our story
What may look like a series of chance moments was, in reality, the careful and gracious orchestration of God. Long before we could see it, He was weaving together people, places, and relationships to form something far bigger than any of us imagined. The story of Renew is ultimately not about human planning, but about a faithful God who was designing a Gospel family in Los Angeles from the very beginning.
A Sunday that wasn't random…
2012 — NORTHERN VIRGINIA
our story
On a random Sunday that was not random to God, Pastor Dihan and Julie walked into Grace Covenant, having no idea it was a Black church. It was supposed to be a simple visit. But from the moment they stepped inside, something hit them: Pastor Brett was their pastor, and Grace Covenant was their church. Pastor Brett felt it too. He found them in the lobby after service and invited them to dinner. That dinner led to many more, and two years later, Dihan was on his staff, preparing to plant a church in Los Angeles.
The culture might tell you the Black and Korean communities don't mix. But God does not agree. Dihan and Julie came to see Pastor Brett as their spiritual father. Grace Covenant became the place where they found their spiritual aunties and uncles, brothers and sisters. They experienced family in an entirely new way — and it forever changed them.
It is out of this unusual work of reconciliation that God sent out a diverse core team with the crazy dream of becoming a new Gospel family in a city they’d never lived in — the very city that, two decades earlier, had nearly burned to the ground in riots centered on Black and Korean conflict.
2015 — culver city
That family launched a church in Culver City in 2015. Over the decade that followed, God did incredible things. We witnessed hundreds of salvations and baptisms and heard countless stories of divine encounter. But perhaps the most beautiful legacy is how God knit together a community rarely seen at the Sunday hour. In a terribly divided world, Renew has become living proof that the Gospel of Jesus can make a disparate people one — ethnically, socioeconomically, and generationally diverse.
We named the church Renew because we longed to see Gospel renewal come to Los Angeles. That remains our mission. In Isaiah 61, the once-broken are renewed by the Gospel and sent out to restore, rebuild, and renew the ruined city. That is who we are: imperfect people, making disciples in Los Angeles through the love of God we have experienced.
2025 — SANTA MONICA
In June 2025, God brought us to our permanent home. We purchased a historic church building — over 100 years old — in Santa Monica. A milestone we once could barely imagine. We remain today what we were on day one: a wildly diverse, Gospel-centered, justice-oriented, emotionally healthy, Spirit-filled community that passionately loves Jesus and the city of Los Angeles.
