Leadership Talks: Pastor Jamal Bryant & Rashad Richey #newbirth #atlanta #leadership #rashadrichey

[Applause] all right since we are pressed for time brother we're going to get right into it all right pastor how are you man I'm here you're here this is a land of traffic is real is real yes I had no idea yeah the Atlanta Drive was real yes yeah let's talk about your upbringing okay you come from a family of preachers yes how did that shape you yet shaped me I'm a third generation AME preacher but a fourth generation preacher my great-grandfather was Baptist my grandfather and father were bishops in the AME Church hi my dad was a part of the first cleitus of those who were in the Peace Corps drafted by dr. Samuel DeWitt Proctor my parents met at Boston University where I was born was reared in Baltimore I failed the 11th grade well I'm back then yes I failed the 11th grade at the school for the gifted and talented okay uh-huh and got kicked out of that school where my father and uncle were in the Hall of Fame and so my parents put me on a journey of a rites of passage program for I could be the prodigal son and come to myself out so my last year of high school after failing the 11th grade they sent me to Liberia West Africa to be a missionary and there was a real turning point in my life at that point for those that don't know Liberia was formed by former slaves and at the time they didn't have a public school in Liberia so you had people who were 19 and the sixth-grade people who were 21 who were in the tenth grade not because they were held back but because that's how old they were to have the money to go so I became the topic of discussion in Liberia on how I failed school for free so that have really gave me a readjustment on the value of education I came out of doing that last year in Liberian came to Morehouse as a part of the early college program and really began to get my bearings and Dean Crawford who was Dean of Admissions at Morehouse at the end of that summer said are you gonna be here for the fall and I unpacked my story that I had to go do another year because I failed school and Dean Crawford took me to the Community College here in Atlanta Fulton County and got me a GED so I was the first person Morehouse led him with a GED Wow and then I came back full circle after graduating from Morehouse and Duke I was the youngest person since dr. King that they let do tobacco laureate so to be able to come full circle and now to be living in Atlanta absolutely is amazing so that's my cliff notes how important was education in your journey because you're sitting years a man yes who struggled academically in some areas yes got a GED yes and today you are a bona fide scholar yes how did that education create room for you Juwan zakone jew who wrote a book called to be popular or smart and says by the sixth grade every black boy has got to decide whether they're gonna be popular or smart and I elected to be popular ha ha ha my own deficiency every person in my immediate family has a doctorate degree so they didn't even know how to minister to me because I was outside of that you didn't make sense to them I didn't make sense because my testing scores did not reflect my productivity and again I failed out of school for gifted and talented and so it was always around me I grew up around books and around scholars and around lectures but that wasn't the cool thing to do so I had to go through my own hard-knock life to get my own Sensibility when did you change for you at that moment I think I really did not become a student until I went to Duke okay for my master's degree at Morehouse on paper my major was political science but in actuality my major was Spelman so I had to I had to get myself together in order to really realize what I was supposed to be doing yes yes that's what you got to love about this let's talk about your activism yes I remember I was the director for the Georgia Democratic Party and chief strategist for the Democratic Party and I remember seeing you on CNN yes and you were but right next to another guy and I think he was a black preacher too but he was anti black movement he was anti black lives matter and they went to you for response about him not about the topic yes and I said well that's kind of weird how is he gonna handle that and you said he's a pine do you remember that I remember let me tell you what that was so I cried I was a fan from that day forward yes because typically in arenas like that there's pressure to not be that direct with your response and you were tell me why you thought that moment needed that you're dealing with a millennial generation that is anti Church and anti preachers in the backdrop of the real preachers of whatever city you claim that black Millennials is the largest generation of black people on these shores who don't ascribe to organized faith and really have a bitter taste in their mouth about preachers and feel as if we're not engaged or connected my church in Baltimore was a built out of a hip-hop generation and knew that that was necessary to separate myself and then there's this whole false notion that all the black preachers from the 60s were with dr. King and so we've bleached history yes and that's really not the case the whole Baptist Convention was split mm-hmm uh-huh because they didn't want to align with them right and so I really had to put a mark in the sand and say I'm not with them right and you did and I think you did it very successfully you took a church you founded the AME Church you pastored and it was the fastest-growing AME Church on the planet yes you started with I think 40-something members yes you went up what ten thousand-plus yes okay what was the dynamic in your leadership which created that level of growth in in the church when statistically the church was losing members I I brought all of my frailties and flaws to ministry where a lot of preachers use the pulpit for witness protection say that again both witness protection yeah so a lot of people get saved and then get amnesia mmm-hmm about who they really are about who they are they struggle with and make salvation a destination and not adjourn come on now and so when you really able to articulate that I'm saved and still deal with depression right that I'm annoying it and hate sleeping alone mm-hmm and so when you deal with that level of authenticity then it becomes more valuable and believable the reality is that unscripted television has changed in impact culture as a consequence nobody in America for a moment thought Trump was smarter than Hillary they thought she was he was more believable yeah because she was more believable she got the voting that's beyond the politics and the red Magne head and all of that is that there's still a great number of people who like him because of brazen ignorance and so it's attractive because they think that that's more authentic and genuine even if it's incompetent and so people are looking for a legitimate ministry that says that I too struggle and still love God and still are trying to get to that place and I think that people can identify with it better yeah leadership I say to my students often that criticism is the price you pay for leadership yes and the day you're unwilling to pay their prices today you will unfit to lead anybody I would say that you are the first major preacher to undergo sharp criticism through social media yes would I be far off in that statement no you'd be closed up on that stage okay yeah so you you have to look at a couple of things I started empowerment temple at 28 and became a national television preacher by 30 teller evangelist by 31 so most of the people who were would be my peers on that evangelical stage did not get to national prominence till they were 45 to 50 right so they made all of their mistakes before the camera was run so I was I was the gospel Gary Coleman you know I came to you as a child right person and I made my mistakes publicly and as a consequence I had to live with that the real reality of about dr. King is dr. King was not the first civil rights leader he was the first one in the dawn of television so I was the first one in the dawn of Internet yeah I am bloggers and had to take my stripes accordingly you acknowledged it you acknowledged it you embraced it and you validated your humanity even though you also uplifted your belief in Jesus and what happened is that when you validated your humanity other folks said you know what it's okay that I'm human and then I'm that I'm frail we have a clip from our good friend Roland Martin okay you sit down and you spoke with him this was back then yes right and I thought he did one of the best interviews let's queue up the Roland Martin clip thriving growing church and all of a sudden those temptations meet you head-on well I didn't have a litmus test here to understand I was a national television list since I was 29 and the whole world had opened up for me in every stage I'm preaching in arenas convention centers mass megachurches was quickly becoming a household name so nothing in my mind ever said one I would ever get caught number two who did my wife would ever leave number three I let my church would tank out walk us through what happened a step rolling outside of my marriage and had a extramarital affair that ultimately ended in a divorce to an incredibly wonderful not because anything was flawed in the marriage or in her but in my own immaturity for the level that I was getting ready to go into and when that happened I think I was one of the first if not the first I don't want to take the the honor the first real black pastor to go through being castigated over the Internet my oldest daughter is 15 and I had to go to Atlanta where it is that she lives because a teacher said something sideways tour and she was absolutely traumatized if nothing else this has been the most humbling process that you got to keep reliving it and explaining it and dealing with it and defending it and nobody really understands that when you're in that public spotlight you don't have the opportunity to process in private so there's so much in that and you don't have to defend that what made you realize that you could be that honest on national television and still have strength enough in your leadership to overcome and lead thousands I'm I'm a church baby and sometimes my mother told me years ago sometimes you work under a bad boss so you learn what not to do so both of us have grew up in the 80s we remember Jimmy Swaggart yeah Jim Baker so I knew that a Crying Game one gone work you you went so so I want to say this I actually I did a lot of research and I could not find and I think this was to your your credit yes I could not find one instance where you Spiritualized it you know to me yes you never said it was spiritual warfare yes you never sit come on that yes you never say the devil made me do it you never say the enemy was attacking my marriage you didn't say any of that no why it wasn't a Jezebel spirit so who was this it was at Jamal's period yeah and you have to Shakespeare said to thine own self be true yes and I think that this really why a whole lot of people run out of church is that people will not take accountability for their actions and try to use Scripture as a force field to say that it was somebody seduced you know nobody seduced you if you were the one that pursued it yeah Wow we got to talk about transition yes was the day like when the church you found it realized that you were leaving what was that day like it was like Cleveland burnin LeBrons Jersey yeah it was uh uh no but nobody expects you to leave what you started right as a leader why did you make that decision John Eldridge wrote a book called man at heart says that every man has got to have a battle to fight a war to win and a woman to love and I really felt that I had peaked in Baltimore I had done you know Negro spirit and um what he told me to do when I started to church Baltimore had a population of 1.2 million last year when I stepped down the population was that six hundred eighty five thousand Wow and so there wasn't much room to grow so now when you meet people in Atlanta you have to ask them where you from yeah when you meet people in Baltimore you ask them what high school did you go to because everybody is there yeah I really felt unchallenged and had hit a brick wall so the last two years I had been floundering and frustrated I'd done three services at a elementary charter school just first in the state highest test scores for any students in a charter school in Baltimore had a Family Life Center I'd help quell the uprising in Baltimore after Freddie gray right and you had a tremendous political following as well yeah had people wanted you to run for stuff absolutely and it really was knocking me down Soren Kierkegaard said that the greatest gateway to sin is not temptation it's boredom that a whole lot of our sin is not because we want it but because we ain't got nothing to do come on and so I was feeling boredom hit me and knew that I was getting ready to go into a rabbit soul let me read a quote from a mutual friend Tommy Deutsch Tommy was the first one for us who confirmed you would be here in Atlanta and he gave a quote and I think he actually gave the quote to the AJC and it says I've known Jamal for years dating all the way back to his n-double-a-cp days and I've watched him grow his church from about 45 congregants to thousands of people and I believe he'll make a wonderful fit he was talking about new birth the new birth come after you did you come after new birth how did that interaction happen it was a marriage made in heaven okay really I don't think either of us was looking for either one of us and that's what it seemed it seemed as if you weren't looking and they weren't really looking they weren't looking for me well okay we're looking out for you all right yeah so it was it was accidental meeting as it were Bishop Ellis who's one of my mentors and serves as one of the advisors to New Birth asked me to just go in and fill in a Sunday kind of said they were he was supplying the pulpit right so I I said no I don't preach out on Sundays yeah I said I can't do a midweek okay I don't out here at home on Sunday home on Sundays yeah you know so he he pulled my coattail and said you owe me a solid so I said okay I'm gonna go to fifth Sunday in August and nobody comes to church you know Negroes had the family reunion parents are taking their kids back to college it's an off Sunday so I go and preach his youth day is raining hardly nobody is there and I preach and I called Bishop Ellis after service from the office I said bishop so he said don't think about it they only looking for somebody married I said okay you had it you had an inclination in that moment oh absolutely yeah yeah I had an inclination in them we'll see you so challenge right I don't know what I saw yeah it had to be a move of God they made a great decision you've been packing the building out I've heard reports that Sunday's a hundred two hundred folks are joining every Sunday y'all got to give that a round of applause that that's growth in the kingdom that's growth in the kingdom what do you attribute that to that kind of growth the grace of God amen it's amazing because we don't have a PR staff yeah we don't have any billboards we don't have any radio advertisements just the grace of God he was doing it I really had in my mind and that it was gonna take us about two years to turn the ship and it happened immediate yeah I've been there since December 9th and in 60 days a thousand people have joined Wow so it is really just it's amazing then bringing you on board created a tremendous amount of earned media yes we talked about your own wao kmv 103 cbs46 did some great stuff the AJC had an article said nine things you need to know about Jamal Bryant and they were all positive my were all positive I was holding my breath I don't even have asthma but I bought it just in case so you got all of this tremendous earned media yes and all of this great love did you expect that no wow no the AJC is b.i.g notorious yeah so I was holding my breath they did you righteous they would give me gracious yeah yeah and that was me another sign that that God was with me we have just a few minutes I got to have Pastor Brian out because he needs to be back in the lot on your air yes right at 7:00 fighting the traffic yes so I want to open it up to Q&A before I open it up to Q&A let me ask you a couple of questions always in with your hero yes is my grandfather who I'm named for Harrison Bryant he's was born out of Georgetown South Carolina and went back to the sixth grade at 21 years of age Wow and then after pulling himself up by proverbial his own bootstraps went to Wilberforce University in Ohio and became the first one in our family to get a doctorate degree from pain seminary right across from Oberlin and became a bishop in the AME Church and his grace and strength is really amazing to me here died my freshman year at Morehouse and so I'm still enamored by his looming greatness you did something that was quite remarkable that caused many other ministers to follow you took a stand for Bennett College yes they were at risk of losing accreditation they needed to raise just a few million bucks really not a lot when you look at endowments of other colleges yes you took a hard stand you made a major contribution you talked about it from the pulpit you advocated for about it on social media all the preachers followed they raised the money they still lost the accreditation but a federal judge in Atlanta gave it back to them temporarily yes I have maintained that if it wasn't for you I don't think they would have reached that goal brother yes what made you take that kind of stand for college you did not go to right but you knew was important to say well number one then it is actually more houses sister school I and as I testified on this stage that it was a HBCU that saved my life and gave me that opportunity now that's in the backdrop of me having two parents with Doctorate degrees so say I didn't have that kind of support right that I was from Bankhead and say that I didn't interface with a Dean that saw my potential say I didn't have the presence of the educated father and grandfather I don't know if I'd be sitting on this stage that's right so that they made that level of investment I think I have a responsibility to pay it forward amen biggest regret I got a lot of them yeah I died bail we don't we don't have time this can be throwback services yeah I have a lot of regrets I regret that in my rearing preparing for ministry that I've never prepared me so I learned how to argue attacks and exegete and how to overrate but never did self-development Wow and so I had to do self development on a stage and so I regret that I wasn't preparing right for what God had already showed me you hit on a dynamic I tell my students and many of them are in the room today and I say you got to be very careful about your charisma taking you to places where your character cannot sustain you yes and we've all been there I've been there where you depend on education charisma connection your ability your talent and you get to a place where your character just is not sustaining you at that level because you focused on developing these external factors and never developing yourself internally it's a great lesson to learn let's take a couple of questions we got to be quick with the questions rather quickly yes first of all I always respect you particularly started 2015 - not personally you man mark yes I know you are thank you yes I did a interview for Princeton University seminary and they did it from new birth and Skype tip back to Princeton I and the professor that came wanted to know how I was having a relationship with Minister Farrakhan and in good faith holding on to my Christian morals and values that's a whole nother question but I'm giving context right dear brothers question and in it I really talked about the failure of the black church in relationship to black men that the mosque is 80 percent men in the church is 80 percent women come on and that the success of the Nation of Islam in large measure is a direct picture of the failure of the black church is that their national leaders without exception have come out of the black church you take as a sterling example Malcolm X the son of a Baptist preacher right his father was killed in front of them and he spiraled into a life of crime ended up in jail I was converted by the Nation of Islam and I raised the pointed question when his father died where were the Deacons Oh when his father died who from the church surrounded him to give him what it is that he needed furthermore the Nation of Islam is beat us upside of the head from following the biblical mandate that somehow we've run derelict to in terms of remembering the prisoners and so most of our churches don't have an active prison ministry that we love Paul but don't know what to do with Saul come on and so the open letter of challenge that came forth is I made a statement that was that needed to be clarified in reference to Minister Farrakhan that many of the churches that I am in relationship with and grew up under my pastor Bishop Frank Reed was the liberation theologian brought Minister Farrakhan many years one of my surrogate mentors dr. Willie Wilson has brought Minister Farrakhan for many years and my argument was that not too many preachers preach in the mosque because we don't in many ways preach and authentic gospel never bring our men back and that if we were able to do that then it would shift some dangerous but our prophetic voice has caught laryngitis is that men in the community when they think of a real spiritual man they don't think of a Christian they think of a Muslim Wow and what does that mean to our fabric and our fiber that to think of a strong man of faith and community orientation you immediately think of a Muslim man but when you think of a Christian man you either think of an old man or a feminine man come on yeah and so how do we bridge that gap I in terms of moving forward yet your second question we owe the Easter the boycott that they used to boycott I think I've challenged our church new birth bet on Easter Sunday that we're gonna wear t-shirts and jeans that Resurrection Sunday should be about fashion it should be about faith and so I have our church in a 40 day fast from all materialism and consumption I in that in those 40 days I'm speaking death over check cashing places in a black community that we've gotta open up savings accounts because in a checking account the bank don't take you seriously of building portfolios the Dean of Admissions at Morehouse said to me that our student loan office is filled not because we have a economic crisis but because we have a planning crisis so parents know for 18 years you should be grooming this child for higher education right and so while you don't have any money to spend in the school but you've bought them flat screens televisions and iPhone tens and $200 tennis shoes so that this generation has the benefit of the civil rights movement but never know the sacrifice of it Wow and so we've got to reach a know how it is that we do our thinking so how to deal with the boycott I think that it's good but I think that it really has to go larger than that and how it is that we look at consumption I was with 40 I last night having a conversation about Gucci and this boycott and my contention is that if we boycott Gucci what will that do for black designers i and part of the problem is our black designers that are replete throughout the city of Atlanta can't have business not because their products are not well but because we want a nickel and dime oh yeah so we'll pay $500 for a Gucci belt but won't pay $200 for Africa so I think it's something we got arguing what is out there and he's speaking from a place of authenticity because him and I have the same suit shop same tailor and it's all black old straight from the motherland black owned we ran into each other what happened stance yes and the suit shop yeah for the record he was buying more than me my bags got lost that day we got one time for one want to get a woman too yes I'm Equal Opportunity yes my dad was because of how my dad brought us up but I have crane grandma next to me church and that's where home was what do you say to the Millennials and people that have had similar experiences when they step back working the church and go wait a minute this man right here God touch this man in prison Scott touch my dad in prison the man that helped my family was a a Jew yes my grandma was a Christian what do you say to the Millenial to to explain that God is bigger than these packages that we put in so that you can't get them to come back because I think part of the problem is that they with the internet and witching connected globally they can see bigger than what we're teaching how are you going to address that all right I hear a lot of Millennials saying yeah God is not in this little box I like Church yes but what they're saying God is I understand God to be bigger all right thank you sister you got three minutes to answer because I promised your people I would have you back in Lithonia by 7:00 go ahead all right thank you yes first thank you for overriding your emotion incoming I appreciate it Gandhi said that that love doesn't have a religion and I think that part of the failure of the church is that we have built God around rules in that relationship and I often use the example about two years ago when I was pastoring in Baltimore we had the funeral for one of the biggest drug dealers in my city and my church smelled like we were in Kingston and I'm preparing some of y'all to get that later I was preparing to give the eulogy churches packed and jammed it looked like Easter and there was an altercation at my back door and I didn't know what it was so I got out of the pulpit went to the back door to see what the commotion was and my dutiful uh sure we're trying to turn young men away because they wouldn't take their hats off I and I had to jump in and say this may be the only time I can get him to church right and so I'm not gonna lose this sole opportunity because they got had someone and it was really a lot of things that we claim my religious are really cultural come on so God don't have any rules about you can't be on the praise team because you got a tattoo on your neck and so we got to begin to separate some stuff just to get to the heart when you love somebody at capacity they'll be able to check themselves so you and I go to court tomorrow downtown Atlanta and the young man is gonna be standing before the judge pleading for his life with his pants hanging down his behind with a white t-shirt on but for him is clean and that's what he has and he doesn't have a father that told him to tie your tie you got to love people in the righteousness if you and I are in relationship you don't have to give rules because you and I are in relationship you don't need to tell me to be home by one I'm gonna be home cuz I love you not because you gave me a rule ya know you're only saying right I and I think that we've got to learn how to foster relationship and the relationship will then be speaking to rules ladies and gentlemen pastor Jamal Bryant thank you thank you [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Beulah Heights University

Views: 56,494

Keywords: jamal bryant, Pastor, Atlanta pASTOR, LEADERSHIP, talks, Rashad richey, conference

Id: GOgdcPCFqrM

Length: 38min 8sec (2288 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 06 2019