Cover Story <strong>CARLTON</strong> <strong>BYRD</strong> TAKES NEW YORK BY STORM And Los Angeles, Atlanta, Nashville, Huntsville . . . By Celeste Ryan Blyden Image digitally altered from a photograph by Dawin Rodriguez. Carlton Byrd always felt that he was born to pastor, born to preach, born to be an evangelist. He grew up in the ministry, grew up wanting to be a pastor, and loves to speak. Now he speaks many times a week and sometimes twice a Sabbath. On this particular night he’s in the Bronx, a borough of New York City, preparing to speak for the NY13 kickoff rally at the North Bronx Seventh-day Adventist Church. And he can hardly wait to preach, to fire up the base and get members here excited about the 2013 major city evangelism campaign set to blanket the city that never sleeps. 16 (144) | www.AdventistReview.org | February 21, 2013
It’s the first of hundreds being organized by the worldwide Adventist Church, but for Byrd, it’s another opportunity to further Christ’s mission: “I love the Lord, I love people, I want to go to heaven, and I want to take as many people with me as I can,” he states, flashing the signature smile he wears above his signature bow tie. “God called us to take this wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone, everywhere, and I’m just glad I get to do it full-time.” Photo: Celeste Ryan Blyden “I Ran to Ministry” Full-time, Byrd is a pastor, evangelist, and the newest speaker/director for Breath of Life (BOL), the television ministry founded 39 years ago by Walter Arties to bring hope and guidance to the African-American community. Thousands have accepted Christ through its evangelism efforts, often held in stadiums and major venues in cities across North America and other parts of the world. Byrd, whose nickname is “Buddy,” took the helm just two years ago at age 38 and was glad to get the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the revered C. D. Brooks and Walter Pearson, Jr., his predecessors. Though it has been only a short time, he’s hoping his message will penetrate the noise that convolutes today’s urban community. It’s getting through in Long Island, New York, where Alecia Anderson watches Breath of Life on Friday evenings. “Can I take a photo with you?” asked the 20-year-old member of Long Island’s Riverhead church soon after Byrd arrived at North Bronx. The flash of Byrd’s smile prompted the flash of her father’s camera, and then it was on. After her father, Orley Anderson, got a turn, others jumped up. “He’s my favorite preacher,” said Orley, who identified himself as the first elder of the Riverhead church. Orley arrived two hours before the announced NY13 program time to secure a seat. “He makes the message so clear and simple. He’s a powerful [speaker], sure of what he’s saying.” Alecia, who relished meeting Byrd, agreed. “He’s inspiring, and I understand what he’s saying.” That may be because Byrd understands—his calling, his purpose, and what it takes to do ministry. “Ministry is service,” he told me afterward as we sat in the tiny, white-walled media room in the attic of the church overlooking the sprawling two-story sanctuary of the North Bronx church. Byrd is constantly engaged in ministry. And surrounded by it. His dad, William Byrd, is a pastor in West Palm Beach, Florida, and his mom, Carol Byrd, is superintendent of education for the Southeastern Conference, headquartered in an Orlando suburb. His father-in-law, too, is a pastor. In early years Byrd memorized the conference directory, read and filed letters for his dad, and attended many weeks of prayer and tent meetings, all because, as he put it, “I wanted to be there.” And he adds, “I was born to do this.” Byrd didn’t run from God’s call. He ran to it. “I arrived at Oakwood [College, now University] knowing what I needed to do,” he recounted with surety. “Some pastors told me to run [away], but I didn’t.” He’s been running ever since, trying to follow a path paved by the renowned Adventist pastors and evangelists who influenced his life—his dad, E. C. Ward, Pearson, Brooks, Benjamin Reaves, and E. E. Cleveland. Path to Success His first assignment out of Oakwood was to pastor the South Central Conference’s Laurel, Columbia, and Soso, Mississippi, congregations, which probably could have met in his car. The Laurel church, for example, had two members. “I didn’t worry about that because I knew it was going to grow,” he mused. “I worked hard, cut the grass at the church, painted—anything that was needed, I did it.” He also conducted a series that yielded three baptisms. This increased the membership by 150 percent, making Byrd the top evangelist per capita in the conference that year. At summer’s end the conference sent him to the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, to complete his Master of Divinity degree. Later he earned an M.B.A. at Tennessee State University in Nashville, and a Doctor of Ministry with an emphasis in African-American religious studies at Andrews. After graduating, Byrd was sent to pastor in Tuscaloosa and Eutaw, Alabama, where he ran his first tent effort and baptized 19 people. This was followed by Nashville, where he pastored a “God called us to take this wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone, everywhere, and I’m just glad I get to do it full-time.” FAITHFUL VIEWERS: During the NY13 event this past fall, Carlton Byrd poses with Orley and Alecia Anderson. new church plant and baptized 300 people in four years. That’s where Byrd believes he really became an evangelist. It’s also where he started doing what he dubbed “tract attacks,” which involve identifying a community, going door to door, soliciting Bible studies, and praying with people. Byrd tries to recruit the entire church to participate. On Sabbath, right after worship and before lunch, members take to the streets and take communities for Christ. The method also worked in Houston, Texas, where Byrd baptized 500 people in three years and then in Atlanta, Georgia, where he baptized 1,800 in five years and grew the church to include www.AdventistReview.org | February 21, 2013 | (145) 17
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