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Profile: Rev. A.R. Bernard Sr.
NEW YORK, NY (May 11, 2004) - The following excerpts were taken from
information provided by the Christian Cultural Center in New York.
Bernard is the founder and Pastor of Christian Cultural Center located
in Brooklyn. What started as a small storefront church in 1978 has
emerged into a thriving ministry and not-for-profit organization with a
membership of more than 20,000. His practical application of Christian
teachings has assisted many in such areas as leadership, family,
integrity, spiritual and personal growth.
Born in Panama in 1953, Bernard came to New York at the age of four with
his mother and they settled in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of
Brooklyn. He was part of the 1960s desegregation movement in the public
school system and traveled by bus to school in Ridgewood, Queens, and
then attended Grover Cleveland High School. In order to help his mother
in their single parent household, Bernard worked after school in the
garment district pushing garment racks for $2 an hour.
His senior year, he took a job at Bankers Trust Company, beginning as a
clerk in the Consumer Lending Division and later promoted to operations
specialist in the Consumer Lending Division. While a promising career in
finance was thought to be his future, Bernard left banking to answer his
call to full time ministry in 1979.
Starting with a Bible study group in a kitchen, he and his wife, Karen,
took their savings and rented a small storefront in the Greenpoint
section of Brooklyn. As his ministry grew, so did the need for a larger
facility. In 1979, Household of Faith Ministries was incorporated with
Bernard as its president and CEO. In 1988 the ministry purchased an
abandoned supermarket in Brownsville and renovated it into a 1,000-seat
sanctuary complete with ministry offices and a bookstore. Christian Life
Center became its new name and the ministry moved into its new property
in June 1989 with 625 members.
In 1990 while the ministry continued to grow, Bernard was asked to serve
on the Board of Directors of the Christian Men's Network (CMN) to help
restructure the organization. During his six years on the board, CMN
grew to an organization with 74 international offices and a presence in
approximately 150 nations. In addition to serving as treasurer of the
board, Bernard was one of their most requested speakers. With the
passing of Dr. Edwin Louis Cole in 2002, he became president of CMN.
Bernard has traveled extensively throughout the United States, the
Caribbean Islands and to the continents of Asia, Africa, Australia and
Europe addressing religious organizations, businessmen and political
dignitaries. His love of children and the need for quality early
childhood education prompted Bernard to open the Brooklyn Preparatory
school in 1993, an educational institution designed to see children from
ages three through six develop. Their June 1999 first grade graduates
ranked 91st in the national percentile in reading and 96th in the
national percentile in mathematics.
Other outreach programs under his leadership include Dublin House, a
food pantry serving the homeless and those in need; Prison Ministry; and
Literacy and Sonrise (an aid to substance abusers, assisting with
counseling and an extensive referral system). He sits on several
different boards including Anchor House and Teen Challenge - a teen
substance abuse program with a 70 percent success rate. Bernard
presently serves as chaplain to the Division of Law Enforcement of the
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Police. He is
also a board member of the New York City Economic Development
Corporation ("EDC") appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a member of
the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Public Library.
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