The Influencers - pt4 - Brad Reed

When I first met Brad Reed, I remember feeling like every step I had taken in the past few months had been in the wrong direction. Between my dream of changing peoples lives through music with the band and my wife's dream to do music videos, we felt like we were really suppose to move to Los Angeles, so we sort of just went, without much of a plan at all, without a job, without a place to stay. We jumped from place to place all summer, before we met Brad.

In looking for a church in LA, mainly just because we needed to add some community to our lives, we went and checked out Angelus Temple on a Saturday night... I remember we got their early, and sat in the front. As the service was starting Pastor Brad noticed me and introduced himself to me, then he preached a great sermon, and after service he found me again and introduced Dawn and I to his wife Stella. I remember he told us he was gonna goto In N Out with the young adults, but he double booked himself, so before we headed to In N Out he personally found us and apologized that he was not going to be able to make it. I wondered, "does this guy give everyone this kind of attention?" I was amazed.

The next week we went back, and he was the same way, really friendly, it was almost weird to me how nice he was being, just because he was youth Pastor of a youth group of close to 1,000 people a week. The following week, we told him we wanted to help out, and the next day he offered us a job as his media directors for the youth services. To say I didn't see it coming would make sense because it was sudden and very unlike anything that typically happens at the dreamcenter, but in my heart, from the first time I heard him preach, I kind of just got this feeling, I was going to serve this man... and God knew every detail that had to fall into place to make sure that happened.

In one of Rob Bells Nooma videos, he talks about being covered in the dust of your Rabai, following their every move, doing things the way they did it as they poured into your life... to me, thats been Pastor Brad. I have had some great mentors in my life, people that have taught me and helped me to become who I am today, but with Brad, it was like I was learning with him. Because we did all of his media, we got to hear everything that he was going to preach before he preached it, we got everything explained to us, almost like he would practice on us but in more detail then I have ever experienced. Those times grew me more then he will ever know.

If I had to make a list of people I know that I believe are going to change the world, I would put Pastor Brad Reed on the top of it, through both the works that he will see through with his own hands, and the many people that have come out from underneath him who are going to do ever greater things. He said something to me once that not only meant the world to me, but stuck with me and changed my life... he said, "If I am only here at the Dream Center so I can help Jacob & Dawn to get where they are suppose to get, then I am fine with that, and I want to live that way" It was something along those lines, but it just proved that he was not here for himself or any sort of personal agenda, this man is here because he loves people and he wants to see them do great things, and God has blessed him for it beyond belief. He never sought a position, it always just followed him because greatness attracts people, and now he has been asked to be the Senior pastor of the New York Dream Center in Manhattan, an incredible challenge, but I have no doubt he is the man for the job. I am honored to say I know this man, and that I have the chance to work under him and learn from him. There is so much more I can learn from him.

The Dream Center is going to send us to New York with Brad about once a month to help him with his media department, and I simply can't wait to see what God is going to do in the largest city in the world, through one of the greatest leaders I have ever seen. He not only believes but invests in other peoples dreams, and God in return God gave him his dream that he never even told anybody, and everyone that knows him knows that, just like here in LA, New York City will never be the same.

J-Cub