Producers Lemeul Plummer and Holly Carter (“The Sheards”) are teaming up again for a new docu-series titled “Preachers of L.A.”. The show, set to premiere on Oxygen sometime in Fall of this year, will follow the lives of six well-known preachers who are opening the cameras to their lives in and outside of the pulpit.
Senior Vice President of Original Programming and Development at Oxygen Media, Rod Aissa said in a press release:
“’Preachers of L.A.” documents these larger than life characters who are rock stars in their communities, with a fresh, unique perspective that will resonate with our young audience.”
Bishop Noel Jones
Brother to actress/model Grace Jones and new beau to actress LisaRaye Mccoy (who will also be featured on the show), Noel Jones is the pastor of the City of Refuge Church in Gardena, California which houses over 17,000 members and a host of celebrities. Yet nearing retirement, Jones is looking for someone to take over his reign of being Senior Pastor.
Deitrick Haddon
Best known for song He’s Able (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCpEJaKv1Ww), this former pastor was shunned from the church he took over from his father, due to a divorce to ex-wife Damita Haddon (and an extra-marital affair that birthed a love child). Haddon is in the process of reconstructing his life while balancing music, dancing, and return to pastoring.
Pastor Jay Haizlip
This former drug addict turned his bad habit into good by balancing out a pro-skateboarding career along with saving souls. Haizlip is the Senior Pastor of The Sanctuary Church and reaches out to those who many other won’t reach out to including the youth in prisons, on drugs, and of course at skate parks.
Bishop Ron Gibson
Another former drug addict, Gibson was also a leader of the Crips during his younger years. Yet today, he has turned his life around, pastoring at the Life Church in God and Christ while his wife and he pray dedicatedly for a baby.
Bishop Clarence McClendon
Reaching approximately 250 million homes internationally every week, McClendon has the ability to reach and build the gap between people at their lowest and people at their highest.
Pastor Wayne Chaney
Senior Pastor of Antioch Church of Long Beach, Pastor Chaney is in the process of having one of the most prominent mega churches in Southern California.
This show just proves that they will make a show about anything now. My issue with the show is the purpose of it. Are they trying to save souls by reaching a larger audience? Are they trying to show that they are human along with having the title of being a leader of the church? Or sadly, are they trying to reach a certain level of celebrity unattainable just by standing behind a pulpit? To be successful in reality television, one must inject a certain level of controversy in their show and it is obvious that this will occur in this show. I feel as if this show will set in stone the already prevalent contradiction into what pastors’ practice and what they preach. So….will you be watching the Preachers this fall?
