A thinker who preaches.

Dr. E. Derrik Porter is a preacher, teacher, and scholar whose work sits at the intersection of pulpit, classroom, and academy. His writing and preaching aim at the same target from three directions: the formation of the person who can bear the weight of the word.

He is the Founding Pastor of Agape Impact Ministries and the founder of The Presence Collective — the umbrella brand under which his preaching, writing, and coaching live. His broadcast, Elevate with EDP, extends the pulpit into the podcast register. His book, But Broken Open: At Rock Bottom, But Broken Open, is the interior work made public.

By day, he teaches Global History 10 and AP Psychology at Harlem Children's Zone Promise Academy II, where he also serves as NHS Faculty Advisor and Grade Team Lead. The classroom is not a side gig. It is a laboratory for how young people become the adults their moment requires.

His scholarship holds a particular register. His earned Ph.D. in Leadership (Northwestern Christian University, 2025) already sits behind him. He is now pursuing a second Ph.D. in Leadership at Columbia International University, where his active dissertation is titled Moral Persistence in Pastoral Shadow: A Phenomenological Study of Followers in Black Protestant Congregations. The study asks how adult lay members maintain moral conviction within pastoral leadership relationships that carry theologically conferred authority — a question the church has needed to sit with for a long time, and one his scholarship is designed to hold with rigor.

The through-line of his work is what he calls the Golden Thread — the disciplined logical alignment of everything he brings to a room. Topic to purpose to question to method. Sermon to text to congregation. Person to calling to hour.

He preaches. He teaches. He writes. He walks with leaders through the seasons that ask them to become someone new before they had the language for it.

And when he closes: Speak truth to power. And be the better you seek. I'm rooting for you.