Edgar L. Vann II is a pastor, community leader, and former police commissioner of Detroit. Vann will be honored with the Community Impact Award at the Wolverine Bar Association Barristers Ball on April 29, 2023.
Vann shared some encouragement for leaders who are seeking a relationship with God.
What services do you offer to the community?
Well, I’ve always been as a part of my life plan, a person that was community-connected, and a community servant. I look at myself as a community steward. So I brought this kind of consciousness to our congregation when I came in, and we’ve been doing it ever since. The dimensions and levels by which we serve the community are tremendously multifaceted, and very extensive at this point. Too numerous to name. But we do everything, [like] job fairs, expungement fairs, health fairs, we get jobs for people when new things open in the city, we’ve been the hub for employment and workforce development. We have many of our own internal ministries that deal with our business consortium, entrepreneurship, youth development programs and mentoring programs. The list is very long, but it’s just an outgrowth of our hearts and our love for people. There is no way to lead people if you don’t love people, and it’s important, we believe, for that love to be spread in the community.
You are being honored by the Wolverine Bar Association with the Community Impact Award. How does that make you feel?
I am extremely honored and humbled by it. I have worked, of course, with the legal community in many instances. I’m working now with the U.S. attorney on the initiative to reduce violence in Detroit. I’ve been a police commissioner for 10 years here in the city of Detroit. I serve now as the national chaplain for NOBLE, which is the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. So I’ve worked with law enforcement in the legal community in and out for much of my career. So this is like a pinnacle sort of achievement and recognition for me that the Wolverine Bar Association would choose me for this very important award.
What encouragement would you share with leaders in terms of building a relationship with God?
I have found that the missing link often for people in leadership, they grapple with the same human issues that other people do. For many of them, they grapple with family issues, they grapple with themselves, and with imposter syndrome. They grapple with financial issues and believe it or not, they grapple oftentimes with their own children and their relationship or lack thereof. There’s no difference in the kinds of issues and problems that even people in leadership deal with. They’re human beings too, and sometimes we look at them as being super with the “S” on their chests but they’re human as well. When we talk about what faith does in terms of giving us that foundation upon which to stand, upon which our principles are set, upon which a person develops, how their nonnegotiables develop, who they are and their identity, and how they live their lives, it’s an invaluable component of what every person’s life ought to include.
