Robert Madu wanted to be the next Denzel Washington before God called him to preach, he revealed during a 2016 interview. Today, the married father of three is a highly sought-after charismatic preacher whose gift for communicating God’s Word is unquestionable.
“My youth pastor forced me to do it, and I told him, ‘I’m not a preacher, I want to be an actor,’” Madu said, explaining how he got his start in a youth preaching competition.
During that performance, while being judged on a five-minute sermon, “is when God actually called me to preach,” he said.
Since that formative experience, Madu’s ministry has taken him to church pulpits all over the United States and the world, including Australia and England. He teaches about God’s love and how to find solace in Jesus Christ. The 36-year-old itinerant speaker preaches the gospel in a way that engulfs the listener and holds their full attention.
In addition to preaching at dozens of churches annually, including at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church, Steve Furtick’s Elevation Church and Brian Houston’s Hillsong Church, Madu remains actively involved with the teaching team at his home church, Trinity Church in Cedar Hill, Texas. Madu credits the Assemblies of God church with grooming him into the man and preacher he is today.
“Career is what you get paid to do, but a calling is what you are made to do, and at Trinity, I found that thing that I was made to do,” Madu said in a 2017 testimony about his home church’s affiliated Trinity Christian School.
Madu, the son of a Nigerian father and an American mother, was born and raised in the church and has continued to walk the path in which he was raised. His parents, Robert and Evelyn Madu, remain active church members. As for Madu’s grandparents, the couple used to pastor the Miracle Center Church of God in Christ in Pittsburgh, Texas. It would seem that Christian ministry runs in the Madu family.
“The church was established by my grandfather Harold Tudman and my grandmother Fannie Mae Tudman, who faithfully pastored and preached the gospel in this building,” Madu shared with his 200,000 Instagram followers after visiting the building. “You don’t know their names. The largest crowd they ever saw was maybe fifty people and yet if you’ve ever heard me preach or been blessed by my ministry, you have heard them. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.”
“As I walked into the doors of this church my heart was awakened to the reality that the same God who met my grandparents here is the same God who meets me today,” Madu added.
While Madu is a man all about the gospel and speaks up on justice issues at home and abroad, he also likes to have fun. For example, his leisure activities include watching movies in what he dubs his “man cave.” He’s also a big Dallas Cowboys fan and likes showing off his keen fashion sense.
Madu and his wife, Taylor Madu, met when he appeared as a guest speaker at her Bible college in Dallas, Texas, and eventually married in 2012. The Madu clan includes three children: Evie, Nnaj, and Remi. In a bid to take the gospel to the people and continue to walk in the steps of his grandparents, Madu founded the itinerant Robert Madu Ministries and together with his wife hold worship gatherings through their Social Dallas platform.
Madu, who studied at Southwestern Assemblies of God University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, preached one of his most popular recorded sermons in 2018 at Elevation Church. His message, titled “Get Out,” has been watched more than 1 million times on YouTube.
