Pastor Jonathan Burton has spent his adult life trying to impact lives through sports and community development, and he’s joined the Louisiana Black Advocates for Life team as Associate Director to make even a bigger impact in the Black community.
Through his connections throughout the greater New Orleans area and the state, he believes he can help bring awareness to the problem of abortion that has plagued our communities, especially the Black community.
“For years, even I was unaware about how serious of an issue abortion is,” he said. ” While I was always pro-life, I just didn’t know enough. Now that I know the truth, I have to share it with others. I believe the Black community can rise up, defend babies, and help moms. ”
Pastor Jonathan believes that the more church leaders and community activists who are made aware of this problem can come together and help champion the cause to save these precious lives and end abortion once and for all.
His desire to speak for life was crystalized as he prayed outside of a New Orleans abortion facility for the first time. “When I saw the pain in the eyes of the young girls going into that place, I knew I had to act. I knew there had to be something more that we can offer to help them, especially through our churches,” he said.
In fact, Jonathan and his wife, Brandy, have a dream to start a pregnancy center in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans to to do exactly that.
Pastor Jonathan is a former college basketball standout and national champion at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Fla. He also played professionally before God revealed other plans. So he retired early and started Cross It Up Inc., a 501c3 non-profit organization that produces effective role models and leaders in today’s society by impacting the community through sports and community development programs that empower people to “Change” their lives and “Build” bright futures.
One of Cross It Up’s programs that has been very effective is the NOLA Prep Alternative Adult Education program, which gives adults the opportunity to earn a state approved high school diploma and attend a weekly mentorship program with a personal life coach that equips them with knowledge, life skills, and tools to reach their personal potential and be successful and productive.
But God showed Pastor Jonathan that while reaching people in the community through many different events and programs is good, it’s also important that the people have a place to cultivate their relationship with God and be able to continuously grow and develop on a weekly basis within a supportive, vibrant, Gospel-centered community of believers. This vision sparked the beginning phase of a church plant, Regeneration Church, officially launching in the fall of 2019 in the upper Ninth Ward. Regeneration Church has already begun gaining momentum in the Ninth Ward through its multiple small groups that meet on Tuesday nights at the Rosenthal building off of St. Claude Avenue and Desire Street.
Pastor Jonathan earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in biblical studies from Southeastern University. He is also a certified mental health professional and certified marriage coach with Prepare & Enrich and Save My Marriage Before It Starts (SYMBIS). He is currently working on completing his Master of Divinity degree.
He lives in New Orleans with his wife, Brandy, and their two children.
