FOUNDED at EL DORADO SALOON in 1853.
OFFERING GOD’S LOVE TO
THE ROWDY & INCORRIGIBLE
OF LOS ANGELES, EVER SINCE.

Sunday Worship New Time10:00am
IN PERSON and
Live-Streaming on YouTube, Facebook Live, and TwitterX

Sabbath Sundays in 2024:
April 7, May 26, September 1, December 29
No in-person worship on these days

Sabbath Sundays: the Sundays after Easter, Christmas, and during Memorial Day and Labor Day weekend

213-458-1128
Physical Address for Worship:
1016 S. Flower Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Free Parking available in the parking lot on the corner of Flower Street and Olympic Boulevard.

Mailing Address:
PO Box 173
South Pasadena, CA 91031

CREATIVE

We are a church that is Creative. 
We believe that God created the world, and invited us to share our gifts as creative people. We recognize the movement of the Holy Spirit as we express our faith in a variety of creative ways - visual, musical, and theatrical. This is true in our worship, our work, and our mission.

Pictured is our Feminist Nativity, which features Mary as a non-caucasian, houseless, pregnant, unmarried teenager. This is the truth of her story, the truth of non-white Jesus, and the truth of our salvation history.  

COURAGEOUS

We are a church that is Courageous. 
We courageously claim our belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and Christ's commandment to courageously love God and love one another.
We are courageous in our activism, our outreach, and our empowerment of others.
This value leads us to be radically inclusive, social-justice oriented, LGBTQIA affirming, anti-racist, and open to all questions and doubts. 

Los Angeles First United Methodist Church is a proud member of the Reconciling Ministries Network, which equips and mobilizes United Methodists of all sexual orientations and gender identities to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.

COMPASSIONATE

We are a church that is Compassionate. 
We believe that the Holy Spirit remains with us as a comforting, advocating force in the world. Because of this, we are a church who values service to our neighbors, outreach to the lost, and care for the world. We listen with love, because we are called to be a voice to the voiceless. We work with dignity, because we are called to fight for the marginalized.

We are a houseless church. Until we can create a solution to DTLA’s homelessness crisis, we will remain in solidarity with our houseless neighbors.

Los Angeles First UMC is a proud member of the Reconciling Ministries Network. Below is the statement adopted in 2015, upon the congregation’s vote to affiliate with RMN:

The people of Los Angeles First United Methodist Church have long advocated for those who have been outcast from society. We carry the same legacy today, by continually expanding our welcome to all of who we believe Jesus loved.

We come together from different backgrounds to celebrate God’s love for the world while still working to make our community a better place. As we do so, we explicitly welcome and honor our community’s diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, race and ethnic background, age, faith history, marital status, socioeconomic status, immigration status, physical and mental ability, and education. We welcome the full inclusion of all people as children of God within the life and ministries of First UMC of Los Angeles. Further, we will model reconciliation to others, so that every day new people may come to understand the full extent of God’s love and inclusion.

LA FIRST UMC LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT - authored by Tom Grode, affirmed by LA First UMC’s Church Council on July 13, 2021

We Acknowledge the Tongva people as original caretakers of this land and their ancient village Yaangna, what we call Downtown Los Angeles.

We Acknowledge the many Native Americans who moved Downtown to Bunker Hill due to the Indian Relocation Act of 1956 as “the 'old' Bunker Hill was effectively scalped by urban renewal in the 1960’s.”   

We Acknowledge the work of Skid Row Housing Justice activists in the 1960's and 70's to keep the low income hotel housing in Skid Row from suffering the Urban Renewal fate of Bunker Hill.

We Acknowledge the Native Indigenous peoples of Los Angeles, their special relationship to Mother Earth, and their hospitality, inviting us into that special relationship.

We Acknowledge the patience, kindness, and compassion of Mother Earth.

We Acknowledge our beginnings as a church in 1853 when Methodist leader Adam Bland was sent to evangelize the "rowdy and incorrigible” Southland.

We Acknowledge our relationship with Biddy Mason, one of the Matriarchs of early Los Angeles, and a member of Fort Street Methodist Episcopal Church (the first name our church bore) before she began First African Methodist Episcopal (FAME) out of her home, one of the spiritual pillars in Los Angeles for many decades.

We Acknowledge Biddy Mason as the Patron Saint of Downtown Los Angeles, an enslaved woman who fought for the freedom of all who were enslaved. She utilized her training as a midwife to buy land and used her wealth to help others in need.

We Acknowledge the words of Jesus "to whom much is given much is required" as a blessing for us to live out: the legacy and reality of owning the largest piece of undeveloped property in South Park.

We Acknowledge the land of Downtown Los Angeles - more than a dozen unique and dynamic neighborhoods - as land the eyes of the world look towards for leadership and solutions to the challenges facing all humanity.

We Acknowledge the mission of the United Methodist Church as founded by John Wesley: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Learn more about your land’s history by visiting Native Land Digital. Native Land Digital creates spaces where non-Indigenous people can be invited and challenged to learn more about the lands they inhabit, the history of those lands, and how to actively be part of a better future going forward together.