A Look At Covenant Church, Carrollton, Texas & Sr. Pastor Mike Hayes

Reported by Maria Arita of CBS 11 News, in December 2005.

CARROLLTON There is a mega church in north Texas representing every continent on earth. It’s located in Carrollton and CBS 11’s Maria Arita sat down for an exclusive interview with the senior pastor of Covenant Church, to talk about its unique multicultural aspects.

More than 42 flags from all over the world hang in the sanctuary of Covenant Church. It speaks to the diversity sought by the church.

Senior Pastor Mike Hayes says that commitment began for him long ago. "I saw the mistreatment and the ignoring of a race."

Once an adult, Hayes says he had a dream that changed him forever. "Like I was an 8 yr-old black boy, I didn't feel very included or welcome. I was in another world. Everybody I saw that depicted Jesus or any of the biblical characters, none of them looked like me," Hayes said.

The pastor says developing a truly successful multicultural mega church after that was simple."When we began to love them and include them, they came running."

Now the church is about 10,000 members strong and Hayes says the members influence each other. "If you took a pitcher of red Kool-Aid and then a pitcher of clear water… they were both half full. And you began to pour them back and forth into each other, one is not going to remain red and the other clear, they're both gonna be pink."

Hayes says it's all about color and that there’s something about Moses we should all know. "Moses married a Midianite woman who was a dark skinned race woman, a black woman."

That's where the torchbearers come in that greet visitors in the narthex. "Moses appealed to his father-in-law and said please stay with me, be eyes for me because you’ve been through this wilderness before," Hayes said.

A wilderness that seems to have lead here… they celebrate it in their annual "Colors of Christmas" celebration where live nativity scenes represent every continent. They sing in English and in Spanish.

Pastor Hayes says Christians should embrace other cultures and denominations and religions to form alliances and bridge the cultural divide. "For all that you've been through for the suffering, for the rejection, you can be eyes for us. We’ve got to get through this place and we’ve got to get through it together."

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CTI December 2005

Today is a pretty good day. I feel a lot better than I’ve felt in a few weeks actually. I’m sitting in my office, at my desk looking at the beautiful roses that Jeoff sent me this week. As I told him yesterday, they are a reminder that I am to do my work as unto the Lord and it is also a motivation for me to go on.

Last night in CTI - New Testament Survey class, the books that we covered were Galatians, Romans, and I and II Corinthians. We discussed the fact that Romans is so power packed with so much encouraging word and powerful truths. One of the students read a good portion of chapter 8 and when he finished we were all like wow. That’s how God’s word is. That’s what his word does.

Why Blog for Life?

Why did I title this blog, Blog for life? The reason is that writing to me, inspires my life and it gives me life and hope. If I allow my thoughts to be trapped in my mind, I’m not as likely to encourage myself and change the bad ones to good. But if I write or type them out, I believe I put more accountability on myself and it forces me to encourage myself. That inspires me to live and to live my life to the fullest.

To love hard!

To give freely and liberally!

To work hard as a mother, wife, friend, and servant to my friends and loved ones!

Yes, Depression

I actually said the word. And I actually experienced it. I never thought I would and I didn't recognize it when it first began.

I'm going to come back and write some more about it, but wanted to at least share the initial fact that it happened. I want to share it, because a lot of people go through it, but don't write about it.

There was so much going on at the same time, a fairly new job as a Manager, which I had not done before, going to a very aggressive school of ministry program, expecting a third child, trying to fulfill the jobs of wife, homemaker, and mother of 2 preschoolers, managing a property (duplex) with my husband, AND recently completed a 12 week Crown Financial small group study with other leaders in our Life Team zone. Mama was challenged, to say the least!!

But I learned sooo much through that experience and I came to realize that in all of this, I had been neglecting some very fundamental things that are essential in my walk with the Lord.

It was almost as if I had to start over again, and the Lord was showing me that "you really have to depend on me for every single thing you do, including waking up in the morning with peace of mind, and being able to fall asleep in peace, ...being able to get dressed and go to work, ...having the will to keep living."

I believe I had to experience that at this important time in my life. I believe I I grew so much closer to the Lord during that time and my trust was deepened.

It actually became the subject of my CTI 2nd year, Public Speaking Presentation!

I'm going to post it when I find the Word document......

CTI - September 2005

Things are going great with class and we are excited about what God is teaching us through His Holy Spirit!

Jeoff and I found out that we are expecting a new baby and baby is due at the end of April.

What to do about the classes after the baby is born!!! Baby is due in April, school is out in the middle of June!

Pik