing? Because it sounds
like we would have to close it down.
And we've like, we have invested all kinds of money
in this and, and, um, we've got all these
families and. Da da da. And he said, well, he
said. He said you can either do those
upgrades, right, or you
can, um, the
church. Right? The church can
own the school, take over
ownership and pay the employees.
Right. Directly from the church instead of the preschool
company. And, um,
that way. Basically, his argument
was that then you are
basically doing the mission of the church,
and you're already approved. You're
already grandfathered in for that. Whether it's from
a building and safety perspective or zoning or
whatever, you are already approved for
that. Right?
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Because you are a church, and you've been a church there since
1904. We're not going to tell you that
you can't do missional work. So if you make the school
part of your mission, that sort of clears you. Wow,
that's a brilliant. He was a helpful person.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : He was very helpful. And there was even another clause about head
starts. And that's why I bring it up, is head starts had a
special. They have some special kind
of, you.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Know, designation or something.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Right. You know, for, like, to go
around some of the requirements and stuff like that. So
between those two things, uh, that gave
us the green light and gave us confidence
enough to, like, start having
this conversation with my sister. And,
uh, so. And she had
already been commuting from San Diego and La for like, over
a year. I think that was starting to wear on her. So it was
all kind of, you know, it was all kind of happening at the same time.
M and so we came up with this agreement that
we would buy her out, that we would
basically, uh, her initial investment
of which was basically everything we could
see, right. The preschool furniture, the books, all
that kind of stuff. And that she definitely had itemized.
She organizing me. And
so we basically, uh, made an agreement
with her that we would buy her out and pay her
back over time. Um, and again,
that's just because of this, the family
relationship. And, uh, that we were lucky
that we could do it that way. But we could have probably tried to go out and
get financing, you know, if we had to.
And, um, so we took
over officially, uh, the license was put in our name
in 20, 10, 14 years ago
now. And even though we'd been running the school,
technically, my sister had been in San Diego for the two years
prior and would come up for if something
was really needed. She had another director.
She was the first director, but then she had another one, uh,
in place already, and, um, so.
So, um, that's how we took over.
And then, you know, you
start to think, well, how do we. I mean, you
become very invested in this, right. In a different kind of way now.
Right. This is yours.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: And maybe it was a gift that it had
to technically be a ministry, because
I would imagine that, yes, you can see it as a social
enterprise, and that's a great thing because we might be able to do
ministry things. But if you also look at this
social enterprise is also part of our ministry. What
St. Stephen's is called to do in the heart of
Hollywood is present this space where young kids
can come. So, yeah, I think it would change your mindset about
how you're seeing it.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Yeah. And I had to talk
to my own community. I talk to other communities, too, now about that,
but. Because just
probably, uh, an obvious but yet
uncomfortable place to start with, like, this is our ministry is
like, you know, this is like the space you.
You have to share now or even give up, you know, to a certain
degree on your property, right. That some people
had taken for granted for years prior or whatever, but
now was needed for the school, at least
during school hours and stuff like that. Um, and thank
goodness I had came, you know, since I arrived here,
I was always, you know, trying to say there. There won't be
anything such, you know, we won't have any dedicated space
here on the property. So I just want people to, you know,
I don't know what that's going to look like in the future, but, you know,
I definitely prep them for that. Um, but,
yeah, there you. I. When I talk to other churches
about, you know, preschool, it's not about
just having a tenant landlord relationship or a
cash cow or whatever. It's about changing
your identity as the church. You have to
change my life. My vocation
completely changed. What I spent time on as a
priest is most of my, you know, much of my
time, at least 50%, if not more, is spent on the
school, right? And, um,
so. And that goes with other, you know, the
other team, right? The other admin team, the maintenance. It's you.
So you have to, you know, the school becomes part
of who you are. It's not like in a.
It's not like an addendum or it's, you know, something
out there. Right. Disconnected from you. And can you.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Can you share with us? How do you see it as
being an actual ministry, more than
just a revenue that it provides you, which allows you to run the church now?
Because I do want us to get to that in a moment, but how
do you see it as actually being part of the
ministry? Of St. Stephen's?
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Yeah. Um, well,
in a number of ways, I think one
is that just the, you know,
one for me on a personal level, just like being with the
kids, you know. Um, well, let me, there's another. Let
me just start with some obvious ones for me. So the
most obvious one to me, that took me a while
to see, but now I like celebrate it.
And I'm not sure people think about, but I've
talked to you about this. But, you know, uh, there's total
between the two churches now. We have something like 48
employees. And, you know, when I got here, I was
the only employee. And it's primarily,
you know, immigrant church and those, uh,
immigrant families, they had kids. And those kids, by the
time the school was, you know, kind of starting to take
off, they were in their early twenties and stuff like
that. And these were, you know, a lot of first
generation, um, folks
of immigrant parents that didn't
necessarily imagine themselves, you
know what I mean? Like, uh, in
vocational jobs, right? And
so we would, I would start to encourage some of
our, you know, uh, some of the
late age teenagers, early, you know, early
twenties or whatever, and they were going to community college
or, and they had worked in our Sunday school or they'd work, you know, and stuff
like that. And I said, hey, have you ever thought about being a teacher?
You know, and so really trying.
And not just the younger ones, but actually some of our older parishioners
too, folks, you know, like Delilah.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Yeah, yeah.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : And, uh, so in trying to
encourage them, you know, Delilah, who ran a, uh, hallmark
bookstore, uh, or worked in a hallmark bookstore
forever when I met her. And then I, you know, but
she loves children, right. She's passionate about this and
so convinced her to become a teacher and then
employed her. Right. And, you know,
I, over the years, you know,
of my parishioners, I must have
had probably upwards of, you know,
25 of my parishioners that have been teachers here in
some, right? And, um,
so, um, and still to this day, I have,
you know, and that's big for me. I
want to create economic and,
uh, vocational opportunities for my
folks. Right.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Yeah. You're changing their futures. You're literally providing for
them to have the experience. You're encouraging them
to go to get their, whatever licensing they might need.
Then you provide for them for a few years, and if they stay with you,
great. But if they go somewhere else now, they have that, that they
can lean back on. They now have a career,
whereas before they may not have. And you're absolutely right for, especially
for first generation. They might be the first one who went to their community
college, of their family. Uh, so you're
absolutely right that your. That is a very
palpable sort of work that the church is
doing.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Yeah. Think about it.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: 48 employees. That's.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : That's.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: That's a lot of people.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : That's between the two. Right. We have two schools now. We'll get to that.
But, um. Um, so one of my
teachers here in Hollywood, um, you know,
she's in that. She was in that position. She's a great
teacher. And, you know, I let her know
a couple years ago I'm going to be looking for a director.
You know, um, because Joanie, our current director, I
know she's got a, you know, she's already let me know years
out ahead of time. This is my date I'm shooting for.
And, uh, so, you know,
Ana went back and she enrolled at Cal State Northridge
and is getting her, you know, her
master's in, uh. Is that right? Her
bachelor, her master's. Bachelor's or master's, one or the other
in. In early childhood education.
And I think it's her bachelor's first and then her
master's. Yeah. And then, um. And then, you know,
but the timing of it will probably work out. And I've
already let her know. I think you'd make a great director here. And
so, you know, I just. To me, that's such.
That's so rewarding for me. You know, it's so
rewarding. So that's my first
ministry that I tell people this, and they're a little shocked that
this is like, where my first priority is, is on
these staff. Right. The staff that I
hire. Right. And the second is the kids,
obviously, in the families. And they're the first, too. I don't, like.
I'm not. This is not like a hierarchy of things, correct? No, they're,
um.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: God's economy. Do you just have two favorites?
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : That's right. Um, but the kids, obviously,
are just, you know, it's. To have kids on the
campus, uh, during the day,
just radically transforms the environment
and also gives us so many
opportunities to, you know, to play a role
in these kids lives, you know, whether it's through laughter or
sharing conversation or teaching in the garden or doing, you know,
the dancing or the shows or whatever. Um,
and so that ministry is super rewarding, not just for the
teaching staff, but for the, you know, the maintenance
custodial staff that's here, too, and other
church leadership and church folks that are here on
site. Um, you know, they get to,
uh, just, um, enjoy the,
uh, kids presence, too. And then,
you know, as a result of that is the families, too. So I get
to know the families now. Again, my career,
when I get to know folks, as you know, you know me,
Lorenzo, I'm not. My big thing is not
about trying to get people's butts in the pews or get them to sign
a membership card or whatever. I didn't grow up in the church. I got
baptized late in life. I didn't grow up with any
faith. And so I honor that. I really,
actually. But I feel like I can be present, my
community can be present, other people's lives in all kinds of ways.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Yeah. And I'm sure that some of them see you, even if they're not. They
may or may not have a church relationship somewhere, or not
that they probably see you as their
chaplain. Like, if something were to happen in their lives,
they would probably turn to you because they have a relationship with
you.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Well, uh, I'm looking at a picture right now
of a young student. She was three, uh, and I think you know
this story, Lorenzo, but, you know, a couple years, uh, or
a year and a half ago, two years maybe, by now. But,
um, Anne woke, uh,
up one Monday morning and they
couldn't wake their daughter up. Um,
and it was this young couple just, I mean, you can
imagine how, like, crushed
and distraught and despondent, and
they didn't have, uh, anyone, uh,
to turn to. And so I stepped into that
gap and
just wanted to be present to them first.
But then our community became, and we
became their center, uh, of
mourning. Right. And, uh, whether it
was offering up our, you know, the church for
services and my, you know, as a priest
offering up for doing, um, you know,
the memorial and the graveside and then the pastoral
care all along the way, we raised money for, you
know, the church raised money for the family to, uh, pay for
those, uh, expenses, um, you know,
and it was just, um. And it was something where we
had. It was not just obviously not just pastoring
the family, but it was like all the teachers. I mean,
it was just, uh, a crushing.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: And I can imagine, like, the example you're just giving right now, I can
imagine that for so many others
in a world that has become so secular and that people, it's not
that they're going to another church and they're only bringing them to you, but
especially in a place like Hollywood, right, that is so transient and
that is so. Have so many other. The things that take
life up you know, that they're concerned about, you know,
to have somewhere that can be that place
that is like. It's
sort of what every church should be doing is like, you may
not need us to. It's kind of like, I hate to reduce
it down to this, but I think it's a good. Oftentimes, you'll
see an ad, uh, you, uh, know, in my house, I see it for, like, air
conditioning. We come and we fix your air conditioning. It's like, okay, my ac works
fine. They're not telling you so that you'll call them today. Right? They're telling you
so that when the day happens that you do happen to need an air conditioner
or repair person, that that's who you'll call. Right. That'll
be first of mine. And what you're doing by being there to greet
them in the morning, because I know you're there. God, early, awful early. To
greet every parent in the morning that you see them, uh, you know,
around all the holidays, that you sometimes do events together with the
church. What you're doing is to those families. And
this is so missional, is you're basically
saying without saying it, which I think is more valuable,
is we're here for you. You don't. You may
not be a member of our church. We may not see you on Sunday, but if you need
something, we're here for you. Right?
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Absolutely. Absolutely. And not just the
tragedies in life. Right. But it's the, you know,
the, um. On the. On
the nicer things of, you know.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Like, it could be weddings.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : It could be. Exactly. It could be. It could be, you
know, uh, using the space of the church,
because a lot of people live in apartments and, you know,
they live in the city. Right.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Yeah.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : So having a place where they could come celebrate their
kid's birthday in a safe, kind of
sanctuary like space, which he's seen our
campus. We're kind of right. But, you know, we're, like,
in the middle of Hollywood. But you'd never.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: You are right. You can see for those who have never seen,
uh, by the way, he is right. He is literally a
blog from Hollywood Boulevard.
Uh, and you can see the Capitol records
building from the campus. From every time I go and
visit you and I park, I can see the Capitol Records building there.
So you are literally in the heart of Hollywood.
You're right near where the oscars are. So.
Only because I'm looking at the time here, um,
let's fast forward a little bit. You've, uh, had
success with it, because there's this myth in
the church that I think, which is never, ever, ever
do a school to help you
run the mission of the church. And what you've
seen here now, and a couple of years ago, there was
a church in Los Angeles that they finally
ran out of their dollars and they turned the keys back into the bishop
and the bishops. And you were like, hey, I, uh, happen to
have a thing that could work. And you were able to
replicate this in another location,
which I think is fascinating, because I think what you're
showing is that this
can work in other places, not just because it
would be very easy for someone sitting anywhere else to say, like,
well, that's Father Jamie in Hollywood and, uh, fine arts
in Hollywood. That makes sense, right? But now you've done it in another
neighborhood in Los Angeles, and I know you're talking to other
churches. So if somebody were to come to you, Jamie, and
say, like, so do you think if I make admissional, and
I love the way that it sounds, how you're ministering to these people,
and it allows you can having
a school help a
congregation through that social enterprise,
help fund the mission of the church?
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Absolutely. Absolutely. Um,
I mean, yeah, I mean,
I'm a, you
know, I was told several times, starting both schools, you
know, don't do it. Uh, ah, you know, for that
motive. Right. Um, but that
is one of the motives that we have. Okay.
But again, it's not like, it's not turning a
school as a social enterprise into a cash cow.
That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about an
opportunity for the church to transform itself
in order to have a school and to gain
this new identity. Right. And to be church
differently. Right. Uh, from that point forward.
And so in St. Barnabas, in the Eagle Rock
neighborhood of Los Angeles, which is only 10 miles away from our
school here in Hollywood, but probably on a good day, could
give you, you know, take you 45 minutes to get there. And
so. But it. But yet it was close enough
that we could. What we ended up doing is we
took all that goodwill and all those parent
testimonies and all that kind of online
presence and experience and everything, and we.
We transferred it to this school. That was
just an idea in Eagle Rock, at St. Barnabas
at this point. And we started signing up
parents and much different than when we started the school
here in Hollywood, which, you know, the first three kids
were, uh, one was my son, and then two other
parishioners who sacrificed, like, you know,
Isaac sacrificed, uh, their kids to be
you know, so at least there were kids here if other parents came,
right? And so. But at St.
Barnabas, it was not like that at all. And we,
before we even opened on day one, we had over 30
families with a growing list. And by the
time we were probably two months into
the first school year, we were at capacity.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Look at that, right?
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : With 63 is our first license, uh,
number.
So I think that then gave me, that
proved an idea for me that, uh, we can kind
of take this model like this goodwill,
know, the term they use in business, or, you
know, um, and transfer that, right.
Transfer that to other, uh,
churches. Um, and, you know,
the delay right over there in eagle Rock as
opposed to St. Stephen's, they have much, much in common. You know,
it's 80% in common, but they have uniqueness,
too, right? Their identities are unique as well, which
is another, uh, I'm a big fan of that,
right? And try to let each director
kind of, you know, uh, flourish in their own vision and
stuff, but still contained within the fine
arts preschool and the.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: And the context matters, right? It's going to be contextual
also to the kids that happen to be in the cohort that you
have and the parents that are around it. Jimmy. Uh, only
because we are, uh, this is the longest podcast we've done,
but I think it is well worth it for people if
somebody wants to find out. So, before that, let
me make sure that I do say this. We hired a
writer to ask you some questions. Talk to your bishop,
sort of. So there's a 2000 something word article
that I'm going to, uh, we're going to release as an ENS news
release, but we're also going to put it on the Tritank website. So
if you're listening to this and you want to see it, or maybe you missed the ENS
news release, or you just want to go see it, go to
tritank.org
Hollywood. That's what I'll do that. Hollywood. Uh,
so just go to Triteank Hollywood, uh,
to see the story, see some pictures from the story, because we didn't
even talk about the harmony room that you're also doing, which is for
musical stuff.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : You're doing other podcasts.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: I know, right? We're going to have to, because it is a beautiful space that we've
done stuff in, uh, Ash. So, uh, if
somebody wants to find out more, if they want to sort of follow
your lead, if they want to learn more about it, how
can they do this?
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Well, I mean, emailing me, um,
I'm not great on my own instagram or anything, or on
Facebook, social media and stuff. You can certainly follow the.
We have online presence for everything, whether it's the
Delaney Wright fine arts preschools, or the churches, St. Stephen,
St. Barnabas, or whether it's the harmony room.
Uh, um, and you can go on,
find our social media there. Um, but
probably the best is to email
me@hopeinhollywoodmail.com.
Not con. So that's
hope in Hollywood. All one word and just
email me, and then we'll figure out a way
to have a conversation by phone or Zoom or whatever. That's
my favorite way to type, uh, with
folks, because, as you can see, I do like to talk,
but this.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Is a great story that I think needs to be told to more of the
church because, uh, just to sort of
recap, what I love about this is not only are you
finding new ways to be
resourceful, right. You're finding sort of gods. About,
uh, uh, an underpinning of Tritank's work is that ours is a
God of abundance, and God will provide
everything we need for the work we're called to do. And if we don't see
the abundance is, perhaps it might be in a
different form than what we're expecting it to look
like. Right? So the normal form that we expect to be able to
finance, uh, churches is butts and pews, right? And
people pledging. And what you were able to do by
sometimes God heading you over the head through your sister or others, like,
really making it clear, is like, but there's other abundance
that I might, you know, that's here and available. And what
I love about what you've done is you've made it so that not
only do you have a way of financing the church and now two
churches, but you're able to provide jobs to people
that really, really, it's a life changing
opportunity. You're able to be in the lives of the
children and the families of their, which is transforming also
your church and congregation. And for those who are members
of your congregation, being associated with all of
this work is also different. We're not just a gather on Sunday
or St. Barnabas gather on, um, Wednesday, I think.
But it's also an opportunity for them to see,
like, we can be a different type of church in the world. And that
is the message that we hope. Hope gets out into the world.
So, Jamie Edwards Acton, thank you so much
for joining us today. This has been. I, uh, could have let you just
talk on for a while, and we probably could have had a, uh. Because,
again, the harmony room is such, also such a wonderful story that
we probably will have to come back and talk about that at some point.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : Well, there's also Jesus Christ, I have to say, which you had,
you know, at least in that name, you had a
part to play and in helping us get that
project going, too. So that's another, you know, be
looking for that on your, uh, your score
shelves soon. These are dehydrated fruit and vegetable snacks and
soup mixes, and they're called juice crisps.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Uh, and they're actually very good. I've had some, uh,
but that's enough for us today. Jamie, thanks so much. Uh, uh,
have a wonderful day, and God bless. Continue to bless your ministry.
>> Reverend Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton : All right, thank you, Lorenzo. Good to be here.
>> Father Lorenz Lebrija: Thanks for joining us for this, the Tritank podcast. We
hope you liked it, and if you did, make sure you leave a
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Also there, you can sign up for our monthly
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resonate media. Again, thanks for joining
us. I'm Father Lorenz la Brija. May God bless. Bless.