Bishop Brandon Burdett Porter loves Jesus Christ, and leads God’s people with this love. He is the Pastor of Greater Community Temple Church Of God In Christ in Memphis, Tennessee, Prelate of Tennessee Central Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, Interim-Prelate of Ohio Southern Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and the Church Of God In Christ Secretary of the General Board. He is a fourth-generation member of COGIC—the son of late Mother Ida M. Porter and Bishop W. L. Porter, and the grandson of late Elder George T. Flagg of Arkansas.
In 1976, Bishop Porter was called to preach, and ordained an Elder in 1978. In 1991, after serving as a pastor right out of college in Jackson, Tennessee for nearly twenty years, his father appointed him Pastor of the historic Greater Community Temple (GCT) in North Memphis. Under Bishop Brandon Porter’s leadership, GCT membership flourished to over 5,000 and expanded to the campus in East Memphis. In 2009, he succeeded his father as Prelate of the Tennessee Central Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, which has grown to over 80 churches and counting. In 2012, Bishop was elected to the twelve-member COGIC General Board, and re-elected in 2016 and 2021, where he continues to serve. His influence is recognized by other reformations, and in 2017, he was appointed to the Board of Directors for the Conference of National Black Churches (CNBC).
Bishop Porter’s “Touched by the Truth” ministry can be seen and heard by millions via television, radio, and social media. He has touched thousands by authoring transformative books such as A Reason to Keep Going, It’s Time to Be Filled, The Multicultural Church: True or False, and In His Likeness.
In 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic upended life as we have known it. Yet, this past Pentecost Sunday, May 2021, marked a full year that Bishop Porter has kept Greater Community Temple open for service during this crisis. GCT has been essential to the community’s health, providing safe in-person worship, prayer, counseling, communion, weddings, funerals, and distributing masks, food, COVID testing and vaccinations, while streaming live worship and Bible Study world-wide for the sick, shut-in, and all who hunger for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Bishop Porter is a graduate of the University of Memphis and a successful businessman, serving as CEO of several community developments in Tennessee. Amid all of his responsibilities, Bishop still spends quality time with his loving wife, First Lady Melody, a registered nurse. They have two God-fearing sons: Brandon II, a graduate of Morehouse and Memphis business man, and Bryson, a senior at the University of Memphis and video producer who is married to Kristen, an educator; they have an infant—Bishop’s first grandchild—Braxton IdaMarie Porter.