Today we’d like to introduce you to Ernest Almond.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I believe that everything we do can be ministry. At least, that’s what I believe now. I was raised in eastern North Carolina, as one who went to church, but Church wasn’t in me. When I went to college at UNC Chapel Hill, I completely left church behind and found myself making my mark through being an MC and through my fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma. Those two experiences gave me the opportunity to express my creativity in ways that supported and united me with other people that had similar interests. So I did a lot of community service, and I got into mentoring, through the Upward Bound program.
God used these experiences as a gateway to lead me into teaching, and used my experiences as a beginning teacher and my fraternity connections to lead me back to Him. About halfway through my first year teaching, I accepted my call to ministry, stepped away from the party life, and committed myself to making everything ministry unto Him.
That has led me to use hip hop music to encourage people with my testimony of Christ off and on for more than 20 years, serve as a mentor and educator for 25 years, and preach and lead in church for almost 24 years. In each field, God is graced me to have an impact in children’s academic outcomes, but also when people’s day to day lives, as I served and mentored and supported teenagers and young adults throughout the various churches I served in in the schools I worked in.
My wife and I moved to Jacksonville in 2013 with the intention of starting our church, and in 2015 we planted Higher Definition Church, which currently meets in Arlington at 5919 Merrill Road. My time in Jacksonville has been marked with the opportunity to influence many young people through my work in the school system and with 5000 Role Models of Excellence, which I supervised for 5 years, and I’ve also been able to use my music and my ministry as a gateway to serve and support people spiritually.
As we walk into 2026, I have been blessed to have released an album and be working on more music, I am working on my second book, and my church is launching a new non-profit initiative to take advantage of our partnerships to do more work in the community. My vision is that our church will be used to feed hungry families, mentor children and young adults, and empower people toward a lifestyle of holistic thriving. Most of all, I want the message of the love and hope of Christ to permeate everything that we do, and it’s my prayer that the ministry we do has a progressively increasing impact on people in Jacksonville and beyond.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
On the course to fulfill the vision that I see in my spirit, or in my mind’s eye, there have definitely been plenty of challenges. Whether it’s limited resources or limited time, there’s always something that has to be overcome.
I think the most clear example of that was in our attempt to open a new physical home for our church after the events of the pandemic. We were meeting in one of the schools, but once the pandemic hit, all those contracts were canceled, and we went online, like most churches. While we were doing that, I saw council from my mentors in ministry and they suggested looking for a commercial space, a storefront, to rent so that we would have our own space. We found a space, the space that were in now, and entered into the lease believing that it would cost a certain amount of work to get the building ready to use. We got a quote from a contractor, and we knew it was more than we’d ever raised, because we’re small church, but we believed God that we would be able to raise it.
We did every fundraiser we could think of, and we were assisted greatly by Impact Church and Crossover Church Tampa, but it was still difficult to raise all the funds. The price we were quoted, due to the unexpected rise in the price of materials, ended up doubling along the way, and it ended up taking us much longer to gather the funds than we initially hoped.
But, and I thank God for this, we were able to gather enough funds to complete the renovation and open our doors in September 2023. Now, after we’ve been in the building 2 years, we are finally on the cusp of initiating and partnering in the type of programming that I’ve been hoping we would be able to do for years, and I’m so grateful for that.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
After a 25-year career in the field of education, where I served as a teacher, a dean of students, and a district administrator, I stepped away at the end of last school year to concentrate on my personal ministry efforts. To that end, my goal is to use my creative works, my years of experience, and my church as vehicles to both spread a message and be a message, and that message is that there’s a higher definition for our lives than what many of us have accepted, and God stands at the ready to help us walk into an existence that has greater meaning and greater impact.
In the Jacksonville community, it’s most likely that people would know me from my work with the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project, an awesome program whose purpose is to expose at-risk minority boys to positive male role models and experiences. As I begin this new chapter of my life and ministry, my focus is the fulfillment of the vision of Higher Definition Church. Not only that though, as I intend to use all my gifts, talents, and experiences to be a blessing and benefit to people, communities, and organizations I encounter. Whether that be through music I release, books I write, content I produce, words I speak, or services I provide, it’s all dedicated as ministry.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
As an extension of my desire to be the benefit and blessing, I am seeking opportunities to consult organizations that are looking to impact their communities, and work with them to inspire their vision and increase their impact.
I am grateful for my wife’s partnership on this journey. Her wisdom and grace are a constant blessing as I seek to lead our family and follow God’s vision for our lives.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ernestalmond.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/iamernestalmond
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/ernestalmond
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ernestalmond/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/spitlife
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1l6VYVvKZWtNKKT1DKlTT2
- Other: https://higherdefchurch.org
