CHARLES JENKINS

A MAN OF GOD, HUSBAND, FATHER AND MUSICAL MAN.

Charles Jenkins is a celebrated hitmaker, label head, and music mogul. Most noted for his infectious anthems “Awesome” and “War”, Charles is back with timeless anthems that promise to touch the soul and entertain all who listen. He has earned 18 Billboard #1’s, 9 Stellar Awards, Grammy recognition, a Soul Train Music Award nomination, and 7 Dove Music Award nominations. This spring Charles also received his 9th BMI Top Songwriter Award. He closed out 2022 at the #1 spot on the Year-End Billboard Gospel Airplay Chart with his hit “Never Knew Love.”

Flash back twenty years when pews of churches were all filled. Choirs wore robes, shout music and prayer service still existed and children could recite and memorize the word of God at command.

Let's reminisce for a second a decade ago, when we still participated in revivals, praise and worship was a main event and relationship with God and dedication to our church was what most aimed for.

Music that make you thank God for our good ole gospel history, while praising God for the evolution of Gospel music and the advancements we have made all at the same time is exactly what Rev. Charles Jenkins brings to the table.

Grandmomma and Grandaddy can clap and shout, and then change the track and we can worship while lifting our hands in worship. Music that touches every generation that comes in contact with his sound, is exactly what he does for the music scene.

I am excited to introduce to some and present to others Rev. Charles Jenkins:

After over 10 years of success in the music business with hit songs such as “Awesome”, “War”, “Winning”, and “Never Knew Love” which has accumulated over 95.5 million streams, over 100 million views on YouTube, and 734,560 Shazams.

The Florida native is a devoted family man He is married to Dr Tara Rawls and he has three beautiful children, Princess, Paris, and Charles III. As a beloved gospel figure, he has had the opportunity to perform at BET’s “Sunday Best,” “Celebration of Gospel”, and TVOne’s “Urban One Honors,” but he is no stranger to performing for a wide variety of crowds. He has had the opportunity to perform at the Jay-Z Made In America Festival, The Essence Music Festival, and D-Nice’s Club Quarantine at LA’s famed Hollywood Bowl in front of 17,000 attendees.

For 20 years, Jenkins served as the senior pastor of the historic Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago. His passion for service has been a phenomenal help to the city and the State of Illinois. He was pivotal in the passing of the Big Box Ordinance which led to Walmart and Target stores arriving in Chicago Charles was also an instrumental figure in Uber’s arrival to the city He also helped restore 30 million dollars to the Illinois state budget which led to the expansion of Walgreens and affordable medication for senior citizens

Additionally, as a celebrated motivator and communicator, Charles has traveled around the world inspiring audiences He was a featured speaker at a special National Prayer Breakfast event alongside the famed Os Guinness. Jenkins was also a speaker at President Barack Obama’s second Inaugural Prayer Service among many other notable events. He has received countless awards and citations for his service including the BET Networks ICON Man of Change Award and the Black Enterprise Magazine’s Urban Business Game Changer Award. Charles Jenkins’s passionate journey has led him all over the world and onto almost every stage an artist can dream of. He is a hit songwriter and gospel music mogul embracing the next page of his musical journey.

The new EP, titled “Gospel Music Changed My Life”, is produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Warryn Campbell and Grammy-nominated producer Marcus Hodge The EP flashes back to the 70s and 80s with a range of soulful emotions laced with hip-hop inflections This project represents the story of a misguided teen who was put in a gospel choir for punishment as a 9th grader Crystallized as one of Gospel Music’s leading artists, Charles intends to use this album and his story to reach at-risk inner-city youth with events, music camps, and concerts around the world The first single, “God Be Praised,” is a southern, handclapping, foot-stomping anthem “I listen to God Be Praised every morning, and then 3 times a day after that”, says Louis Carr, President of Media Sales for BET Networks.

His longtime fans will feel the same sense of familiarity and joy, while first-time listeners will be welcomed into a broader sense of community that Jenkins so proudly embraces.

“I’m embracing who I’ve always been and what I’ve always done” – Charles Jenkins

Outside of music and ministry, who is Charles Jenkins?

Charles Jenkins is a country man who loves the Lord. I love people. I'm a athlete through and through. I am committed to southern charm Let's treat people right, treat people well I am diehard about service I'm a serial entrepreneur and I'm a music man I am a fashion man My mama will make me wear suits to school growing up So race me, and I will dust you with my church shoes on

But yeah, I love people. You know, people have over the years, members of my team and staff members have said to me, people ask them, is he really that nice? Like, is he really kind in real life? And I was raised that way in real life You know, if, if I don't speak to you and you spoke to me, it's cuz I'm deaf in my left ear, you were probably on my left side But yeah, I'm, I'm with the people That's, who I am in a nutshell I'm a aviation fan I'm a diehard aviator I was a student pilot for a little bit I'm a swimmer I was on the swim team growing up I'm a cook. My wife says, says I cook like a grandmama, but yet I'm your granddaddy. So, you know, that's the way love goes.

Take us back to the beginning. When did you realize you had a calling into the ministry through preaching?

You know, if I go all the way back to the beginning and bring you up So my father passed away when I was 10 I didn't have a lot of pictures of men, of faith, men who were successful. The images unfortunately were tough, disparaging and difficult. And so, you know, I kind of paid attention to those images. I didn't come from a bad household I came from a great household My father, before he passed, was in construction My mother was a school teacher She taught school for 40 years A great woman of faith My daddy listened to the mighty clouds of joy on Sunday He wasn't really coming to your church every now and then, but you going to hear the clouds Maybe a Lil Williams brothers, and then he is going golfing But when he passed, I was kind of working through how to live without my hero.

What does it look like to be a young boy with the right frame of thinking and what this manhood look like. And I thought it was being a tough guy, thought he was doing whatever you want to do, making your own decisions You can't tell me nothing Fast forward, I was skipping school my freshman year and I missed more days of school than I can count And I would catch the bus to school, walk through the school, jump in my homeboy's stinking Lincoln town car. And I would hang out all day. One day I was walking through the school, call myself, heading to my boys' car and members of the school staff headed me off. They did an intervention, took me into a room, gave me a good talking to, challenged me on not throwing my life away.

They gave me a hall monitor to make sure I went to class, a tutor to make sure I was doing my homework A guidance counselor to make sure I was thinking straight and for punishment they didn't put me in detention, they put me in gospel choir. So Gospel choir was the place and I hated it. I sat in the back mean mugging, t-shirt, bald head, chucks no socks and I didn't think it was for tough guys and I hated it. One day the choir director walked in, started playing the piano, never looked at the keys. I was fascinated because I had taken seven years of classical piano as a child from the age of five to 12 I went from not paying attention, not standing up to standing up in the back, singing along in the front solo quad directing and gospel choir was where I engaged my faith formally

It was where I engaged what ministry was in service because we would be singing all over the city and, and seeing people deeply impacted. And I saw that. And Gospel Choir was the place where a ministry was formally engaged because we had a phenomenon in my hometown of St Petersburg, Florida where there were all of these young preachers So fast forward, I ended up having my own choir, the biggest choir in the city and my choir sung at all of these revivals So I started to wonder was I called to preach too I was a dancer, a dancer, dancer annd I won all the talent shows

I had a dance group with one of my dearest friends, famed producer Will Packer. We were in a dance group together, we would tear your talent show up, we would come to your house party and come in the door and Go. So everybody thought that I was gonna be a professional dancer and I actually wanted to be It was a moment when Mc hammer, this legendary rapper from way back was coming to town looking for dancers and the whole city was like, Chuck is outta here That's what everybody calls me at home Chuck is gone, he's out

One night I was reading my Bible and I had an epiphany theophany, a aha moment. I was done reading my Bible, I sat my bible down and it was hot. I turned the fan on, got in bed the fan is turning the pages of the Bible. So I get up, I turn the fan off the Bible stops, the pages stopped flipping Something said to me, now I know to be the Holy Spirit says, see what pages the Bible stopped on So I turned the light on and it stopped on that passage where it says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me for he has anointed me to preach I'm crying, I run in my room and i'm like, I am called to preach. Oh the Lord has called me to preach the gospel.

My mama, who's a holiness woman who loves the Lord, Queen of Service, said, boy, you ain't called to preach. You called to clean your room, you are called to wash the dishes, you are called to cut the grass Fast forward, That was my genesis and I had the conviction I think you really know that you're called to do something when you feel the burning passion, even beyond the challenge of someone pushing the envelope or pushing against you So I had that conviction, I started preaching when I was 16, was offered my first church, this big church in Birmingham, Alabama at 18. I was named a successor to the iconic Reverend Clay Evans in Chicago when I was 21. Took over when I was 24 days before my 25th birthday. And the rest is history.

You mentioned Reverend Clay Evans, so from Florida to Chicago. How did that happen? How did you get to the great fellowship?

So I ended up in Chicago, I attended Miles College cause I was a tough guy in high school. I got into college as a favor to my mother from her college boyfriend. He was a head football coach at Stillman College in Alabama. He made a phone call to Miles College in Birmingham, I got in there. I tried to transfer to Moorehouse after a year and a half or so, Morehouse lost my application, couldn't find my application They called me at the end of, I wanna say 1995, maybe November, 1995, they called and said, we found your application, but all of your classes are closed day school You gotta go to night school at the entire AU center It's too late to get financial aid for January, you have to bring 7,500 cash on the front end. Pay 7,500 cash on the back end. Well that was out. Yeah, we didn't have that.

So I was over at my pastor's house in St Petersburg, Florida, Reverend Wilkins Garrett He said, so why were you going to Morehouse? What was you going to Morehouse for? I was like, computer science He was like, lawyers go where? I said, law school Doctors go where? I said medical school He said, and ministers go where? I said, Bible school. He said, and you were going for computer science? No, you should be going to Bible school.

Laying on the table was this magazine and on the back of the magazine, the number one Bible school was on this Christian magazine is Moody Bible Institute in Chicago So I applied, all of my friends were like, you're never gonna get into that school It's the Ivy League of Bible Colleges in the US I applied, they accepted me January the week of orientation, called me and said, by the time a letter will come, school would've already been started

So this is your call to tell you that you are accepted. If you can get here tomorrow, there's one bed left on the campus available for you All of the classes are open for your major and all you have to bring is $500 Okay, It's much different than 7,500

My mama went to JC Penny, We bought long Johns and sweatpants and I left 80 degree weather and went to 30 below zero on a day's notice, not knowing anyone. Fast forward, I get to Chicago, I end up under watch care at a church called Mount Vernon, Reverend Johnny Miller, iconic man, amazing human being He puts me up at some event called the Gospel Bowl where all of these preachers come and all of these people and they preach all day That was my introduction to Chicago I ended up getting invited everywhere, So I'm preaching all over the city. I got four, four o'clock services, or four three o'clock services. This one put me up early. This one hold the people. This one sings extra songs. This one starts later.

Reverend Evans had this organization called the arc, the African-American Religious Connection, where he would bring business people together to buy businesses, community leaders and influencers to do business and communities He also did his music, the A A R C Mass choir He would have this convention and they would record and they wanted a youth division and they did not have a youth division. So his right hand person, Jeanette Wilson, reached out to me and said, you're really popular in the city, could you help us with the aarc? And so I said, sure. I put a proposal together and my girlfriend at the time, who is now my wife of 25 years printed it up and I called Jeanette and was like, I have a proposal of how I could help

She said, meet me at the church on Thursday So I go to bring the proposal and Jeanette doesn't come The secretary says, go downstairs and wait I'm dressed, Martin Luther King style, black suit, white dress shirt, black tie, black hard bottom shoes, I have a dream. So I'm just coming to drop off this proposal. A gentleman by the name of Reverend Lynn Taylor walks up and says, are you Charles Jenkins? I said, I am. Says that's your proposal, I said it is and he says, I need to make about 30 or 40 copies of it for the meeting we're getting ready to have I was like, no sir, this is not for a meeting I'm just supposed to drop this off for Jeanette to review Get back to me Let me know if she likes it or not He's like, you are Charles Jenkins

Yes,That's your proposal? Yes, I was told to come get it to make 30 or 40 copies of it. I'm like, no way. Nobody's supposed to see this. This has not been vetted, reviewed. Fast forward, he tells me I was told to get this and if you don't give it to me, Reverend Evans is gonna be very upset with you. I was like, he doesn't know me. Reverend Evans doesn't know who I am Why would he be very upset with me? He Pulled out this clipboard and said, see on this agenda for the meeting, we're getting ready to have, your name is on the agenda and you're scheduled to speak today and present this proposal I'm like, wow and I am mortified Like, oh my God So he says, if you don't hand me this proposal, he's gonna say some very unkind things about you in front of everyone.

I reluctantly hand him the proposal and Reverend Evans gets to me on the agenda. He says, the Reverend Charles Jenkins, please rise and present Both of my knees are knocking underneath the table I wasn't even supposed to be at this meeting I don't know how I got on the agenda He says, at the moment, when I opened my mouth, God yelled in his ear, that's your successor What he didn't know was, in May of 1996, God put on my heart that I was gonna be the pastor of fellowship or I was supposed to be. I told my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, my mother and my best friend Craig. Craig Oliver, pastor of Elizabeth Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. I told them, and so fast forward, he never told me that I was his successor. He told me tp stay close, That year during the aarc we had, the year prior, I had 2000 kids that year we had, they had 25 kids The year I started, we had 2000 kids and I had Kim Burrell there, Marvin Sapp there the very first year I went $13,000 in the black with the kids' budget, I raised 13,000 over

He called me into a meeting and I shared with him my testimony of how I knew I was supposed to be the pastor of Fellowship. We both cried,I gave him all these confirmations. We both cried, He went and got a master plan of a project he was working on and he said, I thought I was supposed to do this You're supposed to do this, Build the temple Right, and the rest is history That's how I got to fellowship

You then spent over two decades as senior pastor. Can you share some of your most impactful moments of ministry?

It's so many special moments that only God can make When I got there again, I was 24, 80% of the church was 75 or older Everybody was my grandmother and grandfather Really nobody thought that I would last a year The word was on the street was that those old people gonna kill him. He's not gonna be able to change nothing, do nothing. The first year thousand new people joined all my age, 20 somethings.

Every year, 15 years at least, that was the trend So watching thousands of people come to Christ watching, you know, when Mace first started preaching, I invited him and he preached We did an altar call and 80 gang members threw down their flags and got out of the gangs I baptized 80 young brothers That was special, and then there's so many moments just seeing people healed and, you know, seeing people's lives changed. I remember it was one guy, he was a big drug dealer, and when you have a felony there 82 jobs you can't do. This brother, long story short, he got pulled over by the police and he had cocaine on him. They did not arrest him. He told them I was mentoring him, and they let him go He didn't tell me, The police told me

I walked into a meeting at the state's attorney's office and they said, you know, so-and-so, and I was like, who? and they were like, so and so, I was like, yeah We pulled him over, He had how many grams? Whatever But we let him go because he said you were mentoring him and you just want to talk to him. I ended up taking him to dinner and you know, he was telling me he had to provide for his family and 82 jobs you can't do. So what do I do? I told him brother despise not small beginnings and walked with him He ended up getting a job with the city of Chicago A job that you're not supposed to have, when you have a felony So seeing so many of those kinds of stories, I sat with all of the gang founders in the city of Chicago to get the inside scoop on why the violence happens and what we could do to try to change it

Chicago needs so much help and at least being able to have that conversation and trying to make a difference. I helped bring Walmart to the city that was hundreds of millions of dollars to the city's bottom line. Target was a part of that deal It was something called the big box ordinance that I helped to get past with a number of other amazing people Helped bring Uber to the city Wow, at a certain point, 60 million was cut out of the state budget State of Illinois budget for Medicare, Medicaid, me, Leonard Muhammad, father Michael Flagger and James Meeks went to the state capital and we got 30 million back in the budget. What that meant was if all that money was gone, there would not be insurance available for seniors to be able to go get their medicine. So I didn't know the pharmacy was, Walgreens is bread and butter and all of the other stuff in there is the ancillary stuff around the pharmacy

Rev. Jenkins ends the interview with giving us a glimpse into his new music: He shares that his latest EP includes music for everyone Songs dedicated to his mother, old school gospel filled music, foot stomping music. This album is available wherever music is available. Go stream Gospel Music Saved My Life.