Pastor David Bullock says he feels he has a specific calling to reside in the city of Detroit. He loves the people, loves the culture, loves the history of Motown and feels Detroit is the perfect place for the type of ministry he brings to the people. An activist, pastor, renaissance man and public speaker, and with Detroit being his hometown, Bullock wouldn’t dare think of leaving. Besides, his brothers and dad still reside in the city he grew up in and he loves being around his family.
Bullock is definitely aware of the fact that a lot of people are watching him (including his cast mates) who “don’t get him, don’t get the movement, don’t get the turn up, they don’t get the passion.” But despite the people who don’t understand his methods, Bullock says “there are a ton of people who do understand” exactly the direction he’s heading in. There are a lot of people who engage in what he’s doing, his ministry gets great participation from the community, despite the side eye he is getting from some of his fellow cast mates. On the way he chooses to reach the people, Bullock claims,”It’s a wake-up call for the people who left the city, there is a lot of work to be done right here in Detroit and I will be here.”
How he’s handling social media and the feedback from the viewers:
“It [gives me a] platform nationally, [it gives] the ministry [a platform], it’s great that I can reach out when I need to and hop on Facebook and shut the timeline down. There are negative comments and you deal with it but there are positive comments and those [who are] shocked when I retweet them or answer back, and overall I think the good outweighs the bad. I welcome the social media.”
On his thoughts of the other pastors’ negative perception of how he conducts his ministry:
“I think the other pastors are not listening to the message and too absorbed with the method. While they are saying to me not to judge, they are all judging me. They should all take their own advice and respect my position. The stuff I am saying to people is all in harmony with the word and as long as they are receptive to the word, then that’s what’s important. I think God wants me to be myself and I am just being me. On this platform with so many people watching you, it’s important to be relatable to as many people as possible. After the show, when the people look you up on Instagram, Twitter or go to the website, as long as you are able to make the connection, that’s what’s most important.”
Why such a passion for activism and bringing attention to police brutality?
“We definitely have a police brutality problem in Detroit. Seventy percent of the murders go unsolved. Weak commissioner that doesn’t have any power. There’s a guy by the name of McKinley Cochran and he was choked to death by security. We knew we needed to respond to those issues in our own area. I think Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, McKinley Cochran and Eric Garner’s situation were all a wake-up call for everyone to take seriously the big problem that’s going on globally with police brutality. It’s important to take heed to what’s going on and address it.”
Some people were nervous about preachers’ lives being depicted on reality TV, including Bullock, and the damage the exposure could do to the ministers and their ministries. But after working with the production team, Plummer Media and Oxygen Network, Bullock became comfortable with the idea.
“It’s time for the saints to get real,” says Bullock to the naysayers and critics. “You cannot hide from your life because God will bring it all out. I love the fact [that we] have real dialogue, I get to be myself, all the pastors and bishops are real, it’s unscripted and what’s going on in the city of Detroit is real. We have real strong conversations, and sometimes, real collisions.
Bullock admits he is watching the show every week like everyone else and wants everyone to keep tuning in to see how this will all turn out. Are you watching the “Preachers of Detroit”? You will definitely get hooked. Everyone is hilarious and everyone is being themselves 110 percent.
