The Los Angeles Dream Center has spent more than three decades refusing to give up on people others have forgotten. Now, co-founder Pastor Matthew Barnett is making it clear he has no intention of stopping.
Barnett has moved onto the roof of the Dream Center and says he will stay there until the ministry raises $1 million to continue serving Los Angeles through the end of the year.
“The @ladreamcenter is in the midst of a battle,” Barnett wrote on Instagram. “This August we are trending for the worst month ever of giving.”
But walking away isn’t an option.
“Apathy towards Los Angeles is at a record high. Many people say give up, throw in the towel,” Barnett wrote. “I’m not leaving Los Angeles and I’m not leaving this roof until The Dream Center raises $1 million to get us through the end of the year.”
Barnett is livestreaming the campaign 24 hours a day and plans to sleep and conduct his daily life from the rooftop for however long it takes. His message is simple: Los Angeles is still worth fighting for.
Support is already coming from prominent Christian voices. Grammy-winning worship artist Chandler Moore summed up his support in a comment on Barnett’s post: “I’m coming with a piano.”
What Barnett is fighting to preserve has taken more than 30 years to build.
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Founded by Matthew and his father, Tommy Barnett, in 1994, the Dream Center has grown from handing out groceries on Los Angeles streets into a massive faith-based ministry serving people battling homelessness, hunger, addiction, abuse, poverty and other crises. The organization says its free programs and services have impacted more than 10 million people and currently reach more than 45,000 people each month across more than 20 underserved Los Angeles communities.
The Dream Center’s outreach includes mobile food banks that feed more than 20,000 people monthly, transitional housing, addiction recovery, foster care intervention, clothing distribution and educational programs. Its Carey Kitchen alone serves approximately 800 hot meals every day of the year.
And all of it is rooted in the Christian mission that has driven Barnett from the beginning: meet people where they are, meet practical needs and show them the transforming love of Christ.
Ministries like the Dream Center are vital to our communities. They go where the need is greatest, serve people others overlook and remain long after the cameras disappear.
For more than three decades, the Dream Center has refused to abandon Los Angeles.
Now Barnett is putting that commitment on display from a rooftop for the entire world to see.
“I love you all and pray for me for however long it takes,” Barnett wrote.
He’s not leaving.
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
