Skid Row mission to host popular worship band for outdoor concert
Atlanta-based Maverick City Music, the popular Christian gospel band is playing to sold-out crowds around the country, winning Grammy awards for their music and movement, and now they’re giving back in Jesus’ name to those in need. The worship collective is coming to Los Angeles this July to play to a sold-out crowd at the newly branded Crypto.com arena as part of their Kingdom tour and then serving on Skid Row the next day for a special benefit concert.
Aiming to bring hope to cities
Through their efforts called Maverick City Music Initiative, the worship collective is working to bring hope to cities, reform mass incarceration, provide entrepreneurship to the underserved, and advance housing solutions. The band is putting feet to those ideals on Monday, July 25 when Maverick City Music will leave the glitter of DTLA lights, and come to a neighborhood in LA that few dare to go. Skid Row, that is. The epicenter of the homeless crisis in Los Angeles has only grown in recent years. Skid Row is the place you’re warned not to go in LA. Drugs abound on every corner. People living in tents line the streets. Sidewalks are turned into bathrooms and beds. Loud music blares and yelling is heard as fights break out sporadically around every corner.
“Because it’s time to tell our story – and we can’t tell our story without bringing our entire pasts forward. Our songs are our history. It’s time to shed light on it,” Tony Brown, Co-Founder & CEO of Maverick City is quoted as saying.
Hope is rising
People like Pastor Troy Vaughn, President and CEO of the Los Angeles Mission are convinced of better things for this blighted and disregarded neighborhood in the center of LA. Vaughn’s vision is to see a transformed Skid Row, a place where homeless people get off the streets and into programs that equip them with skills, housing, and opportunities. When Vaughn reached out to Maverick City Music, the shared vision resonated and they agreed to perform a benefit concert, hoping their presence and praise could be the spark the area needs to see hope arise and the goodness of God shine brighter than the darkness.
The event coined Musiic Matters – Maintaining Universal Strategic Investments in Community is set to be a day of service and mobilizing churches, corporate partners, and volunteers. Vaughn hopes the day of service will encourage people to come together and serve this community and invest in his vision to transform this area. That transformation includes Los Angeles Mission’s Dignity by Design project renovating their existing facilities. Next, LA Mission plans to develop a women and children’s center along with permanent supportive housing – a holistic approach to community development.
While the benefit concert is not for the general public, there are VIP sponsor opportunities to aid the Los Angeles Mission in its fundraising efforts.
