L.A. County Terminates Parking Lease Agreement with Grace Community Church

In a letter dated August 28 2020, the L.A. County Flood Control District informed John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church that it is terminating a lease agreement on three lots Grace uses for church parking. According to the church, they have used the lots continuously since 1975. The letter begins:

In accordance with General Provision C of Rental Agreement No. 01-18 (“Agreement,” copy enclosed) between the Los Angeles County Flood Control District and Grace Community Church (Grace), the District is exercising its right to terminate the Agreement by giving a minimum of 30-day written notice of intention to terminate. Please be advised that by this notice, the District will hereby terminate the Agreement effective October 1, 2020. Accordingly, pursuant to the Agreement, Grace shall vacate and remove all of its improvements and personal property placed on the premises (as defined in  the Agreement) on or before October 1, 2020. If Grace fails to vacate the premise as required, the District may enter the premises and remove Grace’s personal property in accordance with the Agreement and applicable law, and Grace will be responsible for any resultant expenses incurred by the District. Any improvements, including fencing, that are not removed will become the property of the District at its option. Effective October 2, 2020, or thereafter, the District will secure the premises.

Read the letter from the L.A. County Flood Control District

The church has until October 1. The next hearing on L.A. County v. Grace Community Church is September 4. The county’s actions appear to be a response  to Grace’s violation of their Health Order banning indoor worship. However, there may be time for movement on both sides before the lease agreement runs out. The outcome of the September 4 hearing may have some influence on this matter as well.

For all of the posts on LA County v. Grace Community Church, click here.

For my ongoing tally of churches who are associated with COVID-19 outbreaks, click here.

 

50 thoughts on “L.A. County Terminates Parking Lease Agreement with Grace Community Church”

  1. I’m guessing it was predestined from Day 1 of Creation that GCC’s parking lease would be terminated at the present moment. God’s will be done!

    1. Well, I thought who is saved/not saved was predetermined BEFORE Day 1 of creation, but not a single event transpires in real time outside the will of God (that’s what John Calvin wrote, I think.) I am sure the “P” in TULIP doesn’t stand for “Parking.”

    2. Well, I thought who is saved/not saved was predetermined BEFORE Day 1 of creation, but not a single event transpires in real time outside the will of God (that’s what John Calvin wrote, I think.) I am sure the “P” in TULIP doesn’t stand for “Parking.”

  2. I’m actually wondering if there’s something else behind it. Yeah, it’s easy to say this is punishment for flouting the Health Department, but perhaps there’s something else behind it.

    I hope the County has considered the chaos that is going to come by denying parking spaces to 1000+ hardcore worshipers of John MacArthur come October 4. The neighborhoods around the church aren’t going to like it one bit. Seriously, this is the kind of thing that sparks real bitterness against large churches by neighborhoods. Residents get real tired of church people parking in their driveways, blocking their driveways, etc.

    No, there’s something else going on here. The Health Department thing was the tipping point. Now I wonder what it is…

    1. A few of things.

      1) Parking is not a right and quite frankly has nothing to do with the 1A.
      2) If GCC worshipers park illegally on the streets, it is their problem if the cars get ticketed or towed
      3) Of course if GCC worshipers actually exemplified grace and actually followed Scriptures regarding their fellow man, then they would not block people’s driveways and either carpool or not attend the services in person.
      4) God forbid a bunch of fake Christians get outed for their hypocrisy and people get pissed at their bullshit while they play the piety and spiritual cards.
      5) Maybe this is God’s way of bringing reproach on GCC and their egomaniac pastor.

      So let the chips fall where they may. I will bring the popcorn.

    2. A few things:

      1) Parking is not a right and quite frankly has nothing to do with the 1A.
      2) If GCC worshipers park illegally on the streets, it is their problem if the cars get ticketed or towed
      3) Of course if GCC worshipers actually exemplified grace and actually followed Scriptures regarding their fellow man, then they would not block people’s driveways and either carpool or not attend the services in person.
      4) God forbid a bunch of fake Christians get outed for their hypocrisy and people get pissed at their bullshit while they play the piety and spiritual cards.
      5) Maybe this is God’s way of bringing reproach on GCC and their egomaniac pastor.

      So let the chips fall where they may. I will bring the popcorn.

      1. Not going to disagree, but I really do wonder if there’s more to this than just Health Department annoyance with GCC. I read the lease–both sides had a 30 days to terminate clause, meaning that GCC could have terminated the lease with 30 days notice. It doesn’t look unfair to me. But seriously, if this was an important part of GCC’s physical property, why wouldn’t they have negotiated a year-to-year lease sometime over the last 19 years? Something hinky is going on here.

        1. I suspect GCC dropped the bawl on an updated lease agreement (for whatever reason) and forgot completely about the Law of Unintended Consequences when they went to down this defiant road. My only question is how many other contracts they didn’t look over before all this defiance, and more importantly how many of them are they just as legally hosed on. This parking thing completely blindsided them and I suspect their team is now going over all other leases and contracts to see how badly they are screwed if those other parties want to use them as leverage.

          Since the lease agreement is so old it is entirely possible the players who drafted it and made the deal left GCC a long time ago. After a while, GCC and its worshipers and staff probably assumed that the parking lots were always theirs, and the newer staff would have never thought to check up on this. As for the parking, there is NO way MacArthur comes out on top of that one. Contract law is very airtight especially the way those contracts were drawn up.
          One should remind MacArthur of a Teddy Roosevelt quote Chuck Colson used to say:

          “If you’ve got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.”

          And LA County has GCC by the balls.

        2. I suspect GCC dropped the ball on an updated lease agreement (for whatever reason) and forgot completely about the Law of Unintended Consequences when they went to down this defiant road. My only question is how many other contracts they didn’t look over before all this defiance, and more importantly how many of them are they just as legally hosed on. This parking thing completely blindsided them and I suspect their team is now going over all other leases and contracts to see how badly they are screwed if those other parties want to use them as leverage.

          Since the lease agreement is so old it is entirely possible the players who drafted it and made the deal left GCC a long time ago. After a while, GCC and its worshipers and staff probably assumed that the parking lots were always theirs, and the newer staff would have never thought to check up on this. As for the parking, there is NO way MacArthur comes out on top of that one. Contract law is very airtight especially the way those contracts were drawn up.
          One should remind MacArthur of a Teddy Roosevelt quote Chuck Colson used to say:

          “If you’ve got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.”

          And LA County has GCC by the balls.

          1. I suspect that GCC saw an advantage of being able to get out of the agreement quickly if they had financial problems. They didn’t consider that the other side might actually opt out on 30 days notice. Note they did have to pay a not insignificant sum of money quarterly which increased every few years so someone knew even if only the financial officers.

          2. There is that. Of course knowing (as in seeing it as a line item in the expense / balance sheets and as an invoice to your AP department) and paying attention to the details and getting into the reeds are not necessarily the same thing.

          3. After a while, GCC and its worshipers and staff probably ASSumed that the parking lots were always theirs…

            “And when you ASSUME you make an ASS out of U and ME!”

  3. Well, that should be fun. Stop in-person church services, or we’ll take away your parking lots. It’s not quite as effective as nailing the doors and windows shut, but it certainly should motivate MacArthur and Co. to work out another way to do “church.” If they still plan to use the building after the pandemic ebbs, I’d imagine they’ll come up with some alternative. but it’s John MacArthur, so who knows?

    1. It’s telling that thousands of churches elsewhere found solutions while McArthur’s GraVe Community Church refuses to do so. If only MacArthur and his White Nationalist Evangelical followers had heard about Acts of the Apostles that appears in a collection of historical writings called the “New Testament.”

  4. Sweet. Looks like LA County is NOT effing around. Maybe there are other agreements (rentals or leases) that LA county (or the city) have with MacArthur’s church they can terminate as well. Of course once the parking is not longer available, methinks parking law enforcement in the surrounding blocks should be stepped up. I wonder if they can change the weekend parking restrictions for the county or city as well. The beauty of the parking thing is that as soon as you give 30 days notice, it doesn’t matter the effing reason (Contract Law 101).

      1. Nothing “tyrannical” about it. GCC has defied county health orders not to congregate indoors. GCC has used those parking lots to facilitate the defiance of those orders. So the county cancels the leases prevent the lots use in defying health orders.

        what would even be better is if the county then sets up the lots to be used as drive-thru testing locations.

          1. Well, if anyone reading this is from LA County, feel free to email that suggestion to your councilpersons. You can have all the credit for the idea. 🙂

      2. Christians do, as long as that Tyranny comes holding up a Bible and promising THEY’ll be the ones on top Holding the Whip.

      3. How is not renewing a lease tyranny? I guess you are OK with landlords being not allowed to evict people who don’t pay their rent then right? How leftist of you.

        As for changing the weekend parking restrictions, that is unlikely to happen, since it will have be county or citywide and there has to be hearings, time for public comments, etc. Of course once the lot is not longer under the lease, a big sign (like what are posted at numerous lots across the country) warning that violators will be towed is perfectly legit. Hence enforcement.

      4. Yes indeed. Nothing quite says tyranny like terminating a month-to-month rental agreement, giving the tenant adequate notice as stipulated in the agreement, and following applicable law. What’s next? Will the tyrannical city require the church to adhere to fire codes? The bastards.

        Maybe we can pray for the day when Grace Community Church could be allowed to rent a space elsewhere or buy their own church property and dream of a time when Christians dominate every level of state and federal government. When will this persecution end?

      1. It could have just as easily been another owner of that property (a parking lot company or other business) that did the same thing. No different that a private business saying “No mask, no shoes, no shirt, no service.”

        But silly me, my principled conservatism (with a healthy dose of libertarianism) means that the owner of the lot can do what the eff he wants with it. Including telling the parishioners of MacArthur’s church to eff off. Your 1A rights do not extend to my front lawn. Someone needs to remind these statist big gub’mint Evangelical social cons that the Constitution and federalism are equal opportunity offenders.

        1. And GCC made a dumb move 20 years ago when they went with a month-by-month lease (with one month’s notice) instead of an annual lease with a longer notice period.

    1. Parking a few tow trucks at the entrances to the neighborhoods around the church should do the trick.

  5. An unsurprising development given John MacArthur was forced to step down as chancellor of his Master’s University which I believe is still on probation due to a laundry list of ethical violations and blatant mismanagement.

    Whoever recently suggested renaming John MacArthur’s house of self-worship as GraVe Community Church was spot on.

    1. “Grace” in the official name of a church should be approached like “People’s Democratic” in the official name of a Third World country.

      “The more adjectives about Democracy in a country’s official name, the nastier a dictatorship it is.”
      — TV Tropes, “People’s Republic of Tyranny”

    1. You’re just bitchy because YOU’re not Holding the Whip over the rest of us.

    2. You really should read the contract. It’s not unfair, both sides had a 30 day notice clause. If GCC/MacArthur thought this parking lot was so important, then why didn’t they sign a year to year lease with the kind of notices that apartment leases require? They didn’t. They went 19 years on a month to month lease, one that GCC could have walked away from on October 1 by noticing the LA County Flood District *today*. So spare me the protestations.

      1. The 19 years on a month to month lease means they seriously FUBARed this and were completely blindsided by it. The phrase hoist by their own petard comes to mind.

        1. Yeah. They probably figured they could back out at any time.
          Never thought the other party could — and now DID.

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