On September 1, 2024, in a ceremony at West Angeles Church of God in Christ, Lawrence Blake was officially appointed the pastor of Palm Lane Church of God in Christ in Watts, marking the culmination of a journey defined by resilience, faith, and profound transformation. One that almost tragically cost him his life and left him a bullet lodged in his hip as a souvenir and lasting reminder of the moment that changed his life.
While everyone has a story, few are as extraordinary as his.
More than 30 years ago Blake asked God to show him a “Biblical-sized” miracle so that he could truly believe. Little did he know that in the pivotal and harrowing moment of divine encounter that would redirect the reckless path he’d been on, he would become that miracle.
Born into L.A.’s religious royalty as the youngest son of Bishop Charles and First Lady Mae Blake, there was little thought that Lawrence Blake would become anything other than a pastor like his renowned father, the force behind the 20,000-plus member strong, West Angeles COGIC, the largest African American congregation in Los Angeles, and one of the nation’s most esteemed preachers.
As a child, the younger Blake was immersed in the church, surrounded by the teachings of faith. He wrote sermons, imitated his father, and preached his first sermon at the age of 16. He was subsequently licensed as a minister in 1988, and yet would come to confess that he did not truly know God for himself.
“I knew God as my father’s God,” Blake recounts. “I could tell you who God was, and I could look the part, but I didn’t have a personal relationship with God.”
As he entered his teen years, the allure of a “normal” life beckoned. He longed for the freedom to experience life outside the confines of his upbringing. He wanted to dance at high school parties, to blend in with his peers, and to escape the label of “church boy” or “little Bishop Blake”. In his quest for normalcy, he plunged into a lifestyle that led him down a dark path, including an early struggle with alcohol addiction.
“I was a major screw up and was devastating myself with my lifestyle,” Blake confesses. “I’d been hit by a car, nearly drowned, stabbed and incarcerated. I’d put myself in very dangerous positions, all for the sake of trying to be normal. My parents did whatever they could to help, but you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped. Some people say the worst you are, the more God is going to use you. I was one of those types.
“Normal will kill you. That’s the trick the enemy plays on people who were raised in church,” says Blake of the dangers of seeking normalcy, and the importance of embracing one’s true self.
“To this day, we see more people in the church that are trying to imitate the world, all because they want to be what they think is normal.”
His own quest for normal led him to Atlanta, where he was living in 1993 when he gave God this ultimatum: “God, if you’re real, show me a biblical-type miracle, and it’ll be easier for me to believe in you.”
Two days later he was the victim of a home invasion during which he was shot in the chest point blank with a 45 pistol.
“I didn’t know I was shot at the time because I had a jacket on, because it had been snowing in Atlanta and was very cold.” Blake recalls. “I slammed my gun down, because with all of that happening, I tried to protect myself but couldn’t get to my gun in time and when I made that sudden move, I had on a necklace that slipped off and fell to the floor. When I reached down to pick it up, it was red, and there were streams of blood coming out of my jacket sleeves. I pulled my coat open and saw a nickel size bullet hole in my chest. I called out to my friend, ‘John, call my mother. Tell her, I love her. I’m not coming out of this.’
“With where the bullet hit, I couldn’t understand why I was still alert”, Blake continues the story. “It took paramedics 24 minutes to get to me as I laid there thinking, this is what it feels like to die. When the paramedics finally did get there, they had to wait for the police to make sure it was safe for them to enter the home.
“When they do enter, the first paramedic says, ‘Oh, he’s gone’, and I literally wave my hand like I can hear you.”
The shooting occurred on a Saturday. He lost consciousness at the hospital and remained unconscious until late Monday morning.
“When I woke up, my parents were there,” he picks up the story. “They had flown through the night, not knowing whether I was alive or dead, because they had been told I was shot through the heart.”
His injuries were extensive: lung failure, spinal damage, severed arteries, six cracked ribs on his left side, and over 24 minutes without sufficient oxygen to his brain. He’d lost nine units of blood. (The human body only holds 10-11). Doctors anticipated he would remain in the hospital for at least 54 days, yet on the sixth day, Blake walked out on his own volition.
“They said I would have complications all my life,” Blake reports. “That I’d never be able to lift weights and play sports—stuff like that, but I’m lifting weights and the muscle they said would never grow again, still grows.”
The journey to healing was not just physical; it was spiritual and after relocating back to Los Angeles in 1995 he met his future wife, Jeanine. It was then that he began to confront his past and the choices that had led him astray.
“I was my dad’s personal assistant for a little while, but we didn’t see eye to eye,” he pauses for a moment. “I hadn’t come out of Egypt yet, so I didn’t want to work for West Angeles. Instead, he helped me get another job with Turner Construction Company. Ironically, the first job they sent me on was building the West Angeles Cathedral. My first day at work on the job site, and who walks past but my father. He sees me and just starts cracking up laughing.
“After the cathedral was completed, my father asked me if I wanted to be his personal assistant again. By then, Jeanine and I had gotten married, and I wanted to be a great father for my children, a great husband to my wife and a great son to my father.
“What many people don’t know about my father is that, even though he did not allow me to stay in his house doing the things I was doing, he would come by on a regular basis, trying to get me to come home. Various times, I told him, I’m not ready. But my father kept reaching out to me, and with Jeanine reaching out to me in the way that she did, I found the love of God. So, the last time he asked me to come home, I was ready.”
With the guidance of his father, who remained his greatest mentor, he slowly began to reclaim his identity. He learned to embrace the similarities he shared with his father, recognizing that they were not burdens but blessings. He understood that his experiences, both good and bad, had shaped him into the man he was meant to be.
“I felt that if God could love me enough to bring me back from what he brought me through, and if these people loved me enough to be there for me,” he reflects, “maybe there was a chance I could love myself, and in learning to love God, I learned to love myself.”
Blake would eventually join the ministry staff where he served faithfully until 2023 and was prepared to assume what he believed to be his destiny. God, however, had a different plan.
“Ten years ago, I never would have said, I going to be at Palm Lane [COGIC]. How I got here is interesting,” Blake states. “My brother had recently become pastor of West Angeles church. Initially, I was surprised, because all my life, people told me I was going to pastor West Angeles, but my father made the decision as pastor of the church, and I supported the decision and my brother.
“At the same time, I was the young adult pastor and realized that if I’m to be involved in ministry at the level I think I am, I’ve hit my ceiling at West Angeles.”
A call from jurisdictional Bishop Joe L. Ealy inquiring if he would like to be considered for one of the area churches seeking a pastor changed everything. He agreed and in short order became a candidate for a pastorate at Palm Lane COGIC, a church with a storied history in the Watts community.
The nearly yearlong process for affirmation began last year. The membership was about 40 when he arrived there not knowing for certain if he was going to get the assignment, but he gave it his best shot. This summer, it came down to a vote and with 26 people in attendance, the final tally was 22 to four and he was voted in.
He’s honest enough to say that he misses the ministry at West Angeles.
“I was born there, raised there and trained there”, says Blake with a hint of pride in his response. “But where I am now is the ground that God had for me. I do say that I get homesick every Sunday morning when I don’t see my dad, but he’s in me.”
And it is his father’s traditional ministry roots that resonate in his own conservative pastoral style.
“All my mentors were fathers in the church,” he explains, “and it is no negativity or shade to the newer preachers of today, because I believe God can use all of us to reach who we need to reach. There’s a church on just about every corner, so I don’t believe preachers should contort themselves to appeal to a certain audience.
“I appreciate who God made me. My grandparents, parents and their friends were my greatest teachers, and I thank God for the wisdom they’ve instilled, because if the gospel came to me any other way, I might not be who I am.”
To that end, Palm Lane, he says, is a good fit.
“I feel right at home,” he states frankly. “To be accepted and received by a group of people is priceless and we’ve grown significantly. We’re at about 110. That’s not counting children, and we are growing at an average of about 11 new members a month.”
Understanding that life is a journey, he readily shares his experiences and the willingness to walk with people as they strive to become what God wants them to be.
“Early on I said I was going to be a doctor. Then I was going to be a lawyer,” Blake discloses. “Then I was going to have a speed boat and a yacht by the time I was 28 and I was going to be a music producer. Nothing I said I was going to be turned out to be right. So often we’re looking for God to do something that’s not in that plan. Once I realized that God’s way was higher than mine. I decided to just go with God.”
These days, the happily married father of three says he’s happiest when he’s preaching.
“If every preacher, disappeared on Earth, I would still be doing it because of what God did for me in my life. God became my healer, my provider, my friend, and he became my everything. I’m having fun and I’m where I want to be.
Today, Blake channels his experiences into his ministry, fostering community growth and outreach with a deep understanding of the struggles and redemption that many face. His ability to relate to both the challenges of secular life and spiritual uplifting allows him to connect with and guide those seeking faith.
“I hope people can listen to me and realize that the God that changed my life and delivered me out of many impossible situations, can do the same for them. I want people to know that you don’t have to be what you used to be, and you don’t have to be what you are. You can always transform, but you need God to do it.”
In the end, Lawrence Blake realized that he was not just a product of his upbringing, but a testament to the power of faith, redemption, and the miracles that can arise from the most challenging of circumstances.