THE CALL OF A LEADER
HARVEY CAREY
VIDEO OVERVIEW:
In his message at Willow Creek Association’s Global Leadership Summit, Harvey Carey teaches about God
doing great things against all odds. He talks about growing up in a very poor family on the south side of
Chicago. His whole life, those around him told him he couldn’t amount to anything—except for his mother,
who told him he could do all things through Jesus.
After attending Northwestern University, Harvey went into ministry. After some time working as an
associate pastor, God called Harvey to leave Chicago to start a racially diverse church in the poorest zip code
in Detroit, the poorest city in the U.S. He had never even been to Detroit before. Harvey found the odds were
stacked against him again. Even local church leaders vowed to oppose an ethnically diverse church. But
with a small beginning and against the odds. Harvey’s under-resourced church has experienced more
transformation in its congregation and community than many well-resourced churches ever do.
TRANSITION TO VIDEO CLIP:
Harvey challenges those who have much training to quit just huddling with other Christians, actually find the
needs in their community, and bring Jesus into those needs. In the video clip, Harvey details specifics about
how this has happened in his church and how it can happen in yours.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Harvey Carey is founder and senior
pastor of the Citadel of Faith
Covenant Church, a congregation of
650 in Detroit, Michigan. Located
in one of the poorest zip codes in
America, Carey’s church was
identified by the REVEAL research
as one of the top churches in
POST CLIP SUMMARY:
Harvey sees churches that too often are disproportionately dependent on their own abilities rather than
dependent on God. The gauge for this is the proportion of strategic meetings to prayer meetings. Harvey has
a dream that the Church of Jesus Christ would realize its potential. But his troubling question is: When will
leaders stop making excuses and choose to take action?
growing people spiritually. One
of the country’s most gifted and
inspiring communicators, and a
former youth pastor at a large inner
city church in Chicago, Carey has
TEAM DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Identify resources your church or organization might be relying on more heavily than relying on God. (i.e., money, gifted staff, strategies, etc.) Lay these before God and ask Him to reveal others. Pray a prayer of
confession as a team.
2. Where are the odds against you?
3. What can your team do to raise the temperature of prayer and dependence on God among the people
in your ministry?
©2011 Willow Creek Association. Permission granted to the purchaser of the Take Ten product to make copies of the accompanying process tool as needed.
trained and led ministry teams in
preaching the Gospel in housing
projects, shopping malls, and public
schools in urban areas across
the country.