By Toni Terrell
The Answer Editor-n-Chief

Preachers and pastors throughout the city of Las Vegas crowded the pulpit at Greater Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church to hear what ‘thus saith the Lord’ as the radical, revolutionary Dr. Jamal H. Bryant made his preaching debut in Las Vegas.

For two nights (and a noon-day), the Greater Evergreen ministry team of Pastor Welton and First Lady Debra Smith hosted a packed house of Las Vegas residents as they flocked from abroad to listen to the Baltimore Pastor prophesy over the city during a pre-Thanksgiving revival last month.

“I think the Las Vegas church that is going to take this city is the church who will major in outreach and minor in church,” said Dr. Bryant, founder and Pastor of The Empowerment Temple, a church with more than 10,000 members.

“There is a great hunger in this city; if you got all the ex-strippers together you would have a mega church. If you got all the drug dealers and drug addicts who are on meth and crack cocaine you will have a packed church. If you would just form a union of all the people who make beds in Las Vegas, off the strip, you would have a mega church.”

“The reality is Evergreen as full as it was tonight didn’t even put a dent on what it is that this city can do. The person who comes to this city with a mind of outreach, not to prostitute the problem or to pimp the condition but to really strengthen the community is going to take this city. But the church in this city that has the best choir or the best preacher, they’re not going to do it because the people are dealing with real issues,” Dr. Bryant said.
The well-dressed preacher encouraged the crowd as he masterfully delivered the scriptures with word expository and eloquent colloquialisms forcing a repeated seesaw effect every five minutes. Believers leaped in agreement when he requested affirmation from the ride-or-die praisers, and many ran around the church as he identified the gifted as ‘undercover favor agents.’

But the people released all inhibitions on the second night as Dr. Bryant declared dreams to come to pass and miracles to take place. Moreover, men and women flooded the altar as he denounced the power of depression and gave people permission to cry. “It is time for you to heal, but you have to let it out first,” he said.

Part of the global preacher’s method is to empower people through the Word of God and encourage them to deal with issues head on. Some of the issues Dr. Bryant attacks through his messages are sex in the church and drama.

“There is no manual for drama; you only go through it when you go through it. Most people who gossip are people who have not been gossiped about. But once you become a Vietnam vet, you will jump every time you hear firecrackers assuming that it’s a gunshot. So when you go through something, it makes you respond and react differently when other people go through things,” Dr. Bryant said. 

“The reality is that most of the saints - we won’t talk about it - are not celibate, are not chaste, have not taken a covenant of purity.  We just deal with the overt sins, or we deal with it after people get caught. We don’t deal with the practitioners of sexuality. What a dear friend of mines says; we’re not delivered we’re just discreet in dealing with our sexuality. We have to deal with it on the front page,” he added.
Radical, revolutionary, innovative, anointed, and cutting edge are some of the words often used to describe Dr. Bryant, who has been featured in newspapers and magazines around the world including Gospel Today Magazine, Ebony Magazine, Emerge and USA Today.

The husband and father has inspired many around the nation through his unprecedented prophetic mantle and his unorthodox style in the Christian Arena. Stepping out on faith in April 2000, with the support of Lady Gizelle Bryant and 43 people Dr. Bryant founded what is now considered to be one of the fastest growing churches in the A.M.E. denomination. 

Although he has been deemed a prolific speaker and educator, Dr. Bryant focuses to remain humble and meet his goals – to reach all generations. “I think that is really my intention. The reality is most people read the highlights of my bio but don’t really read the script – the highlights are I have a doctorate from Oxford, a Bachelor’s degree from Duke, a Bachelor’s degree from Morehouse.

“But the script is that I am a high school dropout, went to community college, got a GED, had a baby out of wedlock, my father is presiding bishop of the A.M.E. churches, I am a third generation A.M.E. preacher,” he said.  “The script is I couldn’t get a church, no bishop would give me assignment on the pulpit and I had to start a church because I couldn’t get a church. When you look at all of the conditions of my life, God manipulated me to have a multigenerational message,” Dr. Bryant added.

Dr. Bryant is a pastor with a global mission, which is to “Empower the World through the Word.” He believes that the body of Christ should be empowered in every area of life. His preaching and teaching focuses on empowering believers spiritually, developing them educationally, exposing them culturally, activating them politically, and strengthening them economically.

Prior to his role as pastor, Dr. Bryant served as the director of the NAACP’s youth and college division.  A dynamic motivational speaker, he was responsible for over 650 youth councils and college chapters, representing over 68,000 young people in the United States, Germany, and Japan. Today, his ecumenical messages have been heard on the far shores of South Africa, Belgium, England, and India.

In addition to his many prestigious highlights, Dr. Bryant has appeared on BET’s Meet the Faith, CNN, C-Span, and Politically Incorrect. He also served as a panelist on the National Town Hall meeting entitled, “The State of Black America”, and “The State of the Black Church”, hosted by renowned author and talk show personality Tavis Smiley.  According to Ebony Magazine, he is one of America’s future leaders.

His broadcast, the “Power for Life” is heard weekly across the United States, the Caribbean, England and throughout the continent of Africa.  In 2003, The Empowerment Academy, an elementary school for grades Pre-K through 2nd, and The Empowerment Temple Family Life Center opened its doors to serve the community. The church has also registered more voters than any other church in Baltimore City.