When you look around at all the challenges that are happening in our communities and neighborhoods right now sometimes it's easy to throw your hands up in the air and feel helpless to make any positive changes. Some people just shake their heads, cross their arms, and look around waiting for the calvary to come to the rescue. But guess what? The calvary is ALREADY HERE and they look just like YOU!

If God has allowed you to be in a community or around people where you see the issues and challenges up close, more than likely He has a plan for using you to bring answers and solutions. So how is that supposed to happen? It happens through the talents He placed inside of you before he sent you and into the world and positioned you to be in proximity of the problem (Ephesians 2:10).

Your community needs your talents. In fact God set it up in such a way that your talents are assigned to specific people who need them. Your talents are meant to address specific needs and problems.

So based on Paul's guidance to Timothy, let's look at these three key aspects of how you're supposed to engage your talents in your community...

1. Power - The ability to make choices. Everyone has power because everyone has choices (even if they don't seem like good choice). How you use your power - positively or negatively - is your choice. You have God-given abilities to impact other people's lives. How will you use your power? Will you choose to engage your community room change to standby and just watch what happens?
2. Love - Selfless concern for the needs of others that causes you to act on their behalf and in their best interests. When you embrace how much God loves you, it compels you to share that love with others and you're willing to care for their needs deeply with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.
3. Sound mind - Clarity of focus and purpose. When your mind is clear of fear, stress, and frustration, your creativity and imagination will be unhindered. You will be able to conceive of effective solutions that could only come from the mind of God.

If you're waiting for God to send someone to rescue your community you're going to be waiting for a long time because He already sent you. Christ in you is the hope and greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. And one great benefit of you using your gifts is that you help others unlock theirs in the process.

So your community is waiting on your gifts. It's time for you to give them what they need and have have been waiting for.

Gang Intervention Specialist and Juvenile Justice Advocate, Amy "Hope Dealer" Williams, will share how true community and healing begins when we experience the power of story, intentional listening and genuine compassion. Williams' Tedx Talk, "Putting the Human Back in Humanity," provides a powerful reminder of the unfortunate shortcomings of judging people based on lazily-contrived labels. By validating one’s humanity, we create authentic relationships that can change the world. Enjoy!

Recently I was invited to write a guest blog post for No Compromise Magazine. I was asked to write about the epidemic of the killing of black men in America. This is a hot-button issue that is more complex than most people consider before they give their opinions. While the death toll of young black men continues to rise in this country, anger, frustration, and even hopelessness continues to increase also. It's easy for people to givev"black and white" opinions, but few are discussing the real root of what needs to be done. I feel it the responsibility of Kingdom-minded people to take a stand talk about Kingdom solutions. Here is a brief excerpt from my article:

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this epidemic. However, God does give us the antidote to the disease of sin and hopelessness. Please read the full article and I would love to hear your thoughts.
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Full article available at: http://www.nocompromisemag.com/blog-1/2017/6/11/black-men-in-america

Check out my part 1 of my interview on "Mornings with Morris" hosted by my good friend, actor, and nutritionist Morris Austin. We discussed various topics, but one thing we focused on was why God is concerned about the social ills of people and why Christians should be concerned too, and some of the things we can actually do about it. Enjoy!

“To live outside of God’s will puts us in danger; to live in His will makes us dangerous.”
~ Erwin McManus from An Unstoppable Force

Typically when someone is considered dangerous, it means they are likely to cause damage or danger to someone or something. In essence they are a threat to safety, order, and peace. As I think about it, I want to be an intentional threat, but not to safety, order, and peace. I want to be a threat to things that injure, defeat, oppress, and negatively impact lives, especially young people.

The world is full of people who play it safe. I don’t want to be one of them. I want to live my life on the edge. However, I’m not necessarily talking about “death-defying” activities, such as bungee jumping, skydiving, or wrestling wild animals (that’s for a different post). I’m talking about maximizing my full potential by utilizing my God-given abilities, talents, gifts, and resources to be a catalyst for life transformation.

I have learned over time that being a life transformation catalyst means that I must be willing to smash the status quo, i.e. standards that people and society have accepted that shouldn’t be. I can’t strive for a life of ease and comfort. I have to take risks, stretch my faith, strategically apply my giftedness, and reach out to people that others have rejected.

By living dangerously, I want to smash the status quo for youth and young adults in the areas of:

• Purposelessness
• Hopelessness
  
• Injustice
  
• Violence
• Complacency
• Mediocrity
• Negativity
• Stale thinking
• Low self-esteem
• Poverty and poverty mentalities
• Illiteracy

What about you? Are you a threat to any type of status quo? If not, then you’re not living as dangerously as you are capable. Figure out what you want to be a threat to and then go make something happen.

Success in business can come from some unexpected places. Jackets for Jobs, Inc. in Detroit is a great example of this. This incredible organization, founded by Allison Vaughn in 2001,  provides unemployed women with business attire and mentoring, while helping them find jobs. Since they started, they have helped over 16,000 women. I love this quote by Ms. Vaughn:

When Jesus tells us to help the "least of these," I believe many Christians struggle with seeing how that applies to our businesses. However, this powerful story is a great example of how following your dream can make a significant impact in your community.

I encourage you to ask God how He wants you to use your dream to impact your community.

Click here to read the full article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alison-vaughn/how-dressing-the-unemploy_b_8033112.html

Recently I read an article online that focused on the challenges many African-American teens face in their own communities and how in the past it was taught that your education was the ticket to escape. The author was challenging that notion with some points that supported the premise that these teens should be taught how to change their communities rather thatnlook for the first chance to get out.

While I definitely agree with the overall theme in the article, one of the things that jumped out to me was the fact that this is not an issue just for African-American teens. We need to be teaching all young people across all cultures the importance of investing in the communities they grow up in while they are there.

Here are five reasons why I believe we should teach all teens focus on impact in their communities versus escaping them:

1. Awareness: When youth don't have an escapism mentality they will become more aware and sensitive to the issues the see around them. They also will begin to dig deeper to look at root causes and not just accept surface answers or reasons as to why things are the way they are. 
2. Perspective: One's perspective changes in a positive way when they become more aware of the root cause of issues around them. Usually a change in perspective leads to a change in behavior.
3. Ownership: Have a long-term  perspective of living somewhere gives youth a greater sense of investment in place where they are living. The more that they are invested in their community, the more proactive (vs. passive) they will be in protecting what they view as valuable.
4. Resource: When youth develop a deeper awareness, greater sense of ownership, and a broader perspective of their communities they can then become a resource by using their time, talents, treasures (money), and thoughts (creative ideas) for the benefit of others. They become valuable assets who contribute to solving problems and positively impacting lives.
5. Influence: This attribute is usually built over time based on respect gained through demonstrated character and accomplishments. Youth who grow up and contribute to the betterment of their communities are able to leverage their reputations and contributions to lead others in significant ways, including financially and policy.

Youth are often overlooked and undervalued as community development assets. However, they are in the perfect position to become positive change agents. If we can get them to see it in themselves, maybe we can turn more communities around.

Read the full article, Teach black students they can change communities, here: http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/jul/07/teach-black-students-change-communities-not-escape

A few months ago our team at Greater Works announced the launch of an initiative to provide employment training and job placement to ex-offenders, at-risk youth, and others in underresourced and underserved communities (see 30 Jobs and Counting). That's why I'm extremely excited we have developed a partnership with a company that is prepared to hire 500 people, giving us the chance to present this opportunity to the people we serve.

We are facilitating the hiring of on-call Banquet Servers, Hosts, Cooks & Bartenders to work in a challenging, but fun environment. We are working with a unique staffing company that specializes in the hospitality industry. We are looking for enthusiastic, hardworking individuals to join a great team to deliver on our promise of excellent customer service.

*** This is NOT multi-level or network marketing ***

For more information or to apply online today, please visit www.greater-works.com/job-app.html

If you only pay attention to mainstream media outlets, you will only get a distorted, narrow, and negative image of young people from urban communities. This powerful story of Taharka Bros. Ice Cream in Baltimore is a great example of young leaders from an urban community turning their passion and concern into positive action that will not only benefit themselves but others also. What excites me even more about this story is the entrepreneurial creativity, ingenuity, and perseverance they demonstrated to bring into reality their dream of impacting their community through ice cream. I hope this inspires you...

Click here to read more about Taharka Brothers...

If you have been working in ministry or the community for any amount of time it is not uncommon for God to work in ways that are not necessarily mysterious, but are definitely unexpected. Recently, I was facilitating a youth business training with Greater Works Vocational Discipleship Program for a group of at-risk youth in Atlanta.

I had my lesson plan laid out to teach them how to start a purpose driven business. However, I found as I was going through my curriculum, it was not connecting with them. I tried different "trainer techniques" to get them to engage, but nothing seemed to work. 

It wasn't until I started focusing more on asking them questions than teaching content did I start to make a connection. I began inquiring about the problems they saw in their communities and the causes they believed were the culprits.

The energy in the room skyrocketed when I became the student and I opened myself to be taught by them. At that moment I had two choices: 1) stick to what I had planned to teach them, or 2) become a sponge so that I could better determine how best to reach them based on what they were facing. Fortunately, I chose the latter.

So what began as a youth entrepreneurship training became a millennial focus group for community transformation. It was very revealing what they saw as the issues and causes in their own communities, as well as some of the potential solutions.  The top 4 issues they listed were:

1. Crime
2. Drugs
3. Teen pregnancy
4. Police brutality

While everything didn't come out of their mouths with clarity or realistic solutions, it was extremely refreshing to hear their passion and concern for where they live. Teens do care deeply about the communities they live in. However, they often struggle with the communication skills and other tools to bring needed transformation. Further, they often lack the mentors that are necessary to lead them through the process.

That's why we need more Joshua's to lead the younger generation to their promise land. Sometimes it's easy for adults to talk at or over teenagers without really talking to them to hear their perspectives. With the complex issues that we are facing our communities these days, it behooves all of us to seek wisdom from whatever source God may bring it. 

You can learn more about how Kinsman Community Ministries is working with youth to transform their communities through social enterprises at www.mykinsman.org/youth.