About
Dr. A. R. Bernard, Sr.
Founding President; Chairperson, Board of Trustees
At NSBT
Dr. A. R. Bernard, Sr. is Founding President of The New School of Biblical Theology and Chairperson of its Board of Trustees. He serves as the founder, chief governance officer, and theological and strategic head of the institution, and authorizes major institutional commitments in coordination with the Board. His office is one of governance and theological stewardship; day-to-day institutional operations are delegated to the Executive Vice President. On matters of mission, identity, and ecclesial relationships, he is the institution’s principal external representative.
The founding vision
From the earliest years of the Christian Cultural Center, Dr. Bernard carried a vision for a graduate school. He envisioned an institution that would prepare men and women for effective Christian ministry and leadership in a global context by deepening their understanding of the Bible, attending to intellectual and spiritual formation, and equipping them to be more effective in cultural engagement and public theology. He established NSBT as a graduate theological institution offering the Master of Arts in Christian Ministry (MACM) and the Master of Arts in Global Christian Leadership (MAGL). He recruited Larry H. Weiss, Esq. and James Halek as founding members of the Board of Trustees, with himself as Chairperson, Mr. Weiss as Secretary, and Mr. Halek as Treasurer.
Ministry and career
Founding Pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Bernard leads one of the largest congregations in the nation, with over 37,000 members across multiple campuses. He left a successful 10-year career in finance in 1978 to begin a small parish in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. That parish has grown into the Christian Cultural Center, headquartered on a 10.5-acre campus in Brooklyn, with campuses on Long Island, in Orlando, Florida, in Atlanta, Georgia, and a virtual campus reaching thousands worldwide. He founded Brooklyn Preparatory School in 1993, specializing in early childhood education, and Cultural Arts Academy Charter School in 2010. Sworn in on March 4, 2026, he is Co-Chief Chaplain of the New York City Police Department; he is also President of the New York Commission of Religious Leaders. His experience in ministry, institutional leadership, theological education, and community development spans more than four decades.
Writing and media
Dr. Bernard is a published author and thought leader in faith and culture. His writings include Happiness Is... Simple Steps to a Life of Joy (Touchstone Faith / Simon and Schuster, 2006) and Four Things Women Want from a Man; Reframing Faith in a World of Power is forthcoming. He launched ARB Media in March 2021, which features and produces diverse content at the intersection of faith, culture, and media, and he reaches over 500,000 people weekly through teachings distributed worldwide.
Public theology
NSBT understands itself as a school of public theology, and this identity rests on a sustained body of theological work by its Founding President, whose published and forthcoming writings supply the intellectual framework from which the institution and its curriculum were designed. That framework holds Christ as the organizing center of the faith, trains students to distinguish the person of Jesus from the religion that formed around Him and from the civilizational project that grew up when the faith became entwined with power, and aims at the formation of thinking disciples, believers whose minds are formed and not merely informed, prepared for ministry in a world where Christian institutions no longer hold assumed cultural authority. Cultural engagement, in his framework, means faithful presence: the practice of embodying the way of Jesus in every sphere of life, in work, art, politics, justice, technology, and community. Drawing on and extending the classic typology of H. Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture, he rejects both withdrawal from culture and conformity to it, a posture he calls Christ in Culture. Public theology means the disciplined engagement of the Christian faith with the questions of common life, pursued for the common good, so that graduates can articulate the faith intelligibly and constructively in the public square. Every course at NSBT is built around the teachings of Dr. A. R. Bernard, Sr.
Service
He is an advisor to prominent figures from various fields, including both Republican and Democratic Presidents, Governors, Mayors, and New York City Police Commissioners. Representing the Protestant Community in the United States, he has co-hosted notable global figures and dignitaries including Pope Benedict, Pope Francis, and President Reuven Rivlin of the State of Israel. He served on NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Transition Team in 2001 and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Transition Team in 2014, and was Co-Host of the 2024 National Day of Prayer. He has served as President of the Council of Churches of the City of New York, representing 1.5 million Protestants, Anglicans, and Orthodox Christians, and as a Founding Board Member of the Christian Community Relations Council (CCRC). His board service has included the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Public Library, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and the Commission of Religious Leaders NYC (CORL).
Recognition
- 2017: Featured on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday (Oprah Winfrey Network)
- 2016: Named “The Power Pastor” (The New York Times)
- 2010–2011: Named to The Ebony Power 100 (Ebony Magazine)
- 2008: Named among 25 Leaders Reshaping New York (Crain’s Business Publication)
- 2008: Named Most Influential African American New Yorker (New York Post)
- 2007: Lifetime Achievement Award (Consulate General of Israel in New York)
- 2006: Named one of the City’s Most Influential New Yorkers (New York Magazine)