CBN News story….Detroit is picture perfect from a distance. But up close it’s a picture of urban decay. High poverty rates, high crime rates, and high unemployment are driving people away.
Detroit Police Sgt. John Bennett has patrolled the city’s streets for more than 16 years.
“I don’t know how much longer I’m going to stay honestly. I don’t know how much longer I can hang on,” he told CBN News.
“We’ve lost in the police department a thousand officers that haven’t been replaced in the last five to six years,” he said.
Motor City‘s problems are simply bigger than police and government. That’s why 50 area pastors are coming together to pray and to plan.
And they’re being led by Promise Keepers, a Christian organization with a mission to unite men to become warriors to change their world.
“Number one, is it is a revival, renewal, and a rediscovery of the word of God,” Promise Keepers president Dr. Raleigh Washington told CBN News. “There are a lot of solid churches in the Detroit area doing a great job, but it needs to be on a combined basis. That is why the pastors are coming together.”
With Detroit’s problems being so deep and so large, how can pastors make a difference? PK President Dr. Raleigh Washington and PK founder Bill McCartney addressed that question and more on CBN News Channel Morning News, Aug. 23.
The Promise Keepers’ “Reviving Detroit Summit” included a message from former Muslim Brotherhood terrorist Kamal Saleem. Saleem told pastors radical Islam made a conscious effort to divide the city as early as the 1960s.
Nevertheless, Washington said, “I am not preaching against Islam.”
“I am preaching for Christianity because I believe Jesus Christ is the only way, the only truth and the only life,” he explained. “When I hear Islam or anyone preaching different, that goes against what the Bible says.”
Dr. Washington said it’s time for Detroit Christians of all backgrounds to stand together to pull their city from the brink of disaster.
“Racial reconciliation is critical because it undergirds oneness,” he said.
And he believes standing one with God is enough to bring revival to the Motor City.
Pastor Mike Says 