Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant seems to have successfully broken the stereotype of yesterday’s clergyman. He is the leader of a new breed of ministers who embrace the idea of capitalizing on the ever-increasing marketplace of Internet and technological innovations to spread the gospel. With close to 8,000 members attending weekly services at Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, Maryland, and approximately 35,000 followers on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, he believes that “God is not just in the church; He is also in technology.” His mission is to “empower people spiritually, develop them educationally, expose them culturally, activate them politically, and strengthen them economically.”
Under his leadership, the church has expanded into the Empowerment Academy, serving grades pre-K through seven, and the Empowerment Family Life Center. These two institutions serve the community by offering quality education, foreclosure assistance, food and clothing, Christmas gifts, and Single Parents’ Wheels car-buying assistance program. The church has pledged thousands of dollars to get guns off the street and to lower the crime rate.
It’s this kind of real-life ministry that ignited the explosive growth of Empowerment Temple from the 43-member home Bible study group to the fastest-growing church in the AME denomination. Members are challenged to live life at the next level through Dr. Bryant’s brilliant illumination of the Word of God and dynamic delivery.
Over the years, Dr. Bryant’s ministry has also become an international effort as he has ministered in Africa, France, England, India, and Australia. He is the host of the Got Power? television broadcast which is seen in 35 cities in the U.S., and the radio broadcast is currently heard by a half million people across the continent of Africa.
This success did not come over night for Dr. Bryant. At age seventeen, Bryant failed the eleventh grade, but bounced back after a wake-up call on a trip to West Africa. He immediately returned to the states and obtained his GED. Five years later, he graduated from Morehouse College with a BA in political science and international studies. From there he went on to achieve a master’s degree in theological studies from Duke University, and later, a doctorate in theology from Oxford University in England.
This new millennium minister is now an impassioned social activist, community developer, and cultural philanthropist; an author, motivational speaker, and TV and radio personality.
5 Questions…
1. What is your up coming CODE RED Conference and who should attend it? This is an emergency call going out to concerned citizens, clergy, church congregations, fraternities and sororities, community organizations, young adults and senior citizens alike, to get involved and bring awareness to the political process in our communities.
We must realize that it is our time, particularly young people to step up to the plate. Our elder statesmen are in their golden years. When you realize that Rev. Jessie Jackson is 70 and Rev. Al Sharpton is 67, although they are well capable, we can’t leave our future up to them, we’ve got to take the mantle. The mantle isn’t being given or passed down, it must be taken. There is no certain age to get started. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was 32-33 when he made his greatest impact.
2. What is at stake in the 2012 election? The economy. Healthcare. Our core values as a community. So we’ve invited representatives from all over our community together for this thinktank. Roland Martin, Rev. Jackson, Rev. Sharpton, Jeff Johnson, Bishp Vashti McKenzie, Pastor Jasmin Scurlark, VaShawn Mitchell, William Murphy…people from all walks of life, some well known, some unknown. We want to hear from everyone.
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article courtesy of GospelLyfe.com
