Unlock Your Potential

The Latin infinitive “abundare” means “to abound” or “to overflow.” In the context of a Christian worldview, this concept can be understood as living a life that overflows with God’s blessings, grace, and love. It implies a life of spiritual abundance, characterized by faith, hope, and charity.

The key to a healthy black family is the critical role of the black man.  For a host of different reasons, the role of the black man has been misunderstood, thwarted, and hampered.  Abundare was formed to restore that fullness promised by God’s grace even for the black man.

Livin' life without fear

Puttin' five karats in my baby girl's ear

Lunches, brunches, interviews by the pool

Considered a fool 'cause I dropped out of high school

Stereotypes of a black male misunderstood

And it's still all good, uh

And if you don't know, now you know

From “Juicy” by The Notorious B.I.G.

American rapper

Stereotypes of a black male misunderstood…ain’t that the truth.

Abundare Family Health’s origin story consists of three components: 

Personal

Until God transformed my life, I understood my journey to be one filled with failure.  The revelation that every failure - personal, professional, social, relational, financial, and so on -  was merely a training ground to catapult me into his purpose for my life has given me direction. Before this transformation, because of experiences, I felt rejected, abandoned, and lost.

Thus, my goal is to empower and humanize black men who’ve been traumatized and wounded in the past.  Even for those without a dramatic past, the goal is to further advance black men toward self-realization.  Abundare wants to equip black men with the tools to become pro-active change agents primarily through standing up vocally and publicly against sexism, misogyny, chavaunism, and date/domestic violence toward our black girls and women.  By thus standing up, we can become leaders in challenging the male hegemony, that left unattended, is an existential threat to the black community and the world at large.

Theological

In an ironic twist, my mother’s name was Mary and my father Joseph.  I’m no biblical scholar (nor does one have to be for God’s anointing) but the core of Joseph’s story in the Bible is a powerful narrative of redemption, forgiveness, and divine providence. 

Like him, I was falsely accused, experienced numerous trials, and albeit for only a day or two,  imprisoned.  God has been knocking on my door all my life but I never understood why until now.  The story of Joseph foreshadows that of Jesus.  I’m not sure if my parents pondered that option before “Joseph Jr.”  Nonetheless, from what we know of Joseph, his life prefigures the life and mission of Jesus, emphasizing themes of suffering, redemption, and divine purpose.

Cultural

Like B.I.G., my story and Abudare’s story is one of love, hope, resilience, righteous anger, dashed hopes, unfulfilled dreams, and a profound determination to transcend the past and create a greater, more optimistic future for the world.

Black men are often boxed up, made out to be so simple.  We are not thought of in our culture to be made in God’s image like other human beings.  Instead, we are placed outside of humanity by being characterized as pimps, jocks, violent, dancers, sexually superior, brutal, uncouth, uneducated, rappers, singers, entertainers, not strategic thinkers, angry, aggressive, and a host of other negative characteristics.  

Therefore, by the time we traverse this landscape - through adolescence to manhood - with its overarching theme of being nonhuman,  its not surprising that there is some shame to being a black man, a nagging feeling of not being good enough.  Couple that with any of life’s vissicitudes and the human experience of:

• Trauma
• Child molestation
• Alcohol and drug abuse
• Abandonment
• Sexual identity
• Domestic violence

You now have a perfect storm leading to higher incarceration rates, lower academic achievement, higher rates of arrest for domestic violence and assault against women, higher unemployment, lower salaries, and almost everything else negative, making the “slave mill” an ever-present, vicious cycle for our men.  

Asked how much they would have to be compensated if they were suddenly, magically transformed from a white man to a black man, the answers from a classroom of white men reveal the racial disparity and systemic racism that exists up until today in American society.  Yet, black men are not monolithic.  Like Angie Stone’s wonderful depiction in “Brotha”::

He's misunderstood (yeah)

Some say that he's up to no good around the neighborhood

But fo' your information

A lot of my brothers got education (now check it)

You got ya wallstreet brotha

, ya blue collar brotha

Your down for whatever chillin' on the corner brother

A talented brotha,

and to everyone of y'all behind bars

You know that Angie loves ya

So what precisely is an authentic black man?

Abundare takes these various cultural, religious, and personal elements and seeks to help crystalize and reveal what it means to be a black man.  Reviled by most everyone from black women - these niggas for everybody, they ain’t loyal, they all cheat - to people outside the US who’ve never even met an American black man, the black man’s plight would be softened were it not for the psychosocial interplay - socially, economically, emotionally, politically - between who he is and how he is perceived by others.

Abundare defines a black man as a human being first created in God’s image.  Because of that, a black man has unlimited potential once he finds his purpose; he must acknowledge his multidimensionality, understand how past trauma and pain have shaped him, and come to grips with how to mobilize that hurt, shame, and pain into action.  The authentic black man recognizes his vulnerabilities, his struggles, his psychosocial triggers, his strength, weaknesses, empathy, compassion, tenderness, and self-awareness.  In short, black men are empowered to be the best versions of themselves when they can block out the noise of embrace all of these disparate parts to achieve what and who God wants us to be. 

Abundare uses workshops, leadership seminars, and educational channels to build authentic black leaders with the defined purpose of making the world a kinder, gentler, better place.  The workshops and discussions reveal a deeper nature to black men - their wonder, complexity, beauty, favor, and intelligence but also their vulnerability, sensitivity, masculinity, pitfalls, mistakes, traumas, and pain.  

Abundare seeks to give black men the tools to be their authentic selves.  Like other human beings who are striving toward self-actualization and being their best selves, black men too are dynamic, transitional, contemplative, multi-dimensional human beings with thoughts, feelings, reactions, misunderstandings, beliefs, and myths.  

Abundare wants to help black men undercover their true selves and receive the abundance that God promised us.