Lisa Collins
In the heart of Los Angeles, where gang violence often paints the streets with fear and despair, one pastor is making a difference. His ministry of redemption is not confined within the walls of a church; it flourishes right on the streets, amid LA’s toughest gangs.
Standing at 5’10″, weighing 228 pounds, and sporting twisted locs, Anthony “Shep” Crawford not fit the typical image of a pastor, and perhaps it is just that which has made him a perfect fit for the street ministry he’s forged in South Central among some of the city’s most dangerous gangs.
It was, in fact, his looks, that helped the 53-year-old senior pastor of Experience Christian Ministries (dubbed “ECM”) to disarm members of the 53 Avalon Gangster Crips, when eight years ago he embarked on a journey that has now come to define his life’s mission.
His church, Experience Christian Ministries (dubbed “ECM”), bought a property at the corner of San Pedro and 47th Place, using South Park for church activities seemed a natural extension but it was gang turf.
“I’d done my homework.” Crawford recalls. “I had a youth pastor named ‘LA Zay’ who used to be gang affiliated and I spoke with him and some folks in the community. I kept hearing that you need to talk to this dude named Avalon Blue. I prayed with the understanding that if God had placed me here, this was the work I was supposed to be doing. So, I decided to go talk to the head of the gang, Avalon Blue.
“The next morning, I walk into the park and when they saw me they stand up and reach for their hip, so I’m yelling across the park. I’m a pastor, I’m a pastor. When I get to them, they’re saying, ‘You don’t look like no pastor.’
“I explain to them that we just moved in two blocks down and invite them to service. Then Avalon Blue says, ‘Well, we would work out here at the park every morning.’
Crawford’s disarming approach and consistent presence in the park, even working out alongside the gang members, soon began to build trust. Over time, Crawford rose to become one of the leaders of a movement that is working to transform gang members and as a result of efforts like his (and others like him), murders are down over 20% on L.A.’s gang-ridden “east-side,” and 40% in the South Park community, the neighborhood where his church resides.
Pastor Shep now serves as the chairman of United We Stand Up, an alliance of ex-gang bangers who have come together from different sets in the neighborhood on the east side of Los Angeles to talk peace and to change the narrative of gang culture. The group has successfully fostered at least four peace treaties and by offering hope, support, and a pathway to redemption, he is transforming lives one at a time through outreach programs, counseling, community engagement and a grassroots effort that thrives on the belief that change is possible for everyone, regardless of their past.
“The goal is to continue to bring rival gangs to the table to talk peace, to squash beef, to forgive and heal and also to find ways to get to the youth, because if you’re going to tell them to put down the guns, you’re going to have to give them something to pick up,” Crawford states. “We know that the 10–12-year-olds out here on the streets who are fatherless are the next ones to be interested in gang life. Our mission is not only to stop the killings now, but to provide those fatherless youth with another sense of family because that’s what everyone is looking for–family.”
It is hardly where the the Grammy award-winning R&B and gospel musician, songwriter and record producer—best known for Deborah Cox’s “Nobody’s Supposed to Be There”, Kelly Price’s “As We Lay” and Whitney Houston’s “Same Script, Different Cast”—expected to end up when he quit the music industry to pursue ministry.
He had always been an innovative thinker, co-founding ECM with his wife, Dr. Shalonda Crawford (affectionately known as “Dr. Sunshine”), as a haven for the unchurched and those disillusioned by traditional church experiences. Embracing the motto, “Out of the box, but in the Word,” he never imagined the extraordinary path that awaited him.
After experiencing rapid growth, the church sought to purchase the site of the former Neighborhood Community Church at 47th and San Pedro. “I had been asking God, ‘Wherever you put us, that’s how I will know what work we’re supposed to be doing.’ And He put us right in the middle of 53 Avalon Gangster Crips South Park area. I never thought I would be in this type of ministry. But my prayer was, ‘Wherever we move, whatever is going on there, that’s the work.
“When Avalon Blue was picked up for a probation violation, I found out where he was, and I wrote to him. I asked, ‘Is there anything that you need me to do?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be in here for at least two years and unable to support my family.” I promised him we would help his family as much as possible. When he got out, that started a very strong relationship. I began to know not only the Avalons but all the surrounding gangs. Blue and I invited them all to the church to speak, and they did. At the end of the day, we had Bloods and Crips praying for each other. That changed everything. That was when we really started getting into gang culture.”
In 2019, he gained national recognition for his efforts when he served as the pastor who eulogized the late rapper Nipsey Hussle.
“I didn’t know Nipsey or his family. I got a call saying that his brother wanted to talk to me. I said, ‘Just give him my number.’ And he called me. ‘This is Black Sam,’ he said. ‘I know you heard about what happened to my brother.’ I said, ‘Yes, my prayers are with you.’ He said, ‘We’re doing the funeral at the Staples Center on April 11, and I would like to know if you would bring the message. I heard a lot of good things about what you do, and I just feel like you would be the one to bridge both worlds.’ He never said what both worlds were, but I understood the assignment.”
Nipsey Hussle’s death brought the Crips and Bloods together in mourning, igniting a bold initiative to cease gang violence and an Eastside peace table where OGs would come together to discuss community progress.
“One of the big homies said it’s time for you to come through and I said, but I’m not affiliated. And then he said, because of the work you’re doing around your church, and the fact that you just do Nipsey I think it’s good that you come. And so I went, and it was like, 70 hardcore OGs present in one room. Minister Tony Muhammad was there and when he saw me, he put me up and said this is Pastor Shep. He’s a Christian and I’m a Muslim. If the two of us stand here together, Christian and Muslim, despite our theological difference, you Bloods and Crips can stand together.
Not everyone was happy to see Pastor Shep there with some more vocal than others.
“They would say, we don’t need no effing pastor here,” Crawford recalls. “But the OGs in charge continued to invite me and I continued to come.
Running the meetings was Paul ‘Lil Doc’ Wallace, a Crips leader, characterized by LAPD as the ‘boss of bosses’.
“He and a few others were the ones bringing everybody together and while I was not able to attend all the meetings, because I wasn’t affiliated, the church would contribute or cater the lunch. It was during that time that two of the biggest rival gangs came together—the East Coast Crips and the 52 Broadway—and ended a 45-year war. The following Wednesday, Lil Dot got picked up by the Feds on murder chargers.
In the days that followed, the group—including 15 gang members on the east side of LA from the low buttons to Compton—took a vote to see who would take over and lead the movement. Crawford received 70% of the votes to lead United We Stand Up as chairman for peace on the East Side.
Yet, for all of the inroads he has been able to make, the fact that it is dangerous work is not lost on Crawford.
“In all transparency, I have seen some things that would scare a lot of people,” the L.A. native reports. “It is rough but it’s part of the work. A few years ago, I started getting my stuff in order with my house and family because I knew the work was dangerous. I want and believe that I will be able to live to be very old, but I’m also prepared just in case I don’t and my family knows that. I’m not going to be crazy or reckless. But I trust God, and if anything ever happens to me in this work, that’s His will”.
“There have been times when we were in a church meeting, and I would get a call saying, ‘You need to come around the corner. The LAPD gang unit has Avalons lined up against the wall, and the neighborhood is ‘having a fit about it.’ I’d get there, along with Pastor Ryan Sims of Revelation COGIC and the LAPD knows who we are and that they need to give me an explanation of what’s going on, and when the neighborhood sees that I’m negotiating on their behalf, they feel heard and protected.
“Just recently, they were having some problems with the Avalons, regarding South Park” he continues. “So, we called a meeting, and there were eight or nine LAPD officers there. And it was about 10 members of the Avalon community there. It got a little crazy at first, but we were able to work most of the issues out and even ended the meeting in prayer. That’s the mission. God has taught us to be a light in the dark places of the world.”
Crawford is one of the Pastors who makes every effort to serve where possible as a liaison between the gangs and the police. So much so that when LAPD’s Community Safety Partners (CSP) want to meet with the gangs, they call clergy to set it up.
“I’ve even had people call me while contemplating retaliation before they retaliated against someone,” Crawford adds. “They’ll say, ‘Pastor, I need you to talk me out of this,’ and I respond, ‘Let me tell you about your future and what will happen to your four-year-old daughter if you retaliate.’
What keeps him focused on the work is his belief that the answer to the streets is love. Research shows that many actions of so-called gang members stem from unaddressed childhood traumatic experiences, including parental abandonment, physical and sexual abuse, witnessing excessive violence, and much more. United We Stand Up has created a safe space to engage in the process of healing.
“When ‘Lil Doc’ got convicted of murder, I was at the court every day with his mother, wife, and baby,” Crawford recounts. “I asked the judge to speak and told him that for five years Lil Doc had been leading a movement that changed the east side of Los Angeles. I asked the judge for mercy, but he was sentenced to 30 years which was better than what prosecutors threatened him with. Two hours later, he called me, saying, ‘Reverend, this is the best and worst day of my life.’ When I asked why, he explained it was the worst because he was taken from his family and the best because he heard a man speak well of him and all the good he had done.”
While his work has proved fruitful with the older gang members who now have families to think of, the younger members remain the biggest challenge.
“They are still out here on the streets with beef, so I made it a mission in the last year to start reaching the younger ones. United We Stand Up has what we call the Heroes Project, where each OG is responsible for bringing two of their younger guys or girls to do a seven-week course. We pay them a stipend to come, and at the end of it, they start to feel like family. We’ve done this for two years, and it has been life-changing.
“I’m going to court tomorrow to support one of them. I’ll be suited and booted, and I’ll bring five other pastors with me. When we show up, and we’re sitting behind them, that changes their life. One judge called me to the bench, came down, hugged me, and said, ‘We rarely see men in here supporting, and we almost never see Pastors, so thank you for the work you do.’
The goal for Crawford is to scale the efforts, inviting other pastors to unite with his peace movement.
“There are those who offer to help in ways other than being in the street. Some say, “That’s not my calling, but I’m praying for you,” and I appreciate that,” he explains, “but there are a group of peacemakers in every ’hood. There are also churches on many corners in those same ’hoods. My mission is to get the church, the Black church particularly, into the neighborhoods that their buildings sit in. I believe that if we, as pastors, can unite with the community in supporting the peace efforts of these OGs, then we can affect our immediate areas, which can change this city, and eventually the entire culture.”
If anyone is interested in joining or supporting the movement, please contact 855-ECM-ECM1 ext 102 or visit the website UWSU.org