An Interview with Jeff Carr
Jeff Carr, an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene, has had a unique career. He spent 17 years in Los Angeles (L.A.) working with youth and later became executive director of Bresee Foundation. During that time, he made connections in civic organizations-police, schools, city council. After taking a hiatus to travel across the U.S. with his family in an RV, he went to work for Sojourners, an organization committed to articulating the biblical call to social justice. More recently, Jeff has returned to L.A., where he works with the mayor, Antonio R. Villaraigosa, as director of gang reduction and youth development.Jeff was raised in Lynnwood, Washington, near Seattle. He attended Northwest Nazarene University (NNU). He and his wife, Wendy, have two young children, Caleb and Maggie.
HT: Life-changing moment?
JC: While at NNU, I went to the Azores with the soccer team. Being exposed to poverty and the social realities of the rest of the world affected me.
HT: Tell us more about the Azores experience.
JC: Missionary Earl Mosteller, now retired, is a dynamic human being. While I heard a lot of sermons about holiness, I saw in Earl the embodiment of holiness. I remember standing on a cobblestone street in the Azores and making a deal with God that whatever Earl had—if that was God and Christianity—that's what I wanted.
HT: Sometimes we're afraid of the world outside the church walls.
JC: John 16:33 says, "But take heart! I have overcome the world." The whole mindset of withdrawing from the world is antithetical to the gospel. Our history as a denomination over the last century is that we have been out there impacting society: establishing homes for unwed mothers, providing food and clothing for immigrants, and working with people whose lives were being destroyed by addictions.
HT: Are we afraid we're going to lose something by going into the world?
JC: How can we fear losing something we were commanded to give away? The gospel is rooted in hope, not in fear.
HT: How did a Nazarene kid from Lynnwood get to the L.A. mayor's office?
JC: I was just trying to be an obedient, faithful follower of Christ. I had been engaged in the civic life of L.A. for 17 years. Eventually the city council president, a friend I knew because the Bresee Foundation was in his district, recommended me to the mayor.
HT: How do you attempt to get everyone to play nice?
JC: A big part of the job is to weave together civic and non-profit agencies. Rather than all having a patchwork of ineffective programs, we're creating a unified system that takes a comprehensive approach.
HT: Where do you start?
JC: We're trying to help kids write a new narrative in which they're the heroes instead of the villains. Fundamentally, that's what the church is about—helping people write new narratives for their lives and encouraging them to see that their own stories fit into the larger story of the gospel.
HT: How does L.A. gang violence affect HT readers?
JC: Anywhere violence or conflict is accepted as the culture of society, it has a negative impact on the people who live there. So many people pass through L.A. that what happens there is often carried elsewhere.
HT: What can the Church do to intervene in society?
JC: If the Church is to be salt and light and hope for the world, it seems like the members should be engaged in that struggle for peace.
NOTE: Jeff Carr became chief of staff for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 2008.
Holiness Today, November/December 2008
Please note: This article was originally published in 2008. All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at that time but may have since changed.
