Mar 24, 2019
What You'll Hear:
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Greg became a Christian at a young age with the guidance of his mother.
- He later spent a year in jail, where he learned more about God
- He reverted to his old ways, and about 3 years ago he rededicated his life to Christ and got baptized and hasn't looked back
- He's been rapping since age 12 and was rapping for the world.
- His grandmother said you better have a backup plan, so he went to the Art Institute of New York and worked at several restaurants in Charlotte as a sous chef
- On September 23, 2016, Keith Lamont Scott was shot by Charlotte police. He had some mental issues and didn't take his medicine that day.
- Greg saw young men and women standing on top of cop cars and throwing rocks at police. Police were shooting tear gas.
- Greg wanted to show his younger brother how to act with self control
- The next day he went downtown with his friend. People were doing a silent protest, which Greg was against along with riots.
- They led the group to march to the police department and protested for 7 days.
- A police officer extended a hand shake to him and invited him to learn more about police training.
- Greg met Sheriff McFadden who was also an African American. He asked Greg 3 questions 1. Do you know what justice is? 2. Have you ever seen justice? 3. Do you know what justice looks like if you've seen it. He answered no and things changed.
- A protestor was shot by another protestor.
- Greg realized he hadn't sowed any seeds in his community and didn't deserve to be there protesting
- He and a friend started Heal Charlotte to build bridges in the community
- They went to a transparency workshop, created by the CMPD.
- They created The Constructive Conversational Training to help officers. 75 officers went through the training.
- Police started looking at people as advocates for the community
- They've had a Thanksgiving dinner and started an after school program in the neighborhood Greg lived in with the help of his property manager
- "There are heavenly creatures in this city that have been connected to the vine of God"
- They've had a 17% crime decrease in his neighborhood
- They have a CMPD Tuesday day where the cops come and talk to the kids
- His community feels safe and they feel served
- Emergency calls have gone from 77 to 7 a week
- Their new mission is a place based organization that focuses on neighborhood revitalization
- They have a heal a home project
- They want to be allies and mentors and servants of the Kingdom
- In Charlotte there's a church on every corner, but they need more servants in the community
- The church is responsible and has a duty to walk with the imperfect
- The denominations and separations is hurting us
- Greg loves cross worship, the blessing of Abraham is upon us due to the level of our faith not our skin color
- Identity yourself by the impact you make in the world and what you do for the Lord
- African-Americans have a wall that doesn't allow others to get over it. Everyone should put their wall down. There needs to be a trust so people can work together. We're trying to save ourselves from something, when we all need each other.
- I had to trust in the Lord that He would not lead me astray, and that helped me trust a lot of people
- We can no longer plan to help somebody from a birds-eye view
- Everybody is impatient and inconsistent from the black-side to the white-side
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Contact www.healcharlotte.org