Touré Roberts is an author, speaker, producer and the founder of The Potter’s House at One LA, one of the fastest growing churches in Los Angeles. Robert’s modern and unique approach to ministry has attracted a congregation largely comprised of millennials, the entertainment community, professionals, and families. Last week, March 16, The Atlanta Voice hosted a book signing for Robert’s new book, “Wholeness.” The Atlanta Voice’s Janna B conducted with Roberts about the project.
Tell us about your new book, Wholeness. Why did you write it and why now?
Finding your purpose is one thing, but being free enough to lay hold of your purpose is another. So, wholeness is all about helping people to recognize the invisible boundaries that keep them from the destiny that they are trying to pursue.
You went through so much at a young age. Tell us about how those experiences molded you into who you are today.
I was raised in Watts by a single mother who was a part of the Black Panther movement. Even though my family experience was great, it was crazy all around me. There were drugs, violence, sex, etc… So, I was exposed to a lot at a young age. Then, at the age of 16, I was shot in the chest and left to die in the street. I narrowly escaped inner city life.
How did you get from that story of darkness to right now?
I think it’s really the message of Wholeness. It’s the message of your insides determining your outsides. I think that when you’re not whole, then your outsides are your outsides. There’s nothing that you can do. But when you realize, even as the scripture says, “Greater is He who is in you, than he that is in the world.”
Then you really tap into the relationship with God, seek to understand those experiences, why did I go through that, what did I learn and who am I connected to, from a reaching standpoint as a result of it. God causes all things to work together for the good….
What does it mean to be “whole?”
It is the process of becoming. Social Media highlights your doing and they are only highlighting the doing they want you to see. Where wholeness is about becoming. In Jeremiah 1 “Before I formed you in your Mothers belly I knew you, I sanctified you, I set you apart, made you unique and distinct and I ordained you.”
So, before you got here you were already worked out, so I believe the journey to wholeness is about working out in your own life, what God had already worked out for you. Doing the work. Becoming self – aware. We’re in the information age and we are so versed on everything outside of us, we’re completely ignorant of what’s going on inside of us. So, I think the process is saying chances are I’m broken somewhere.
Now, we will say I’m not perfect but we won’t say I’m not broken because when you say I’m broken, there is a requirement for change. You can’t say I’m broken and just go on, you have to then be fixed, be healed, be made whole.
What practical advice do you have for those who are struggling to face their brokenness to become whole?
First, they have to acknowledge and say they are broken. Second, they have to understand it’s okay to not be okay. There’s been a lie that has been ingrained in us to not be ok with “not being ok.” Having permission to say I’m broken and I’m not ok because until you say ouch you can never be healed. Then going on the discovery of an understanding why.
I believe in patterns. We always look at the outcomes of our life or judge the outcomes but outcomes are connected to our patterns. I know I did that but why did I do that – why did I respond that way where I find myself in the same situation over and over again. If my relationships never seem to work remember you are the common denominator in all these failed relationships. Also, becoming traceable is vitally important – get to the root of what’s happening.
People believe they are whole but don’t know they have places that are broken. What are some signs that they are broken?
One is insecurity. Insecurity is evidence that somewhere in your mind you have braced some untruth and negative thought about yourself. Insecurity means I don’t have security within and then you are vulnerable and dangerous. Jealousy is another sign. “I always say, you can never expect to receive in your own life what you are unwilling to celebrate in someone else life”
Where can people connect with you online and pick up a copy of Wholeness?
They can go to areyouwhole.com and take the wholeness teas and purchase the book. They can find me on Social Media @toureroberts
