A few weeks ago, a young man that I will call James came up to me and said, "You know, Pastor, I’ve never built anything before." I looked at him, surprised. "I’m not playing with you, Pastor. Everybody is front of a phone or TV or they just hanging out." 

He took his hammer and I watched him rejoin the others in building a shed on the side of my church on the South Side of Chicago. It is not a massive shed but it is north of 1,200 square feet and needs flooring strong enough to handle heavy equipment and a roof strong enough to withstand the weight of snow in the winter. 

James’ comment surprised me because I have always been a builder. I grew up in a small country town in Tennessee and we were always building something. I can remember how I learned to use a hammer and how I had to train myself to hit a nail flush. If we weren’t building, we were always repairing something from farm equipment to the toilet in the house. 

PASTOR COREY BROOKS: I'M BUILDING HOPE ON CHICAGO'S NOTORIOUS SOUTH SIDE

Building was always in my blood. There are many preachers, especially in Chicago, that prefer the political scene and the power of politics. While I have to partake in politics here and there for my church, I far prefer the power of building. For me this is not a cliche but a universal human truth. What greater power is there than building a man or woman, especially a lost soul, upward? What greater power is there than building a physical structure that provides a home for these people to woodshed and develop their talents? 

That is why I have invested so much of my time over the last 14 years to my 100,000-square-foot Leadership and Economic center that is currently halfway through the building process. Though the center will offer a wide variety of skill-building services, the one idea that inspired it was the trades. 

I’ve been running trades classes at my church for as long as I can remember. We were never set up for it, but we brought in the saw tables, the blades, the drills, and sawdust was everywhere. We brought abandoned houses as projects to teach the youth in our neighborhood how to build. Many of them have gone onto careers in construction. 

Though our kids come from very humble beginnings through no fault of their own we want them to have every advantage in the world. A community of builders is far more desirable than a community of dependents.

One of them was a young father of two kids and came from a broken family and had no true education to speak of. I could see the desperation in his eyes and I knew he would be tempted by the easy money of crime. Instead, he joined one of my trades cohorts and today is a forklift driver. He’s one of the best I’ve seen — it’s like watching a ballet when it operates. 

James comes from the same world of broken families, broken schools, and a life organized around government dependency that does not value the art of building. So to watch him build this structure along with others is to watch the building of human talent in dignity within him. 

As the day was coming to an end, I went back down to check on the progress and I asked James how he was feeling. "I’m tired, pastor," he said with a proud smile. You can only smile like that after you’ve put in a hard days' work. 

I know we are living in a world today that moves in lightning speed. There’s much chaos, but I think people still understand the value of building that comes with the trades. President Donald Trump recently posted online: 

"I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land. What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!"

I could not agree more. The trades will be at the heart of my new center and we will adapt to the modern times by adding the power of AI into the building process. Though our kids come from very humble beginnings through no fault of their own we want them to have every advantage in the world. A community of builders is far more desirable than a community of dependents.

As I walked with James to the front of the church, I asked him, "Did you know that Jesus was a carpenter?" James smiled and the next Sunday I saw him at church for the first time.