Outspoken Atlanta mega-church leader Pastor Jamal Bryant of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church pens open letter discussing the Black churches’ role during the COVID-19 pandemic
Pastor Jamal Bryant, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, recently penned an open letter discussing the role of the Black church during the COVID-19 pandemic and the steps that he and his congregation have taken during these troubling times to provide aid.
“I am blessed to pastor at New Birth, where we have the capacity and more importantly, an engaged, committed church family who take seriously our mandate to love, lead and live like Christ. Our goal is to be a church that does 93 percent or more of our ministry beyond the walls of our beautiful sanctuary,” Bryant stated in the letter, as he discussed how a lot of 21st century churches are more concerned with what goes inside the church and now how to improve conditions for the people who reside outside of the church’s walls.
Bryant also pointed out that New Birth was able to provide meals to furloughed federal workers, provide 5,000 pairs of free shoes for children in metro Atlanta and bailed out first time, non-offenders, all in a little over a year.
And during the pandemic, the church has been able to continue its mission to provide aid where it is needed by providing free groceries to 1,000 families weekly and developed a partnership with local hotels to provide free lodging and meals to local doctors, nurses and allied health professionals.
In the letter, Bryant shares his inspiration for putting his thoughts to pen involving a recent article on Newsone.com which “Black pastors among wealthy preachers accused of not donating to Coronavirus relief,” in addition to the backlash he and his church received after partnering with a telemedicine firm and a community health clinic to provide coronavirus testing to the metro Atlanta community.
