Black Excellence Series: Impacting the Next Generation with Jerry Manuel

In this episode, Jerry Manuel shares how faith, culture, and strong principles have guided his leadership in baseball and his passion for mentoring African-American youth. He reflects on the importance of staying grounded, leading with conviction and compassion, and why Midtown Church plays a critical role in shaping leaders who can withstand adversity and make a lasting impact on the next generation.

Watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/06wV3iefe2o

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

My name is Jerry Manuel. I've been at Midtown Church for five years. I'm a part of a group MLB Develops has that targets African American youth playing baseball. And what matters to me is trying to impact the next generation. Mahatna Gandhi once said that if you wanted to do anything for your generation, take care of the generation to come. Try to impact the generation to come. That's kind of my philosophy is doing everything I can to impact the youth. And in my field of baseball, God has put me in a tremendous, tremendous space at this part in my life to be able to give in to the youth of my culture. I carry my identity and culture in the spaces that I lead very easily because I'm in my culture leading the young men. It's important for me to remain steady in that position, uncompromising, and also be principally led for these youth that I'm trying to impact. You have unwavering faith, which comes from the spirit that you gain when you come into a place such as this. It's uncompromising going forth in your leadership, in your teaching, and in your principles as how you're trying to affect the next generation. I think faith is just a foundational pillar that has to go with you in everything you do. You have to have, in my opinion, compassion for your convictions. If you have compassion for your convictions, it's easier to lead than to have it the other way around. Not a baseball game or how you're managing a baseball game. You have to stay principally sound the entire time when you're leading men of the caliber that I have led at the, you know, at the Major League level. My spirituality has to be on point when I'm leading young men. I can't be a person that's wavering at that particular time. I have to be someone that's that's foundationally solid. And when I say foundation, I mean that I have to be able to withstand whatever comes my way to handle the young men, their problems, what they're going through, where they are at a particular time. If I waver in my principles or my foundation is shaken, then the building process is uh, it becomes difficult. The building, once the foundation is cracked, the building is condemned. And you have to you have to start all over. But you always start with a solid foundation. I think the role that the church plays is probably the most critical role in in society because from the church is where the principles come. You got solid principles, you got a chance. Each person that comes through these doors, if they can come through here and grasp the principles that come from the pulpit and take them into their workplace, we'll be much better off as a community. And we can move and shape different things as a community, but we have to get solid here. We have to get foundationally fit here before we go out. I always thought that the church was the place where I came to get my nuggets for my teaching. I just shifted them in a different way that applied to baseball. And I've always said that uh baseball is kind of a metaphor for life. I mean, it has many ups and downs. And if you can understand the ups and downs in that as well as in life, those principles that you gain, they come straight from the pulpit. They come straight from the Bible. They come straight from, for me, for other people that I have read, even though those people might not have principally put certain things out, but you find in that the principles and the thread that you need to help uh, you know, the youth or whoever you have or whatever you're in charge of to move forward. And I think the church is an integral part of society. It has to be. This is a a church that has so many different cultures uh that come at that hour on Sunday to worship. It's different cultures, but it's the same spirit. And that's that's what we celebrate here. And I think that's a that that's a beautiful thing to be able to celebrate with other cultures at this space, at this time of the day, is huge. I mean, at one point, at one point in our society, the 11 o'clock hour on Sunday was the most segregated hour in the country. But now at Midtown Church, you can't say that. I mean, we're we're we're we're we're all in here, all different races, all different backgrounds, like I said, all different cultures, trying to wrap ourselves around the same spirit. And I think once we get there, and that's the challenge. That's a huge challenge for the church. But once we get there, I think we can move mountains. Listen, gather the information that you hear, meditate on it, and see how it fits in your growth as a young human being going forward. If you can grab some of the principles as a young leader here, you'll be able to handle some of the things that you're gonna go up against in this world. You're gonna have some trials and tribulations, but you gotta be able to withstand those things in order to move forward. And this is a place that can help you to withstand those different things, adversities that you're gonna come up against in this life. They're gonna come. They're gonna come. There's no doubt about that. Everybody's gonna go through something. And if you look at it as, if you're young, if you look at it as growth, then you got a better chance because you understand that growth is painful. Anytime you're growing a tooth and a baby, protruding out of the gum, it's painful. Your knees, when you get 15, 16, they start hurting, but you're growing, you're going to another level. If you can understand that, I think you got a chance. And like I say, take what you can take from here, Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and go back and regurgitate and read and get that, get that in your spirit that can carry you in the times of uh in times of struggle, in times of adversity that we all go through. We all go through this. It's a challenging thing. Life is it's it's it's very challenging. And you're gonna need that in order to get to where you need to go and impact the next generation.