September 17, 2025 • 20 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Jay
Walker Show. Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I just I can't find the word to describe this
next man. I've been all more than I've been trying
to say. What What can I say to describe him?
Legend and really a legend.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Legend. I just can't start saying the word legend.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
A pastor, bishop, author, a presiding bishop of the Full Gospel.
Ladies and gentlemen, my cousin. I'm just talking Bishop Joseph Walker.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
That's what's going on. We may be cousins from me.
I see that I could be a part show today.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Man, that's be coming off. So I just want to
talk about this first.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Can you share with you about your personal journey and
how did you did you become a pastor?
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Yeah, you know, I was. I was at Southern University
in bad Rouge.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I was majoring in English with every desire to be
an attorney, and then when I was twenty years old,
the Lord call me, separated me and dealt with me,
and I knew at.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
That moment that that was a call upon my life.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
And of course I came to Nashville to go to
the bandit but dinnery school to figure it all out.
And while I was there, became a part of a church,
Mount Zion Church there and of course I became pastor
right when I got.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Ready to graduate, and the rest is history.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
But I knew that there was a call all my
life and it was just one of those things you know,
you just have to accept it. When God you want
to make God laugh, tell them your plans.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
So did you start a Mountazion church or did you?
Speaker 4 (01:26):
No?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
No, Mount Zion was founded in eighteen sixty six, the
year construction in America, So Mount Zion has a stored history,
founded the exact same year of Fish University, So it
goes way back. I was, you know, the pastor would
come into a church that at that time had one
hundred and seventy five members and they were looking to
transition and build again, and so it was just a
perfect storm, if you will.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So now Mount Zion is a huge church, one church
for locations. So how how does that work?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Like? Well, you know, first of all, it works because
they have a great team of people. Is done vision
has never done solo or insight. Secondly, it's done because
there is a great intentionality around how we support each
location one church in four locations. We we maintain a
level of excellence in all of the locations. I have
(02:16):
great associate pastors who have great you know music and
bush aparts team that that that that rotates and of
course I administered on four of them every Sunday starting
at seven a m. And we go to each one.
So yeah, it's uh, it's it's a labor of love.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So is that a toll on you going like every
Sunday going to four different locations that are told doesn't
take do you know?
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Really it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
If you ask any pastor, they'll tell you the preaching
is not the laborious part.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
We can preach out all. It's the other stuff, you know.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
So because I have you know, you know, literally offload
a lot of the other stuff to very capable people.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I'm focused on preaching and teaching and so no.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
It's I get stronger each service and thank God for
the knowing it of my life to do it. And
everybody can't do that. You have to be annoying it
to do multiple locations, multiple services, and so it's something
I've been doing for a while.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
So Mega Church is often attract the diverse congregation. How
do you work to create an exclusive and welcoming environment
for people from various backgrounds.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So doing what I'm doing right now making myself available
to folks who really want to get to know me
as a person outside of all of what I do. Secondly,
I do things like every month I do what's called
a virtual connect where I do a zoom. Anybody members
or anybody who wants to know about Mount Zauner me
can come on. It's a wonderful opportunity. I'm accessible. I
(03:45):
create a culture of hospitality, of you know, community. I
still visit the sick, I still show up for people
when they're being celebrated, and so we just kind of
create a very intentional culture of community. And the mountside
there's thirty three whatever thousand members. It feels small because
everybody I know, people like I know my members and
(04:07):
people always you know trip when I say that, but
I really do. I can be out in the city
and I say, hey, how y'all doing. I will sit
down hill with them, or I'll be a Starbucks and
we all sit around and laugh. I never want to
lose that common touch, and I think it starts with
the leader. The leader is connective people among the people
and the culture is as such as the leader is
a loose distant then the people have a sense of
(04:29):
you know, arrogance and like we're better. And so I
think it's just important to stay among the people.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
So and I want to give you your flowers for
a second, because it's very rare that you meet a
guy that's that successful and this humble. So was it
hard being I'm humble when you first, you know, Because no.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
You have to understand, like my background where I'm from. See,
I'm the son of a window cleaner, a man who
owned a custodial company, and a mother who talks specially.
I grew up in Shreeport, Louisiana. So I grew up
in the street that didn't have side while seeing ditches.
So I understand, ah, you know, humility. I understand that
(05:12):
God could get this done without me. So all my
life I was taught to stay low, to remain humble,
and so it is not something that I have to
actually think about every day. It's something that I am
and it catches people off guard. I get it because
I show up and I've been in places and people
have been introducing me like you know, no, no, no,
(05:32):
and I'm sitting there like it's you oh, because I'm
just so.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Like, I don't.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
About me, because I'm just having so much fun at
the table talking to people, you know, and I don't.
I don't know this stuff that's serious. I don't wear
it that tight. I just I just love people. And
I think that that is the secret to success is humility.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So mega churches sometimes faces criticism for being more focused
on numbers and growth than on deep spiritual growth. How
do you ensure that spiritual death is not compromise in
pursuit of growth.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, I think it's a very good question, mind you,
And I think for us, it's about our intentionality around discipleship.
We have I've hired a full time christ Education director
who's focused clearly on discipleship. So when you join our church,
you go on a journey like that's a journey of
personal development, and the journey is actually measured. We have
metrics that we make sure that people are connected through
(06:25):
our bridge ministry. So once you come in, give sussessment,
where do you flow in ministry, et cetera, And then
how do you have a sense of accountability in terms
of your walk with Christ by creating groups to help
people stay accountable.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
So all of those things are so important to us.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
And so I think when you do that, I think
that helps people recognize that they're more than a number,
but their their life, their their relationship with God matters
more than anything else.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
So technology and social media have transformed the way churches communicate.
How does Mount Desion leverage these twols to engage with
administry to the congregation?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Yeah, so you know Mount Zion is very blacked.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Prior to the pandemic, we were on the first church,
if not the first to actually have mountain sign anywhere.
So we started seven years before the pandemic. And so
when the pandemic occurred, when everybody was scrambling, we just
kept doing what we were doing, giving and so so
for us, technology we have embraced it. I'm hosting the
technology conference at my church that I'm going to be
(07:23):
a part of. I go around the country talking about
the intersection between technology and ministry of how we use
social media, how we use you know, our cameras, how
we how we feel, how we do we do, how
we do our engagement, Bible study, our deeper dive Bible
studies have been incredibly successful because it's a it's a
pivot from just being in the building on Wednesday nights
(07:44):
to actually creating more of an intimate, uh innovative way
of approaching Bible studies. So there's a lot of things
that I think are un natural to Mount sign organic
and I'm very committed to all kinds of technology. And
I got a young group of folks like you around me.
They keep me on threads, they keep me up on everything.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
I love surrounding myself with those folks who know what's
coming and how to keep me relevant.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Wow. So financial stewardship and transparency are important really any church,
so especially in the mega church. So how do you
ensure that funds are used responsibly and advocately.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Well, first of all, what we do is when we're
very transparent about that. We have audits done every year,
outside independent audits done, and we've had clean records since
I've been there. Secondly, we have increased our outreach efforts
and philanthropic efforts significantly. I give you example, last year,
(08:43):
we raised over a million dollars in one Saturday on
the Easter and gave it all the way and we
documented it we showed the congregation of real time. This
year again we're going right back into that, giving fifty
thousand the same tub.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
People see where the money's going.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Mean, we gave one hundred thousand, and high school students
go to college two hundred thousand for college Sunday, two
hundred students are getting a thousand our scholarship at one time.
I'm going around surprising certain HBCUs this year with one
hundred thousand from our church.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
So we just love School of generosity.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
And I think that that for me, speaks to Mount
Science generosity, and it speaks to I think, you know,
I think intelligent fiscal management. That's that's our mantra. We
just believe in intelligent fiscal management, making certain that we can
do good by what we've been entrusted with.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Wow, So you're the presiding Bishop of the Full Gospel?
So what is that? What is that like? Because is
that like a lot? Because what is that? What is
that like? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Yeah, well it's a whole lot. It's you know, it's
it's a whole lot. It's like being that's always laugh
about that's my Obama. That's like an Obama role. You know,
it's like that role. You know, your phone never stops
ringing and where you go in the countries, but it's
pulling on everybody knows you. You know, there's no ann enmity.
You're in a place where you know you're touching people
around the world literally. But I have a great group
(10:09):
of folks.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
I run for.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Gospel like I run out Zion. I'm an infrastructuralist. I
believe that when you have a very tight team of
people who are professionals who do what they do, it
does not over tax the leader. And so I delegate,
leave and collaboration, and that has been the effective thing
for Gospel. It's an extraordinary movement, as you know, Bis
Chapel Moore founded it and man thirty years we just
celebrated in Washington, DC and it was such a powerful
(10:33):
move of God. And so we just look forward to
the momentum from that continuing to move forward and be
a change agent.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
So make the churches can sometimes be criticized for a
perceived lack of personal connection between leaders and congregation members.
How do you engage meaningfully with individuals despite the church size?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Man, listen, you have to ask my members there because
they'll tell you listen like, I'll get off this interview
and I'll be right up in Starbucks. I'll be on
the camps, the TSU, I walk through the camp, I'll go,
you know, and see people and just sit out. I'm
just one of those people, man, I just I thrive
off of connections, and I think it has to be
organic for the leader again and for me. I don't
(11:12):
walk into a place thinking, oh, I'm Bishure walk up
the Mountaine Bay Church. I just think, man, how your
day on? How you doing? And I think that comes
from a place of genuine concern about people. And so
at the end of the day, I think culture.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Is really defined by the leader's heart, and my heart
is for people.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
So worship styles can vary on among different conversations congregations.
How do you navigate the balance between traditional and contemporary
worship purposes with the megachurch.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Balance?
Speaker 3 (11:43):
If you've ever watched our worship service, to see Jamar
Jamar you know, and to see how to see White's
Mosley goo grab a him, to see Jamarrow go grab
you know, a choir classic, to see metal and saying,
you know a worship song out of you know, a
more contemporary space. I mean, Balside is a smorgags board
of all genres of gospel and worship and and you know,
(12:05):
all kinds of music, spiritual music, and so for us
it's just about balance. We recognize our congregation is very unique.
I passed the five generations at one time, so we
want to appeal to all of them at the same time.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
So how do you manage your time? Because you were
the like you've got so many different roles. How do
you manage your time and maintain a healthy work life balance.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Well, the key word is time.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Time for me is an unredeemable quality, and therefore I
don't waste anybody's time. I'm always before time. If you
show up on time for me, you're late. I always
show up before time, ready to roll out. Of anybody
that will ever engagement will tell you, Bishop will always
that clockwork.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
I will never be later. I'm late.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
It's something really wrong. And I like to be on time.
It's always something to do after the next thing. And
everybody knows where to be and what to have ready.
And so I think this creating a system where by
you you have a block of time in the day.
You know, I look at my life like eight eight eight,
you know, eight hours of sleep, you know, eight hours
(13:08):
of work intentional and eight hours of family and faith
and pouring into myself and that kind of thing, my children.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
And my wife.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
So I look at my life in that way eight
eight eight, and so I can't get it down eight hours,
just not get done.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
I'm not gonna do these twelve and thirteen hour days.
I'm not doing that.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
But at the end of the day when I come home,
I'm home, it's my eight kids, my wife that you know,
going to sleep and no time going to sleep. I'm
getting eight hours of sleep. So that's that's just how
it goes. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
And also I want to mention you one of them bruhs.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
You wanted them brother facts.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
So what do you know? How's that? How does that
do you? You enjoy? Enjoy one of the brus You.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Know what I do? I mean, I enjoy my fraternity.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
I do I enjoy uh you know, makeing SI fives, Uh,
you know, I love it and great fraternity. Uh, doing
some amazing days in the community. And so yeah, absolutely, well.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
So I know zigon Off the host of variety of
events and programs. Can you highlight some of the most
impactive and in events that the churches did within the community.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Man, go with that.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Well again, like I said, I think the College Sunday
Apry our second Sunday of November.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Maybe your listeners will tune in or come in Nashville.
You have to witness it. It is it is. It
is one of the most amazing things to see.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
I have friends to go to t s U and
they're like, man, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah, it's it's it's its own thing, man, it's its
own vibe. And Uh, to see that thing play out
is just incredible.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
And to see the kids getting those scholarships and the testimonies,
and it's just it's just amazing. We do a lot
of things we do. We do a cool thing for
towards the end of the year where people have lost
loved ones throughout the year, we're grieving and we support
them provid services of how to get the grief through
the holidays, hospice care information. So that's one of the
(15:06):
cool programs that we do. Obviously, all of our outreach programs,
back to school stuff has been huge, uh, and other
things we've been able to do during the holidays and
even in the summer. You know, doing outreach and screenings
and things of that nature, and so and.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Of course constantly just outreach efforts are always in motion.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
And we've given significantly amounts of money to significant amounts
of money to help with feeding those in the community
and clothing, et cetera. And so, yeah, the list just
goes on and on. Everything we do, Everything we do
has a sense of purpose.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Tied to it.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
It's not just random so calls. Yeah, so, how.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
How do you like when it comes to write your
messages and come up with these series?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
How?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Because it's like every message is just like so life changing,
because I know every Sunday I'm watching I'm loving this
new series. Wow, So how do you come up? I'm
not gonna say, come up with the message? How do
you write or prepare for the messages? Is it wrote
down or is it.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Just it is?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Actually it's actually amazing, right, And I'm thinking about writing
a book on this.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
And I'm not sure who read it, but I really
want to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
I would read it.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Well, it's about you know, how I profect God prophetically
speaks to me in my summer preparation, Like I write
my messages month in advance and every time the moment
to release them comes. It's the exact thing that's happening
in the world. And it's amazing to see that my
team knows it and they're like, man, like, we know
you didn't write that this week.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
That was written.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
We were with you, we saw you and here on
this Sunday. So for me, it's just about having my
finger on the pulse of God and what is he
saying in the season, and God just prophetically shows me
things and then I put that message.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
In the can work on it and delivered at the
time and what you delivered.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Do you have any favorite mess sermons that you've done
or like messages.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
I know I keep watching them when you hit us
some church man watching that.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
That's one of my favorite messages on FAZ. I think
the other one is actually one I just did this Sunday.
The one I just did this Sunday. You know, you
can't have this unless you go through that talking about
you know, getting.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Through baka uh.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
It's one of my And then of course one prod
of that, oh no to own no. So I've got
there's another one I did several years back. Soup and crackers. Oh,
soup and crackers. Was about when Jacob and Esau. And
Jacob sold his birthright ah to Esau because.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
He wanted to bowl a soup.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
And the scripture actually was supposed to read Abraham Isaac
uh and Esau Mm.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Hmm, you get it.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Yeah, but because of Jacob tricked, getting Jacob tricks.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Yeah, so, and he gave up his whole lineage.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Jacob give of his whole lineage because of his hunger
and what we willing to give up for a bowl
of super crackers.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Wow, I'm coming, That'sville, I'm coming. I gotta covering com
So how do you encourage many people are drawn to
church for personal growth and inspiration? How do you encourage
personal transformation and spiritual growth and congregation members?
Speaker 3 (18:42):
I think taking taking responsibility for yourself, engaging all you
can create. The programs, create access. We try to make it.
Let's compress them from people to access the information that
we put out there. So we have an app which
is tremendously helpful, the Moundside Nashville App. It's free and
all of our information is on people can access the resources.
We just really put a premium on people taking full
(19:04):
responsibility for their own spiritual growth.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
So in the age of skepticism and increase of how
does your church and address doubt and engage with individuals
who might question their faith?
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Man, we just love people.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Man.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
At the end of the day, we said it's okay
to question your faith. I mean we all have moments
and seasons where we question our faith. We just want
people to see the work. If you see the work
of God, see the work of Jesus in us. At
the end of the day, there's no way you can
question whether or not the hand of God it's upon
our life, and the heart of Jesus is not manifested
in our work. Do the work, rest and take care
of yourself.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Wow. So bitch and Walker, let everyone know where you
can be reached on social media.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
All right, here's what you gotta do. You gotta do
this case a couple of things.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
I want you to follow me at Joseph Walker three
on Instagram. And now I want you to make sure
you let me know you heard this interview and be
supporting my cousin ex Secondly, that what you do, I
want you to go and check out Mouthside Nash on YouTube.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Subscribe to our YouTube page. He and my wife and
I have a brand new, awesome.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
We don't talk about that.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
I forgot about this.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
It's called Our Life, Our Journey, Our Truth, and it
is taking off like crazy, and I want you to
go check it out. Our Life, Our Journey, Our Truth.
Go out there, subscribe to it, let me know what
you think about it. So that's it.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Well, I would mister Walker, thank you so much for
taking time and you being the schedule to come on
my show today. It really means a lot, really just
mean a lot. Thank you so much, mister Walf for
coming on the show today.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Hey, thank you man. Appreciate your brother, all right,
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Jay
Walker Show. Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I just I can't find the word to describe this
next man. I've been all more than I've been trying
to say. What What can I say to describe him?
Legend and really a legend.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Legend. I just can't start saying the word legend.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
A pastor, bishop, author, a presiding bishop of the Full Gospel.
Ladies and gentlemen, my cousin. I'm just talking Bishop Joseph Walker.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
That's what's going on. We may be cousins from me.
I see that I could be a part show today.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Man, that's be coming off. So I just want to
talk about this first.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Can you share with you about your personal journey and
how did you did you become a pastor?
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Yeah, you know, I was. I was at Southern University
in bad Rouge.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I was majoring in English with every desire to be
an attorney, and then when I was twenty years old,
the Lord call me, separated me and dealt with me,
and I knew at.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
That moment that that was a call upon my life.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
And of course I came to Nashville to go to
the bandit but dinnery school to figure it all out.
And while I was there, became a part of a church,
Mount Zion Church there and of course I became pastor
right when I got.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Ready to graduate, and the rest is history.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
But I knew that there was a call all my
life and it was just one of those things you know,
you just have to accept it. When God you want
to make God laugh, tell them your plans.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
So did you start a Mountazion church or did you?
Speaker 4 (01:26):
No?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
No, Mount Zion was founded in eighteen sixty six, the
year construction in America, So Mount Zion has a stored history,
founded the exact same year of Fish University, So it
goes way back. I was, you know, the pastor would
come into a church that at that time had one
hundred and seventy five members and they were looking to
transition and build again, and so it was just a
perfect storm, if you will.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So now Mount Zion is a huge church, one church
for locations. So how how does that work?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Like? Well, you know, first of all, it works because
they have a great team of people. Is done vision
has never done solo or insight. Secondly, it's done because
there is a great intentionality around how we support each
location one church in four locations. We we maintain a
level of excellence in all of the locations. I have
(02:16):
great associate pastors who have great you know music and
bush aparts team that that that that rotates and of
course I administered on four of them every Sunday starting
at seven a m. And we go to each one.
So yeah, it's uh, it's it's a labor of love.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So is that a toll on you going like every
Sunday going to four different locations that are told doesn't
take do you know?
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Really it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
If you ask any pastor, they'll tell you the preaching
is not the laborious part.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
We can preach out all. It's the other stuff, you know.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
So because I have you know, you know, literally offload
a lot of the other stuff to very capable people.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I'm focused on preaching and teaching and so no.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
It's I get stronger each service and thank God for
the knowing it of my life to do it. And
everybody can't do that. You have to be annoying it
to do multiple locations, multiple services, and so it's something
I've been doing for a while.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
So Mega Church is often attract the diverse congregation. How
do you work to create an exclusive and welcoming environment
for people from various backgrounds.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So doing what I'm doing right now making myself available
to folks who really want to get to know me
as a person outside of all of what I do. Secondly,
I do things like every month I do what's called
a virtual connect where I do a zoom. Anybody members
or anybody who wants to know about Mount Zauner me
can come on. It's a wonderful opportunity. I'm accessible. I
(03:45):
create a culture of hospitality, of you know, community. I
still visit the sick, I still show up for people
when they're being celebrated, and so we just kind of
create a very intentional culture of community. And the mountside
there's thirty three whatever thousand members. It feels small because
everybody I know, people like I know my members and
(04:07):
people always you know trip when I say that, but
I really do. I can be out in the city
and I say, hey, how y'all doing. I will sit
down hill with them, or I'll be a Starbucks and
we all sit around and laugh. I never want to
lose that common touch, and I think it starts with
the leader. The leader is connective people among the people
and the culture is as such as the leader is
a loose distant then the people have a sense of
(04:29):
you know, arrogance and like we're better. And so I
think it's just important to stay among the people.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
So and I want to give you your flowers for
a second, because it's very rare that you meet a
guy that's that successful and this humble. So was it
hard being I'm humble when you first, you know, Because no.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
You have to understand, like my background where I'm from. See,
I'm the son of a window cleaner, a man who
owned a custodial company, and a mother who talks specially.
I grew up in Shreeport, Louisiana. So I grew up
in the street that didn't have side while seeing ditches.
So I understand, ah, you know, humility. I understand that
(05:12):
God could get this done without me. So all my
life I was taught to stay low, to remain humble,
and so it is not something that I have to
actually think about every day. It's something that I am
and it catches people off guard. I get it because
I show up and I've been in places and people
have been introducing me like you know, no, no, no,
(05:32):
and I'm sitting there like it's you oh, because I'm
just so.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Like, I don't.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
About me, because I'm just having so much fun at
the table talking to people, you know, and I don't.
I don't know this stuff that's serious. I don't wear
it that tight. I just I just love people. And
I think that that is the secret to success is humility.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So mega churches sometimes faces criticism for being more focused
on numbers and growth than on deep spiritual growth. How
do you ensure that spiritual death is not compromise in
pursuit of growth.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, I think it's a very good question, mind you,
And I think for us, it's about our intentionality around discipleship.
We have I've hired a full time christ Education director
who's focused clearly on discipleship. So when you join our church,
you go on a journey like that's a journey of
personal development, and the journey is actually measured. We have
metrics that we make sure that people are connected through
(06:25):
our bridge ministry. So once you come in, give sussessment,
where do you flow in ministry, et cetera, And then
how do you have a sense of accountability in terms
of your walk with Christ by creating groups to help
people stay accountable.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
So all of those things are so important to us.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
And so I think when you do that, I think
that helps people recognize that they're more than a number,
but their their life, their their relationship with God matters
more than anything else.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
So technology and social media have transformed the way churches communicate.
How does Mount Desion leverage these twols to engage with
administry to the congregation?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Yeah, so you know Mount Zion is very blacked.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Prior to the pandemic, we were on the first church,
if not the first to actually have mountain sign anywhere.
So we started seven years before the pandemic. And so
when the pandemic occurred, when everybody was scrambling, we just
kept doing what we were doing, giving and so so
for us, technology we have embraced it. I'm hosting the
technology conference at my church that I'm going to be
(07:23):
a part of. I go around the country talking about
the intersection between technology and ministry of how we use
social media, how we use you know, our cameras, how
we how we feel, how we do we do, how
we do our engagement, Bible study, our deeper dive Bible
studies have been incredibly successful because it's a it's a
pivot from just being in the building on Wednesday nights
(07:44):
to actually creating more of an intimate, uh innovative way
of approaching Bible studies. So there's a lot of things
that I think are un natural to Mount sign organic
and I'm very committed to all kinds of technology. And
I got a young group of folks like you around me.
They keep me on threads, they keep me up on everything.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
I love surrounding myself with those folks who know what's
coming and how to keep me relevant.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Wow. So financial stewardship and transparency are important really any church,
so especially in the mega church. So how do you
ensure that funds are used responsibly and advocately.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Well, first of all, what we do is when we're
very transparent about that. We have audits done every year,
outside independent audits done, and we've had clean records since
I've been there. Secondly, we have increased our outreach efforts
and philanthropic efforts significantly. I give you example, last year,
(08:43):
we raised over a million dollars in one Saturday on
the Easter and gave it all the way and we
documented it we showed the congregation of real time. This
year again we're going right back into that, giving fifty
thousand the same tub.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
People see where the money's going.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Mean, we gave one hundred thousand, and high school students
go to college two hundred thousand for college Sunday, two
hundred students are getting a thousand our scholarship at one time.
I'm going around surprising certain HBCUs this year with one
hundred thousand from our church.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
So we just love School of generosity.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
And I think that that for me, speaks to Mount
Science generosity, and it speaks to I think, you know,
I think intelligent fiscal management. That's that's our mantra. We
just believe in intelligent fiscal management, making certain that we can
do good by what we've been entrusted with.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Wow, So you're the presiding Bishop of the Full Gospel?
So what is that? What is that like? Because is
that like a lot? Because what is that? What is
that like? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Yeah, well it's a whole lot. It's you know, it's
it's a whole lot. It's like being that's always laugh
about that's my Obama. That's like an Obama role. You know,
it's like that role. You know, your phone never stops
ringing and where you go in the countries, but it's
pulling on everybody knows you. You know, there's no ann enmity.
You're in a place where you know you're touching people
around the world literally. But I have a great group
(10:09):
of folks.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
I run for.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Gospel like I run out Zion. I'm an infrastructuralist. I
believe that when you have a very tight team of
people who are professionals who do what they do, it
does not over tax the leader. And so I delegate,
leave and collaboration, and that has been the effective thing
for Gospel. It's an extraordinary movement, as you know, Bis
Chapel Moore founded it and man thirty years we just
celebrated in Washington, DC and it was such a powerful
(10:33):
move of God. And so we just look forward to
the momentum from that continuing to move forward and be
a change agent.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
So make the churches can sometimes be criticized for a
perceived lack of personal connection between leaders and congregation members.
How do you engage meaningfully with individuals despite the church size?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Man, listen, you have to ask my members there because
they'll tell you listen like, I'll get off this interview
and I'll be right up in Starbucks. I'll be on
the camps, the TSU, I walk through the camp, I'll go,
you know, and see people and just sit out. I'm
just one of those people, man, I just I thrive
off of connections, and I think it has to be
organic for the leader again and for me. I don't
(11:12):
walk into a place thinking, oh, I'm Bishure walk up
the Mountaine Bay Church. I just think, man, how your
day on? How you doing? And I think that comes
from a place of genuine concern about people. And so
at the end of the day, I think culture.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Is really defined by the leader's heart, and my heart
is for people.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
So worship styles can vary on among different conversations congregations.
How do you navigate the balance between traditional and contemporary
worship purposes with the megachurch.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Balance?
Speaker 3 (11:43):
If you've ever watched our worship service, to see Jamar
Jamar you know, and to see how to see White's
Mosley goo grab a him, to see Jamarrow go grab
you know, a choir classic, to see metal and saying,
you know a worship song out of you know, a
more contemporary space. I mean, Balside is a smorgags board
of all genres of gospel and worship and and you know,
(12:05):
all kinds of music, spiritual music, and so for us
it's just about balance. We recognize our congregation is very unique.
I passed the five generations at one time, so we
want to appeal to all of them at the same time.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
So how do you manage your time? Because you were
the like you've got so many different roles. How do
you manage your time and maintain a healthy work life balance.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Well, the key word is time.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Time for me is an unredeemable quality, and therefore I
don't waste anybody's time. I'm always before time. If you
show up on time for me, you're late. I always
show up before time, ready to roll out. Of anybody
that will ever engagement will tell you, Bishop will always
that clockwork.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
I will never be later. I'm late.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
It's something really wrong. And I like to be on time.
It's always something to do after the next thing. And
everybody knows where to be and what to have ready.
And so I think this creating a system where by
you you have a block of time in the day.
You know, I look at my life like eight eight eight,
you know, eight hours of sleep, you know, eight hours
(13:08):
of work intentional and eight hours of family and faith
and pouring into myself and that kind of thing, my children.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
And my wife.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
So I look at my life in that way eight
eight eight, and so I can't get it down eight hours,
just not get done.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
I'm not gonna do these twelve and thirteen hour days.
I'm not doing that.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
But at the end of the day when I come home,
I'm home, it's my eight kids, my wife that you know,
going to sleep and no time going to sleep. I'm
getting eight hours of sleep. So that's that's just how
it goes. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
And also I want to mention you one of them bruhs.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
You wanted them brother facts.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
So what do you know? How's that? How does that
do you? You enjoy? Enjoy one of the brus You.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Know what I do? I mean, I enjoy my fraternity.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
I do I enjoy uh you know, makeing SI fives, Uh,
you know, I love it and great fraternity. Uh, doing
some amazing days in the community. And so yeah, absolutely, well.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
So I know zigon Off the host of variety of
events and programs. Can you highlight some of the most
impactive and in events that the churches did within the community.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Man, go with that.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Well again, like I said, I think the College Sunday
Apry our second Sunday of November.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Maybe your listeners will tune in or come in Nashville.
You have to witness it. It is it is. It
is one of the most amazing things to see.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
I have friends to go to t s U and
they're like, man, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah, it's it's it's its own thing, man, it's its
own vibe. And Uh, to see that thing play out
is just incredible.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
And to see the kids getting those scholarships and the testimonies,
and it's just it's just amazing. We do a lot
of things we do. We do a cool thing for
towards the end of the year where people have lost
loved ones throughout the year, we're grieving and we support
them provid services of how to get the grief through
the holidays, hospice care information. So that's one of the
(15:06):
cool programs that we do. Obviously, all of our outreach programs,
back to school stuff has been huge, uh, and other
things we've been able to do during the holidays and
even in the summer. You know, doing outreach and screenings
and things of that nature, and so and.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Of course constantly just outreach efforts are always in motion.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
And we've given significantly amounts of money to significant amounts
of money to help with feeding those in the community
and clothing, et cetera. And so, yeah, the list just
goes on and on. Everything we do, Everything we do
has a sense of purpose.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Tied to it.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
It's not just random so calls. Yeah, so, how.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
How do you like when it comes to write your
messages and come up with these series?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
How?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Because it's like every message is just like so life changing,
because I know every Sunday I'm watching I'm loving this
new series. Wow, So how do you come up? I'm
not gonna say, come up with the message? How do
you write or prepare for the messages? Is it wrote
down or is it.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Just it is?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Actually it's actually amazing, right, And I'm thinking about writing
a book on this.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
And I'm not sure who read it, but I really
want to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
I would read it.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Well, it's about you know, how I profect God prophetically
speaks to me in my summer preparation, Like I write
my messages month in advance and every time the moment
to release them comes. It's the exact thing that's happening
in the world. And it's amazing to see that my
team knows it and they're like, man, like, we know
you didn't write that this week.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
That was written.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
We were with you, we saw you and here on
this Sunday. So for me, it's just about having my
finger on the pulse of God and what is he
saying in the season, and God just prophetically shows me
things and then I put that message.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
In the can work on it and delivered at the
time and what you delivered.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Do you have any favorite mess sermons that you've done
or like messages.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
I know I keep watching them when you hit us
some church man watching that.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
That's one of my favorite messages on FAZ. I think
the other one is actually one I just did this Sunday.
The one I just did this Sunday. You know, you
can't have this unless you go through that talking about
you know, getting.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Through baka uh.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
It's one of my And then of course one prod
of that, oh no to own no. So I've got
there's another one I did several years back. Soup and crackers. Oh,
soup and crackers. Was about when Jacob and Esau. And
Jacob sold his birthright ah to Esau because.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
He wanted to bowl a soup.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
And the scripture actually was supposed to read Abraham Isaac
uh and Esau Mm.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Hmm, you get it.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Yeah, but because of Jacob tricked, getting Jacob tricks.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Yeah, so, and he gave up his whole lineage.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Jacob give of his whole lineage because of his hunger
and what we willing to give up for a bowl
of super crackers.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Wow, I'm coming, That'sville, I'm coming. I gotta covering com
So how do you encourage many people are drawn to
church for personal growth and inspiration? How do you encourage
personal transformation and spiritual growth and congregation members?
Speaker 3 (18:42):
I think taking taking responsibility for yourself, engaging all you
can create. The programs, create access. We try to make it.
Let's compress them from people to access the information that
we put out there. So we have an app which
is tremendously helpful, the Moundside Nashville App. It's free and
all of our information is on people can access the resources.
We just really put a premium on people taking full
(19:04):
responsibility for their own spiritual growth.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
So in the age of skepticism and increase of how
does your church and address doubt and engage with individuals
who might question their faith?
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Man, we just love people.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Man.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
At the end of the day, we said it's okay
to question your faith. I mean we all have moments
and seasons where we question our faith. We just want
people to see the work. If you see the work
of God, see the work of Jesus in us. At
the end of the day, there's no way you can
question whether or not the hand of God it's upon
our life, and the heart of Jesus is not manifested
in our work. Do the work, rest and take care
of yourself.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Wow. So bitch and Walker, let everyone know where you
can be reached on social media.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
All right, here's what you gotta do. You gotta do
this case a couple of things.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
I want you to follow me at Joseph Walker three
on Instagram. And now I want you to make sure
you let me know you heard this interview and be
supporting my cousin ex Secondly, that what you do, I
want you to go and check out Mouthside Nash on YouTube.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Subscribe to our YouTube page. He and my wife and
I have a brand new, awesome.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
We don't talk about that.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
I forgot about this.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
It's called Our Life, Our Journey, Our Truth, and it
is taking off like crazy, and I want you to
go check it out. Our Life, Our Journey, Our Truth.
Go out there, subscribe to it, let me know what
you think about it. So that's it.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Well, I would mister Walker, thank you so much for
taking time and you being the schedule to come on
my show today. It really means a lot, really just
mean a lot. Thank you so much, mister Walf for
coming on the show today.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Hey, thank you man. Appreciate your brother, all right,
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