The I Care Movement

So, I’m driving by WaterfrontPark one Saturday morning and I drive pass three gentlemen standing at the entrance of the park’s driveway.  One gentleman was standing in a prayer posture (which I now know to be the human statue), and the other two were holding signs offering prayer to those in need.  Immediately I felt a rush of excitement!  Usually the only people standing outside with signs are asking passerbys for money or protesting something, but these gentlemen were offering one of the most powerful gifts of all, prayer.  In seeking my own purpose in advancing the kingdom of God, I felt an exhilaration of motivated inspiration when I saw these guys stepping outside of the box, outside of the norm of making people go to church for prayer.  They were being like Jesus, and taking the word to the street.  I thought to myself, this is what it is all about, advancing the kingdom by literally doing what Jesus did when He was here; going out to teach all nations and being obedient to the will of our Father.

I rode by these gentlemen twice before finally pulling over and catching up with them just as they were leaving.  I had such an overwhelming need to find out their story and why they were offering prayer.  In interviewing Mr. Michael Sutton and Mr. Jeremy Purkett, I got more than just a story of motivation……I received some revelation knowledge, some Holy Spirit confirmations, and I felt a Word of God influence from their presence!  I am telling ya’ll these guys have started a movement here in ElizabethCity, and there’s some anointing and some blessings that are going to be reining down on the lives those who are seeking to fulfill the will of God.  It is imperative that we find our purpose and place in advancing His Kingdom!  Our lives and the lives of those who we are suppose to touch, are depending on our obedience.  These gentlemen are stepping up to the plate and I can’t wait to see what’s next!  Here is my encounter with, Founder of the I Care Movement, Mr. Michael Sutton and rising Leader of Ministry, Mr. Jeremy Purkett:

 

 Me:  What’s the name of your group?

MS: It’s an organization called ICare.  It’s a nonprofit organization that we’re just now, really in the very beginning stages of getting of the ground.

Me: What exactly is happening with you guys?  What exactly are you doing?  I know I passed you guys with your sign asking people if they need prayer to stop by.  What is your movement about?

MS: We are a global community outreach group.  And our purpose is to serve, this present age, in all different facets; whether it’s through the prayer outreach like we did Saturday, whether it’s through serving the homeless, whether it’s through providing educational  classes for those less fortunate, whether it’s doing mission trips in inner cities or abroad. It’s a Christian based organization.  So we’re just here to serve in different unique facets, but we’re also going to use the arts as a major missile head to impact this generation.

Me:  Is it mostly ElizabethCity community based?  Or

MS:  Yes, for right now.  But the vision is to maybe start ICare initiatives in other cities and to be abroad.

Me: So is that what you’re focusing on now or was the prayer request your first project?

MS: Yes the prayer request was the first thing.

Me: Did you get a big response?

MS: We prayed for about 7 people.  We were out there for about 2hrs, and we got a lot of looks for sure.  But I think what makes it worth it is, like we had one guy who had walked away from God, but that day he was like, “Man I know this is a God thing. I know God sent me here.”  And he made a decision to come back to Christ.

Me:  That’s awesome.

MS:  That’s the whole purpose of this organization, is to love on people, show them a different side of Christ that they may not ever seen before.

Me: That is awesome.  I was telling my sister, you know how sometimes we say, “God doesn’t talk to me; I don’t hear God talking to me.”  I was telling her it happens sometimes in confirmations.  Sometimes you can have a thought in the back of your mind and then you ride by and see something on a billboard [that coincides with your thought].  And that’s what I thought about when I saw you guys over there [at WaterfrontPark].  It’s like if someone is going through something, and they just ride by see someone standing out there with a sign saying, “Do you need prayer?”

MS:  Do you need prayer?  Yea.

Me:  [And the think to themselves] “Oh, yea I do need prayer.  That is for me.”

MS:  And the key is God is always speaking.  It’s a matter of are we listening.  You know God is forever increasing, God is forever speaking.  So it’s a matter of us conditioning our minds and our hearts to hear Him speak.

Me:  Slowing down enough to hear Him.  Sometimes we need someone to hit us in the head with the sign that says, “Hello, over here.” (laughing)

MS: (laughing) Yea, because we live in such a fast pace world, you know it gets hard to get disconnected and settle your mind to hear God.

ME: So what is your motivation?

 MS:  Jesus Christ is my motivation.  And my foundational scripture is Matthew 28:16-20.  And it talks about discipling.  And God commands us to go into the world [to] disciple, learning the laws, baptizing in the laws, and showing them Christ, to ever nation and ever creed.  So that’s my motivation.  And I think Christ can be shown in so many different facets, we can show Christ to people.  I think building relationship, [and] showing love is one of the biggest discipling techniques, if that’s what you want to call it.  The scripture says, “That love and kindness have I drawn thee.”  And so we’re just trying to do it like Jesus did it.  Trying to go outside of the four walls.  I would kind of deem this the mobile church.  If someone were to ask me, “Mike, where’s your church, where’s you guys church?”  I would say, “We’re right here.”  And that’s not knock on the church building, because that’s where I got my foundation, and that’s still needed for sure. But there are some people that aren’t going to enter the doors, but still need us.  And that’s what God has commission us to do through this organization.

ME: Yes, because I was brought up in church too.  My mom always said, “She was born on the alter.” (laughing)  And then you go through the rebellion of being a teenager and sometimes thing happen in church with “church people” and you still believe in Jesus and love Jesus, but you just want to separate yourself from the church.

MS: Yes

Me:  Which is why I have started my blog [to be able to connect with inspirational people], because getting back into church you find out, that it’s not just about your personal relationship with God, you do have to fellowship.

MS:  Yes, you do.

Me:  Once you can get someone back into it, which is what you’re saying, being a mobile church for people who might not be into going into the church, having that [the mobile church] would make them want to go back to church, I believe.

MS:  And believe it or not, we’re really not trying to start a church.  Now, I won’t say what God will do.  But our purpose is not to start a church.  If we can even get people to a place, our job is to be a resource.  If we can even get people to a place where they say, “I want to try this Jesus thing.”  We want to have a database of different ministries setup so we can say, “You know what, now that you have made a commitment to follow Christ, you’ve made this decision, you know, I think you going here would be a great place to grow.”  And I think that’s how the kingdom of God is suppose to operate.  It’s not, and this is what I push, it’s not us against each other.  It’s us against the enemy.  It’s us against the world. You know, so I have no problem, I’m not trying to build no type of church, I’m really not trying to, so I have no problem saying, “You know what, I trust this man’s or woman’s leadership and I trust their covering, go here or go here.”  So that’s the whole purpose.  And there’s some people that may not ever go to church and that’s why we’re also going to use technology as a way to stay connected to these people we want to minister to.

Me:  Yes, I was just sitting here writing, how God gave us all gifts because we are all members, creating the one body of Christ.  And so we all have to grow together.  None of the trying to out do each other.  Or feeling like someone is taking your shine.  God is the Head.  Everybody has to stay on track.

MS:  That’s it.

Me:  What is your inspiration?  What you’re doing is very inspiring.

MS:  Thank you so much.

Me:  Very inspiring. I rode by ya’ll three times. I had my nephew, taking him to get a hair cut, and I think that was first time I rode by yall.  And I was like [thinking to myself] what are they doing out there. (laughing) I saw the sign said, “Prayer.”  So I took him to get his hair cut and came back through that way again.  And I was like, ok they’re still there.  And I thought, if they’re still there when I come back, I need to stop and get an interview.

MS:  (laughing) And we were just leaving, weren’t we?

Me: Yes.  Because when I rode by I didn’t see ya’ll. I kept going and then I was like there they are.  And I whipped around and did a u-turn.  I’m glad there wasn’t a cop around. (laughing)  So what advice would you have to offer somebody who wants to take action for God?  Because this is actually taking the teaching that you have been brought up in all of your life

MS:  Absolutely.

Me:  And you’re actually putting it into action, which is actually what we’re supposed to be doing.  It’s not just about going to church whenever we go and writing notes for ourselves, but actually going out to put action to it.  What would you say?

MS:  I would say you have to know what you’ve been called to do.  And you have to know it to the point where no matter who tells you it’s not legit, [no matter] who tells you, no matter who doubts, even no matter who praises you.  Because you know sometimes we can get caught up in the praise.  And then my thing is, sometimes you get caught up in the praise and when the praise stops you feel like you’re suppose to stop.  So you have to just know, that you know, that you know, that is what God has called you to do.  And also a mentorship, I have a mentor that lives in Birmingham, Alabama, and he has really been the driving force behind this movement.  Don’t get me wrong, my foundation, I was raised in the church and being raised in my church “Faithway,” which is on Bell Street here, under my father and under my grandmother’s leadership, that’s my foundation.  If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have nothing.  Absolutely nothing to build upon.  And I stress that, absolutely nothing to build upon.  But the guy who’s my mentor, who’s my covering now, has been the driving force behind this out of the four walls movement.  Because like you said we do go to church, we listen to the service, we take notes for ourselves, we scream about how blessed we are.  You know, but I just have a hard time believing that’s the purpose of church.  I just have a hard time believing that.  And there’s one pastor that I know, he says that when people come to join his church he tells them they have five years to be here.  After that you’ve got to leave.  And I think he does that to say, “No you’re not coming here just to get fat off this word.  You come here to learn this word, to go out and disciple, and be able to bring others to Christ.” Sometimes we get so comfortable going to, you know, go to our building that we forget that, no this is not just a get my house, get my car type deal.  We need to go out.  So I would say (1) Know who you are.  Get a mentor.  You know there are some times when you have to step out on your own, but I also believe that God will send you somebody to help mentor you and cover you along the way.  Because one of the things my mentor says is, “Mike anything that you can do alone, don’t.”  And that’s a staple in my heart.  So I’m really focused on building a team.  Get a team.  Get like minded people around you.  And those like minded people may not be necessarily in your area, you know.  God has blessed us with technology.  Now you have like minded people all across the country.  And study your craft.  Study where God wants you.  Study your market.  Who is God calling you to?  Who is He calling you to reach?  Study your market.  Understand your market.  Understand the trend.  ‘Cause it’s nothing like, ‘cause I work in sales, and it’s nothing like trying to sale somebody something they actually do not need.  So I need to understand my market.  Who I am speaking to?  Understand your market.  Developing a plan.  And sometimes God may not give you that full plan, He may just give you the go.  And then the more you go the more he’ll show you.

Me:  That’s when your faith comes.

MS:  That’s where your faith comes from.  I don’t ever want to forget this, prayer.  Seeking God for your uniqueness.  The great thing about technology is you can see what people are doing.  The bad thing about technology is you can see what people are doing.  And you’ll be so quick to try to duplicate what you see.  And it may be good, but it may not be the great thing that God has called you to do.  And I don’t want to live in someone else’s anointing.  I want to live in mine.  So know why you are called.  Get a mentor.  Develop a team.  And pray and really seek God for direction.  Really really seek God for direction.

Me: (GOOSEBUMPS!) That’s awesome!  What makes prayer so powerful? In your experience?

MS: (chuckle) I have a, like the last maybe two years, prayer has, ofcourse I was raised in the church, so I know about prayer.  But prayer really becoming a part of my life, I’ve seen, prayer is important, because I’ve seen God move in so many situations.  Prayer is my sustainment.  There’s a saying, “A prayerless life is a powerless life.”  Prayer is, I don’t care what anybody thinks about it, I don’t care what religion you are, what color you are, most people will, most people will accept prayer.  And don’t get me wrong, there are some that will be like, “Naw I don’t want it”, and that’s fine.  We don’t want to force prayer on nobody.  But I think prayer is universal.  You know, so that’s why I’m really really pushing, really really pushing this prayer movement as well.  And I think it’s giving people a different view. You know some people’s view of prayer is striving, and don’t get me wrong there is times for that, but I think some people need to understand what prayer is.  Some people don’t pray because they say they don’t know how to pray.  Because they think that prayer has a format, you know, say this say this, say that, but prayer is really just a simple conversation with God.  And we’re showing people what it means to pray.  Because prayer is my lifeline, honestly.  And I’m glad God has surrounded me with people who believe in prayer, who take prayer seriously.  So prayer is my foundation, it’s my walls, my ceiling, prayer is important.  Prayer is everything.  And like I’ve said, I really, prayer is not….. This is what I believe, prayer is not for God, it [prayer] is for us.  God doesn’t need our prayer, we need His answers.  So I think the avenue for getting answers is through prayer.  And prayer is not just for a way to get something from God.  I think there are times where we will pray for things and that specific thing that we pray for, God will manifest.  I think that’s all in an effort to build our faith to build our courage, to build our faith in Him, and so we become less independent and more dependent on Christ.

Me:  I love that explanation.  It’s not just about [begging] “Lord I need this.  Lord can you help me with this”, but actually having a conversation with God.

MS:  Developing that relationship.  And I know that for myself, what prayer does for me is it gives me confidence, no matter how the situation turns out, because my relationship in my prayer life is really concrete, I know that [the situation] it’s always working for my good.  No matter how it turns out.  I don’t care how it turns out.  I know because my relationship is so embedded in Christ and my prayer life, I know that no matter how the situation turns out, I know for a fact, it’s working for my good.  And that comes from a deep centered prayer life.  I don’t think you can, I don’t know, I guess I look at it like, as a relationship is concerned, if I’m not communicating with my love, the woman I love, you know, how can I build a strong relationship, I’m pretty sure, not at all.  And you can tell when most relationships, you can tell when most relationships are on the rocks because of when they stop communicating.  And [communication with God] it’s almost the same way.

Me:  Communication is critical.

MS:  It’s critical.  Communication is critical, it’s so so critical.

Me: And the relationship with you, like if you have a child, because we are supposed to be like children unto God.  Relying completely, a 3yr old has to rely completely on you, that you are making the right decisions and even if you’re not, they are still following down behind you.  And that’s how we’re suppose to be with God.

MS:  Absolutely.  He wants us to be like little children.  I don’t want to get so grown, to the point where I feel like I can do things out of my own strength, out of my own power.  We got to become like little children and become so dependent on Christ.  I mean almost to the point where we pray about everything, I mean everything.  And some people may say, “Hey, you’re going too far”, but really is it?

Me:  What is too far when it comes to praying?

MS: Exactly what is too far?

Me:  Yes, because I’ve heard people say, well you don’t have to be so serious, and I mean I know the difference between so, so serious people who you know [are too serious] most of the time with people like that it’s not spiritual, it’s more of the outward appearance of things.  But how can you say that’s too much, when you’re talking about God? I’ve heard people say, “I don’t have to say Praise the Lord after everything that I say.  That gets on peoples nerves.”  But you know, when you’re in the world you say cuss words as much as you want in your conversations, so why can’t someone say, “Praise the Lord!”, whenever they feel to.

MS:  It’s amazing to me what we say is too much when it comes to Christ, but anything else, it’s you know… I look at it like this, and I don’t have anything against the fraternities or sororities, but its like people get in these organizations and they will spend their money, they will wear their colors, they will learn whatever they need to learn to get in this organization.  And nobody says anything about, “Oh that’s too much”.  I say people want what they want, they do what they feel is important.

ME:  No matter how strange, or what anybody has to say.  It’s like, I want this and this is what I’m going to do.

MS:  Yea, you know, so why can’t we go hard like that after Christ?  And that doesn’t mean in every, I mean I wouldn’t come in here screaming, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”, you know God gives you wisdom, but that’s not to say that if I’m just having a conversation with somebody that I can’t try to squeeze in Christ someway.  You know, and it doesn’t have to be threatening, [it] doesn’t have to be [in your face], “Do you know Jesus!”  But, either you’re in or you’re out.

Me:  Don’t straddle the fence.

MS: (laughing) You can’t straddle the fence.

Me:  That is awesome.  So if someone wants to get involved with your organization, what should they do?

MS:  Well right now, we’re currently in the process of getting all of our bylaws and all that stuff done. So eventually we’re going to have, of course you know, a Facebook page, [a] Twitter page, all of the social media where these people can contact us.  And I just want to mention that the arts are going to be, I want to stress how we are going to use the arts to really impact this generation, you know, through this organization.  You know the arts are going to be our missile head.  And that’s why when you came out; did you see the guy like standing still or making different prayer postures?  I don’t know if you saw those two guys, but throughout that event we had guys rotating out and they would just stand still or one guy would have his hands clasped [as if saying a prayer] or like this [stretched in worship] and we wanted people to ride by and just see, even if they don’t understand what’s going on, but just to see these men in these different prayer positions.  And we kind of take that from, what’s that dude from Acts the 3^rd chapter?  I don’t know if your familiar with the story of how Peter and John?

What’s up? [in walks another gentleman]  This is Jeremy!

[we exchange greetings]

Me:  Have a seat.

MS:  We took that from Acts the 3^rd chapter.  How Peter and John, they were passing a guy at the gate, you know the lame man, and of course the lame man asked them for money.  But they didn’t have money.  And I think it’s the 3^rd chapter 3^rd verse, Peter tells the guy to, “Look at me, Look at me.” And after he looked at him the [lame] man was healed.  So what we took from that was, like what we call, a look on the anointing. And we believe that people are touched simply by what they see.  People are affected by what they see.  There may not always be words said, but some people are. like I said, affected by what they see.  I don’t, maybe a believer goes by that maybe fell off from their prayer life and they saw these guys and their prayer postures, and they say, “Wow, you know what maybe that’s a sign.” You know like we were saying, different signs of God speaking.  Maybe I need to get back to my prayer life.  So that’s the whole point of the human statue, is what I call it.

Me:  That is awesome!  Okay, Mr. Jeremy

MS:  Jeremy Purkett!

Me:  Jeremy Purkett, what is your mission and role in the movement?  In the ICare Movement?

JP: I’m just serving the needs, I obviously just want the will of God, and to reach out to the ends of the earth just to show and tell people just how great He is.  And that’s basically my job.  You know, to support my brother and his vision, as well as you know, him encouraging me in my life, no matter what I’m going through, no matter what it looks like, to keep my eyes on the focus, and that’s serving God.

Me:  And what is prayer in your experience?  And your experience in the power of prayer?

JP:  Prayer is everything to me.  You really can’t even put a limit on prayer. Because it’s something that you can never get away from.  It comforts you.  It’s your breakthrough.  Prayer is what you live by.  If it wasn’t for prayer we wouldn’t be able to do the things we do.  Because without the connection with God through prayer, it’s [life] impossible.  It’s impossible to live.

Me:  Do you have something in particular that inspires you to want to be apart of the movement?

JP:  It’s something different.  You know you get tired of the normal.  And it was a time where, I was dealing with whether or not I should stay in the streets or whether I should walk away. You know whether I should deal with anything concerning, you know, the church or anything.  You know as outsiders, when you’re not in the church you can look at people and be like, you’re not living the right life, so how am I suppose to follow you.  But you know through him [pointing to MS], through God using him, it open my eyes to see that it’s not people who you need to watch. It’s all about your personal relationship with God.

Me:  I think that’s what makes younger people so powerful in it [ministry], because sometimes the older people can forget what they did back in the day and it’s hard to relate to them sometimes.  So when you have someone who’s in your age group it’s easier to be mentored by them, because they still understand and their experiences are still fresh of what God brought them out of.

JP:  Right.

Me:  Well, I am glad I got to meet with you guys

Special shout out to the prayer Warriors who were with Mr. Sutton at Waterfront Park:

Michael Pham, Nathaniel Wesson, Rich Miller, and Michael Thornton.

And yes, there’s a part 2