The Rev Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant: from G.E.D. to PH.D. and a global mission

Joy T. Bennett

In the vein of "call and response," Pastor Jamal-Harrison Bryant says, "Somebody say, 'Preach, Black man!'" And the congregation does--by the thousands, many who drive from neighboring cities every Sunday to hear the dynamic young pastor from Baltimore deliver another incisive life message.

"I want to come to church," says member Shawn Wilson, who drives EVERY Sunday with his wife from New Jersey, an hour-and-a-half each way. "When I'm not in service, it feels like I'm missing a meal."

There's no spiritual famine at Baltimore's Empowerment Temple AME. Every week, Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant dishes up a spiritual banquet for his more than 11,000 parishioners, with three services on Sunday morning. And there's more. His Sunday services live; he has 150,000 Internet partners and more than 12,000 registered for his daily empowering text and voice massages. Although he is the center of much attention and expectation, his mission is modest: "To empower the world through the Word."

Only 36, he already has experienced the kind of ministry success that veteran pastors dream about. "I went from a Bible study in my home to a storefront church to a small church to a megachurch in seven years. I'm overwhelmed," he admits. "God has not only blessed me, He has spoiled me."

Radical, revolutionary, innovative, anointed and cutting-edge are only a few of the words that describe Dr. Bryant, who founded the Empowerment Temple AME Church in 2000 with just 43 members. Today, it is the fastest-growing church in the AME denomination. The church also has an elementary school, the Empowerment Academy, and there's a Family Life Center to serve the community. Dr. Bryant is also featured during broadcasts on TV One, the Word Network and Streamingfaith.com.

It is believed that the exponential growth of Empowerment Temple stems from Dr. Bryant's personal story of succeeding against the odds, including overcoming roadblocks that perhaps would have stymied any other potential pastor. Roadblocks like failing the 11th grade and dropping out of high school. He later obtained a G.E.D. certificate and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in political science and international studies from Morehouse College in Atlanta. Bryant later earned a master of divinity degree from Duke University in Durham, N.C., and in 2005 he received his Doctorate of Theology from Oxford University in Great Britain.

His journey from G.E.D. to Ph.D. also included becoming an unwed father before becoming a devoted husband and family man who strikes a chord with the community. "Every person who God ever called is flawed, and so many times we try to hide our issues, and then when they are exposed, we lose it all because we beat up everybody else who is flawed," he says. "We have confused servant with celebrity."

Candid about his past, Dr. Bryant challenges his congregation to "build a trampoline in the pit." He believes everything he has overcome helps him identify, and connect with his congregation and the community at large. "I grew up on The Cosby Show, but I can relate to Good Times. Everybody in my family has a doctoral degree, and I have a G.E.D. from the community college here and a doctorate of theology from Oxford, and that means that I can tap every person in between. I have a beautiful wife and three kids at home, but before that I had a child out of wedlock. That speaks to different facets of the community."

In Dr. Bryant's ministry, he pastors the predominantly unchurched, he says, as more than 60 percent of his members have no previous church affiliation, "or they have been away from the church at least four years," he says. "When I started the church, I wasn't even wearing suits, I was wearing throwback jerseys and Air Force Ones [gym shoes]," he says laughing. "I had to mature with my congregation."

And ,although he still preaches in jeans sometimes, his maturity is evident in his sharp, three-piece suits and fat-knotted neckties, a style he first noticed in London. He has two tailors, one on each coast, mid he travels in a dark green Bentley, which some observers note he drives briskly on Baltimore's highways.

In his sermons, the young pastor often uses hip-hop references, and he preaches about sexuality, relationship drama, drug and alcohol addictions and other social issues with the kind of straight talk that his youthful congregation thrives on. "He keeps it real," says Janelle [Peaches] Rollins, who has been a member of the church since 2005. "He hasn't forgotten where he's come from."

His Tuesday night men's Bible study class is so real that they call it "The Locker Room" for its frank dialogue. Member Michael Hamlin says the men call Pastor Bryant "an awesome man of God and the Prince of the 'hood. He's absolutely global." Dr. Bryant's growing popularity is evidenced by invitations that arrive almost daily, asking him to deliver the Word hi many places around the world. In recent months, he has been in pulpits in Africa, Paris, Australia, London and throughout the U.S.

This summer the church hosted a conference in the Bahamas, pledged $30,000 for a church-sponsored gun-buyback, and called on Baltimore city officials, business people and fellow clergy to join Dr. Bryant's "Stop Sinning" campaigns against violence rind apathy, which aimed to cut the city's homicide rate in half between Memorial Day and the Labor Day weekends.

In addition, he 'also has a new book, World War Me--Winning the War Within, to be released in April 2008.

The great thing about founding a church, he says, is that his church's culture is ever-evolving. "It's almost spiritual anthropology," he says. "I don't preach in robes--except for baptism Sundays. I'm part of a generation who doesn't care whether you're Church of God in Christ, Full Gospel or AME--they want to know what's being served inside."

Ironically, the third-generation minister--grandson mad son of AME pastors--never planned to pastor a church. "I never wanted to be a pastor," he says now. "God kidnapped me!"

Prior to his role as pastor, Dr. Bryant served as the director of the national NAACP's youth and college division. While at the NAACP, he met his wife, Gizelle. The couple has been married five years. "When I met him, I knew that we would be in each other's lives forever," she says. The Hampton University graduate says she is also overwhelmed at the church's growth. "I can only attribute this level of growth to God; nobody put him where he is but God." She says to ensure that he has time for rest and renewal, she tries to ensure that they schedule frequent private couple vacations as well as family vacations with the children. He is a devoted father to daughters Topaz, 10, Grace, 2 1/2, and 1-year-old twins, Angel and Adore.

Bryant, known as a dynamic motivational speaker, was responsible for more than 650 NAACP youth councils and college chapters, representing more than 68,000 young people in the United States. "It was my hope to rise through the ranks of the NAACP to maybe go back mad be president of Morehouse, or do civil rights law," he says. "My role models were the Rex,. Jesse Jackson mad Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."

Dr. Bryant's parents, the Rev. Dr. John R. Bryant, a highly esteemed AME bishop and former pastor of Baltimore's Bethel AME Church, mad the Rev. Dr. Cecelia Williams Bryant, made sure their son and daughter, Dr. Thema Simone Bryant, were well exposed to the world's problems and poverty. The family spent time in Haiti and in Liberia, West Africa.

The elder Bryant says one of his son's high school teachers said young Jamal was torn between being the next Dr. Khag or the next Eddie Murphy. "I always joke and say he decided to be both of them," Bishop Bryant says.

But God had other plans. Bishop Bryant adds that his son has become "the voice to his own generation."

BRYANT'S ROAD FROM G.E.D. TO PH.D.

* 1988-Flunked 11th grade in a gifted and talented program

* 1988--Spent a year in West Africa, which he calls his "Damascus road experience. That's when I changed; I met people who couldn't understand how I failed an education that I got for free."

* 1994-Graduates from Morehouse College after having obtained a G.E.D. in 1989

* 1997-Master of Divinity from the Duke University School of Divinity

* 2000-Founds Empowerment Temple AME with 43 members, in an old nightclub. Today, church membership exceeds 11,000 and is in its fourth location.

* 2003--The Empowerment Academy, an elementary school, and the Empowerment Temple Family Life Center opened

* 2005--Doctorate of Ministry-Oxford University, Great Britain.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning