With the success of TD Jakes’ recent film, “Jumping the Broom,” there were industry observers who wondered whether or not Jakes should be involved in making films. I spoke on this issue on the air with Rev. Al Sharpton, who is also a pastor that steps outside the church to engage in both politics and activism. The African American community is one where pastors have an impressive amount of social, political and economic power, and in our community pastors are far more than just spiritual leaders.
My take on the situation, as a Financial Scholar myself, is that it can be a very good thing for pastors to find ways to make money outside the church. The requirement is that their methods of making money should be within the boundaries of the ethics that they claim to profess. While I wasn’t comfortable with Bishop Jakes partnering in his film with Bob Johnson from BET, I was impressed with the manner by which Bishop Jakes leveraged his social power to help tell productive African American stories in Hollywood.
In this conversation, I speak with Pastor Stephen McCrary, who is also a successful entrepreneur in his own right. Pastor McCrary provides insights into how a preacher can separate his spiritual work from his corporate endeavors in ways that are both ethical and fruitful. The interview is below.
