November 26, 2025 • 39 mins
How Atlanta’s first international superstars—its clergy—shaped the city’s impact on the world, and how the church became an incubator for entertainers (and vice versa).
HOSTED BY: Big Rube
STARRING: Jamal Bryant, Zaytoven, 1KPhew
SPECIAL THANKS TO: Eric Long
NARRATED BY: Maurice Garland
SUBJECTS: Religion, Atlanta history, Music
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Atlanta is where preachers and pastors push the culture. The
preachers possessed the voice that moved the crowd, set the tone,
and spread the word to the people. My mom and
them didn't play. If you got caught talking a while
the preacher was preaching, you got popped back. Then grown
folks took the church dead serious. I was always told
(00:21):
that the church was about fellowship. So it doesn't matter
if it's at home in the pews, on your laptop
of phone, as long as you're getting it in. As
they say, the church ain't the building, it's the people.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Looks like they were right a big rule, and Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Is where preachers were their original influences.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
In twenty twenty two, Pastor Jamal Bryant sat down for
an interview with the cool sor War podcast hosted by
Rashaan Ali. Who Are You Today?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I am wonderfully blessed just to be in the room
with him.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
What By then, he'd been leading New Birth Missionary Baptist
Church in Atlanta for four years. Jamal stepped into the
poolpit once filled by Bishop Eddie l Long, a controversial
but the loved figure whose death left behind not just
grief but a messy legacy of scandal, allegations of sexual
(01:22):
coercion and financial mismanagement. Brian inherited not just a church,
but a rebuilding project, and it came with the weight
of a question, how do you restore influence after the
fall of a megachurch empire? At first, the interview played
out like many others, where Sean asked him the standard
(01:42):
questions about his upbringing and his path to ministry. When
did did you know that God said this was okay?
But then the conversation shifted to the present, to how
Briant was adapting to the times and how he was
trying to reach people in an area when church attended
was in steep decline.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
For me to tell sixteen year olds to be sell
a bit is one thing. A thirty seven year old
who's used to getting some I need a different kind
of gospel.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
And then came the moment when Rashan asked him directly, how.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Are you making sure that more people think like this
or at least had this type of conversation so that
they can try to change their thought process. Because I'm
mindful that I'm not after Christians, I'm as the people
who don't go to church.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
I'm looking for people that smell like weed, Pastor.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Jamal Bryant says he's thinking about launching a cannabis business
at his church.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
The clip went viral. I'm looking for people that smell
like weeds. It literally got passed around like a blunt.
So we need to clear the air and set the
record straight. This morning, you read Briant was forced to
clarify his statements on a gospel morning show.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
I said I want people to smell like smoke, smell
like weed.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I never said I want to smoke with him.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
I never said that the church is going to be
selling blunts in the Bible bookstore.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
But by then the sound bite had a life of
its own, and the comment sections went wild, and I got.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
A word for Jamaal.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
The devil comes to kill, still and destroyer.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I guess he's descoring your mind.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Brian wasn't just a preacher anymore. He was content. He
was part of a new attention economy. Preachers have always
used the tools of their time to command influence. Eddie
Long built a megachurch empire out of television billboards and
stadium conferences. Jamal Bryant is rebranding the poor pit for
(03:42):
an era of social media, and today there's a whole
new ecosystem online where TikTok, pastors, instagram sermons, and even
gospel trap tracks reach audiences far beyond the church walls.
And it's all happening in Atlanta, an entertainment city and
a rap city where the preacher's voice has always been
more than a sernon. It's been a cultural force. So
(04:05):
where exactly are we going with this? I'll tell you
We're going to church. We'll tell the story of Atlanta's
black preachers to see's original influencers and how their power
has shifted from the pullpit to the timeline. I'm Maury's
Girland and this is episode five of Atlanta Is so
ushers close the doors. I said, close the doors. Before
(04:32):
there were megachurch empires, before pastors went viral online, Atlanta
already had preachers who knew how to command a crime.
Speaker 7 (04:40):
You don't have to know Einstein's spirit are relativity to serve.
You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics
in physics to say.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Think about doctor Martin Luther King Junior at Ebenezer Baptist Church,
his sermons weren't confined to the sanctuary. They became and
rallying cries for the entire civil rights movement with all.
Speaker 7 (05:04):
About children, duckmen and white man.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Shoes and ten pounds. The black church was also the
hub of information, organization, and influence in Black Atlanta. Preachers
of King's era use the tools available to them, like
the choir, the printed church bulletin, and the radio stations
to mobilize marches, registered voters, and shape public opinion. The
(05:28):
cadence of a Sunday message could ripple through the city
all week long. You could think about it as Atlanta's
first influencer economy. Fast forward to today, where the pastor
you follow often says as much about your identity as
the neighborhood you live in or the team that you
root for. If your pastor wears suits and gators, you
(05:48):
better believe folks in the pews addressing that way too.
If he's young, the congregation usually is too. If he
names an enemy from the pool pit, whether it be
high blood pressure, homelessness, or rap music, the congregation is
ready to fight that battle right alongside them. Because in Atlanta,
the man with the microphone doesn't just set the move
(06:09):
he shakes the more accomplice of the people in the room.
On one end of the spectrum, you have Kreflow Dollar,
who runs his church Broad Changers Church like a Fortune
five hundred company, preaching prosperity faith, and a guy who
might just bless you with a ben sifty tithes right.
I call my son, I said, listen, go find that
Rose Ross.
Speaker 8 (06:29):
He said, Hi. I said, go find it. I don't
care what you gotta do. Score around the nation and
every state you got to, but you find that Rose Ross.
That was God's love that he was trying to show
on me.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
If you want politics and prayers in the same breath,
you have Reverend Senator okause, I mean Senator Reverend No, actually,
I think it's the honorable Reverend Doctor Senator Rafael Warnock,
who is literally preaching in the shadow of Doctor King
at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Speaker 9 (06:57):
Shit, stop there, you gotta take this God's full of
love and justice to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Warnock sermons don't just focus on manifesting a mansion. They
focus on justice, liberation, and what it means to live
your faith out loud. He's the living embodiment of how
a preacher in Atlanta can build a platform way beyond
their church walls.
Speaker 9 (07:19):
I often say to folks that I'm not a senator
who used to be a pastor. I'm a pastor who
serves in the Senate.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Before he won a special Senate election in twenty twenty,
Warnock had never held public office, but his reputation in
the pulpit was strong enough to not only get him elected,
but also re elected two years later.
Speaker 9 (07:40):
Every Sunday morning, I preach the Gospel, and then come
Monday morning, I board the plane make my way to Washington, DC.
And in the legislation that I put forward as a
United States Senator, that's about making the Word become flesh
and live among us through good public policy.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
The Senate floor is just another platform for the preacher,
another place to deliver a message. And in Atlanta, the
opportunities for pastors to transcend their pull pits are end
of this because this city is thick with churches. To
help me make sense of it all, I called up
Sheila Pool. She used to cover religion full time for
the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Speaker 10 (08:22):
Atlanta is one of the most diverse cities in the Southeast.
It's right there in the Bible Belt where religion is big,
regardless of whether you're black or white.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
If the South is the Bible Belt, then Atlanta is
definitely the Gucci bucal that goes with every outfit. While
I may use Black church as a blanket statement, you
really can't look at it as a monolith. You have
different denominations, agendas, and sizes at play here. You may
have storefronts. If you prefer a small church that reminds
(08:54):
you of Sundays with Grandma and still has a fish.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Fry, you can find one.
Speaker 10 (08:58):
You may have churches that meet in people's homes.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
If you want to go to church at someone's house
where they truly believe Matthew eighteen twenty when it says
where two or three are gathered, you can find that too.
Speaker 10 (09:10):
You may have a small building, you may have a
huge campus.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
If you're looking for a megachurch that can host a
large conference, you can find one. It just veries.
Speaker 10 (09:19):
It's really hard to say, but I think as the
population grows and people look where they want to have
a church home, it's not one size fits all.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Atlanta is a place where black folks have come from
all over the country, a city where black success feels possible,
and that spirit shows up everywhere, starting with the church,
and that same holy spirit flows through our second biggest
export and perhaps our most influential medium, hip hop.
Speaker 10 (09:47):
You can't talk about hip hop and not talk about
the church, because even with hip hop, there's a faith
influence in that.
Speaker 11 (09:56):
I have learned that, you know, going to church is
really like a mental hospital for you, like on some
like just where you can kind.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Of reset, like so many Atlanta artists. Gospel rapper one
k Few got his start in the church. He says
his mom had him there nearly every day of the week.
Speaker 11 (10:13):
We was in there Monday through Monday. You feel what
I'm saying. So that's really pretty much all I knew.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
But outside the sanctuary, he was still a kid from
Atlanta making mistakes being outside and.
Speaker 11 (10:26):
I always knew better, but I ain't always you know,
did the right thing and do better. So I just
had to bump my head a few times.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Still, the church is where his rap career really began.
Speaker 11 (10:36):
One youth night, the pastor let us get up there.
We did this song called church Bus Swag. It was
a remix of that Soldier Boy Pretty Buss swag and
we just kind of did that and I kind of
fell in love from that day.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
For one k Few is a rapper signed to popular
Christian rapper La Craze Reach Records based here in Atlanta.
He calls his music hold Gospel, a blend of scripture
in street life that feels right at home in the
city where the church and the trapper neighbors. Then there's
(11:15):
Xavier Dodson aka Zaytoven.
Speaker 6 (11:18):
I've been going to church all my life, but when
I went to new Birth, it was probably the best
service I was.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Ever went to. Before he became one of traps most
influential producers, working with artists like Usher, Future and Gucci Man,
Zatoven was playing the organ every Sunday at his local church.
Even as his beat started shaping Atlanta sound, he kept
balancing the sanctuary and the studio. One of his early
collaborators was a gospel rapper who performed at New Births.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
He was so good that before Bishop Long would preach,
he would call my brother up to rap. He went
up to rap with Zatoven's beats, and I used to
be like, that's crazy, Higgel, I'm listening to my music
in this church. My brother on the stage rapping at
this megachurch. I'm talking about three Sundays out the month.
This is something special. I see why it's thirty thousand
(12:08):
people in here. Zatoven might be exaggerating. New Birth never
held thirty thousand people at once. The main auditorium holes
close to around seven thousand people for multiple services. I
know because I used to be in those pews.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
The church in the city has always been a magnet
for ambition, a place where faced me to hustle and
where the polepit can launch movements as easily as it
shapes morals. That same energy fueled the rise of Atlanta's megachurches,
where influenced stretched far beyond Sunday mornings, and for a
time no church loomed larger than new Birth.
Speaker 12 (12:47):
And I make more on the outside than I do
on the inside because God's hands on me.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
For it was more than the sanctuary. It was an empire.
And that's where we're headed next. On Sunday mornings in
the nineteen nineties and early two thousands, Newbirth Missionary Baptist
Church felt less like a sanctuary and more like a stadium.
Jumbo tron screams smoke machines, a sound system that could
(13:14):
roule your chest. It was all the spectacle. That's where
I found myself most weekends, even in my twenties, home
from college. My parents would still drag me out of
bed Jack Daniels and black and mild smoked still on
my breast from the night before, and marched me back
to church. But once I was inside, I couldn't deny
the energy. This wasn't the quiet church that your grandmother
(13:36):
went to. This was a show. And at the center
of it all was Bishop Eddie l.
Speaker 13 (13:41):
Long.
Speaker 12 (13:41):
Don't let nobody tell you what God dang don't.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Under Law's leadership, Newbirths exploded. I watched it grow from
a sweat box on Snapfinger Road to a two hundred
and seventy acre campus with a football field, a gymnasium,
and a parking lot bigger than most shoppings. This glow
up match with lawns, larger than life personality.
Speaker 12 (14:04):
Don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow a take care of itself.
Wat's this now?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
He preached the prosperity gospel that promised faith and obedience
would be rewarded with wealth, health, and influence. Why they
are choosing you at this you're still getting a new
car and new house. He demanded loyalty, upheld traditional gender roles,
and took hard stances against homosexuality in same sex marriage.
Speaker 8 (14:33):
And the reason why society is like it is is
because men are being feminized and women are becoming masculine.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
And he looked the part. He was built like a linebacker,
preaching in muscle shirts and expensive suits. He drove Bentlee's
and wore platinum jewelry before most people even knew what
platinum was. He embodied the prosperity that he was preaching.
But it wasn't just what he wore or what he drove,
It was how he preached. Eddie Long was a performer,
(15:03):
his booming voice, dramatic pauses, the house band punctuating his words,
the Oregon swelling right on que. A sermon at new
Birth felt less like a lecture and more like a concert,
with the crowd hanging on to every beat. It was trouble,
people counting me out, and just like any other concert,
(15:26):
there was merch. New Birth had a full audio visual operation,
recording every sermon and selling tapes and CDs in the
church bookstore. It was kind of like DJ Drama's Gangs
the Grills, But for Jesus, on any given Sunday, you
never knew who you might run into. Maybe you descending
behind Dion Sanders. Maybe you could catch a surprise Kurt
(15:47):
Franklin concert. No wonder, Folks started calling this place Club
new Birth. If you couldn't afford tickets to a Falcons game,
this was the next best show in time. On a Sunday,
Eddie Long turned to pull pit into a platform and
influence into an empire. For a time, he made New
Birth the most powerful church in Atlanta, but influence cuts
(16:10):
both ways. With Long's rise came scrutiny. Allegations surfaced that
he was using church funds to support his lavish lifestyle.
Those allegations didn't stick, but in twenty ten, a real
scandal broke.
Speaker 13 (16:24):
Three young men now are assuing Bishop Long, accusing him
of enticing them with money, cars, clothes, and expensive jewelry
in exchange for sexual favors.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Long denied the accusations, and he never stood a trial.
He reached the settlement with each of the accusers, but
week after week he kept preaching, his booming voice, filling
the church just like before. But the spell was broken.
Membership at New Birth plummeted, thousands left for other churches
or just stopped going all together. Eddie Long died in
(16:55):
twenty seventeen, and he was preaching all the way up
to the end. But by then New Birth was a
shadow of the empire that I remembered from my childhood.
After a lengthy search, in twenty eighteen, the church brought
in doctor Jamal Brian, a charismatic, media savvy preacher from Baltimore,
to carry the torch.
Speaker 12 (17:15):
Because by looking at me, you can't even tell I
got no gas in my car, no food in my refrigerator,
no offering in my pocket book. But I still got
a praise, And I praised him like a million out
because I know my seeds.
Speaker 7 (17:31):
Now, that's coombat.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
His job wasn't just to get butts in seats. It
was to rebuild a brand, and he knew the only
way to do that was to master the same thing
Eddie Long had before him, the art of influence. But
in Jamal Brian's era, that didn't just mean Sunday sermons
and television broadcast. It meant live streams, viral sound bites,
(17:53):
and Instagram clips. Brian wasn't only rebuilding new Birth's reputation,
he was crafting his own digital pool pick.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
I've had to live my life out loud of the
good and the bad and the ugly.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Man, I'm gonna tell you, bro, like good place used
to be so passed.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I decided to pay my old church and visit to
see how things were going. And man, things were a
lot different from when I used to go here.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Or folks would be out here, you know.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
New Births PR folks told me and our field producer
to show up around eight thirty am. We were running late,
and I braced myself for a traffic jam circling the
parking lot in the usual megachurch madness. But to my surprise,
the street leading up to the campus was so clear.
There was a group of women jogging down the middle
of the street. The parking lot was almost empty an
(18:50):
hour before service. I couldn't believe it. Back when I
used to come here, that would have been unheard of.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Are you all doing this good thing? Glad to have y'all.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
We're pulling up on doctor Brian as he's getting his haircut.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
When Jamal Brian took over new Birth in twenty eighteen.
The church was still reeling from Eddie Long's death and
the scandals that shadowed his final years. New Birth wasn't
just in need of a new pastor, it needed a resurrection.
Membership was down, public trust was shaken, and the megachurch
that once symbolized black excellence in the suburbs now felt
(19:28):
like a symbol of decline.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
We're getting it out the mud. It was a dry
white season. The church had dwindled almost to nothing, and
God said, this is your assignment.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Brian is a different kind of pastor. He's from Baltimore,
where he built a reputation as a fiery preacher and
political activist. He marched in protests, sparred with city officials,
and wasn't afraid of controversy. In other words, he was
comfortable in the spotlight. And when he got to New Birth,
he thought he had some time to study for his assignment.
(20:00):
Little did he know he was getting hit with a
pop quiz off the rip.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
I'm all in the AJC, I'm all on CNN. Pastor
comes to Atlanta, comes to New Birth. Then that Wednesday
I have a meeting and they said, hey, we don't
have the money for your moving expenses. Would you just say,
at the peak of its powers, New Birds was earning
(20:24):
ten million dollars a year after the smoke settled. At
the end of the Eddy Long era, the church was
in foreclosure and thirty two million dollars in debt.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
They didn't tell me they was facing foreclosure.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
They don't tell me that until after my first Sunday.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
All I thought was I had to rebuild the congregation numerically.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Not financially.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
During his first six months on the job, doctor Bryant
says he was living in the embassy suites, surviving on
free breakfast in the morning and free or dervs in
the evening. Six years later, he's still faced with the
challenge of getting the church out of debt, but also
making New Birth relevant in a changing landscape.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
There's the largest demographic of Black people, I think at
four percent who now identify as atheists an agnostic, and
so the Black church is fighting to get currency back
into the community of relevance. When Black Lives Matter emerged,
it was significant moment because it was the first time
(21:23):
the Black church wasn't the center of the civil rights movement,
and there was no religious figure as the voice, and
so I think it's a different, distinctive time.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
On top of cleaning up the church reputation, he's also
trying to meet the congregation where they're at. Where Eddie
Long used tapes and CDs to spread his message, Doctor
Bryant clips his sermons and post them across social media.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
My church holds eight thousand, but forty thousand are online,
so we're still just a studio.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
But today we're lucky to see him perform in real life.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
I want to preach today using as a subject shame
on you.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
He broke down the difference between guilt, which is feeling
bad about what you did, in shame feeling bad about
who you are, and in classic preacher fashion, he brought
it back to the moment.
Speaker 14 (22:19):
You don't have the right to live in shame, but
I know who does.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Target should be in shame.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
Target is struggling after strategic missteps on DEI, and that
is because people across the country have been boycotting the
retail giant since March.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
And this is the man leading the growing effort.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
It is not because of terrorifts, it is not because.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Of the stock.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
In twenty twenty five, Jamal Bryant launched the Target fast
a forty day boycott during lit His message was simple.
If Target rolled back diversity and inclusion, black consumers could
roll back their He demanded real action, two hundred and
fifty million dollars deposited into black banks, genuine HBCU partnerships,
(23:09):
and follow through on Target's two billion dollar pledge to
black businesses. After George Floyd's death.
Speaker 10 (23:16):
Tonight, and Atlanta pastor who led a national boycott of Target,
is reacting to news of a leadership change at the company.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Pastor Jamal Bryn It worked, sales, dipped, foot traffic slow
in the company's longtime CEO stepped down. Briant called it
one of the most organized black boycotts since Montgomery. Then
he set his sights on Dollar General, accusing the chain
of profiting off black communities while cutting diversity goals. Instead
(23:44):
of a full boycott, he launched an electronic protest, flooding inboxes,
phone lines, and timelines. In both cases, Briant proved a
pastor's influence can extend far beyond the pull pit. His
boycotts weren't juste sermons strategy, and they were content. But again,
influence cuts both ways. The same spotlight that lets Brian
(24:08):
call out target or dollar general also makes him a
target too.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
So I don't preach from a condemnation or self righteousness.
I preach from somebody who is a divorcee, who is
an adulterer.
Speaker 10 (24:23):
Are you ready to get into this megachurch messiness.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Jamal used to be married to a reality TV show personality,
Giselle Bryant of the Real Housewives of Potomac. They married
in two thousand and two and had three daughters, but
by two thousand and seven their marriage was unraveling. Jaselle
discovered that Jamal had been unfaithful. He later admitted to
not only multiple affairs, but to also fothering a child
(24:53):
with a parishioner while they were married.
Speaker 10 (24:56):
It was later confirmed that mister Chocolate was actually passed.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Brian with his mess it sell for Jamal. It was
a moment of reckoning, but because Giselle was in the
public eye, this wasn't just a private breakup. It became
a part of Jamal's public narrative. He made the rounds
on TV shows and podcasts walk us through what happened.
Speaker 14 (25:19):
I stepped rolling outside of my marriage and had an
extra marital affair that ultimately ended in a divorce to
an incredibly wonderful woman, not because anything was flawed in
the marriage or in her but in my own immaturity.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
His scandals and sermons were dissected not just in the
parking lot, but on blogs, gossip sites, and Bravo reality
TV shows.
Speaker 7 (25:44):
Did they date?
Speaker 3 (25:45):
I don't know? He says no, he says yes. Who knows?
But Jamal Bryant doesn't just live inside other people's headlines.
He makes his own On Instagram. He's built a following
of more than half a million people. Sermon clips, protest calls,
behind the scenes moments, all packaged for the timeline. His
church services don't just happen in Litonia. They happen on
(26:07):
your phone, in your feed, and in your group chat.
I'm looking for people that smell like weeds. Jamal has
also launched his own podcast, Let's Be Clear, where he
interviews guests like ray j, Alexis Sky and Kashawan Rock,
names you usually see on a gossip blog, not a
(26:28):
gospel broadcast. In twenty four you was engaged. It happened overnight,
but then he went to jail. So a week later,
I'm locked up.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
A prison.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
No oh no, no, no, no, but beyond gossip, doctor
Bryant broaches topics and issues that his predecessor Eddie Long
wouldn't dare touch on. Absolutely, no pun intended there.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Because a lot of people can hide behind data.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
It's only four percent of the population or whatever that
other with you, yeah, who have filled out the sense
that part because I know a lot of people who
do lots of things yes and never have to explain
it are declared publicly yes. And I felt like I
making moral judgment as a divorce, he as a cult.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
The point is clear, Jamal Bryant isn't waiting for gossip
blogs to tell his story. He's building his own channels,
producing his own content, and curating his own audience. And
in Atlanta, a city where influences currency, that makes him
more than a pastor, It makes him a brand. Briant
may be one of the most visible examples, but he's
(27:41):
not alone. Across the city, a new generation of pastors, podcasters,
and even gospel trap artists are building their own platforms,
shaping theology, identity, and culture in real time online. Next,
we step inside that system, the new church influencers. So far,
(28:10):
we've seen how Atlanta's preachers built influence from the pulpit,
from Martin Luther King Junior's sermons to Eddie Lawn's mega
church empire to Jamal Bryant turning his church into a brand.
But today, influence doesn't stop at the sanctuary doors.
Speaker 10 (28:25):
Okay, so today I'm going to tell you the five
things that you need to be a Christian influencer. Yes,
there's a difference between a Christian influencer.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Welcome to Atlanta's online faith ecosystem. To understand it, we're
going to take a little tour. First stop the Christian
Influencer Awards, a red carpet event that celebrates pastors, podcasters,
and content creators who figured out how to make faith
go viral for them. Being a preacher isn't just about
(28:55):
Sunday Morning. It's about branding, followers and engagement.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
So can you.
Speaker 13 (29:01):
Living amongst influencers back in the day. I'm talking about
old school influencers like John and Andrew sharing the good
news that Christ has come, or like the og influencer
Jesus Christ. Well, tonight, we would like to recognize some
of the influencers amongst our time. So here are the
(29:24):
nominees for the Influencer of the year.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
But the ecosystem isn't just hype and hashtags. Another lane
is the critics, YouTubers who dissect preachers the way ESPN
analysts break down athletes.
Speaker 6 (29:37):
He misses so many things, and I think sometimes he
has blinded himself.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Jamal Brian is clearly someone who is more about the
culture than he is for Christ.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Or take a listen at this dude who goes by
Pastor Rod of the YouTube channel. What do the scriptures say?
He speaks out against black preachers who talk politics in
the poolpit.
Speaker 15 (29:56):
I noticed something that I'm seeing today. I'm seeing a
lot of these goofy, black, hypocritical preachers in their little pulpit,
standing up there like pharaohs, and these tailored expensive suits,
preaching racial vengeance instead of biblical repentance.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
YEP.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Criticizing preachers isn't new. We've all heard our grandmothers and
auntie say that Pastor so and so ain't shit in
the church parking lot. But it is a trip seeing
people build audiences for these opinions. Our next stop is
Changed Church, where Pastor Darius Daniels preaches like Tony Robbins,
(30:36):
but with a Bible. He finds ways to booster emotional, relational,
and even business iq.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
The church not supposed to do everything.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
There are some things that you.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
May be expecting the church to do that you're supposed
to do, and I want to talk to you about it.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
In this video.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Then there's twenty eight to nineteen church, where the pastor
Philip Anthony Mitchell packs out services with gen z krows,
blending conservative theology with street level charisma.
Speaker 8 (31:08):
Sexual immorality, homosexuality, a duntry, all of.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
The things we practiced. The Lord says, when.
Speaker 7 (31:17):
You see them in your life, cut them off.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
So I made a skit about how long the line's
at twenty eight nineteen church, be I have to take.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
This video right.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
His lines wrap around the block. Visitors show up hours early,
killing time with corn hole and Connect four in the
parking lot, while the church staff manages the crowd with bullhorns.
Philip Mitchell might not need a podcast, He's already got
over a million followers on TikTok, But in an error
where content is keen, a podcast is just another way
(31:51):
to spread his message. It's called Street Preachers, and it
hits kind of like a mixtape.
Speaker 9 (31:56):
False prophets not the devil, wolves and sheep's clothing powered
by Satan. That's right, but their biggest warning was not
point the fingers of the devil.
Speaker 15 (32:04):
Their biggest warning to the church in the first century
was watch out for false profits.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
These days, Atlanta's preachers aren't just competing from the pool pit.
They're competing on the timeline. Scroll long enough, you'll find sermons, skits,
and songs, all preaching to the same feed. The message
is still spiritual, but the medium has changed, and so
have the messengers, which brings us to Atlanta's Hood Gospel.
(32:34):
One of its biggest stars is one k Few. At
first glance, you may mistake him for a member of
the Migos, Dreadlocks and designer Shades. He's enjoying a viral
second coming on TikTok, where he retells Bible stories like
cainean Nabel and tell us what happened with Cane and
Nabel brom.
Speaker 11 (32:55):
Yeah, man, boy, wow, man, our long story.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Short and Adam and Eve even right, you.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 15 (33:03):
I'm the muscle, so she eat the fruit.
Speaker 11 (33:05):
But Adam Ketcher, you know what I'm saying in the
middle of it, So Adam stopped like I like to
do that one right right.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
These stories are thousands of years old and have been
taught a million times. The lessons are typically about jealousy, responsibility,
and the consequences of sin. But the way one k
Few tells it, it's like a story from the streets
of Atlanta. And that's the point.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
It's like, we literally the new church.
Speaker 11 (33:30):
You feel what I'm saying, So I feel like we
really you know what I'm saying this This is a
perfect time and opportunity to really know what I'm saying.
Shift the narrative a little bit so people that not
close to church can know what I'm saying. They can
come to church as they are.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
Theytven, one of Tramp's pioneers, grew up playing the keys
in the church, and he's always kept his faith front
and center. He don't drink, he don't cuss, and he
don't smoke. But lately, he admits that the city's rap
scene has gotten darker.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
But I went to the studio and it's thirty guys
with extended clips hanging out their pants, and I'm like, bro,
I can't come to the studio no more.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Like when did it get like this? So in twenty
twenty four, he teamed up with one k Fu to
make something different. Their relationship dates back a decade prior,
when Zaytoven first discovered few rapping at an open mic
at his church. Together they May Pray for Atlanta, a
gospel trap project that blends the beats and the Bible.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Jump make your favorite trapping.
Speaker 6 (34:36):
I'll be like, I almost want to do more Christian
hip hop than anything now because it's more fulfilling. It's like,
I want to get these guys the Xatoven beats, the
Zaytoven bounce, but with the message that they have and
the words that they have to go together with it,
I feel like it's something special.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
And it's working.
Speaker 6 (34:57):
For years, the church has inspired rap music, but now
the music is carrying the message back to the church.
I was in the grocery to the other day and
a guy with tattoos on his face, gold teeth in
his mouth. I'm talking about Super Street and he's like, oh,
the boy Zatoven say. All I can think of him
is he gonna talk about Gucci or you know, future
(35:19):
or whatever? Music gotn't done. I did a project with
the artist one k Fu called pray for Atlanta. That's
the only thing he talked about. And I'm like, you
heard that or you know what that is, So you know,
that just goes to show the reach that that music has.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
The new altar is digital, and whether you're a megachurch
pastor or a gospel rapper with a ring like the
competition for souls and followers is playing out on the
same screen for artists like one k Few and producers
like zatoven Face is gone viral and once again Atlanta
is the amplifier. The same city that gave the world
(35:56):
trap and Krunk is now remixing the gospel before a
new generation. A man with one foot in both worlds,
Satovein has a sense of which one will last.
Speaker 6 (36:07):
Church is really, I think the hospital for everybody. Not
that you know, you're heart or you bleeding or something
like that, but for heartaches and things or that nature.
People still, you know, go to church to fill that void.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
And maybe that's what makes Atlanta so powerful. It's a
city that keeps finding new ways to make the sacred
go platinum.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Religion promotes morality and traditional family values, but in reality,
nothing is really all good because it can be hard
to practice what you preach. But the church will always
have a place in Atlanta, and the Internet only makes
it's reached that much greater. And now the church is
being influenced by music, just like me. Music was influenced
(37:01):
by the church. But beware of false prophets whose messages
and being delivered in good faith. Like my mama used
to say, don't worry about what they do, worry about
what you do.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
In the next episode, we post up on one Street
in Atlanta to see what it's really like to open
up a business in the so called black Mecca in
Atlanta is open for business.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Atlanta is the will Packer Media production in partnership with
iHeart Podcast, Idea, Generation and Complex. This episode was written, reported,
and produced by Maurice Garland, with additional production from.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Christina Lee and Jul Wicker.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Our supervising producer and editor Ishiva bayad Our. Managing producers
are Rose Roulini Bacon O'mari graham.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
At, Shamara Rochester.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Editorial support from Sean Setero and Jack Irwin.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Original theme music by Our Mind Sahota.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Sound designed by Shiva Bayat and Our Mind Salta, mixed
and mastered by Our Mind Sahota. Fact checking done by
Sean Setero. Our field producer is Johnny Kaufman. Clearance counsel
Donison Caliph Perez, Lisa Kliff and Jacqueline Schwedt. Executive producers
for will Packermedia are Will Packer and Alex Bowden.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Co producer for will Packer Media is Nimy Mohunt.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Executive producers for Idea Generation and Complex of Jack Irwin
and Noah Callahan.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Beller.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Head of talent relations for Complex is Anthony Alred. Talent
associate for Complex is Ryan Houston. Senior attorney for Complex
is Jordan Washington. Special thanks to Tyler Klan, Terry Harrison,
Chris Senator, Noams Griffin, and Candace Howard.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
I'm Big Rude, Peace
Atlanta is where preachers and pastors push the culture. The
preachers possessed the voice that moved the crowd, set the tone,
and spread the word to the people. My mom and
them didn't play. If you got caught talking a while
the preacher was preaching, you got popped back. Then grown
folks took the church dead serious. I was always told
(00:21):
that the church was about fellowship. So it doesn't matter
if it's at home in the pews, on your laptop
of phone, as long as you're getting it in. As
they say, the church ain't the building, it's the people.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Looks like they were right a big rule, and Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Is where preachers were their original influences.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
In twenty twenty two, Pastor Jamal Bryant sat down for
an interview with the cool sor War podcast hosted by
Rashaan Ali. Who Are You Today?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I am wonderfully blessed just to be in the room
with him.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
What By then, he'd been leading New Birth Missionary Baptist
Church in Atlanta for four years. Jamal stepped into the
poolpit once filled by Bishop Eddie l Long, a controversial
but the loved figure whose death left behind not just
grief but a messy legacy of scandal, allegations of sexual
(01:22):
coercion and financial mismanagement. Brian inherited not just a church,
but a rebuilding project, and it came with the weight
of a question, how do you restore influence after the
fall of a megachurch empire? At first, the interview played
out like many others, where Sean asked him the standard
(01:42):
questions about his upbringing and his path to ministry. When
did did you know that God said this was okay?
But then the conversation shifted to the present, to how
Briant was adapting to the times and how he was
trying to reach people in an area when church attended
was in steep decline.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
For me to tell sixteen year olds to be sell
a bit is one thing. A thirty seven year old
who's used to getting some I need a different kind
of gospel.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
And then came the moment when Rashan asked him directly, how.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Are you making sure that more people think like this
or at least had this type of conversation so that
they can try to change their thought process. Because I'm
mindful that I'm not after Christians, I'm as the people
who don't go to church.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
I'm looking for people that smell like weed, Pastor.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Jamal Bryant says he's thinking about launching a cannabis business
at his church.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
The clip went viral. I'm looking for people that smell
like weeds. It literally got passed around like a blunt.
So we need to clear the air and set the
record straight. This morning, you read Briant was forced to
clarify his statements on a gospel morning show.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
I said I want people to smell like smoke, smell
like weed.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I never said I want to smoke with him.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
I never said that the church is going to be
selling blunts in the Bible bookstore.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
But by then the sound bite had a life of
its own, and the comment sections went wild, and I got.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
A word for Jamaal.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
The devil comes to kill, still and destroyer.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I guess he's descoring your mind.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Brian wasn't just a preacher anymore. He was content. He
was part of a new attention economy. Preachers have always
used the tools of their time to command influence. Eddie
Long built a megachurch empire out of television billboards and
stadium conferences. Jamal Bryant is rebranding the poor pit for
(03:42):
an era of social media, and today there's a whole
new ecosystem online where TikTok, pastors, instagram sermons, and even
gospel trap tracks reach audiences far beyond the church walls.
And it's all happening in Atlanta, an entertainment city and
a rap city where the preacher's voice has always been
more than a sernon. It's been a cultural force. So
(04:05):
where exactly are we going with this? I'll tell you
We're going to church. We'll tell the story of Atlanta's
black preachers to see's original influencers and how their power
has shifted from the pullpit to the timeline. I'm Maury's
Girland and this is episode five of Atlanta Is so
ushers close the doors. I said, close the doors. Before
(04:32):
there were megachurch empires, before pastors went viral online, Atlanta
already had preachers who knew how to command a crime.
Speaker 7 (04:40):
You don't have to know Einstein's spirit are relativity to serve.
You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics
in physics to say.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Think about doctor Martin Luther King Junior at Ebenezer Baptist Church,
his sermons weren't confined to the sanctuary. They became and
rallying cries for the entire civil rights movement with all.
Speaker 7 (05:04):
About children, duckmen and white man.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Shoes and ten pounds. The black church was also the
hub of information, organization, and influence in Black Atlanta. Preachers
of King's era use the tools available to them, like
the choir, the printed church bulletin, and the radio stations
to mobilize marches, registered voters, and shape public opinion. The
(05:28):
cadence of a Sunday message could ripple through the city
all week long. You could think about it as Atlanta's
first influencer economy. Fast forward to today, where the pastor
you follow often says as much about your identity as
the neighborhood you live in or the team that you
root for. If your pastor wears suits and gators, you
(05:48):
better believe folks in the pews addressing that way too.
If he's young, the congregation usually is too. If he
names an enemy from the pool pit, whether it be
high blood pressure, homelessness, or rap music, the congregation is
ready to fight that battle right alongside them. Because in Atlanta,
the man with the microphone doesn't just set the move
(06:09):
he shakes the more accomplice of the people in the room.
On one end of the spectrum, you have Kreflow Dollar,
who runs his church Broad Changers Church like a Fortune
five hundred company, preaching prosperity faith, and a guy who
might just bless you with a ben sifty tithes right.
I call my son, I said, listen, go find that
Rose Ross.
Speaker 8 (06:29):
He said, Hi. I said, go find it. I don't
care what you gotta do. Score around the nation and
every state you got to, but you find that Rose Ross.
That was God's love that he was trying to show
on me.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
If you want politics and prayers in the same breath,
you have Reverend Senator okause, I mean Senator Reverend No, actually,
I think it's the honorable Reverend Doctor Senator Rafael Warnock,
who is literally preaching in the shadow of Doctor King
at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Speaker 9 (06:57):
Shit, stop there, you gotta take this God's full of
love and justice to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Warnock sermons don't just focus on manifesting a mansion. They
focus on justice, liberation, and what it means to live
your faith out loud. He's the living embodiment of how
a preacher in Atlanta can build a platform way beyond
their church walls.
Speaker 9 (07:19):
I often say to folks that I'm not a senator
who used to be a pastor. I'm a pastor who
serves in the Senate.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Before he won a special Senate election in twenty twenty,
Warnock had never held public office, but his reputation in
the pulpit was strong enough to not only get him elected,
but also re elected two years later.
Speaker 9 (07:40):
Every Sunday morning, I preach the Gospel, and then come
Monday morning, I board the plane make my way to Washington, DC.
And in the legislation that I put forward as a
United States Senator, that's about making the Word become flesh
and live among us through good public policy.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
The Senate floor is just another platform for the preacher,
another place to deliver a message. And in Atlanta, the
opportunities for pastors to transcend their pull pits are end
of this because this city is thick with churches. To
help me make sense of it all, I called up
Sheila Pool. She used to cover religion full time for
the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Speaker 10 (08:22):
Atlanta is one of the most diverse cities in the Southeast.
It's right there in the Bible Belt where religion is big,
regardless of whether you're black or white.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
If the South is the Bible Belt, then Atlanta is
definitely the Gucci bucal that goes with every outfit. While
I may use Black church as a blanket statement, you
really can't look at it as a monolith. You have
different denominations, agendas, and sizes at play here. You may
have storefronts. If you prefer a small church that reminds
(08:54):
you of Sundays with Grandma and still has a fish.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Fry, you can find one.
Speaker 10 (08:58):
You may have churches that meet in people's homes.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
If you want to go to church at someone's house
where they truly believe Matthew eighteen twenty when it says
where two or three are gathered, you can find that too.
Speaker 10 (09:10):
You may have a small building, you may have a
huge campus.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
If you're looking for a megachurch that can host a
large conference, you can find one. It just veries.
Speaker 10 (09:19):
It's really hard to say, but I think as the
population grows and people look where they want to have
a church home, it's not one size fits all.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Atlanta is a place where black folks have come from
all over the country, a city where black success feels possible,
and that spirit shows up everywhere, starting with the church,
and that same holy spirit flows through our second biggest
export and perhaps our most influential medium, hip hop.
Speaker 10 (09:47):
You can't talk about hip hop and not talk about
the church, because even with hip hop, there's a faith
influence in that.
Speaker 11 (09:56):
I have learned that, you know, going to church is
really like a mental hospital for you, like on some
like just where you can kind.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Of reset, like so many Atlanta artists. Gospel rapper one
k Few got his start in the church. He says
his mom had him there nearly every day of the week.
Speaker 11 (10:13):
We was in there Monday through Monday. You feel what
I'm saying. So that's really pretty much all I knew.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
But outside the sanctuary, he was still a kid from
Atlanta making mistakes being outside and.
Speaker 11 (10:26):
I always knew better, but I ain't always you know,
did the right thing and do better. So I just
had to bump my head a few times.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Still, the church is where his rap career really began.
Speaker 11 (10:36):
One youth night, the pastor let us get up there.
We did this song called church Bus Swag. It was
a remix of that Soldier Boy Pretty Buss swag and
we just kind of did that and I kind of
fell in love from that day.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
For one k Few is a rapper signed to popular
Christian rapper La Craze Reach Records based here in Atlanta.
He calls his music hold Gospel, a blend of scripture
in street life that feels right at home in the
city where the church and the trapper neighbors. Then there's
(11:15):
Xavier Dodson aka Zaytoven.
Speaker 6 (11:18):
I've been going to church all my life, but when
I went to new Birth, it was probably the best
service I was.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Ever went to. Before he became one of traps most
influential producers, working with artists like Usher, Future and Gucci Man,
Zatoven was playing the organ every Sunday at his local church.
Even as his beat started shaping Atlanta sound, he kept
balancing the sanctuary and the studio. One of his early
collaborators was a gospel rapper who performed at New Births.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
He was so good that before Bishop Long would preach,
he would call my brother up to rap. He went
up to rap with Zatoven's beats, and I used to
be like, that's crazy, Higgel, I'm listening to my music
in this church. My brother on the stage rapping at
this megachurch. I'm talking about three Sundays out the month.
This is something special. I see why it's thirty thousand
(12:08):
people in here. Zatoven might be exaggerating. New Birth never
held thirty thousand people at once. The main auditorium holes
close to around seven thousand people for multiple services. I
know because I used to be in those pews.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
The church in the city has always been a magnet
for ambition, a place where faced me to hustle and
where the polepit can launch movements as easily as it
shapes morals. That same energy fueled the rise of Atlanta's megachurches,
where influenced stretched far beyond Sunday mornings, and for a
time no church loomed larger than new Birth.
Speaker 12 (12:47):
And I make more on the outside than I do
on the inside because God's hands on me.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
For it was more than the sanctuary. It was an empire.
And that's where we're headed next. On Sunday mornings in
the nineteen nineties and early two thousands, Newbirth Missionary Baptist
Church felt less like a sanctuary and more like a stadium.
Jumbo tron screams smoke machines, a sound system that could
(13:14):
roule your chest. It was all the spectacle. That's where
I found myself most weekends, even in my twenties, home
from college. My parents would still drag me out of
bed Jack Daniels and black and mild smoked still on
my breast from the night before, and marched me back
to church. But once I was inside, I couldn't deny
the energy. This wasn't the quiet church that your grandmother
(13:36):
went to. This was a show. And at the center
of it all was Bishop Eddie l.
Speaker 13 (13:41):
Long.
Speaker 12 (13:41):
Don't let nobody tell you what God dang don't.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Under Law's leadership, Newbirths exploded. I watched it grow from
a sweat box on Snapfinger Road to a two hundred
and seventy acre campus with a football field, a gymnasium,
and a parking lot bigger than most shoppings. This glow
up match with lawns, larger than life personality.
Speaker 12 (14:04):
Don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow a take care of itself.
Wat's this now?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
He preached the prosperity gospel that promised faith and obedience
would be rewarded with wealth, health, and influence. Why they
are choosing you at this you're still getting a new
car and new house. He demanded loyalty, upheld traditional gender roles,
and took hard stances against homosexuality in same sex marriage.
Speaker 8 (14:33):
And the reason why society is like it is is
because men are being feminized and women are becoming masculine.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
And he looked the part. He was built like a linebacker,
preaching in muscle shirts and expensive suits. He drove Bentlee's
and wore platinum jewelry before most people even knew what
platinum was. He embodied the prosperity that he was preaching.
But it wasn't just what he wore or what he drove,
It was how he preached. Eddie Long was a performer,
(15:03):
his booming voice, dramatic pauses, the house band punctuating his words,
the Oregon swelling right on que. A sermon at new
Birth felt less like a lecture and more like a concert,
with the crowd hanging on to every beat. It was trouble,
people counting me out, and just like any other concert,
(15:26):
there was merch. New Birth had a full audio visual operation,
recording every sermon and selling tapes and CDs in the
church bookstore. It was kind of like DJ Drama's Gangs
the Grills, But for Jesus, on any given Sunday, you
never knew who you might run into. Maybe you descending
behind Dion Sanders. Maybe you could catch a surprise Kurt
(15:47):
Franklin concert. No wonder, Folks started calling this place Club
new Birth. If you couldn't afford tickets to a Falcons game,
this was the next best show in time. On a Sunday,
Eddie Long turned to pull pit into a platform and
influence into an empire. For a time, he made New
Birth the most powerful church in Atlanta, but influence cuts
(16:10):
both ways. With Long's rise came scrutiny. Allegations surfaced that
he was using church funds to support his lavish lifestyle.
Those allegations didn't stick, but in twenty ten, a real
scandal broke.
Speaker 13 (16:24):
Three young men now are assuing Bishop Long, accusing him
of enticing them with money, cars, clothes, and expensive jewelry
in exchange for sexual favors.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Long denied the accusations, and he never stood a trial.
He reached the settlement with each of the accusers, but
week after week he kept preaching, his booming voice, filling
the church just like before. But the spell was broken.
Membership at New Birth plummeted, thousands left for other churches
or just stopped going all together. Eddie Long died in
(16:55):
twenty seventeen, and he was preaching all the way up
to the end. But by then New Birth was a
shadow of the empire that I remembered from my childhood.
After a lengthy search, in twenty eighteen, the church brought
in doctor Jamal Brian, a charismatic, media savvy preacher from Baltimore,
to carry the torch.
Speaker 12 (17:15):
Because by looking at me, you can't even tell I
got no gas in my car, no food in my refrigerator,
no offering in my pocket book. But I still got
a praise, And I praised him like a million out
because I know my seeds.
Speaker 7 (17:31):
Now, that's coombat.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
His job wasn't just to get butts in seats. It
was to rebuild a brand, and he knew the only
way to do that was to master the same thing
Eddie Long had before him, the art of influence. But
in Jamal Brian's era, that didn't just mean Sunday sermons
and television broadcast. It meant live streams, viral sound bites,
(17:53):
and Instagram clips. Brian wasn't only rebuilding new Birth's reputation,
he was crafting his own digital pool pick.
Speaker 5 (18:02):
I've had to live my life out loud of the
good and the bad and the ugly.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Man, I'm gonna tell you, bro, like good place used
to be so passed.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I decided to pay my old church and visit to
see how things were going. And man, things were a
lot different from when I used to go here.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Or folks would be out here, you know.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
New Births PR folks told me and our field producer
to show up around eight thirty am. We were running late,
and I braced myself for a traffic jam circling the
parking lot in the usual megachurch madness. But to my surprise,
the street leading up to the campus was so clear.
There was a group of women jogging down the middle
of the street. The parking lot was almost empty an
(18:50):
hour before service. I couldn't believe it. Back when I
used to come here, that would have been unheard of.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Are you all doing this good thing? Glad to have y'all.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
We're pulling up on doctor Brian as he's getting his haircut.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
When Jamal Brian took over new Birth in twenty eighteen.
The church was still reeling from Eddie Long's death and
the scandals that shadowed his final years. New Birth wasn't
just in need of a new pastor, it needed a resurrection.
Membership was down, public trust was shaken, and the megachurch
that once symbolized black excellence in the suburbs now felt
(19:28):
like a symbol of decline.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
We're getting it out the mud. It was a dry
white season. The church had dwindled almost to nothing, and
God said, this is your assignment.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Brian is a different kind of pastor. He's from Baltimore,
where he built a reputation as a fiery preacher and
political activist. He marched in protests, sparred with city officials,
and wasn't afraid of controversy. In other words, he was
comfortable in the spotlight. And when he got to New Birth,
he thought he had some time to study for his assignment.
(20:00):
Little did he know he was getting hit with a
pop quiz off the rip.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
I'm all in the AJC, I'm all on CNN. Pastor
comes to Atlanta, comes to New Birth. Then that Wednesday
I have a meeting and they said, hey, we don't
have the money for your moving expenses. Would you just say,
at the peak of its powers, New Birds was earning
(20:24):
ten million dollars a year after the smoke settled. At
the end of the Eddy Long era, the church was
in foreclosure and thirty two million dollars in debt.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
They didn't tell me they was facing foreclosure.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
They don't tell me that until after my first Sunday.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
All I thought was I had to rebuild the congregation numerically.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Not financially.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
During his first six months on the job, doctor Bryant
says he was living in the embassy suites, surviving on
free breakfast in the morning and free or dervs in
the evening. Six years later, he's still faced with the
challenge of getting the church out of debt, but also
making New Birth relevant in a changing landscape.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
There's the largest demographic of Black people, I think at
four percent who now identify as atheists an agnostic, and
so the Black church is fighting to get currency back
into the community of relevance. When Black Lives Matter emerged,
it was significant moment because it was the first time
(21:23):
the Black church wasn't the center of the civil rights movement,
and there was no religious figure as the voice, and
so I think it's a different, distinctive time.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
On top of cleaning up the church reputation, he's also
trying to meet the congregation where they're at. Where Eddie
Long used tapes and CDs to spread his message, Doctor
Bryant clips his sermons and post them across social media.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
My church holds eight thousand, but forty thousand are online,
so we're still just a studio.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
But today we're lucky to see him perform in real life.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
I want to preach today using as a subject shame
on you.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
He broke down the difference between guilt, which is feeling
bad about what you did, in shame feeling bad about
who you are, and in classic preacher fashion, he brought
it back to the moment.
Speaker 14 (22:19):
You don't have the right to live in shame, but
I know who does.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Target should be in shame.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
Target is struggling after strategic missteps on DEI, and that
is because people across the country have been boycotting the
retail giant since March.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
And this is the man leading the growing effort.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
It is not because of terrorifts, it is not because.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Of the stock.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
In twenty twenty five, Jamal Bryant launched the Target fast
a forty day boycott during lit His message was simple.
If Target rolled back diversity and inclusion, black consumers could
roll back their He demanded real action, two hundred and
fifty million dollars deposited into black banks, genuine HBCU partnerships,
(23:09):
and follow through on Target's two billion dollar pledge to
black businesses. After George Floyd's death.
Speaker 10 (23:16):
Tonight, and Atlanta pastor who led a national boycott of Target,
is reacting to news of a leadership change at the company.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Pastor Jamal Bryn It worked, sales, dipped, foot traffic slow
in the company's longtime CEO stepped down. Briant called it
one of the most organized black boycotts since Montgomery. Then
he set his sights on Dollar General, accusing the chain
of profiting off black communities while cutting diversity goals. Instead
(23:44):
of a full boycott, he launched an electronic protest, flooding inboxes,
phone lines, and timelines. In both cases, Briant proved a
pastor's influence can extend far beyond the pull pit. His
boycotts weren't juste sermons strategy, and they were content. But again,
influence cuts both ways. The same spotlight that lets Brian
(24:08):
call out target or dollar general also makes him a
target too.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
So I don't preach from a condemnation or self righteousness.
I preach from somebody who is a divorcee, who is
an adulterer.
Speaker 10 (24:23):
Are you ready to get into this megachurch messiness.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Jamal used to be married to a reality TV show personality,
Giselle Bryant of the Real Housewives of Potomac. They married
in two thousand and two and had three daughters, but
by two thousand and seven their marriage was unraveling. Jaselle
discovered that Jamal had been unfaithful. He later admitted to
not only multiple affairs, but to also fothering a child
(24:53):
with a parishioner while they were married.
Speaker 10 (24:56):
It was later confirmed that mister Chocolate was actually passed.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Brian with his mess it sell for Jamal. It was
a moment of reckoning, but because Giselle was in the
public eye, this wasn't just a private breakup. It became
a part of Jamal's public narrative. He made the rounds
on TV shows and podcasts walk us through what happened.
Speaker 14 (25:19):
I stepped rolling outside of my marriage and had an
extra marital affair that ultimately ended in a divorce to
an incredibly wonderful woman, not because anything was flawed in
the marriage or in her but in my own immaturity.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
His scandals and sermons were dissected not just in the
parking lot, but on blogs, gossip sites, and Bravo reality
TV shows.
Speaker 7 (25:44):
Did they date?
Speaker 3 (25:45):
I don't know? He says no, he says yes. Who knows?
But Jamal Bryant doesn't just live inside other people's headlines.
He makes his own On Instagram. He's built a following
of more than half a million people. Sermon clips, protest calls,
behind the scenes moments, all packaged for the timeline. His
church services don't just happen in Litonia. They happen on
(26:07):
your phone, in your feed, and in your group chat.
I'm looking for people that smell like weeds. Jamal has
also launched his own podcast, Let's Be Clear, where he
interviews guests like ray j, Alexis Sky and Kashawan Rock,
names you usually see on a gossip blog, not a
(26:28):
gospel broadcast. In twenty four you was engaged. It happened overnight,
but then he went to jail. So a week later,
I'm locked up.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
A prison.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
No oh no, no, no, no, but beyond gossip, doctor
Bryant broaches topics and issues that his predecessor Eddie Long
wouldn't dare touch on. Absolutely, no pun intended there.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Because a lot of people can hide behind data.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
It's only four percent of the population or whatever that
other with you, yeah, who have filled out the sense
that part because I know a lot of people who
do lots of things yes and never have to explain
it are declared publicly yes. And I felt like I
making moral judgment as a divorce, he as a cult.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
The point is clear, Jamal Bryant isn't waiting for gossip
blogs to tell his story. He's building his own channels,
producing his own content, and curating his own audience. And
in Atlanta, a city where influences currency, that makes him
more than a pastor, It makes him a brand. Briant
may be one of the most visible examples, but he's
(27:41):
not alone. Across the city, a new generation of pastors, podcasters,
and even gospel trap artists are building their own platforms,
shaping theology, identity, and culture in real time online. Next,
we step inside that system, the new church influencers. So far,
(28:10):
we've seen how Atlanta's preachers built influence from the pulpit,
from Martin Luther King Junior's sermons to Eddie Lawn's mega
church empire to Jamal Bryant turning his church into a brand.
But today, influence doesn't stop at the sanctuary doors.
Speaker 10 (28:25):
Okay, so today I'm going to tell you the five
things that you need to be a Christian influencer. Yes,
there's a difference between a Christian influencer.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Welcome to Atlanta's online faith ecosystem. To understand it, we're
going to take a little tour. First stop the Christian
Influencer Awards, a red carpet event that celebrates pastors, podcasters,
and content creators who figured out how to make faith
go viral for them. Being a preacher isn't just about
(28:55):
Sunday Morning. It's about branding, followers and engagement.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
So can you.
Speaker 13 (29:01):
Living amongst influencers back in the day. I'm talking about
old school influencers like John and Andrew sharing the good
news that Christ has come, or like the og influencer
Jesus Christ. Well, tonight, we would like to recognize some
of the influencers amongst our time. So here are the
(29:24):
nominees for the Influencer of the year.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
But the ecosystem isn't just hype and hashtags. Another lane
is the critics, YouTubers who dissect preachers the way ESPN
analysts break down athletes.
Speaker 6 (29:37):
He misses so many things, and I think sometimes he
has blinded himself.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Jamal Brian is clearly someone who is more about the
culture than he is for Christ.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Or take a listen at this dude who goes by
Pastor Rod of the YouTube channel. What do the scriptures say?
He speaks out against black preachers who talk politics in
the poolpit.
Speaker 15 (29:56):
I noticed something that I'm seeing today. I'm seeing a
lot of these goofy, black, hypocritical preachers in their little pulpit,
standing up there like pharaohs, and these tailored expensive suits,
preaching racial vengeance instead of biblical repentance.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
YEP.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Criticizing preachers isn't new. We've all heard our grandmothers and
auntie say that Pastor so and so ain't shit in
the church parking lot. But it is a trip seeing
people build audiences for these opinions. Our next stop is
Changed Church, where Pastor Darius Daniels preaches like Tony Robbins,
(30:36):
but with a Bible. He finds ways to booster emotional, relational,
and even business iq.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
The church not supposed to do everything.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
There are some things that you.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
May be expecting the church to do that you're supposed
to do, and I want to talk to you about it.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
In this video.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Then there's twenty eight to nineteen church, where the pastor
Philip Anthony Mitchell packs out services with gen z krows,
blending conservative theology with street level charisma.
Speaker 8 (31:08):
Sexual immorality, homosexuality, a duntry, all of.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
The things we practiced. The Lord says, when.
Speaker 7 (31:17):
You see them in your life, cut them off.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
So I made a skit about how long the line's
at twenty eight nineteen church, be I have to take.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
This video right.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
His lines wrap around the block. Visitors show up hours early,
killing time with corn hole and Connect four in the
parking lot, while the church staff manages the crowd with bullhorns.
Philip Mitchell might not need a podcast, He's already got
over a million followers on TikTok, But in an error
where content is keen, a podcast is just another way
(31:51):
to spread his message. It's called Street Preachers, and it
hits kind of like a mixtape.
Speaker 9 (31:56):
False prophets not the devil, wolves and sheep's clothing powered
by Satan. That's right, but their biggest warning was not
point the fingers of the devil.
Speaker 15 (32:04):
Their biggest warning to the church in the first century
was watch out for false profits.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
These days, Atlanta's preachers aren't just competing from the pool pit.
They're competing on the timeline. Scroll long enough, you'll find sermons, skits,
and songs, all preaching to the same feed. The message
is still spiritual, but the medium has changed, and so
have the messengers, which brings us to Atlanta's Hood Gospel.
(32:34):
One of its biggest stars is one k Few. At
first glance, you may mistake him for a member of
the Migos, Dreadlocks and designer Shades. He's enjoying a viral
second coming on TikTok, where he retells Bible stories like
cainean Nabel and tell us what happened with Cane and
Nabel brom.
Speaker 11 (32:55):
Yeah, man, boy, wow, man, our long story.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Short and Adam and Eve even right, you.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 15 (33:03):
I'm the muscle, so she eat the fruit.
Speaker 11 (33:05):
But Adam Ketcher, you know what I'm saying in the
middle of it, So Adam stopped like I like to
do that one right right.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
These stories are thousands of years old and have been
taught a million times. The lessons are typically about jealousy, responsibility,
and the consequences of sin. But the way one k
Few tells it, it's like a story from the streets
of Atlanta. And that's the point.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
It's like, we literally the new church.
Speaker 11 (33:30):
You feel what I'm saying, So I feel like we
really you know what I'm saying this This is a
perfect time and opportunity to really know what I'm saying.
Shift the narrative a little bit so people that not
close to church can know what I'm saying. They can
come to church as they are.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
Theytven, one of Tramp's pioneers, grew up playing the keys
in the church, and he's always kept his faith front
and center. He don't drink, he don't cuss, and he
don't smoke. But lately, he admits that the city's rap
scene has gotten darker.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
But I went to the studio and it's thirty guys
with extended clips hanging out their pants, and I'm like, bro,
I can't come to the studio no more.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Like when did it get like this? So in twenty
twenty four, he teamed up with one k Fu to
make something different. Their relationship dates back a decade prior,
when Zaytoven first discovered few rapping at an open mic
at his church. Together they May Pray for Atlanta, a
gospel trap project that blends the beats and the Bible.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Jump make your favorite trapping.
Speaker 6 (34:36):
I'll be like, I almost want to do more Christian
hip hop than anything now because it's more fulfilling. It's like,
I want to get these guys the Xatoven beats, the
Zaytoven bounce, but with the message that they have and
the words that they have to go together with it,
I feel like it's something special.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
And it's working.
Speaker 6 (34:57):
For years, the church has inspired rap music, but now
the music is carrying the message back to the church.
I was in the grocery to the other day and
a guy with tattoos on his face, gold teeth in
his mouth. I'm talking about Super Street and he's like, oh,
the boy Zatoven say. All I can think of him
is he gonna talk about Gucci or you know, future
(35:19):
or whatever? Music gotn't done. I did a project with
the artist one k Fu called pray for Atlanta. That's
the only thing he talked about. And I'm like, you
heard that or you know what that is, So you know,
that just goes to show the reach that that music has.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
The new altar is digital, and whether you're a megachurch
pastor or a gospel rapper with a ring like the
competition for souls and followers is playing out on the
same screen for artists like one k Few and producers
like zatoven Face is gone viral and once again Atlanta
is the amplifier. The same city that gave the world
(35:56):
trap and Krunk is now remixing the gospel before a
new generation. A man with one foot in both worlds,
Satovein has a sense of which one will last.
Speaker 6 (36:07):
Church is really, I think the hospital for everybody. Not
that you know, you're heart or you bleeding or something
like that, but for heartaches and things or that nature.
People still, you know, go to church to fill that void.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
And maybe that's what makes Atlanta so powerful. It's a
city that keeps finding new ways to make the sacred
go platinum.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Religion promotes morality and traditional family values, but in reality,
nothing is really all good because it can be hard
to practice what you preach. But the church will always
have a place in Atlanta, and the Internet only makes
it's reached that much greater. And now the church is
being influenced by music, just like me. Music was influenced
(37:01):
by the church. But beware of false prophets whose messages
and being delivered in good faith. Like my mama used
to say, don't worry about what they do, worry about
what you do.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
In the next episode, we post up on one Street
in Atlanta to see what it's really like to open
up a business in the so called black Mecca in
Atlanta is open for business.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Atlanta is the will Packer Media production in partnership with
iHeart Podcast, Idea, Generation and Complex. This episode was written, reported,
and produced by Maurice Garland, with additional production from.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Christina Lee and Jul Wicker.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Our supervising producer and editor Ishiva bayad Our. Managing producers
are Rose Roulini Bacon O'mari graham.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
At, Shamara Rochester.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Editorial support from Sean Setero and Jack Irwin.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Original theme music by Our Mind Sahota.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Sound designed by Shiva Bayat and Our Mind Salta, mixed
and mastered by Our Mind Sahota. Fact checking done by
Sean Setero. Our field producer is Johnny Kaufman. Clearance counsel
Donison Caliph Perez, Lisa Kliff and Jacqueline Schwedt. Executive producers
for will Packermedia are Will Packer and Alex Bowden.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Co producer for will Packer Media is Nimy Mohunt.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Executive producers for Idea Generation and Complex of Jack Irwin
and Noah Callahan.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Beller.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Head of talent relations for Complex is Anthony Alred. Talent
associate for Complex is Ryan Houston. Senior attorney for Complex
is Jordan Washington. Special thanks to Tyler Klan, Terry Harrison,
Chris Senator, Noams Griffin, and Candace Howard.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
I'm Big Rude, Peace
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