I asked Pastor Jamaal Bernard the nepotism question directly...

Thirty seven thousand members. One church. Zero elections.

That is Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, the largest evangelical church in New York City, one of the largest independent churches in the entire country. On September 19, 2025, the pulpit did not go to a vote. It went from father to son. Pastor Jamaal Bernard was installed as the new Senior Pastor, taking over from his father, Dr. A.R. Bernard, who built the institution from the ground up starting in 1978.

He is not the only one. In the same twelve month window, The Potter’s House in Dallas installed Sarah Jakes Roberts and her husband Touré Roberts as co-senior pastors. Victory Christian Center in Tulsa installed Paul Daugherty, twenty eight years old, and the press asked the question out loud, was he too young for the job. Second Baptist in Houston handed the pulpit to Pastor Ed Young’s son. Four of the biggest pulpits in America changed hands in about a year, and in every single case, the new boss shares a last name with the old boss.

I sat down with Pastor Jamaal Bernard this week and I did not come with softballs. I did not come with an ambush either. I came with the questions everybody is already whispering, and I asked them directly.

What “installed” actually means

The word choice matters. Not elected, not hired through a search process, installed. I asked him what that word meant from the inside, on the day it happened, in front of his father and a congregation of thousands. His answer mattered because language is never neutral, especially in an institution this size, with real estate plans reportedly in the billions and a media footprint that includes his own podcast, Off Script, and a catalog of books.

The resume before the pulpit

Here is what I will give him credit for before anyone accuses me of a hit piece. Jamaal Bernard did not wake up one day in that chair. Chief of Operations. Director of Public Safety. Founder of the C3 Youth organization. A decade running CCC’s Long Island campus starting in 2014. That is a real operational track record, the kind that would get anyone promoted at a Fortune 500 company without a second look.

The nepotism question, asked directly

But a track record inside the family business is not the same as a track record judged by people outside the family. When a CEO’s kid gets promoted at a public company, there is a board, there are shareholders, there is a proxy filing, somebody outside the family has to sign their name to it in public. When a pastor’s kid gets installed at a church this size, who signs off? I asked him that question straight, and I asked him what he would say to the people who reach for the word nepotism the second they hear the word installed.

What comes next

We also talked about how he and his father are dividing authority now that Dr. A.R. Bernard remains Chairman of CCC Global, what financial transparency looks like going forward, and how much of his public presence right now is pastor versus brand. That last question is the one I think about most, because it is not really a church question. It is a media question, and media questions are my lane.

CTRL the Mic - Jamaal Bernard did not dodge the hardest question in the room. He answered it in real time, on the record, in front of an audience already primed to be skeptical. That is what it looks like to hold the microphone instead of letting the microphone hold you.

CTRL the Camera - The optics of a family succession will always draw scrutiny, fair or not. The leaders who survive that scrutiny are the ones who address it on camera before someone else frames it for them. Silence is never neutral. Silence gets filled by whoever is loudest.

CTRL the Room - Inheriting a title is not the same as commanding a room. Bernard’s operational history, the Chief of Operations role, the Long Island campus, the Director of Public Safety title, is what gives him something to stand on besides his last name. Every leader inheriting a platform needs that same foundation, or the room will notice the gap.

CTRL the Narrative - This is the whole exercise. Installed or elected, inherited or earned, the institutions and the individuals who last are the ones who can answer the hard question out loud instead of hoping nobody asks it. This week, he answered it. Whether that answer holds up is now a matter of public record, which is exactly the point.

Watch the full conversation now on YouTube, and go support the guest. Check out Pastor Jamaal Bernard’s books, his podcast Off Script, and Christian Cultural Center.

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