Get to know the new president of Converge, Pastor John K. Jenkins, Sr. Learn about his call to ministry at a young age and how God has prepared him for such a time as this in leading the Converge movement.
Transcript
Twanna Henderson: Welcome to T Time: Spiritual Conversations For, With and About Women. I’m your host, Twanna Henderson and as always, I want to invite you to take a moment to like this podcast and to share it with others in your life. Well, today we have a very special guest and dear friend to me and my husband. I’m so excited about having him with us today and our guest is Pastor John K. Jenkins senior. Pastor Jenkins is the newly appointed president of Converge, which for those of you who may not be aware is a movement of churches committed to helping people meet, know and follow Jesus. This is done by starting and strengthening churches worldwide. Recently, in a historic vote by the Converge Board of Overseers. Pastor Jenkins was unanimously appointed as the first African American to lead the 170 year-old organization. In addition to his appointment as the president of Converge. Pastor Jenkins is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Glenarden, where he has served for the past 33 years. The church which has campuses in Landover and Upper Marlboro, Maryland, has a membership of more than 10,000 members. Pastor Jenkins also serves as the chairman of the board for the National Association of Evangelicals, Project bridges, and the Skinner Institute, as well as serving on boards for numerous organizations including Bethel University, Denver seminary and University of Maryland Capital Region Health just to name a few. In 2022, Pastor Jenkins received an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Denver Seminary in Littleton, Colorado and in 2001, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Southern California School of Ministry in Inglewood, California. An interesting fact about him is that he became a licensed pilot in 2002 and takes great delight in flying. But even with his many obligations, Pastor Jenkins holds his role as family man as the highest treasure. He and his wife, Trina are the proud parents of six adult children, and seven grandchildren, Pastor Jenkins, Welcome to T Time.
I am so honored to be on your podcast on this podcast. Thank you for having me and I’m so proud of you and the work that you’re doing and thank you for inviting me.
Well, thank you for taking the time as I share, it’s a pleasure just to have you here today and with your busy schedule. I mean, I feel honored that you gave me some time to be able to talk with you. I’m looking forward to our listeners learning about John Jenkins the man. So I want to jump right in because there’s so much that I want to cover and I’m excited about hearing about you. After reading your bio, I think it’s I think it’s pretty safe to say that you’re living your best life.
I am living beyond what I ever dreamed or imagined. It just it actually blows me away to look at the doors that God has opened. The opportunities and the places I’ve been able to go. So I’m honored and humbled by that. So I’m excited. Yes, I like living my kind of life that’s what I tell my church all the time. I like living my life.
Well, of course, as I said, you know, I’ve known you for for many years, and I know that the favor of God has been all over your life. Talk to us about your journey of leadership as a pastor and now as a denomination leader.
John Jenkins: Well, you know, I had leadership opportunities as a child. So when I was young, I was like the senior Patrol Leader of the Boy Scouts, my Boy Scout troop. I was the president of the choir. I was the president of the Usher board. I was an usher. I was a Sunday school teacher. So I began the whole role of being developed as a leader as a young kid. And so I grew up with those opportunities and got licensed to preach at 15 and then the most amazing thing is I was hoping to be called to be a pastor and it seemed like it took forever for it to happen. I didn’t get called until much later, probably in my mid to late 20s. A small church in Virginia called me to be their pastor, and then 1989 our pastor at First Baptist Church of Glenarden passed. My home church, and the church called me to be the pastor. So that’s how it started, you know, just the journey of being having leadership opportunities, and then being called to a small church in Virginia, and then being called back to my home church. That’s how I got called and it led me to this role as the president of Converge, and I’m honored to be there.
Twanna Henderson: And you know, I think it’s amazing when you can just kind of see the hand of God, you know, over your life, and even starting, you know, as, a child, you know, in seeing God’s hand all over your life. Talk to us about that process. You being the president of Converge, this historic appointment. Talk to us about the process that brought you to the appointment as president of Converge.
John Jenkins: Well, for those who don’t know, Converge is a denomination with 1700 churches across the United States, 240 missionaries around the world. 170 years old, and I am the first African American president that they’ve had. So it’s a unique deal. It’s a very unique deal. It’s not that I’m the first qualified person of color to be the president of it. But I’m honored that I’m able to fulfill this role. We had the previous president who suddenly surprisingly resigned and the Board of Overseers asked me if I would take the mantle and pick up that responsibility and I talked with our elders at my church, who I am accountable and responsible to and they supported it and here I have been with them since August the seventh or eighth, somewhere in that neighborhood, when this all happened, so it is an honor.
Twanna Henderson: Wow. Wow. Yeah, it’s absolutely amazing. I know that you have history with Converge. What has been your journey with Converge, because I know you’ve served and Converge. You’ve been involved with Converge. What has been the journey with converge?
John Jenkins: I got introduced to Converge by my closest dearest friend. A guy named Michael Henderson. I think you know him.
Twanna Henderson: I think I know that guy.
John Jenkins: Michael Henderson moved to Maryland, from Ohio, to plant a church. They were planting him and he started coming to our church and he introduced himself to me and we became friends. So it started with him. I am here today because of your husband. He’s the one. He is the man who introduced me to Converge and I joined Converge for three reasons. Let me talk about this for a moment, because I want them to know why I joined it. I joined Converge for primary three reasons. First of all, because it was a movement that focused on helping local churches instead of the local church, empowering the movement. So most of the most of the denominations I had been a part of, it was all about empowering the denomination. But Converge was an organization that empowered the local church and I was attracted to that. I was attracted to the fact that it plants churches, it was involved with planting churches, and I have a passion for planting churches. And thirdly, I joined it because I pastor a primarily African American church, and a lot of the people in my church had lived through the Civil Rights era lived through Jim Crow laws and lived through the dogs and the water hoses and being jailed. They’ve lived through that so they don’t have a positive image of Anglos. And so I wanted them to know that there are some Anglos that have a heart for people of color and who loved Jesus enough to treat everyone appropriately. And so I wanted them to see that. I wanted them to experience that. So those were the three reasons why I joined convergence, and I’ve learned it to be and experienced it to be the case and to be true, that the people are everything that they that we believe them to be and I’m honored to be a part of Converge.
Twanna Henderson: Yeah, I think that’s awesome. And I think just for the last reason that you said speaks to your heart, as a pastor, you wanted them to be able to say, look, you know, in terms of the people of God, that they look differently, you know, and that we need to be open and, you know, just seeing how expansive you know, God’s people are. You mentioned that the previous president resigned suddenly, you know, you are a strong leader for sure. And leaders are often tasked with dealing with great challenges. So what are some of the challenges that Converge faces as the movement during this time?
John Jenkins: Well, I’m making two of the top two things I want to do is improve the relationships between the regions and the national office. For those that don’t know, Converge has 11 districts across the country and historically, there has been tension between the regions in the national office and the prior president had been working on that. I want to enhance on that and keep that moving in a way to improve the relationship between the national office and the regions and the regional presidents and the districts. Secondly, we have the challenge of funding the national office. So we got to figure out how we’re going to fund a national office so it can continue to empower and help local churches. So those, those are not the only goals that we have but those are the top two challenges that we want to continue to move forward with and those are my top two agenda items.
Twanna Henderson: Yeah, and those are some lofty goals. I mean, and I think, but it takes a great leader to be able to tackle those things. Oftentimes, we’ve got these great challenges and we have to have this kind of plan of attack, to be able to deal with those things. I know you said that you joined Converge for you know, a few reasons. Just talk about the strengths of the movement.
John Jenkins: One of the strengths is, there are several strengths in this movement. One of them is, they are very relational. So they help church planters, they build relationships among the church planters, they are very strong in training and teaching and planting churches. That’s one of the top strengths of this movement. If you’re interested in planting churches, this is a movement that can really empower you and help you to do that. And it is a relational organization they are, even though they have structure, but it’s very strong in relationships and building relationships. So I will put those, those things are really the strengths of the Converge movement.
Twanna Henderson: Yeah, I think that, you know, in the day and age that we live in, if there was ever a need for more churches, it is now. You know, we’re living at a time now where we need churches and more and more places to be able to have the gospel to be spread. And in planting churches is one of the ways that that happens. I know you said that, you know, there are the various regions across the United States of Converge. So why is why is it important to you? And why should it be important to the thousands of churches in the movement, in terms of what it offers and what it stands for?
John Jenkins: Well, I think, you know, God did not create us to operate in isolation. He did not create us to work alone, or single handedly or independently. It’s important to be connected with others who have the same heart and the same vision that you have. We can accomplish so much work, better together. I think that was one of the things of Converge for a while – we’re better together. And I agree with that. I agree that if we work collaboratively, and together, we can accomplish so much more for the kingdom of God. It’s not about building our little kingdom. It’s not about building just our church. It’s about building the kingdom of God. And I think it’s important that churches are connected with a collaboration and work collaboratively with other churches is. It is much better.
Twanna Henderson: Yeah. And, you know, I’ve seen just for myself, just how Converge does a wonderful job at that with equipping churches and equipping staff and equipping teams. And, you know, that doesn’t happen a lot. Like you said, a lot of times, you know, organizations and denominations aren’t as focused on building the local church as they are in terms of trying to figure out what they can get from the local church. That is something, I think, that’s unique for Converge. I want to turn the corner for a minute because you know, I shared earlier that you have six children, seven grandchildren. Whew that’s a lot of people. But seriously, what part has family played in your leadership development?
John Jenkins: Well, you know, having six kids and juggling those responsibilities, is a is a management deal. You know, I have three boys and three girls actively involved in growing up and them you know, doing sports and school and church. Just the ability to manage all of that, along with my wife, I’m not gonna try to take all the credit. My my wife, sister Trina. Trina has done an incredible job managing our kids and they’re all grown now and they’ve gone to college and graduated and they’re all gainfully employed. I’m proud of that. But I have to say that a lot of that goes to my wife. But just being a part of, of the whole management of a family is significant. And those skills and things that we’ve done, have worked into our church. Our church celebrated a huge thing this weekend, Twanna. We paid off our mortgage at the church. It’s a big deal!
Twanna Henderson: Oh, wow!
John Jenkins: We were able to do that. So we’re debt free church now and I’m ecstatic about that. So we had to manage the resources to make that happen. And we’re looking forward and hopeful that we can train other churches to do the same thing. So looking forward to being able to do that.
Twanna Henderson: That’s phenomenal. I mean, yeah, if you can train other churches to do that but also, I think that speaks to, again, why you’re the right person for this role as president, because you talked about funding the national office, and obviously, you’re someone who understands how that needs to come about. Not that that’s an easy thing but I think it speaks to the fact that you understand what it takes.
John Jenkins: I hope so it’s gonna take a lot of work and a lot of support and a lot of help from the rest of the church, the other churches and districts to work with us to help make that happen. So, that’s our top agenda.
Twanna Henderson: Yeah, yeah. And I know that, you know, when you have a lot of roles and a lot of responsibilities, none of us are able to do it without just the guidance of the Word and the thing that fuels us. Is there a life scripture that you know, has kind of helped to shape your personal life and your leadership life?
John Jenkins: Yeah, my life scripture, James 4:6. “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” God loves humility. Now I can talk about this passage right here for the rest of the day but let me just take a moment and talk about the fact that God empowers, anoints and gifts people who walk in humility. And that’s been my verse for my life. This is how I try to live my life, how I try to walk and carry myself in a humble way. “He resists the proud,” “he opposes the plans of the proud,” I think the NIV says, but he gives grace to the humble. When he gives grace, he gives you the ability to do what he’s called you to do. The desire to do it, the gifting to go do it, the people to do it, when you walk in humility, and that’s been the reality of my life. God has brought people in my life. God has given me the people to give me the wisdom of the decisions I’ve had to make. God gives you grace. And if you walk in humility, he’ll give you His grace.
Twanna Henderson: I think that is so true and I think you do embody that. I mean, as someone who’s sort of been on the sidelines of things and just seeing, you know, it’s unfortunate to say that, you know, we don’t see a lot of humble people but if I can say that, we don’t see it. You know, I mean, we can be humble, but not when you think about people when you describe people. And I think when people describe you, that’s one of the words that comes up, that you are a humble man. And I think you, you live out and walk out that scripture well, because I’ve seen that I’ve seen your humility and it is a blessing just to be able to know that you walk in that.
John Jenkins: Thank you.
Twanna Henderson: How can the movement pray for you?
John Jenkins: They can just hold my name up before the Lord. Call John K. Jenkins Sr. out! They can pray for these things. These two matters that I mentioned both. The relationship with the districts. Pray for the finances. Something that a lot of churches are struggling with today. So pray for our finances. Pray for, you know, your husband is, let me just say this, pray for our staff. Your husband is one of our vice presidents. He’s our executive vice president and he’s been such an incredible help and support. Over the years, he’s my best friend. And pray for the staff of Converge. Our national office, our regional directors, and regional presidents and even the people who volunteer to help make Converge what it is. We want to hold these individuals up in prayer so that they could hold those names up in prayer, that would be so helpful.
Twanna Henderson: Yeah, and we definitely want to do that, because it’s so important, just the work that is done, particularly in what you’re talking about starting churches, strengthening churches, and the enemy really, ultimately not wanting to see that take place. Is there anything that you need anything else that you need from the Converge family or anything else, you just want to say, to the Converge family?
John Jenkins: Well, you know, ultimately, the First Lady of our church, the prior pastor of our church, his wife used to say, “if you call yourself a leader, and nobody’s following you, you’re just taking a walk.” And we want the support of the Converge family. We can’t do anything without their support. I’m open, I’m going to be spending these next several weeks and months ahead, getting to learn the leadership and the people, and I’m open to suggestions, and I’m open to ideas and concerns. We want to hear from them. We want to hear what their thoughts are, what they might want to suggest to us, things they’d like to see. I’m open to that. I did not come with an open agenda, an already established agenda. I’m open. That’s what I meant to say. We don’t have something already defined that this is what we’re going to do, no. My kind of leadership is collaborative and I’m open to suggestions and ideas and concerns from the members of the Church, from the movement family and I hope that they will be willing to share those things and give us their support. Those are the main deals, the main things.
Twanna Henderson: Yeah, yeah. Well, I think that is so important. And yeah, so for those of you who are listening, who are part of the Converge family, that’s it, you know, we want to come alongside to support to, you know, pray and to lend whatever help we can.
John Jenkins: Let me add one more thing to that Twanna, that there might be some of your listeners who are not, they might have churches that are not a part of a movement or a family of churches. I want to invite them to go to converge.org and check us out. Just see if you’re not a part of a movement. We’re not trying to recruit people from other movements. But if you’re not a part of a movement, or that movement that you’re in is not helping you become everything God wants you to be, take a look at Converge because this is one of our focuses is on strengthening churches and helping them be everything God wants them to be converge.org.
Twanna Henderson: Yeah, yeah. Thank you for that. And again, yeah, go to converge.org if you aren’t connected, or if you’re listening, and you need to, you want to share this podcast with your leadership and say, hey, you know, I don’t know if we’re part of any type of denomination or if we’re not, I really feel good about this. Well, Mr. President, I like many others are looking forward to the next season for Converge and I know that as president that you’re going to align vision, that you’re going to inspire everyone and you’re going to multiply resources. As we prepare to close can you just take a moment and pray, pray for our listeners, especially those who are connected to a Converge church or who serve with converge at any capacity or who might be interested in learning about Converge.
John Jenkins: I will gladly pray. Let me pray that. Father in Jesus name I’m so thankful and so grateful for this opportunity to share with the listeners of T time. Thank you for my precious sister, Twanna. Pray for the pastors and first ladies and wives and women and others who are listening to this podcast. I pray, Father, for you to order their steps and guide their paths and build a fence around them to protect them from the attacks of the enemy and Father allow us to be able to accomplish together that which you have ordained for us to do. That your name would be exalted, that your name would be glorified, that souls will be saved and people will be changed. Marriages will be brought back together, families will be strengthened and when it’s all said and done the glory will be given to the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you and we pray this father in his, amen.
Twanna Henderson: Amen. Well pastor Jenkins, President Jenkins, again, thank you for taking time out of your very, very busy schedule. It has truly been an honor talking with you and sharing with you and the opportunity to partner with you and to serve under you. To all of our listeners, I’m Twanna Henderson and I look forward to connecting with you the next time, be blessed of the Lord.
