Today we’d like to introduce you to Kenny Green.
Hi Kenny, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
Today I pastor a multisite church and serve as the president and founder of the Mosaic recovery Center. However, that hasn’t always been the case. People that grew up the way I did rarely become pastors or founders of non-profits. I grew up in a broken and divided home. A father who was consumed with drug addiction and drug dealing and a mother who strived every day to provide for us and get us to church on Sundays. It was a challenge because of my father’s addiction. Growing up, it was common to hear guns shooting, people fighting, police sirens, and see flashing blue lights. Seeing large amounts of drugs lying in open sight as far back as my memory serves me, wasn’t unusual.
At age 12 after my father attempted to kill my mother nearly right in front of me, we left. They got a divorce; we moved from the small town of Fair Grove, Mo, to Woodstock, Ga (North Atlanta) to get away. It was devastating; it scarred me for life and still hurts today. That same year my father committed suicide. Growing up, I always promised I would never go down the same path that destroyed my family and took my father’s life. But with success in high school sports and popularity, I ended up giving in to the pressures of my environment and began experimenting with drugs; it quickly led to more frequent use, and before I knew it, I was kicked off all the sports teams, out of school and at 17 got my first felony. That’s a small glimpse into a broken past from a trauma-filled childhood. In and out of jail would be the next few years of my life. Before I knew it, I was trafficking drugs from Atlanta to the suburbs, connected to the underground rap world of Atlanta, and living with a dream of becoming rich and famous as a rap artist through drug dealing. Even with success, money, and notoriety in that underground world, I still felt empty on the inside. I still felt like there was more to this life than what I was living, but at the same time, I felt it was my destiny because of who my father was. In the middle of this lifestyle, desperate, one night, I said a prayer to God. I said, “God, if there is a way out of this life that I am living, show me, and I will take it” You know people often have said, “you have to be careful what you pray for,” that is very true. 2 Weeks after I said that prayer, my apartment was raided by a GBI drug task force. As soon as the handcuffs hit my wrist, I knew God was giving me a way out, and I knew this was the answer to my prayer. I had grown up hearing about Jesus and what He had done by dying on the cross and rising from the dead. But I had never been changed by it; I had never truly surrendered. That night all of that changed.
On June 11th, 2005, in the brokenness of a 6 x12 jail cell in solitary confinement, I surrendered my heart and life to Jesus, and He radically changed my life. I was later released into the general population to cell block N with about 80 other inmates. I instantly started sharing with everyone what God had done in my life. Within days I asked God what He wanted me to do with my life, and I sensed that he was calling me to preach. Not knowing much about the Bible or Christianity, I was shocked, but I surrendered to the call and started preaching, and within a month, 90 % of the cell block was coming to hear the word of God preached every night. We saw a revival, a move of God. I said I would do this for the rest of my life if God allowed it. It is 17 years later, and I’m still preaching the same message that changed my life in that jail cell. For 5 months, I would be incarcerated, then a year in rehab. That fall, I was off to Bible College at Tennessee Temple University, where I would get my bachelor’s degree in Pastoral Ministry, meet my wife and begin pastoring.
In 2012 I graduated college, got married, and we started a church called New Beginnings Church in Monteagle, TN. We would see that church grow from 7 to nearly 200 people in the middle of a town with a population of 1500.
In 2019 God called us to start the Mosaic Recovery Center. We have a 12,000 sq ft facility in Pelham, TN, where we can house 28 men. We are a year-long faith-based program, and in just under 3 years, we have served hundreds of men and have had 13 graduates from our program. It has become one of the premier men’s recovery centers in that region of TN.
In 2020 God called us to launch a new church Called City Light Church based in Chattanooga, TN. We transitioned the former New Beginnings Church into a City Light Satellite Campus. In October of 2021, we launched City Light Church as a multisite church and have seen that church grow rapidly in just the first 8 months. We have seen that the church has grown from 130 people to over 400 in regular attendance. We have baptized 86 people and seen hundreds of people come to faith in Jesus in just 8 months. We have seen God do what only God can do, however we believe that we are just getting started. We have a vision to plant churches in Cities all over TN. At the Mosaic, we are currently planning the launch of our second recovery campus. We feel like we are living a dream, and we are. God has been faithful through it all and is the CEO of our church and recovery center and all that we do, and we praise Him every day for what He is doing. The City Light and Mosaic Staff are the best in the world. We don’t call them staff members. We call them world changers because that is exactly who they are.
My biggest supporters are my beautiful wife Kayla and our three boys, Elijah, Kenton, and Jordan. They are the joy of my heart, and I would not be where I am today without them. As I look at my life, I am amazed at God’s grace and mercy. I could have died in that traumatic childhood. I almost died many times in my addiction, but God spared me, and I never want to take that for granted. I want to give back, I want to make a difference, and I want to change the world. I want to reach men like my father before it’s too late; we won’t stop until our last breath in reaching the world for Jesus. If God can take someone like me, a two-time convicted felon, high-school dropout, and turn him into a college graduate, church planter, father, husband, and founder of a thriving recovery center, there is nothing He can’t do in your life today.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road has not been smooth. Ministry, church planting, and recovery work are some of the most stressful work you will ever do. It’s not been without hurt, loss, sacrifice, and pain. We have been hit with life in some very big and real ways. We have had people leave our life that we thought would never leave. Chasing big vision is not for the faint of heart, and it can be lonely sometimes. But God has been faithful and has surrounded us with great people that have stayed to carry this vision of seeing the world changed with the message of Jesus. One of the hardest parts of recovery work is realizing you can’t save everyone. Although many we serve go on to live long lives in recovery, some don’t. We have lost one graduate to a brutal murder and two to overdoses in the last year alone. These devastating losses motivate us to press forward and reach even more people.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Church Planter, Mosaic Recovery Center Founder. Many people think that if you’re a pastor, you can only be a pastor and that if you are going to have a thriving church, you have to be focused on that one thing. I didn’t want to be put in the box of a traditional pastor. I have found with the right people around you that, you can be involved in much more than just pastoring through duplicating yourself. Being able to pastor a church and oversee a recovery center has certainly been busy and, at times, overwhelming. Still, it has been the most rewarding season of my life and ministry. If you’ve got dreams that God has placed in your heart that don’t fit the mold of your career, then break the mold, step out on faith and watch God provide everything you need to see it through.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
The ability to see it before anyone else sees it. Vision and faith have been the two things that have led to every success in my life and ministry. Receiving the vision and then having the faith to step out and pursue it are two qualities that have been invaluable to me. If there is one that’s close to being almost as equally as important is perseverance—the ability not to quit when it gets tough.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.citylightchurch.cc https://www.wearemosaicrecoverycenter.com.
- Instagram: citylightchurch.cc
- Facebook: citylightchurch.cc
- Twitter: citylightchurch.cc
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaKI_M_w-3XYZR07e4ZR16w
Image Credits
City Light Church, Mosaic Center
