Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Dr. Jamal Bryant.
🎯 Purpose of the Interview
To inspire and educate listeners—especially within the African-American community—on faith, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and community empowerment. Dr. Bryant shares his personal journey, leadership philosophy, and insights on how the church can be a catalyst for economic and social change.
🗝️ Key Takeaways 1. Faith Beyond the Four Walls
- COVID-19 Impact: The pandemic forced churches to redefine their role beyond physical buildings.
- Quote: “Covid was the best thing that ever happened to the church… it made us move outside of the four walls.”
2. Technological Adaptation
- Many churches failed during the pandemic due to lack of tech-savviness.
- Dr. Bryant’s church thrived by embracing online services and digital giving.
3. Economic Empowerment
- The Black church must teach financial literacy, not just ask for tithes.
- Quote: “We ask people for 10%, but never show people how to multiply the 90.”
4. Debt Reduction & Stewardship
- Dr. Bryant inherited a church in financial distress and reduced debt through strategic stewardship and refinancing.
- No corporate donations were involved—just community trust and financial discipline.
5. Black Wealth & Spending Habits
- Black dollars circulate far less than other communities.
- Quote: “In the Black community, cash stays just 30 minutes before we hand it over.”
6. HBCU Advocacy
- Dr. Bryant champions Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for their role in producing Black professionals.
- Quote: “HBCUs graduate more Black doctors, lawyers, and engineers than any other institutions.”
7. Financial Literacy & Credit
- Emphasizes the need for understanding credit, savings, and investment.
- Introduced the “10-10-80” rule: Save 10%, give 10%, live on 80%.
8. Personal Journey & Resilience
- From failing 11th grade to becoming Nelson Mandela’s youth intern and leading a megachurch.
- Quote: “Your revenue is in your reflection.”
9. Church as a Recycling Center
- The church should uplift and transform lives, not just preach.
- Quote: “You can come as you are. Just be clear, you won’t stay as you are.”
🧠 Final Message
Dr. Bryant encourages listeners to recognize their blessings, embrace hard work, and seek transformation. The church should be a hub for education, empowerment, and economic development—not just spiritual guidance.
#SHMS #STRAW #BEST
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I am Rashan MacDonald, a host of weekly Money
Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this
show provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading
other people's success stories and start living your own. If
you want to be a guest on my show, please
visit our website, Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click the
be a Guest button. Chris Submit and information will come
(00:23):
directly to me. Now let's get this show start. He's
a community organizer, Doctor Jamal Harrison Bryant. He combines sound
biblical teaching, business acumen, and political insight to prepare the
Body of Christ to action and grading levels of faith.
He's the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.
A graduate of Morehouse College and of Duke University, his
(00:45):
leadership efforts have always began to strengthen the multi generational
bond among members, expand community outreach, cultivate families, and expand
the church's cultural significance. Please welcome the Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
Doctor Jamal Harrison Bryant.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
You doing, sir, doing wonderfully well. Brother. Good to hear
your voice and to see your face well.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Great The same thing there. You know, well, I see
your faith bore than you see mine, that's for sure.
On TV, i'd say, you know, there was a time
when they when your church reopened and members were allowed
back into the church. I saw you on every channel
and that was ance, and that was a blessing because
of the fact that you know the journey that started
in twenty twenty. Talk about the twenty twenty and some
(01:26):
of the trials, and you have to say that you
went through to overcome and question your faith people. You
have to deal with the health. The black community was
affected the worst of people of brown skin tone. So
talk about that twenty twenty ten now and the reopening
the church.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
It was COVID was the best thing I think that
ever happened to the church. Yes, sir, because it made
us move outside of the four walls. Have you studied
the life of Jesus, Ninety two percent of what he
did was outside of the church, But the contemporary model,
eight percent of what churches do is inside. And so
(02:04):
we had to re examine what does church mean? Is
it four walls, is it a steeple, is the stained
glass windows? Is it a Hammond organ? Or is it service?
To the community and so as a consequence, the church
never closed the building did. Over three thousand people joined
our church online, never getting the right hand to fellowship.
(02:27):
What it's interesting to know is that culture changes every
four years, but Black church culture changes every twenty. So
the average church is fifteen years behind scheduled. So a
lot of churches didn't make it. Why because they were
not technologically savvy. They didn't know how to do online giving,
(02:49):
and they didn't know how to have a hybrid approach
of being high tech and high touch. We mastered all
of those through the grace of God and was able
to excel.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Really good that you're saying that, because as an African
American community, we always you know, we got we got
the cell phone, or do we understand the technology. When
you arrived at new Birth, you walked into a massive
death if something I didn't knowing it about.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
You know, because we look at the church. You know,
you know.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
People, you have people who join the church, they donate
and then but you walk into a debt situation.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
How did you manage to reduce the debt so quickly?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Because was it through corporate donations, was it through the
members of the church and what plan did you put
in place so it won't happen again?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
We have to understand I came a little after two
and a half years after Bishop Long died, Yes, sir,
and so they went through a dip inve membership, in attendance,
in participation, and in leadership, Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
And so as a consequence.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I won let me say we got no corporate donations, right,
is that I modeled stewardship, uh, and increase the volume
of trust that they are to have in the church
and make sure that church was not just a Sunday
morning experience but a Monday.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Through Saturday Saturday interaction.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
And so, as a consequence of begin to do aggressive
saving investing and aggressive in a debt reduction, almost doubling
up what our mortgage payment was in order to get
that done and then refinance to take it out of
the hands of an evangelical bank.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
You're talking to people with their struggles their uplift. How
do you look at the new Black Wall Street and
how does the church play that role? And beyond the
church the success stories that you're trying to put out.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
There, I think the deficit of the Black church in
large measure is when the Black Church, and I'm speaking
in generality speaks about economics. We only do it in
terms of asking people for their time, right, asking for
ten percent.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
But never show people how to multiply the ninety.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
And I think part and parcel of my responsibility as
pastor is to talk about how do we manage our revenue.
Doctor King said before his demise that African Americans spend
the power made us are the fourteenth wealthiest nation in
the world. At this point, we're the eleventh wealthiest nation
(05:27):
in the world, but we're not doing.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Anything about it.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
In the Asian community here in America, their dollars circulates
twenty three times before it leaves their hands in the
Jewish community, seventeen times before it leaves their hands in
the Caucasian community, twelve times before it leaves their hands.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
In the Black community.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Our check is cash just thirty minutes before we hand
it over to somebody else. And so when we talk
about economic development, it's got to be not just a
campaign but a mind frame. My conviction, brother McDonald's, if
I have ten thousand members, why are you struggling to
sell your book? How come you don't have any clients
(06:11):
because they're right there in the church. Right, We've got
to develop our own ecosystem in order to thrust us
to that model.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Well, you know, but the first one of the main
reasons why I'm fortunate on WCOK to do Money Making
Conversation master Class is by promoting dreamers, especially in the
ENTREPRENEURSI and the small business of the lane.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Now, when I look at.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
You, your more house grab HBCUs have been at the
forefront of academic excellence forever, but only recently because of
massive donations by individuals in the corporate world led.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
How is that? Does that make you feel good? Doctor Bran?
Speaker 1 (06:47):
It makes you disappoint you that there's nothing that's ever
been wrong with HBCUs. We just hadn't been recognized and
given our do.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
I think.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
That we in the HBC all but have understood our
value without main line accepted.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
HBCUs graduate more black doctors, more lawyers, more doctor degrees.
They're non predominantly white institutions. It's with minimal support and
financial back end. Is are inspiring now that we have it?
The sky is the limited. People now walk on the
(07:29):
motor and so I think that this is really just
putting us in a greater place.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I help you all out with those status that he
at the top of my mind. Fifty percent of the
black school teachers come from hbc USED, eighty percent of
the medical doctors and dentists come from HBCUs, seventy percent
of the judges and lawyers comes from HBCUs, forty percent
of the Black members of Conference comes from HBCUs to
twenty five percent of the STEM graduates come from HPCUS.
(07:57):
North Carolina A and T graduates more black and ars
the idiot engineering program in the country. Also, there are
more generals in the army outside of West Point who
are black, from car from South Carolina state. Those are
the stats that I that need to be out there,
that I that I.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Said to me, I need all of that be all.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Well, see, we see, that's what.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
That's what.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
That's why we do this show, Doctor Bryan.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Because it's about information, sir, It's about information.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
From a lack of knowledge. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
What do you feel a black community that needs to
understand about money? You talked about the stock market, Because
now I would tell anybody who's listening, when the stock
market is down, that's when you want to buy.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
You want to buy when it's a bear. You don't
want to buy when it's a bull.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
And so if you're talking about bringing in that type
of money, but that's a different type of money. But
you had that incredible state about how money doesn't stand
in the black community's hands.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
So what do we really need to understand.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Because if you're gonna talk about money, you got to
talk about credit, and credit and money tends to be
a separate conversation in the black household.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
I often use this example that I know by mcdowald
you can run across the fifty yard line with that
is Black people are the only.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
People in the world who have a house warming.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Party for an apartment, right, we don't really talk about
home ownership. My father put my sister and I on
a plan when we got out of college, which was
the ten eighty which I still model to this day,
which is save ten percent, tive ten percent, live off
of eighty percent.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
And it has really helped us.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
When you realize that the average African American lives at
one hundred and ten percent of that income that we
in debt trying to keep up with the Joneses.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
A credit card debt is through the roof.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
We can have a whole different show about the swamp
known their student loans, and so there's a whole lot
of financial literacy that is so needed and necessary for us.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
To be able to throw out and get our foot.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
It sounds good at this level, but they are those
who are the trenches who really don't have a basic
understanding what you're talking about. A bullet of bay. They
got no idea. We are not in the conversation about
inflation and about how that's going to impact every area
of our lives. But now it's part and a pustle
(10:32):
responsibility of the church to impart that knowledge and to
share their wisdom.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
You know, it's really interesting when I hear you talk
from I hear the financial literacy.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
That's such a big word. It means so much.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
And sometimes you lets people they walk in the room,
they walk out, really didn't gain anything from the conversation.
How can I help you know what the mission that
you putting in place in this city this is.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
You know, I have a certain skill set.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I have a a show to be able to move
forward a narrative. But it's about job. It's about economic development.
It's about money and getting the right jobs in place.
How can a person like Ruth Shaan mcdonaland my show
can help the cause and move the needle?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Cry loud and spare not you doing the dog? One thing?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Were so much of our focus is on the entertainment
and not on enlightenment. And so what you're doing just
in this conversation is a revolutionary.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Act in none to itself.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
We like to say we like to dance, we like
to driple the ball, We don't like to sit down.
The average African American post high school does not read
a non fiction book from cover to cover. And so
you are doing through this podcast.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
This is an audio book. You are giving information that.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
They're not getting out of closed libraries or on Google.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
And so I'm just appreciative of how you staying on
the bank.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Stay with us.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
More Money Making Conversation master Class coming up next. Welcome
back to Money Making Conversations master Class hosted by me
Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversation master Class continues online and
Moneymaking Conversations dot com and follow Money Making Conversations master
(12:22):
Class on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
I'm one of those guys too. From nothing to something
you know?
Speaker 1 (12:28):
You know, a two bedroom shotgun house, six sisters, two brothers.
My father had a third grade education, truck driver, my
mama graduate from high school. And so I know what
you have to do, and you have to follow dreams,
but also you have to have mentors and people who
believe in you that role. I think that's what you
plan as a church leader, correct.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
I'm endeavoring to do that.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
I think that we've got to one dissolve the old
school notion that the pastor knows everything right, then we've
got to have circular leadership and not singular leadership. So
you need people who can educate us not just on finances,
who can educate us on the law, who can help
us in the civics class, who can help us in
(13:12):
this whole right to vote quest? Where is the black
community's voice on rod versus way? Where are we in
terms of gentrification? Where are we with the underfunding of
public education?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Well sometings of doctor lot of praying for you, love
be praying for you, but I will get in live
to help pray for you.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
You know the thing about it is that it's about charisma.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
It's about having a direction, being focused, because the church
is always the basis, you know, you know, black people
got faith, black people believe. Black people also can be misled.
When I say that, not in a negative way, because
it's about information.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
If you know the right information, you misled.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And that's what we talk about economics, we talk about literacy.
You know, you know it's a joke in the black
community by putting a child's name on the light bill,
and that's not a joke. That's real and then that
child's life is ruined. And so but talk about your
journey and not in much detail or small detail about
(14:11):
you know where you come from to this point. And
also the fact that you know your history in the
church is not something that you start. It's part of
a family journey, if you can.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
I am originally from Boston, Massachusetts. I was raised in Baltimore, Maryland.
I failed the eleventh grade. After I failed the eleventh grade,
brother McDonald, my parents sent me to live in.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Monroevia, Liberia, West Africa for a year.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
For your listeners who do not know, Liberia is the
only country in Africa that was formed by former slaves,
and so I lived there for a year. I came back,
I got a ged and I'm the first person to
go to Morehouse with a GED. I graduated from Morehouse
(15:03):
Political Science and International Studies and in tradition of HBCUs.
A month before graduation, I was alerted that I didn't
have enough classes. As an international studies major, I needed
to be proficient in a language. I wasn't proficient in
a language. My only option was to do study abroad.
(15:28):
I went through the list, I saw the due study abroad.
The only country I could go to with no language
requirement for South Africa.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I go to South Africa. By the luck of the
draw of God's grace.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
It is the year of the elections and I become
Nelson Mandela's youth intern. While living there in South Africa,
I come back. I go to Duke University. And Duke
University significant for me, went there for a master's degree.
But many years before I went to Duke, my grandfather
(16:01):
was a chef at Duke University when they didn't let
black students there. While a student at Duke University, kawahc
and Fume tapped me to be National Youth and College
Director of the NAACP, and I boast the record of
being the youngest Youth director of the NAACP ever had
at that time, I came out of the NAACP rashean
(16:26):
and you're not gonna believe my story. Nineteen ninety nine,
we had our national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, and
chaimfu May has largitis and asked me to give the
national address to the NAACP. I'm twenty eight years old.
The next day, I'm on the cover of USA Today.
(16:49):
I get off of the stage from giving that address
and I met at the bottom of the stage, out
of one and only did Gregory. Gregory gram to me,
buy my collar, throws me up against wall and says
to me, young man, you're out of order.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
That ain't word he used. He used another word. You
know what he said?
Speaker 4 (17:14):
It worked.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, you are out of order, he said.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
When I was growing up black people, when they were
in trouble or call on Jesus.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
In the NAACP, he said.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
You're a part of a generation that doesn't believe in either.
You're supposed to be a pastor by the McDonald A
long story short. I walked out of there, and six
months later I started my church in Baltimore, forty three
members to ten thousand.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
God redirected my path to leave the church.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
I started to come here to Atlanta the pastor the
Great Newberg Missionary Baptist Church.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
That's my story in a nutshell.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Well know the beauty of that story, and I want
black people to hear it. I want people here.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
This is in general, is that you can't you can't
achieve success by yourself. That's the number one thing you
get away from the store, and then people have to
see something in you and I give up on you.
That's also in this store.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
And when when?
Speaker 1 (18:13):
And so that's that started with the parents. Parents didn't
give up on him. He failed, but they didn't see failure.
And then he accepted the challenge and rolls beyond that
and everywhere he went, somebody stepped in and moved him forward. Now,
when those happened, when those moments happened, and you can
correct me, doctor Bran, and I think I'm on the
same page with you.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
They pushed him to the unknown.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
And that's where a lot of people stop when they
don't know what's happening. Fear drops in and they stop
moving forward. And that is what's hurling back our community
because we want to know what's happening, and you don't
always know what's happening when you're trying.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
To achieve success. A success is.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Tied to overcome the unknown and overcoming fear.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
Am I correct sir.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Oh, no, you're more than correct.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
And UH.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Everybody has a testimony, unless Brown often.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Says, your revenue is in your reflection.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
What it is that you're able excuse me, what you're
able to share, what you're able to disclose? I'm so sorry,
and what it is that you have learned from uh?
And so I'm grateful, so I UH, as a consequence
of my own journey. Like many churches, we give our scholarships,
but I am intentional to not just give scholarships to
(19:32):
those who graduate top of the class, but those also who.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Graduated the bottom of the barrel, right, UH, that they
also need an opportunity and need a chance.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
And that's beauty in the progress of HBCUs again, who
gave students who were not outstanding UH an opportunity to
thrive and shine.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
You know, as one would say, I'm talking to one
of the most influential religious leaders in the country, and
you doctor Bryant, as we as you call someone to
the all and someone's listening to this show, what is
the final message you want them to receive so they
can walk away with a clear understanding that they can
be successful. They are walking in blessed shoes. They just
(20:12):
need to acknowledge it and accept the responsibility of hard work.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
That the church to not over spiritualize. It is nothing
more than a recycling center. We take that which has
been discarded, that which has been thrown away, that which
has imperfections, and help turn it into something else. The
essence of who they are remains the same, but the
shape and the spirit of it is what it is
(20:38):
that we change. So every Sunday I tell people you
can come as you are, just be clear you won't
stay as you are.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
My guest Rose from eleventh grade dropout. Do you receive
a ged enrolled in Morehouse, first time PhD graduate of
Duke and now he is the senior pastor of New
Birth Missionary BAPTISTERI he's a leader and also an inspiration
and I'm so fortunate to have him on the show
to share these words. Know this, whenever you have something,
(21:07):
please come to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. I'm a friend,
advocate and a believer in what you're trying to do
to the community.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
This has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashaun McDonald.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Thanks to I guess and our audience.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com to listen and register to be
a guest
Hi, I am Rashan MacDonald, a host of weekly Money
Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this
show provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading
other people's success stories and start living your own. If
you want to be a guest on my show, please
visit our website, Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click the
be a Guest button. Chris Submit and information will come
(00:23):
directly to me. Now let's get this show start. He's
a community organizer, Doctor Jamal Harrison Bryant. He combines sound
biblical teaching, business acumen, and political insight to prepare the
Body of Christ to action and grading levels of faith.
He's the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.
A graduate of Morehouse College and of Duke University, his
(00:45):
leadership efforts have always began to strengthen the multi generational
bond among members, expand community outreach, cultivate families, and expand
the church's cultural significance. Please welcome the Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
Doctor Jamal Harrison Bryant.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
You doing, sir, doing wonderfully well. Brother. Good to hear
your voice and to see your face well.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Great The same thing there. You know, well, I see
your faith bore than you see mine, that's for sure.
On TV, i'd say, you know, there was a time
when they when your church reopened and members were allowed
back into the church. I saw you on every channel
and that was ance, and that was a blessing because
of the fact that you know the journey that started
in twenty twenty. Talk about the twenty twenty and some
(01:26):
of the trials, and you have to say that you
went through to overcome and question your faith people. You
have to deal with the health. The black community was
affected the worst of people of brown skin tone. So
talk about that twenty twenty ten now and the reopening
the church.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
It was COVID was the best thing I think that
ever happened to the church. Yes, sir, because it made
us move outside of the four walls. Have you studied
the life of Jesus, Ninety two percent of what he
did was outside of the church, But the contemporary model,
eight percent of what churches do is inside. And so
(02:04):
we had to re examine what does church mean? Is
it four walls, is it a steeple, is the stained
glass windows? Is it a Hammond organ? Or is it service?
To the community and so as a consequence, the church
never closed the building did. Over three thousand people joined
our church online, never getting the right hand to fellowship.
(02:27):
What it's interesting to know is that culture changes every
four years, but Black church culture changes every twenty. So
the average church is fifteen years behind scheduled. So a
lot of churches didn't make it. Why because they were
not technologically savvy. They didn't know how to do online giving,
(02:49):
and they didn't know how to have a hybrid approach
of being high tech and high touch. We mastered all
of those through the grace of God and was able
to excel.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Really good that you're saying that, because as an African
American community, we always you know, we got we got
the cell phone, or do we understand the technology. When
you arrived at new Birth, you walked into a massive
death if something I didn't knowing it about.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
You know, because we look at the church. You know,
you know.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
People, you have people who join the church, they donate
and then but you walk into a debt situation.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
How did you manage to reduce the debt so quickly?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Because was it through corporate donations, was it through the
members of the church and what plan did you put
in place so it won't happen again?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
We have to understand I came a little after two
and a half years after Bishop Long died, Yes, sir,
and so they went through a dip inve membership, in attendance,
in participation, and in leadership, Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
And so as a consequence.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I won let me say we got no corporate donations, right,
is that I modeled stewardship, uh, and increase the volume
of trust that they are to have in the church
and make sure that church was not just a Sunday
morning experience but a Monday.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Through Saturday Saturday interaction.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
And so, as a consequence of begin to do aggressive
saving investing and aggressive in a debt reduction, almost doubling
up what our mortgage payment was in order to get
that done and then refinance to take it out of
the hands of an evangelical bank.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
You're talking to people with their struggles their uplift. How
do you look at the new Black Wall Street and
how does the church play that role? And beyond the
church the success stories that you're trying to put out.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
There, I think the deficit of the Black church in
large measure is when the Black Church, and I'm speaking
in generality speaks about economics. We only do it in
terms of asking people for their time, right, asking for
ten percent.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
But never show people how to multiply the ninety.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
And I think part and parcel of my responsibility as
pastor is to talk about how do we manage our revenue.
Doctor King said before his demise that African Americans spend
the power made us are the fourteenth wealthiest nation in
the world. At this point, we're the eleventh wealthiest nation
(05:27):
in the world, but we're not doing.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Anything about it.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
In the Asian community here in America, their dollars circulates
twenty three times before it leaves their hands in the
Jewish community, seventeen times before it leaves their hands in
the Caucasian community, twelve times before it leaves their hands.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
In the Black community.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Our check is cash just thirty minutes before we hand
it over to somebody else. And so when we talk
about economic development, it's got to be not just a
campaign but a mind frame. My conviction, brother McDonald's, if
I have ten thousand members, why are you struggling to
sell your book? How come you don't have any clients
(06:11):
because they're right there in the church. Right, We've got
to develop our own ecosystem in order to thrust us
to that model.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Well, you know, but the first one of the main
reasons why I'm fortunate on WCOK to do Money Making
Conversation master Class is by promoting dreamers, especially in the
ENTREPRENEURSI and the small business of the lane.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Now, when I look at.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
You, your more house grab HBCUs have been at the
forefront of academic excellence forever, but only recently because of
massive donations by individuals in the corporate world led.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
How is that? Does that make you feel good? Doctor Bran?
Speaker 1 (06:47):
It makes you disappoint you that there's nothing that's ever
been wrong with HBCUs. We just hadn't been recognized and
given our do.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
I think.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
That we in the HBC all but have understood our
value without main line accepted.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
HBCUs graduate more black doctors, more lawyers, more doctor degrees.
They're non predominantly white institutions. It's with minimal support and
financial back end. Is are inspiring now that we have it?
The sky is the limited. People now walk on the
(07:29):
motor and so I think that this is really just
putting us in a greater place.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I help you all out with those status that he
at the top of my mind. Fifty percent of the
black school teachers come from hbc USED, eighty percent of
the medical doctors and dentists come from HBCUs, seventy percent
of the judges and lawyers comes from HBCUs, forty percent
of the Black members of Conference comes from HBCUs to
twenty five percent of the STEM graduates come from HPCUS.
(07:57):
North Carolina A and T graduates more black and ars
the idiot engineering program in the country. Also, there are
more generals in the army outside of West Point who
are black, from car from South Carolina state. Those are
the stats that I that need to be out there,
that I that I.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Said to me, I need all of that be all.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Well, see, we see, that's what.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
That's what.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
That's why we do this show, Doctor Bryan.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Because it's about information, sir, It's about information.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
From a lack of knowledge. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
What do you feel a black community that needs to
understand about money? You talked about the stock market, Because
now I would tell anybody who's listening, when the stock
market is down, that's when you want to buy.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
You want to buy when it's a bear. You don't
want to buy when it's a bull.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
And so if you're talking about bringing in that type
of money, but that's a different type of money. But
you had that incredible state about how money doesn't stand
in the black community's hands.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
So what do we really need to understand.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Because if you're gonna talk about money, you got to
talk about credit, and credit and money tends to be
a separate conversation in the black household.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
I often use this example that I know by mcdowald
you can run across the fifty yard line with that
is Black people are the only.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
People in the world who have a house warming.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Party for an apartment, right, we don't really talk about
home ownership. My father put my sister and I on
a plan when we got out of college, which was
the ten eighty which I still model to this day,
which is save ten percent, tive ten percent, live off
of eighty percent.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
And it has really helped us.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
When you realize that the average African American lives at
one hundred and ten percent of that income that we
in debt trying to keep up with the Joneses.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
A credit card debt is through the roof.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
We can have a whole different show about the swamp
known their student loans, and so there's a whole lot
of financial literacy that is so needed and necessary for us.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
To be able to throw out and get our foot.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
It sounds good at this level, but they are those
who are the trenches who really don't have a basic
understanding what you're talking about. A bullet of bay. They
got no idea. We are not in the conversation about
inflation and about how that's going to impact every area
of our lives. But now it's part and a pustle
(10:32):
responsibility of the church to impart that knowledge and to
share their wisdom.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
You know, it's really interesting when I hear you talk
from I hear the financial literacy.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
That's such a big word. It means so much.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
And sometimes you lets people they walk in the room,
they walk out, really didn't gain anything from the conversation.
How can I help you know what the mission that
you putting in place in this city this is.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
You know, I have a certain skill set.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I have a a show to be able to move
forward a narrative. But it's about job. It's about economic development.
It's about money and getting the right jobs in place.
How can a person like Ruth Shaan mcdonaland my show
can help the cause and move the needle?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Cry loud and spare not you doing the dog? One thing?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Were so much of our focus is on the entertainment
and not on enlightenment. And so what you're doing just
in this conversation is a revolutionary.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Act in none to itself.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
We like to say we like to dance, we like
to driple the ball, We don't like to sit down.
The average African American post high school does not read
a non fiction book from cover to cover. And so
you are doing through this podcast.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
This is an audio book. You are giving information that.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
They're not getting out of closed libraries or on Google.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
And so I'm just appreciative of how you staying on
the bank.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Stay with us.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
More Money Making Conversation master Class coming up next. Welcome
back to Money Making Conversations master Class hosted by me
Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversation master Class continues online and
Moneymaking Conversations dot com and follow Money Making Conversations master
(12:22):
Class on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
I'm one of those guys too. From nothing to something
you know?
Speaker 1 (12:28):
You know, a two bedroom shotgun house, six sisters, two brothers.
My father had a third grade education, truck driver, my
mama graduate from high school. And so I know what
you have to do, and you have to follow dreams,
but also you have to have mentors and people who
believe in you that role. I think that's what you
plan as a church leader, correct.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
I'm endeavoring to do that.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
I think that we've got to one dissolve the old
school notion that the pastor knows everything right, then we've
got to have circular leadership and not singular leadership. So
you need people who can educate us not just on finances,
who can educate us on the law, who can help
us in the civics class, who can help us in
(13:12):
this whole right to vote quest? Where is the black
community's voice on rod versus way? Where are we in
terms of gentrification? Where are we with the underfunding of
public education?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Well sometings of doctor lot of praying for you, love
be praying for you, but I will get in live
to help pray for you.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
You know the thing about it is that it's about charisma.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
It's about having a direction, being focused, because the church
is always the basis, you know, you know, black people
got faith, black people believe. Black people also can be misled.
When I say that, not in a negative way, because
it's about information.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
If you know the right information, you misled.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And that's what we talk about economics, we talk about literacy.
You know, you know it's a joke in the black
community by putting a child's name on the light bill,
and that's not a joke. That's real and then that
child's life is ruined. And so but talk about your
journey and not in much detail or small detail about
(14:11):
you know where you come from to this point. And
also the fact that you know your history in the
church is not something that you start. It's part of
a family journey, if you can.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
I am originally from Boston, Massachusetts. I was raised in Baltimore, Maryland.
I failed the eleventh grade. After I failed the eleventh grade,
brother McDonald, my parents sent me to live in.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Monroevia, Liberia, West Africa for a year.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
For your listeners who do not know, Liberia is the
only country in Africa that was formed by former slaves,
and so I lived there for a year. I came back,
I got a ged and I'm the first person to
go to Morehouse with a GED. I graduated from Morehouse
(15:03):
Political Science and International Studies and in tradition of HBCUs.
A month before graduation, I was alerted that I didn't
have enough classes. As an international studies major, I needed
to be proficient in a language. I wasn't proficient in
a language. My only option was to do study abroad.
(15:28):
I went through the list, I saw the due study abroad.
The only country I could go to with no language
requirement for South Africa.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I go to South Africa. By the luck of the
draw of God's grace.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
It is the year of the elections and I become
Nelson Mandela's youth intern. While living there in South Africa,
I come back. I go to Duke University. And Duke
University significant for me, went there for a master's degree.
But many years before I went to Duke, my grandfather
(16:01):
was a chef at Duke University when they didn't let
black students there. While a student at Duke University, kawahc
and Fume tapped me to be National Youth and College
Director of the NAACP, and I boast the record of
being the youngest Youth director of the NAACP ever had
at that time, I came out of the NAACP rashean
(16:26):
and you're not gonna believe my story. Nineteen ninety nine,
we had our national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, and
chaimfu May has largitis and asked me to give the
national address to the NAACP. I'm twenty eight years old.
The next day, I'm on the cover of USA Today.
(16:49):
I get off of the stage from giving that address
and I met at the bottom of the stage, out
of one and only did Gregory. Gregory gram to me,
buy my collar, throws me up against wall and says
to me, young man, you're out of order.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
That ain't word he used. He used another word. You
know what he said?
Speaker 4 (17:14):
It worked.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, you are out of order, he said.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
When I was growing up black people, when they were
in trouble or call on Jesus.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
In the NAACP, he said.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
You're a part of a generation that doesn't believe in either.
You're supposed to be a pastor by the McDonald A
long story short. I walked out of there, and six
months later I started my church in Baltimore, forty three
members to ten thousand.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
God redirected my path to leave the church.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
I started to come here to Atlanta the pastor the
Great Newberg Missionary Baptist Church.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
That's my story in a nutshell.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Well know the beauty of that story, and I want
black people to hear it. I want people here.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
This is in general, is that you can't you can't
achieve success by yourself. That's the number one thing you
get away from the store, and then people have to
see something in you and I give up on you.
That's also in this store.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
And when when?
Speaker 1 (18:13):
And so that's that started with the parents. Parents didn't
give up on him. He failed, but they didn't see failure.
And then he accepted the challenge and rolls beyond that
and everywhere he went, somebody stepped in and moved him forward. Now,
when those happened, when those moments happened, and you can
correct me, doctor Bran, and I think I'm on the
same page with you.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
They pushed him to the unknown.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
And that's where a lot of people stop when they
don't know what's happening. Fear drops in and they stop
moving forward. And that is what's hurling back our community
because we want to know what's happening, and you don't
always know what's happening when you're trying.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
To achieve success. A success is.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Tied to overcome the unknown and overcoming fear.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
Am I correct sir.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Oh, no, you're more than correct.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
And UH.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Everybody has a testimony, unless Brown often.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Says, your revenue is in your reflection.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
What it is that you're able excuse me, what you're
able to share, what you're able to disclose? I'm so sorry,
and what it is that you have learned from uh?
And so I'm grateful, so I UH, as a consequence
of my own journey. Like many churches, we give our scholarships,
but I am intentional to not just give scholarships to
(19:32):
those who graduate top of the class, but those also who.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Graduated the bottom of the barrel, right, UH, that they
also need an opportunity and need a chance.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
And that's beauty in the progress of HBCUs again, who
gave students who were not outstanding UH an opportunity to
thrive and shine.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
You know, as one would say, I'm talking to one
of the most influential religious leaders in the country, and
you doctor Bryant, as we as you call someone to
the all and someone's listening to this show, what is
the final message you want them to receive so they
can walk away with a clear understanding that they can
be successful. They are walking in blessed shoes. They just
(20:12):
need to acknowledge it and accept the responsibility of hard work.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
That the church to not over spiritualize. It is nothing
more than a recycling center. We take that which has
been discarded, that which has been thrown away, that which
has imperfections, and help turn it into something else. The
essence of who they are remains the same, but the
shape and the spirit of it is what it is
(20:38):
that we change. So every Sunday I tell people you
can come as you are, just be clear you won't
stay as you are.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
My guest Rose from eleventh grade dropout. Do you receive
a ged enrolled in Morehouse, first time PhD graduate of
Duke and now he is the senior pastor of New
Birth Missionary BAPTISTERI he's a leader and also an inspiration
and I'm so fortunate to have him on the show
to share these words. Know this, whenever you have something,
(21:07):
please come to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. I'm a friend,
advocate and a believer in what you're trying to do
to the community.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
This has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashaun McDonald.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Thanks to I guess and our audience.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com to listen and register to be
a guest
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