Rev. Damien Durr
Executive Pastor
Damien Durr, minister, educator, and teacher, inspires, galvanizes, and promotes hope across the county from churches to barber shops to public schools. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, he attended American Baptist College (B.A.), and Vanderbilt University (M.DIV). As a Presidential Scholar at ABC, and Kelly Miller Smith Fellow at Vanderbilt, he helped facilitate various initiatives and discussions involving childhood education, juvenile justice, the prison industrial complex, Black Church Studies, and cultural criticism.
He also served in the Metro Nashville Public School System as a social and emotional specialist & mentor to multiple African American boys. An extension of his undergraduate and graduate work has been incorporated through programs and published works via: The Haynes Middle School Mentoring Program ,The Bishop Michael Lee Graves Leadership Academy, Abington Press, he has co-produced numerous documentaries addressing topics addressing the role of the church and intellectual in the Black community.
As a preacher, presenter, and lecturer, he has shared in different academic and ecclesial settings, as well as in the Juvenile Justice Center and Riverbend Maximum Security Prison with wide-ranging messages including: The church at a crossword between despair, desire, and deliverance:intergenerational ministry in the 21st century Black church; The Life and times of JC:(Jesus Christ) Chronicles of a God chaser, Finding God in an unexpected place, and Confessions of a slumdog Messiah; The messages, images, and influences of hip hop on the Black experience in America; and, Am I a problem: racial profiling, vigilante-ism and social transformation. He serves as the Executive Pastor of Community Development at Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.
He also served in the Metro Nashville Public School System as a social and emotional specialist & mentor to multiple African American boys. An extension of his undergraduate and graduate work has been incorporated through programs and published works via: The Haynes Middle School Mentoring Program ,The Bishop Michael Lee Graves Leadership Academy, Abington Press, he has co-produced numerous documentaries addressing topics addressing the role of the church and intellectual in the Black community.
As a preacher, presenter, and lecturer, he has shared in different academic and ecclesial settings, as well as in the Juvenile Justice Center and Riverbend Maximum Security Prison with wide-ranging messages including: The church at a crossword between despair, desire, and deliverance:intergenerational ministry in the 21st century Black church; The Life and times of JC:(Jesus Christ) Chronicles of a God chaser, Finding God in an unexpected place, and Confessions of a slumdog Messiah; The messages, images, and influences of hip hop on the Black experience in America; and, Am I a problem: racial profiling, vigilante-ism and social transformation. He serves as the Executive Pastor of Community Development at Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.
