One of the country’s most gifted and inspiring communicators, Harvey Carey is founder and senior pastor of the Citadel of Faith Covenant Church, a congregation of 650 in Detroit, MI. Located in one of the poorest zip codes in America, Carey’s church was identified as one of the top churches in growing people spiritually by the new REVEAL research. A former youth pastor at a large inner-city church in Chicago, Carey has trained and led ministry teams in preaching the gospel in housing projects, shopping malls, and public schools in urban areas across the country. He brings deep insights on how to encourage your people to grow, even in tough circumstances.
- Eph 4:11-16
- Something is against all odds.
- From the south side of Chicago.. grew up po’ … looked up to poor people because they had the “o” and the “r”!
- Detroit has been the biggest battleground he’s encountered… Michigan is the poorest state in the USA… Detroit is the poorest city… and their church is the poorest zip code.
- What do you do when the odds are stacked against you? You’ve got to believe God’s Word is true.
- The same God that worked miracles in those days wants to work miracles today.
- When the odds are against us, God is about to show up.
- When you are attacked for the cause of Christ you know you are on the right track.
- We need to learn to how to take a little and make much.
- Too often we believe we have to hire people to do the work of ministry… we need to staff to equip others to equip people!
- It’s time to be the church and do the work of the kingdom.
- God’s people must be equipped… it’s our job as leaders to equip them.
- Members take ownership for the work.
- It’s not the role of leadership or staff’s responsibility, members must have responsibility.
- You need to genuinely engage them in the work.
- All we do is “huddle,” we never break and play the game.
- Sunday morning is when we go out.
- The moment the most of your people are there is when you need to train and equip them to do the work of the ministry.
- The days we learn we actually do it.
- You don’t go to the mountain to look the sky, you go to learn something to take down to the dying world that needs to know there’s a God that loves them.
- Get out of your huddle and change the world.
- They do “urban camping” … they find the scariest places and camp out.
- They’ve shut down 8 major drug houses in their community.
- What are the causes and who are the people in our community that need Jesus?
- Fear is the thing that cripples us the most from taking risks.
- The Bible is all about people who felt ill-equipped and who God empowered to do incredible things. Not out of their ability, but out of God’s intervention.
- They’ve given a Bible to every person in their community.
- Most leaders have the paralysis of analysis.
- We don’t see the full context of God’s power because we don’t create an environment for the text to become real.
- The call of God is greater than any other invitation.
- Are you going to add this binder to your collection or leave with a challenge to make a difference in the world?
- Transformation happens by what you REALLY do, not what you talk about.
- We often do ministry based out of our resources.
- We put a limit on what we can do based on what our budgets are.
- This is a perfect storm for God to really do some great things.
- It’s not about your budget or your staffing, it’s about your passion, your calling… it’s all about God.
- Look at how many prayer meetings you have compared to strategic meetings.
- We’re so disproportionately balanced against what we can do versus what God can do despite ourselves.
- When God does it, nothing or no one can take the credit for it but God.
- It’s all on God.
- What has God called you to do? What’s your dream?
- The church needs to realize her potential… to be the salt and light of the world… to do the impossible.
- If darkness is present, light is absent.
- If darkness is present in your community and your church is being “the light,” something is wrong.
- Realize who you are.
- You can walk on water when God gives you a word to do it.
- What would happen if you chose to stop making excuses and saying what you can’t do?
- The church can change the world… our cities and nations can change.
- In Jesus’ name stop huddling and start playing the game.
- When we do the world will see the church is alive and is doing and being what it is called to be.
