Kel Mitchell Wants You To Get Into Blessed Mode And Level Up Your Faith

You may know him for his iconic line, “ Welcome to Good Burger.” But two-time Emmy-Award nominated actor, comedian, pastor and author Kel Mitchell has come a long way from his iconic Nickelodeon roles. Following his extensive career in entertainment Kel has gone through his fair share of mental and spiritual challenges. In his debut book Blessed Mode. Kel wants to use his life experiences, social media engagement and wisdom from pastoring to help the younger generation have a closer connection to God.

Kel spoke with Forbes The Culture regarding his debut book, journey to find Christ and tackling mental health. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The Journey 

While Kel was on-screen bringing laughter to the masses on Nickelodeon, he was simultaneously going through significant trauma in his life. Kel lost his best friend to gang violence and two of his uncles from murder at the height of his early career. His past trauma coupled with the stress of fame and stardom, caused Kel to seek God and tap into his spiritual self. 

For(bes) The Culture: What has your relationship with God been like throughout your career? When did you hear the calling over your life?

Kel Mitchell: I started to realize that all the things I’ve been through, you know, with growing up, losing my best friend again, violence, and my two uncles being murdered was trauma. I was dealing with my own emotions, being suicidal and using other vices to help me throughout that. Finally, I got to a point where I just hit a wall. Because you don’t know who to trust, whether they like the character you play or not know, the real you. And with your real-life where you don’t want the world to know what’s going on.

 So, I listened, let go totally and said, I’m going to be totally transparent and tell my story. When God did that, God said,  “Hey, I know you’re going through a rough patch right now in your life and career, but what I want you to do, I want you to go speak to other people, and I want you to go speak to youth groups in juvenile homes.” I remember when the Lord had me do that, it was really helpful for me and others. My wife and I started this project called the Back House Party. It was a live dance show to give back to kids so they could have a place to dance and have fun. We started with 30 to 20 kids; eventually, there were around  500 kids that would come to this place in Carson, Carson, California. It’s such a beautiful thing.

For(bes) The Culture: Has this always been a seed that’s been rooted within you? 

Kel Mitchell:I always had a seed in me,  but it needed to be watered. People would always tell me that I should Preach, but I said no because of the way I was lining my life before. Then, one day my pastor saw my wife and I get up on stage to pray with these kids, right before the Back House Party show started, and he saw within his spirit, like, “Yo, you need to be preaching, look at these kids; this is you.”

 I decided to spend time with the Lord for myself to make sure that’s what I’m hearing. So within my time of prayer, and many different evangelists speaking over me, during this time and confirming what he was saying, I was just like, Okay, Lord, I’m going to do Your will, I’m going to be obedient to it. It wasn’t easy, and I’ve now been in ministry for over ten years. So when my pastor asked me to be a pastor and help in the church, I realized God was preparing me for this the entire time. I am an ambassador for Christ.

Understanding The Gift

Throughout Kel’s life and career, he has had to retreat into prayer and meditation to understand the calling on his life. In Blessed Mode, Kel curates a series of devotionals to help the reader recognize God’s many gifts and the power of prayer. 

For(bes)The Culture: How can one recognize the gifts that God has given them in their life?

Kel Mitchell: When you are dreaming about something over and over again, something that’s positive that makes you smile, and you feel young again like you feel like a kid, that’s the thing. You have to really look into yourself and go, What do you enjoy? Then after you find that, go to the Word of God. So in that time of meditation and that time of prayer, talk to him about it, you know, that he waters that seed within you during that time, and then followed up with scripture you connect those together. When you’re starting to find that purpose, the enemy’s going to try to stop you. And that’s when a lot of people give up, where it starts to get hard. When you say, I have faith that I’m going to get to this thing. I’m going to get this blessing. And keep going. That’s when you know it’s God’s confirmation.

For(bes)The Culture: When you hear the word blessed, what comes to mind?

Kel Mitchell: I loved playing video games back in the day. Nintendo had this thing called god mode. God mode is where you know what the designer knows. You have this code to get into the game. And the designers of the game would use this code to fix bugs that were in the game or something that was going on in the game that wasn’t right. So you can get over levels quickly. In that way, you know what the designer knows because you put in the code. So when you’re talking about being blessed, God gives us blessings. We have a blessed life. We just don’t know it yet. We have to be reminded that we are children of God, right. So when you are reminded you tap into that, then that’s when you have that connection. And you now know what the designer knows. Meaning you know who designed you. That’s the blessing.

For(bes)The Culture: Who is Kel as a father and pastor?

Kel Mitchell: I am someone who is laying a foundation for generations of my family, breaking generational curses and things that the enemy is trying to stop us with, which is so important. I’m someone who is really an ambassador for Christ. That’s what I’m all about, like letting people know this joy because I will be doing my family a disservice, and people that I meet a disservice by didn’t let them know about the love of God. So as a man, husband and father, being able to do that and share your faith in such a strong thing. 

Blessed Mode

Kel’s life experiences have led him to this moment. Writing a book of daily devotionals that will inspire, guide, and spiritually energize every reader. Through Blessed Mode, he intends for readers to address the deepest parts of themselves and understand. That for every emotional wall, there is a blessed way out.

For(bes)The Culture: Why Blessed mode?

Kel Mitchell: Well, I didn’t want to do a memoir just yet. But I did want to do a devotional. Because devotionals helped me so much to get closer to God when I was going through my roughest times, and in those low times, those devotionals, in between my day really helped me. I wanted to do a devotional book that really helps people that are in an emotional space. I used to be on Instagram. And I did Mr. Mitchell’s Morning Motivation. And would get on there and motivate the people that follow me online, on my stories. At times, it was days that I needed the motivation to do it.  I would always use the hashtag bless mode with Mr. Mitchell’s Morning Motivation at the end of it. 

For(bes)The Culture: How will readers engage with Blessed Mode to get the most out of it?

Kel Mitchell: So within the book, it starts with a Bible verse. Then, after the Bible verse, there’s a story, meaning a journal, about my life. The Bible verse connects to my story and how the Lord got me through a particular hurdle in my life. It’s about spiritual and mental health, how I connected the two, and how the spirit helped me with my mental and physical health. Once you read my story and the scripture, there is a prayer time and the Apply moment. So the Apply moment is so amazing to me. It’s called “go get them blessings.” I want people to apply what they are reading and put their faith into action. So I give them a task to do based on what they read that day. Once they finish that task, I ask that they create a hashtag and post it. I did that because I wanted millennials and the younger generation to bring what you’re reading to social media. Because everybody’s searching for something to help with mental health. If you can read  Blessed Mode, it connects you to God, and you can say, “Yo Kel asked me to do this crazy test today. But it changed my life.” That’s a blessing.

For(bes)The Culture: Were there any moments of introspection or reaching back those old feelings from memories while writing this book?

Kel Mitchell: While writing, this, all kinds of stuff, is coming up. I had a health challenge that happened that I talked about in the book as well. That was a scare for the family. And then I had a baby during the pandemic, which was a joyful moment, as well. I was also pastoring, on Sundays, while I was doing this. So I had these stories that I was revisiting while writing the book. What I loved about writing this book was recording the audible version of it after I wrote it. There were moments in the studio I was crying, and it was captured like me thanking my wife for being an awesome support while writing the book. What’s so dope about it is that I want people to feel something even when they’re reading the pages. That’s really the testimony.

For(bes)The Culture: What is the ultimate message you want readers to get from Blessed Mode?

Kel Mitchell: For people to know that you were born for a purpose. So when I felt like when I was going to take my life, now looking back. And looking at my life now at all the blessings that I’m seeing happening now. I want people to get from this not to give up and not give up on life. I want them to know that these emotional lows in your life are just thoughts. So if you find this book, because you might have loved me from Good Burger, or you happen to see it at Target, Barnes and Noble or Amazon, and you pick it up and you go, “Yo, I feel God’s love in this moment.” That’s what I want you to get from it.  I grew up on the south side of Chicago, and we had big homies that would give advice it’s kind of like that, like that, that big homie that’s always been positive that saying Yo, I’ve been down that road, don’t go there. This is how you stay in blessed mode.

Blessed Mode is available for pre-order now.