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Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and wife LaTicia Kilpatrick have launched an online ministry called Movemental in an effort, they say, to show people the love of Christ and set captives free.
“[W]hen we look at Acts at the first-century Christians, we see that James, John, and Peter and Paul and Barnabas, and all those guys, they weren’t doing church, they were turning the world upside down with a movement,” Kilpatrick said in a video published to his ministry’s website. “And what we want to do is continue that movement, a missional movement of Christ.”
Mrs. Kilpatrick, also an ordained minister, explained the main focus of their new ministry.
“What I would say is the very important piece that spearheads it is love, the love of Christ, but as well as setting the captive free … what I feel, it’s very clear that my husband represents literally and what he personifies for people, as just a beacon of light and hope for just the world to see,” she said.
Although the organization seems to incorporate in-person events, Movemental is primarily a virtual ministry. Kilpatrick intends to use tools like Instagram and livestreaming technology to host weekly Bible studies and weekend services, reflecting the operating aspects of many religious ministries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ex-felon acknowledged that some people remain skeptical of his intentions as a Christian pastor. He said such skeptics were necessary.
“I’m one of the folks that God touched in the worst moments of my life and from a concrete floor in a solitary confinement cell,” Kilpatrick said. “He provoked me to trust Him. He gave me the faith to choose Him. And I need those doubters, because I want them to be the very people that can absolutely see the transformation. So they can understand how it was done.”
With his testimony in view, the former mayor launched Movemental Ministries on January 20. “The day marks the one-year anniversary he was released from federal prison after then-President Donald Trump commuted his sentence,” according to The Detroit News.
Kilpatrick was convicted on 24 federal felony counts, including mail fraud, wire fraud, and racketeering, on March 11, 2013. Trump commuted his 28-year federal prison sentence right before he left office on January 20, 2021 — about a year after receiving a letter signed by Michigan politicians and pastors requesting that he take such action on the disgraced ex-mayor’s case.
However, Kilpatrick seems to believe a higher power was at work when his sentence was shortened.
“It wasn’t a president. It wasn’t money. It wasn’t fortune or fame,” he said in the video unveiling his new ministry. “It was the authentic relationship that came with Jesus Christ in the most unfamiliar place, the inner parts of a prison.”
If skeptics keep watching him, Kilpatrick said, “I believe they will see the reflective light of God in this movement.”
Kilpatrick, described on his ministry site as an “ordained minister, motivational speaker, consultant, and certified character coach,” said he was inspired to use the term “Movemental” after reading Permanent Revolution, a book presumably written by Alan Hirsch and Tim Catchim. Together the minister and his wife, married in July 2021, have one son with another child on the way. Kilpatrick reportedly also has three sons from a prior marriage.
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Faithfully Magazine is a news and culture publication centered on Christian communities of color.
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