Meet the team

Travis Roberts is the right hand man in leadership and faithfully models bi-vocational living with gladness and constancy. Travis has served in a few different regions over North America and is one of the 'original' 614 Charlotte pioneers. With a pastor's heart and a dedication to discipleship, Travis is partnering with the Lord in rebuilding the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

Leo Killion is a graduate of the Revolution Session of The War College, Charlotte campus and has remained in the 'hood as a bi-vocational phase 2 missioner. With a heart to see young people grow spiritually, and spreading the Good News, Leo has dedicated himself to "Others" and winning the world for Jesus starting in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Insight into our daily life here in Charlotte, North Carolina, can be found on our blogsite www.614firecrest.blogspot.com

Hungry for more? Shoot us an email or better yet, just to come and see. Why don't you stop in and spend a couple of days with us? Let us know, we'd love to host you. Contact: heather@thewarcollege.com

614 Charlotte

The Local War

"I'm yelling "Violence!" but no one listens. I scream for help but there is no justice." Job 19:7

In Charlotte, the trappings of luxury are eerily juxtaposed with homelessness, cycles of social poverty, victimhood and violence. In the midst of it all, 614 Charlotte exists...to renew, rebuild and restore the neighbourhood through ongoing relationships and intense intercession living our lives for Others and sharing the Good News that there is a divine destiny for their lives and Christ helping them, it is withing their reach. God has plans, hope and a whole lotta future for the folks 'round here. 24-7 we're winning the world for Jesus starting in Charlotte, NC! God grant it.

Use your voice to speak up for those who have no voice. Adovocate on behalf of the poor. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless, relieve the oppressed, and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. God has placed His Spirit in you to do these things...

The community impact as a result of this righteous presence has been remarkable. Lives are being committed and re-committed to Christ - everyone from children to hardened teens and run-down adults - even entire families being redeemed to one another and to Christ. One of our main focuses has been in the arena of community advocacy, providing us with experience in mediating between our neighbors and their landlords, their family members, the department of social services, schools, police and county sheriffs as well as standing alongside them in the court of law.

"Learn to do right! Seek justice,encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless,plead the case of the widow." Isaiah 1:17

As a result of the combined effort of our neighborhood association (made up of War College Missioners and neighborhood young people) the roads in our community have been re-paved, community clean-up days have been successfully organized and well-attended and the City of Charlotte has actually created new laws to govern the issue of abandoned houses after a presentation by our teens at a City Council meeting. This led to the redemption and renovation of the 28 crack/liquor/prostitution houses situated in our community (That's 13% of our housing!) that are now up-to-code housing units with new families moving in every week.

"People keep saying " you have experience " or " you have been trained up in this or that," and thats all true but my 'missions resume' is not what God is looking for, he just needs someone willing to move into a filthy little 500 square foot shanty in the ghetto make friends." - 614 Charlotte Missioner

Programs

The War College is a mission focused training school whose purpose is to train warriors to win the world for Jesus, See www.thewarcollege.com for more info. Missioners are immersed in incarnational warfare, preparing them for bi-vocational war-fighting for The Salvation Army. This results in a vibrant community of believers who have been drawn together by the power and influence of Holy Spirit to spend (for starters) a year of their lives poured out as worship to the LORD among Jesus' closest friends – the poor, the broken and the outcast of society.

Participation in this program requires an unyielding commitment both personally and corporately to:

living both sacrificially and incarnationally (Luke 14:33, John 1:14)
living simply and by faith that God will provide (Matthew 10:9-10)
giving extravagantly and from our own pockets and closets and refridgerators (John 6:8-11)
having eyes to see what Jesus sees (Luke 10:33)
learning the practical application needed to "Do Something" (Isaiah 58:6-7).

And it's working.

Focusing on impartation as well as information, we put theory into practice, never teaching anything in the morning that you can't go out and do in the afternoon. Training exists alongside Kingdom building as we labor to establish a healing, liberating, cell-based Christian community in the broken heart of Charlotte.

The War College has proven itself effective at returning Kingdom building soldiers back to the field; trained up as radical followers of Jesus Christ ready to love, serve and disciple. Currently, out of almost 70 missioners that have completed The War College, over 55 of those have continued on in ministry within The Salvation Army with an additional 7 missioners in training to become Salvation Army Officers.

"I feel so blessed to be able to test out what radical things I am capable of." - War College Missioner

The War College is entering its fifth year of existence, and with missioners hailing from Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, Canada, the United States, Europe and India it has been a very diverse group of sessionmates.

War College graduates have gone on to enter into officer training school, become youth pastors, church planters, missionaries/mission team leaders, street ministers, alcohol and drug counselors, urban missionaries, worship leaders, evangelists and preachers, as well as attending bible colleges and receiving various degrees in ministry.

"To say that The War College is a school is an understatement. I was taught the basics of spiritual life and how to walk them out in my everyday living, truly experiencing freedom in Christ…I've come to realize that the War College isn't just a place, it's a community of people, and I'm taking the War College to everyone I meet." - War College Missioner

The PlayHouse The Lois Walker Memorial Community House (or the Playhouse as the local kids affectionately call it) is a house we rent in our neighborhoodn and is currently the heartbeat of our ministry. Packed full of children most days of the week, it is a refuge, a hang-out, an after school program and so much more. We have a computer room, with 5 donated computers and a printer, which are used for anything from homework assignments and emailing to comparing college information and job searches, a game room, where we have a tv with an x-box, and we also show movies in there. There is a 'living room' which hosts our reading club wall. This summer reading initiative has been a big hit with the kids. We started the club after noticing that the large majority of report cards that the kids were bringing home said that they would excel in school if only they read more at home...now they read books, which equals points, which equal out to prizes like french fries from mcdonalds, a brand new kids book from Borders of their choice, AMC movies, etc.

Mainly the young people (18 and under) use this facility, but more and more we are seeing parents and other adults stopping in to take advantage of anything from the free internet access to a word of prayer, making the PlayHouse a great point of contact for us to chat up our neighbors and develop deeper relationship.

J-Pods J-Pods Our name for kids cell groups, J-Pods are the weekly small group meetings that make up our cell-based community. J-Pods focus on listening prayer, bible teaching and understanding, meal fellowship and self esteem building. On an ongoing basis we work on social integration and behavioural issues on a personal level, plan activities and outings, provide fun within structure, plan unique birthday party events, and head up social justice initiatives both within the community and on a global level. Check out www.lifetogether614.com for more information.
League of Mercy

Everyone is involved in this tried, tested and true needs-based visitation ministry, which can be anything from acquiring material needs (food, blinds, furniture, etc.) to on the spot prayer ministry.

Prayer Team The strategies of this team include harp & bowl style worship and intercession, prayerwalking, prophetic evangelism and straight up praying for the requests and needs of individuals and families in the neighbourhood. Both 614 missioners as well as neighborhood young people make up this crew.

24-7 Prayer Community We are blessed to be an active part of the 24-7 prayer movement here in Charlotte (see www.charlotte24-7.com)

The Ministerial Net We work alongside the other corps in the city as well as the local Area Command, Addictions Rehab Center and Center of Hope. We have strong ties with Salvationists in the US, Canada and worldwide. We come in contact with other city churches that meet material and financial needs of the marginalized, as well as church bodies who minister to the Body of Christ through gifts of the apostolic and prophetic.