Bishop George Bloomer Exclusive Interview

Bishop George Bloomer: Equipping the Masses with Personal Growth and Spiritual Fulfillment

Interviewed and written by Aaron Robinson - Editor

Recently, Bishop George Bloomer teamed up with the Barnes & Noble in Durham, North Carolina to have a book signing. At the book signing, a percentage of the sales from his new book Break Loose were donated to the Eastway Elementary School that is located in a disadvantaged neighborhood.

Bishop George Bloomer is the founder and senior pastor of Bethal Family Worship Center. Bloomer is a bestselling author, renowned speaker, and entrepreneur, and is seen regularly on “Rejoice in The Word” on The Word Network. Here is one of his powerful and touching massages that he has to share with the readers regarding his new book, testimony and much more.

Aaron Robinson: What inspired you to want to partner with Barnes and Noble Durham, NC to donate a percentage of your book, Break Loose, to the students of Eastway Elementary School?

Bishop George Bloomer: I dropped out of school in 9^th grade and I learned how to read at like 26 years ago. I’m 54 years old. All of my adult life I couldn’t read, write or spell. I still have my challenges with that. Reading, writing and spelling in school - an education is extremely important. Everything that I do, I try to add somewhat of an edge, to give back to the community in some sort of way. No matter how the situation seems, a little can help someone.

Aaron: What gratification did you receive from helping those disadvantaged students?

BGB: Oh my God! That’s a pay day within itself. A lot of times when we give, it’s really giving out of ourselves, in-through ourselves, so that we leave our legacy so that we can remain years later and the years to come. There’s definitely an award! I have a niece, who I think is 8 years old now. She started reading when she was two on a level of a 3^rd or 4^th grader. That’s the gratification. If we’re so into it, the younger generation will get it and the harvest will come.

Aaron: You grew up in an environment of poverty and drugs. How did you escape or overcome those notions?

BGB: Poverty and drugs is a no vile existence. If a person thinks for one moment that they live in a thousand square foot house and drives in a Bentley that they have escaped poverty and drug usage and the use of drug abuse, they are sadly mistaken. You can leave the environment, but does the environment leave you. So for me, both of those things happened. I was raised in the Red Hook’s projects on 453 Columbia Street, apartment A, B, and C. My mom and my dad had 9 children together. My dad was an unfaithful horrible person. He had 15 other children by 6 women in the same projects where we grew up and my mother would take care of some of his illegitimate children. The whole drug scene, I was on heroin, crack, cocaine, ludes, uppers and downers, etc. then I got saved and gave my life to the lord. After being saved, my old addiction came back. I had a period in my life while I was preaching I was shooting up - sometimes 20 minutes and 30 minutes before it was time to preach. I went through a spell in my life, if I wasn’t high I couldn’t even preach. That’s why when you said ‘how did you escape it,’ through the presence and the power of God. If a person thinks just because you live in a mansion that you’re not poverty-stricken, you better think again, because poverty has nothing to do with environment. It has everything to do with mindset. When my mind got free, it was people in the projects in abject poverty, but at the same time in their minds, they had elevated beyond the project situation. They had a car and they drove out and went to work and they were doing much much better because their mind was in a better place. How did I escape? As a man thinks in his heart so is he. When God changed my mindset to be renewed in the spirit of the mind, my whole situation changed.

Aaron: Wow, that’s amazing!

BGB: I know a lot of ballers that are in poverty and they are strong out. I’m talking about ball players, movie stars, etc. Why is Whitney Houston gone today? Why is it that Michael Jackson is gone today? Why is Prince gone today? They had everything…fancy cars, perfect environments and private jets. They were locked in their minds. Michael never grew beyond a 12 year old boy. Prince never grew beyond a 19 year old boy. Whitney Houston never made it passed 12.

Aaron: Would you say that the mindset has to deal with the changes first before a person becomes the individual that they are? 

BGB: Yes, I think a part of life is seeing and then becoming. I coined the phase and the phase is - Mind. Mine! What you think, you will act out. You don’t have to look too far to figure out what a person is thinking if you watch their actions. 

Aaron: As an author, you wrote numerous bestselling books. What makes your new book Break Loose so distinguishing and powerful?

BGB: This discussion that I’m having with you today! We’re all trapped in economical environments, in social prisons; whether it’s races or classes; whether it’s a food addiction; whether it’s a molestation; whether it’s arrogance. Some people are in trouble because they just can’t get out of their own way. Break Loose is a collection of the chronicles of George Bloomer. How did Jonah find himself? [He found himself] in the whale, from the whale to the prison, from the prison to part of his house, then to sit on the throne. Life sometimes carry you through somewhat of a process. The story of the grave cloth! Lazarus. I’m pulling off the grave cloths of when I was a zombie. Drug addiction is equivalent to embalming yourself while you are alive. You become a zombie. You’re a part of the living dead when you inject yourself, when you smoke yourself into poverty, into a room into La La Land. Those are grave cloths that I had to pull off. Some young person right now is sitting in front of a computer and he’s watching pornography for 4 or 5 hours a day. He has to break loose from that. We teach inside the church “Oh God is going to deliver you and set you free!”  We need to stop talking that B.S.! The truth of the matter is that the lord opens up the prison doors and sends out the doors opened up. You come on out. When you make yourself step out, you have to begin to contribute to the deliverance and the breakthrough that you have. If you don’t, you will find yourself back in the trap.

This particular book is the chronicles of George Bloomer’s stories and the things that happened to me that I’m not afraid to talk about. My life is like a combination lock. I don’t have the key to my life, I have numbers. My number is 8, on my first birthday party my mother whipped me and sent me to my room. When I woke up, my candles were blown out and the cake was cut. I never celebrated a birthday until 2016. That was 1971 to 2016. I was wounded. [At] 9 years old, I had problems with my father - 9 years old molestation. I was 37 years old dealing with the molestation, 42 years old, a nervous breakdown from going through these things. So when the people come up and they have a conversation with George Bloomer they sometimes put their hands on my dial and touch my wrong number. So while they think they are speaking to a 54 year old man sometimes they are speaking to my 8 year old self. That’s the rejected me. You don’t want to talk to him. I still have to manage all of those personalities that exist inside of me. So when I go to God to free me from it, He’s saying to me “my grace is sufficient”. Now, I understand the sufficiency of God’s grace which allows me to be an intercessor and to connect with people where they are. So many of our spiritual leaders forgot where the lord has brought them from. So we become celebrities without helping anybody. That’s why I wanted to write the book, Break Loose. If it doesn’t turn out to be a bestseller, it was very therapeutic to me.

Aaron: For those readers who read your book and who feels as if they are not wholeheartedly, or that their life has been hindered due to circumstances, what do you believe they will walk away with after reading Break Loose?

BGB: I believe that they are going to pick up the book and start reading. Not every chapter is for them. They are going to start reading and embark up on a chapter and start feeling the queasiness of the butterfly in the inside of them. That’s going to be those strongholds, those emps and demons inside of them that are very very upset that a light will shine into that dark dark place. I believe that it’s the dark side that reminds us of how bright we are. That’s what I want the book to do for individuals - to let them know that you can co-exist with your dark side as well as your bright side.

Aaron: In these trying times, individuals just give up and feel as if they have nothing to live for. Do you have any words-of-encouragement for those young men and young women who feel as if they have no hope or anything to live for?

BGB: Most of them are punks, chumps, quitters and losers. They want to bow out of life. To them I’ll say, stop the foolishness and stop the nonsense. There’s always a reason to live. Always! Always! You can’t give up. When young people begin to hear stories of individuals who came to the brink, the edge, and came to the end and turned their life around, if we had more of these types of stories, we’ll have more breakthroughs. I think we need to get back to just sharing our stories – stories of redemption and letting young people know that there comes a time when you do feel like giving up, but you can’t do it!  

Aaron: Before we close out the interview, would you like to add anything that we haven’t discussed?

BGB: I just want to say, that it’s our time as African-Americans. I just want to speak a word into the urban areas and the inner cites and let them know that the light is shining. This is one of the greatest times of our lives. In the midst of adversity, when adversity hits you, that’s when creativity stands up. I’m calling on all of the young people to look out of the window of rough times, see hope and go at it. Opportunity doesn’t knock. Opportunity waits to be discovered. Opportunity hides itself from you and is looking for the diligence. You can make it!