Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, I'm Louis Carr, and we're here live at the
Blueprint Man Summit. And my special special guest today is
Doug E. Fresh. Thank you for having me here. My
brother Dr Byron Brazier from the Apostolic Church of God,
thank you, thank you very much. Reginald Sharp, the pastor
(00:24):
of the Great Fellowship Baptist Church, Man, I'm glad to
be here. And Pastor Meredis Charles Jenkins from Fellowship Baptist Church.
Let's go, let's go. This is a unique group. We're
mixing hip hop with the Lord, all right, it goes together,
(00:44):
goes together. I listened to you sometimes, reggister. I know
you're mixing from now and there. So today we wanted
to talk about the role of the church in a
man's journey to be his best self. And and we've
got several generations here around the table, and we've got
(01:06):
what I call a godfather of the Blueprint, Dougie Fresh.
So we're gonna start with you, Douggie. Why do you
come back year after year to support men who are
trying to elevate themselves in order to make their families
and communities better. Well, I tell you, Oh, let me
move go up a little bit. Well, let me tell
(01:28):
you this here, I would I have to say, is
one of the most important gatherings of black men in
this country right now, whether people know it or not.
And you know how you made this the book, uh
dirty little secret. But this is one of those secrets
(01:49):
that we're trying to make sure it's not a secret
to anyone anymore. The men in in our communities, the
men who were up admiring the people that we learned from,
and especially me in the field of hip hop, I
learned from so many of the original pioneers. One of
(02:12):
the things that we were or I heard y'all say
today in the panel, and you said, the first part
of it is iron shop and iron and men sharping men, right.
And to me, when we get together and have these
conversations and share our experiences, it's so important because you
(02:33):
don't even realize the impact you're having on the next
generation and even the generation that's there's the same as you.
Because I was sitting out there listening and I was saying, Wow,
this is powerful, you know, And when he mentioned the
peace about the shepherd and the sheep and all of
(02:55):
these things can like the process is never ending. So
whatever I can learn, like learn, I want to learn.
But whatever I can give, I want to give. So
I changed my schedules around. I go through this and
that to make sure that I'm here because I can
(03:18):
see it that this is so important if we're looking
at making any kind of change. And this is the
first time I've ever seen a conference like this, a
gathering like this, so I know the importance of it.
I can see it. I got six sons so I
can see it. I got on my phone and said,
(03:41):
I want you all to come down here. I'm gonna
fly everybody down. I put you in the hotel and
I want you to come and I want you to
see what's going on because it's so many things that
we're sharing that you know. I was with Snoop and
his son and his after I talked to his son
(04:02):
on the side for like fifteen twenty minutes. He said, Dog,
I'm glad you talked to my son. Man, he said,
I've been trying to talk to him. He just won't listen. Man,
anybody's son, he said, But I've never seen him listen
like he was listening to you. So sometimes the message
has to come from someone else, because our children are
(04:23):
not listening to us the same way, you know what
I mean. So that's why I feel like wherever anybody
can get this information, whether it's from any of us
up here or me, I want to make sure that
they get it. So that's the reason why I come
here because I know the importance of this. Byron Pastor Praiser,
(04:45):
the Apostolic Church of God has had so much influence
and impact on Black Man for decades. Your father was iconic.
You've taken the baton and continue the world. How has
that church been so important and has so much impact
(05:06):
on the black community and Black man for decades? What's
that formula? You know? There there is no formula. Every
every church does what it does. Um And when when
people have asked me about my father and why the
church is the way it is, I always tell him
(05:27):
the same thing. My father was one who believed in faith,
and the faith was not just blind. And you have
to understand that that if you're faced with multiple situations.
I got this situation, I got this one, and all
of us have to do this one, two or three.
When you pray over that situation and you make a
decision by faith, the Lord will honor the decision that
(05:50):
you made, no matter which other three you made. He's
going to make sure that decision that you made out
of faith is the right is the right way. So
the church and its whole infrastructure is designed to increase
the faith and understanding of people. And so, and what
you've done here is so important because the basis of
(06:14):
what you said was courage, capacity, vision, all those things,
all these are the things that our community needs. These
are the things that we fight for. Uh, these are
things that we have a vision for for our communities.
How you organize your community, how you how you don't
(06:35):
listen to a complaint. And it really comes down to
one answering one question, and that is what do you
want to build? When you understand what you want to be?
That is the only question that is that is required.
So when I look at the community members, I said,
what do you want to build? When I go to
somebody who is down and out, what do you want
(06:56):
to build? Somebody who's homeless? Got it? I'm gonna help you. Now,
what do you want to build? Uh? And and and
how do you do this progressively? And so understanding that
faith is aggressive, right, it is not something that is
that you have faith when something else comes up. So
(07:18):
you're so in the aggression, you you you help people
and the aggression you take a look and say, here's
what we do, and here's how we do what we do.
And so I will say this and then I'll close out.
I told the men and the women of the church.
I said, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna talk to
you about your problems anymore. I'm not gonna deal with
(07:39):
your problems because you all got too many, too many problems,
said I said. What I'm going to do is I'm
gonna help you to handle your problems out of your
spirit as opposed to your flesh. And so when you're
able to handle whatever it is and you know how
to handle that, that's good. Where you we build you
(08:00):
up in your faith and you know how to handle
whatever you gotta face. Because as soon as I try
to handle your issue, right by the time, you know,
somebody else comes up with the same issue. Said, we
already handled that. That was that was that was a
program we did last month. But if you try to
help somebody, here's how we build up your spirit. Here's
(08:20):
what we build up the spirit in the community, build
up the spirit, and voting build up the spirit, and
all the different things that are that are necessary. We'll
be right back with more of my interview after this
quick break. You're you're a new young pastor, uh and
(08:50):
trying to take the baton from to iconic ya right,
and at the same time you've got to deal with
the community and all of these issues. You took over
the church basically in the middle of COVID or at
the beginning of COVID. How have you been able to
manage that and still focus on building the church and
(09:14):
managing the church and still being a young man at
the end of the day. All right? You know they
say President's gray, all right, I got a president's title.
I'm gray, all right? Even Grant didn't look sorry, trust me.
How have you been able to handle that in the
early stages this race? Well, I'll say the pandemic started
(09:38):
in March, and my first therapy appointment was May. And
those two dates are very very important to my journey. Um,
I started going to therapy and I and I realized
that I needed to be well. I realized that I
cannot pour from an empty cup. I realized there were
(10:00):
things that had traumatized me that I had pressed and
suppressed so deep down inside that I was unaware of.
And so therapy helps me be a better me. And
the moment I became a better me, more aware, more intentional,
more wise with my time, learn how to say no,
(10:22):
set of boundary, all the things that everybody is using
now in pop culture, triggers, knowing your triggers, all of
that stuff. It made me a better husband, It made
me a better pastor, It made me a better son,
a better brother, a better friend, um and and and
so for me making it through this pandemic with all
that pressure, succeed in. Pastor Charles Jenkins seceded Reverend Clay Evans.
(10:45):
Can you imagine I mean how I mean no pressure
at all, Like I mean stellar award winning and Reverend
Evans is in the grave, but he's very much alive
in certain people's hearts and minds and so and look,
so he's still pastoring, and Reverend Pastor Charles Jenkins is
(11:09):
still considered pastor because when you pastor, you getting people's hearts. So,
now what does it mean to connect with the church
that you can't even see? So I'm talking to a
camera trying to give my all, and I just had
to learn and become at peace with doing my best,
being my best self and growing and knowing that mistakes
make you. I am made by my mistakes, and so
(11:30):
that's been a gift and not a curse. I've just
considered it that way. Pastor Charles Jenkins, you have been
known in some circles as the hip hop pastor, Dougie Fresh,
New Dog, Kanye West. They've all come to you and
(11:51):
confided in you. Tell us that responsibility of still being
the man of God, still leading with the words, how
do you sort of balance that with the secular world?
You know, I I UM, I think that the confusion
(12:13):
is God never intended for He never intended to not
have a voice in culture, right, so you know when
God created the heavens and the earth, and so how
I have approached serving people is we belong in culture.
We belong where the people are. We belong, you know,
(12:37):
in every aspect of culture. And so for me, the
balance has been, you know, loving people at whatever level,
um in whatever segment and whatever sector. You know. I
remember when Mace first started preaching and I brought him
the fellowship uh and embraced it. You know, people were
just very visceral. And I think when we look at Scripture,
(13:01):
that's not Jesus. Those are the Pharisees. You know what
I'm saying, that's see people in culture. You know, Jesus
was the guy that put him around the woman, put
his arm around a woman who was called an adulter
and whispered something encouraging enough in her ear. Scriptures says,
she lifted her head and and she went on, you
(13:21):
know what I mean. So I think loving people unconditionally
because I need that. I think, you know, living a
lifestyle that allows you to know that you need God's
wisdom to be able to share at any given moment,
at any given level. And I think you know when
(13:42):
you say hip hop past, and I remember when I
first came you know, I grew up on Doug E. Fresh.
You know what I'm saying, Uh, Eric being rock him Krass,
you know what I'm saying that. And there's so many
people I can name. So so when you are named
the new guy at twenty one, you know, I'm still
listening to you know what I'm saying. So I think
(14:06):
my my energy and my spirit I had already embraced
the culture. And it was also, now, how can I
serve the culture from this new seat? And and I
think when you gotta commitment, you know, the we one
night we had eighty eight guys drop their gang flags
and give their lives to Christ, you know. And that's
(14:28):
about you know, watching two of the most notorious guys
in Chicago, one of the most notorious on the South
Side give his life, one on the West Side give
his life, and watching what they're doing with their lives. Now,
I think, at the end of the day, that's the
mission of the church, you know, the poor in to
lift up and I meet the ballance as you say.
(14:48):
For me, it's it's integration, you know, It's it's the
faith and the works coming together. And I'll close it
like this. You know, God wants all of us to
to live a lifestyle that integrates our life and our
faith and not just see God as an ambulance or
a paramedic or red phone. And I think in my service,
(15:11):
you know, my spirit has been like Pastor Shops said
earlier on a panel we were on, Man, I need
the same grace you need, absolutely, but we're gonna close
out and I'm gonna close it out with this. Remember
the conversation we had. I was in the Denver airport
(15:31):
a couple of months ago and we were talking about
the church and culture. The church has been the foundation
over decades, over hundreds of years for the black community.
Hip hop celebrates fifty al right next year, al right,
and we've already started the celebration. But the church has
(15:55):
been there for hundreds of years being the foundation and
for the black community. So culture has been built on
the Black church. And I'm done, no no, no no,
but don't anything like that. As you said, hip hop too,
and we're gonna do it like we're supposed to do it.
First of all, I want to acknowledge you for putting
(16:16):
this thing together and to for the creative blessing you
to have division to make this come into existence. And
I live by something that stands true to this moment
of now. It's not the big things that people say,
(16:36):
it's the little things that people do. You see, and
to me, this has this is going to have more
impact then you can possibly imagine. Because when in eighties seven,
my second song after the showing Lotty Dotty was all
the Way to Heaven, and I made all the way
to heaven as a dedication to God because of the
(16:59):
success as that I had, and I knew that it
couldn't be nobody but the Creator that made this thing happen.
So in summarizing enough, because I see the six minutes
on the water, I'm gonna say it like this for
all of my brothers in here, I see needs that
are unfulfilled and a will to deal that's killed by
(17:23):
circumstances we didn't create, but still coping with the unchosen
faith good God. It never it devastates, but nevertheless, God
always delivers the oppressed. In every sacred book you can
find it's in your nature, it's in your mind to
find the right solution and clear all confusion to the problems.
(17:48):
There's so many problems and we'll be looking for the
remedies so we could solve them. To kill emotional stress.
Help is on the way and you could rest for sure.
It's knocking at your door. Blue Print, this is it.
I love it. This guy comes out of me and
(18:12):
thank you.