From “Friend of the Show” Alicia Rojas:
The United Artists of Santa Ana (UASA) has been informed that NewSong Church of Irvine is withdrawing its bid to purchase the Santora Arts Building due to economic considerations that could not be resolved with the seller. While we felt that the sale of the building to a religious group would not be a good fit for the Santora, we respect NewSong’s leadership for understanding the validity of our concerns and working with UASA and the City to forge a meaningful agreement that would protect the nature of the Santora and the Artists Village.
UASA will continue to partner with the City and other business and civic leaders to form a Santora Steering Committee that will seek an arts-friendly investor who will secure the historic building’s future as an anchor for arts-based revitalization in the heart of Santa Ana.
If Santa Ana really values its arts community — one of the best things it currently has going for it — then it will work with it to preserve the Santora as the flagship of its downtown tourism. The notion of the art space being turned over to an evangelical church, however pleasant its members and message, was jarring. (Not “selling a building to Scientology”-level jarring, but at least that could never happen in Santa Ana — right?)
The thing to bear in mind is that while the NewSong bid had its problematic aspects — aspects that to each of their credit UASA and the Church did try to work through in good faith — the next bid could come from an entity much worse. Mike Harrah held the Santora Building, in part, as a kind of public trust. Can he take a little less money from the deal to leave a little better city? He’ll have plenty of people — including Santa Ana artists — hoping that he can.
The artists who opposed the sale may live to regret it. It seems to me that NewSong would have been a fine, understanding, largely accommodating landlord. There’s no telling who Harrah will be willing to sell the building to now.
Well, according to this statement it’s not the artists who scuttled the sale, but “economic considerations” with Harrah.
Damn, I say selfishly. A good friend of mine had done a LOT of research into the NewSong Board of Directors etc, and I was just getting around to fashioning it into a story. OH well … maybe they’ll be back doing something, I’ll save this material.
Well, I don’t think my statement implies that the artists scuttled the sale…but a percentage of the artists did oppose the sale and all I’m suggesting is that NewSong could quite possibly have been about as good as they could expect in terms of forging a relationship with a new landlord. Harrah doesn’t exactly have a history of giving much of a damn what the artists think. My reading of the story suggests to me that NewSong bent over backwards to listen to the concerns of the artists. Not every potential landlord will be so inclined.
I am happy for the artists. There are plenty of empty buildings that Newsong can buy to spread their gospel….and I guarantee they will be doing that. Proselytizing is in the fine print when joining a fundamentalist church…
Firstly, NewSong is not a fundamentalist church. Have you ever been to services there? Have you talked to and gotten to know a significant number of those in leadership?
I didn’t think so.
Secondly, YOU say that they were buying the building to spread the gospel, but that is nothing more than speculation on your part. In fact, it is contradicted by NewSong’s longstanding commitment to the arts…something you clearly have no knowledge of.
I did go to one of their services, and spent a couple hours talking to Dave Gibbons. I wouldn’t call them fundamentalist, but they were kind of mystifying. It was hard to tell exactly what their theology was, they were some kind of hybrid of New-Age Self-Help Christianity that tried to appeal to young people, “misfits” and in general everybody, without offending anyone.
But – do I have this right, Mika? Someone found on their website or something, a questionnaire that asked have you ever done this, and listed several things that were described as Satanic, including Yoga … this gave folks the idea they were “fundamentalist.” I haven’t had time to look at that flyer or questionnaire, do you have it, Mika?
I think of them as being evangelical — Godspell rather than Breaking the Waves. Agreed?
Yes I do Vern and Anon I read some of their ‘inside’ correspondence and they do infact spread their message. In my opinion they aren’t as transparent as they appear. But you go ahead and attend their church. It’s your constitutional right. Id love to talk about this some more but I’m late for my yoga class. Namaste!
Didn’t really hear them talk much about Jesus. A lot of feelgood stuff, a lot of joking, a lot of rock music. The preacher was a young guy who talked and moved like a standup comic. There was some praying, including praying for their “new consultants.” Dave Gibbons claimed he didn’t know what his preacher meant by the “new consultants.” Me and my research director believe we figured that out though.
So when a person of faith shares said faith with a person who is interested, that makes them a fundamentalist?
Does the same hold true for a person who wants to share the virtues of yoga?
Anon, you are a member of the New Song Church so I am sure you are aware of the intake questionaire. It is quite a list of beliefs that they feel need to be prayed away, including Mormonism…guess they aren’t a Romney fan. New Song has packaged religion in a way to draw in younger people and thats fine. I support the right to worship anything you want. The Santora Building was not the right place. If they had set up shop in downtown Santa Ana they would surely have to driven the Art District into the ground. We all know that the art would have turned into bland art, nothing that would offend a religious person. Mainstream people don’t want to be preached to and they would to stop coming to shop, hang out and eat.
Its no secret that Gibbons commented on his facebook page that he wanted to put in a 300 seat meeting facility in the Santora Building. I guess he changed his mind when he found out it would cost a couple million more to make the building structurally sound. And then there is the problem that the building is a historical. But all of that doesn’t matter. New Song will find another building that will have less redtape and controversy and the artists can do their thing. Its a win win for everyone involved.
And to answer your question about Yoga, I am sure there are fundamentalist groups as well, but we never hear them trying to change laws to make others conform to their way of life.
And where is your evidence that NewSong church wants to “change laws to make others conform to their way of life”?
If you don’t have evidence of that, do you retract your “fundamentalist” characterization in light of Vern’s experience and your lack of evidence?
I used to be a member of NewSong, but I’m not currently. I was never given an “intake questionaire” and I never heard of one while I attended for about 5 years. Never heard it mentioned and never saw it on their website. To say that I’m skeptical of it’s existence and endorsement by the church would be the understatement of the century.
Call NewSong and I am sure they will send you a copy if you ask. I have a copy and its defintiely from NewSong.
Can you get a copy of that to me, Mika? And I’ll ask Gibbons about it, I still have his number.
How about if YOU call Dave Gibbons and verify its authenticity and endorsement and use by the church. I’m not the one claiming they use it.
The questionaire is called Sola Dei and the author is Pastor Ed Salas. You can email him about it. ed.salas@newsong.net
I’ve had a number of positive interactions with Newsong throughout the years, and know several members, though I am part of a different church. My understanding is that the questionnaire in question is part of a specific prayer ministry that the church conducts for people wanting to seek more specific spiritual help. It is not a general form that all members fill out nor are expected to take part in.
With that said, many of the ideas that the questionnaire conveys are shared by a large percentage of evangelicals. In terms of theology, Newsong is in alignment with mainstream evangelicalism, though perhaps with an increasing emphasis on supernatural phenomena.
All evangelicals believe in some form of “preaching the gospel.” That really should not be a surprise. What is unique about younger churches like Newsong is that they tend to have a more open and collaborative approach where they see themselves as community partners more so than as community saviors.
I think that most of the aspects that people find unsavory about Newsong are really just characteristics that are found in the broader evangelical movement. Since Newsong is pushing into non-traditional territories, they are finding resistance in ways that other more traditional churches don’t encounter.
That-all makes sense. Still, I think most Americans, even some evangelicals, would think it’s creepy and Carrie’s-mother-oldschool to consider YOGA “satanic.”
How would they have dealt with some of the Art we see in the Santora?