(pensive music) - So, as the leader of Church of the Messiah, and the congregation, and of course all the work there, talk a little bit about what you see for its future.

I mean, you and I won't be around for another 150 years, but you'll certainly be around in the next year, and probably the next five, or 10, or 20.

Give us a sense of what you think is next for Church of the Messiah.

- That is an excellent question.

I must say I'm excited.

Now, I've been a pastor for 22 years, and 22 years is a long time to do anything, especially any one thing, and that was not on my agenda.

That was up to God, what He was telling me to do.

And it's been a privilege to be the pastor, but one of the things that I think I'm most hopeful for is fact that we have a generation of young people who are amazing.

I know a lot of times, they get the short end of the stick, but they are amazing.

They're doing incredible things.

And I always say that young people don't reject God, they reject the package of church, the package that the church put God in.

And here, we help them with their spirituality and activism.

Those two things go together.

They know that they're going to be the ones who are going to do the work.

We live by a scripture that says, "The kingdom of heaven is not your words.

It's a demonstration of power."

We wanna demonstrate that power.

We don't wanna commit spiritual malpractice by being able to say, "God is good," but there's no evidence of it.

We wanna show that evidence, and our young people, they are making it happen.

They're working on the issue of gun violence, they're working on the issues of social justice, and they are doing amazing work.

So, the future is very bright for Church and the Messiah, very bright.

- And when you think about the young people who are involved there, that's gotta give you real hope about not just the work you're doing, but the community that it's in.

And that's always been my impression about the relationship there, that, yes, the work that the church is doing is really important, but it is building on what's already there, and it's overlooked and it's disrespected.

You connect directly with it, though, and lift it up.

- Yeah, I think one of the things that people need to know, especially about...

I view it as well-organized.

And it's not just Church of the Messiah in this community and neighborhood.

I mean, you've got Field Street Block Club, you got St Bonaventure's, you got MACC Development, you got (indistinct) Village.

There's so many groups, the Boggs Center, there's so many groups and organizations in this community and neighborhood making it happen.

It's not just us alone.

And I like to compare...

I have people that wanna get just a little bit religious with it, with Jesus Christ.

Here He is, the Son of God, but He didn't do the work by Himself.

He went in God's will.

So, it's a team effort.

We're all supposed to collectively work together, and our biggest advantage is we have the same mission.

We wanna empower our people with the best resources possible so that they can have the best quality of life that they can possibly have.

That's what the mission is, that's what it's all about.