by Tammy Taylor
Staff Writer
Dr. Rudolph McKissick Jr. doesn’t pray for much, just to be one of the most powerful leaders in Jacksonville.
“I want it to be known innately to anybody who wants to run for office, or anything else, that they can’t get it without my backing because I want to have that kind of influence in the church community and in the African-American community,” said McKissick.
As co-senior pastor of the Bethel Baptist Institutional Church, a position he shares with his father, Rev. Rudolph McKissick Sr., McKissick Jr. is the leader of a congregation of thousands in a church his family has been a part of since the early 1900s. His homecoming was due to an act of prayer and church democracy.
McKissick is on the board of directors of numerous community groups. He has been named Who’s Who in Executives and Business, Religion and Music. He is listed as a member of the 100 Black Men of Jacksonville. He is a published author, and his sermons are nationally televised.
He is also positioning himself as a force to be reckoned with in local politics.
Bethel Baptist
Bethel Baptist is a branch of the Bethel Baptist Church established in 1838. During the Civil War, it was used as a hospital. Later, it was awarded to its African-American members. The church you see today, located on the edge of Springfield, is not the original building. The church was destroyed during Jacksonville’s Great Fire in 1901 and later rebuilt in 1908.
Now, when one drives down Bethel Baptist Street behind the Florida Community College at Jacksonville Downtown campus, the expanded sanctuary that houses more than 4,000 members of the congregation, and is home to the Jacksonville Center for Biblical Studies, shows the growth which has occurred since McKissick arrived back home to Jacksonville to share duties with his father.
The road home
McKissick left Jacksonville for the first time to attend college at Florida State University.
“I would say that not staying at Florida State is one of my regrets, but if I had stayed at Florida State,” he said, “and not come home to Jacksonville University, I wouldn’t be where I am. It was coming home and getting back into my dad’s church that made me realize the Lord was calling me to preach.”
McKissick does credit his tenure at FSU with helping him to relate to the people who look upon him as a religious leader.
“I partied so hard at Florida State that it wasn’t even funny,” he said. “I remember days my dad called and asked me how was church and I’d be like, ‘church was good,’ and I hadn’t been anywhere near a church.
“You have to go through it,” he adds. “As strange as it may sound, it kind of helps you pastor because it helps you relate to people. You’re not seen as some idol who’s kind of like lifted up above.
“It helps you to be very intimate when you preach to the people . . . it makes you very humble when you preach.You’re preaching encouragement and not judgment.”
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in music from JU, McKissick went on to receive a master’s of divinity from the Virginia Union School of Theology and a doctorate at Proctor/Booth Academic Fellow Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.
McKissick then became a pastor at a church in Toledo. While there, he increased the size of the congregation, met his wife Kimberly and tasted what it was like to be a strong, influential leader.
It wasn’t until eight years ago that McKissick’s father persuaded him to come home.
“My father and I had been talking about me coming back for a while,” said McKissick. “We went back and forth for a long time about timing, and I have to be honest, I wasn’t really sold on the idea.”
McKissick was happy with the church in Toledo. He had seen the congregation grow from 80 to over 700 members. Plus, his wife loved the city.
“I prayed about it and my dad came back to me. I think a few of the deacons had come back to him about bringing me back and I think that was confirmation to him.”
McKissick told his father that he would not move back to Jacksonville solely on his request. He wanted the congregation of Bethel to vote on whether or not they wanted the prodigal son to return.
“I wanted to let the church vote on it so I would know in my own heart that it was a move of the church and not just a move of my father. So after they (voted), and I prayed about it, that’s what led me back to Jacksonville.
“I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world now.”
Under pressure
Going home to pastor the church he grew up in, and in a church where his father is considered a legend, was no easy task for McKissick.
The pressure still affects him today.
“I felt an enormous amount of pressure because I was coming back home to what I felt were people who love me, but who were going to be critical because they had known me all my life,” said the pastor. “And then to step into the shadow of someone who is an absolute legacy is not the easiest thing to do.
“My dad and I are very different. Personality wise, we are very different and I’ve gotten comfortable with the fact that it’s OK to not be like him.”
Over the past eight years, leading the flock that is Bethel Baptisth as become easier for the younger McKissick.
“Now I have kind of come into my own and I think the Lord is allowing me to do some things that I put my stamp on,” he said. “The church has grown so much since I’ve been here that the majority of persons in the church now did not know me when I was a kid and are persons who have joined since I’ve been here.
“They come in knowing me as pastor and do not think of my as ‘Rudy.’ ”
Honors
McKissick received an honorary doctorate from Bethune-Cookman College, the same honor received by his father.
Besides being bestowed with the same honor as his father, the honorary doctorate came with a humbling event.
“The person who received an honorary doctorate with me is a gentleman named Dr. Charles Adams. He is a pastor in Detroit,” said McKissick. “Dr. Charles Adams is one of the foremost African-American pastors in this country and to receive the honorary doctorate with him at the same time was one of the more humbling experiences of my live. I hope I get many more.
“That means I have impact.”
Church and state
Bethel Baptisth as entered into business ventures in conjunction with saving souls.
The church recently purchased the old Ramada Inn in Arlington and is turning it into a convention center. Be The Light Christian Conference Center, named to play on the name Bethel, will be used by churches, business and families.
McKissick said the center will be for family and high school reunions and business retreats. The facility will even house a fitness center when completed around August.
The church also has partnered with Harlem-based Sylvia’s Soul Food restaurant. The restaurant, a favorite of former president Bill Clinton, is also located in Atlanta.
“Sylvia herself came in, looked around and was just taken away with it,” said McKissick, “So we will be opening a Sylvia’s here.”
The convention center will also house a fully accredited seminary and school of religion. The Center of Biblical Studies on the current Bethel property of an extension of Virginia Union, the school from which McKissick received his master’s.
He plans to have the institution running by the end of the year.
Selfish salvation
When McKissick went to Florida State, he did so in pursuit of one of his great loves: opera.
“I absolutely love opera, and there’s one thing, if I could have one wish, it would be to be on the stage of the New York Metropolitan Opera, singing a song from the ‘Marriage of Figaro.’ ”
Coming from a musical family, and having an intense desire for song, McKissick has fused performance and record sales to increase the reach of his message and generate revenue for the church.
Through Bethel Baptist, McKissick is the front man for The Word & Worship Mass Choir. The choir has released two CD’s to the mass market, and according to McKissick, are doing very well nationally.
“I think the CD’s are my effort to satisfy my musical hunger because I don’t get to do that often now because I’m pastoring and I’m preaching and so, yes, there is a selfish part of the CD’s we’ve made.”
Community involvement and expansion
McKissick sits on the board of directors for the Jacksonville Urban League, the Boys and Girls Club of Jacksonville, the Alliance for the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy, the Jacksonville Juvenile Justice Comprehensive Strategy Board and Publix Supermarkets.
“I think any pastor, particularly if you are an African-American pastor, you have an obligation to be socially relevant, to be involved in the community,” said McKissick, “and I think you have to get involved in the community because your influence is so large that you have to make your voice known and your presence felt.”
McKissick plans to expand his reach by moving Bethel Baptist to a place that will allow for the growth of the congregation. He also hopes to have satellite branches throughout Jacksonville.
“We are landlocked and have outgrown our space. My ideal is to move Bethel to larger acreage to build enough sanctuary and enough buildings to house the people that have joined and will continue to join,” he said.
McKissick knows trying to move the congregation from the church rebuilt in 1908 will cause upheaval.
“History says Bethel’s got to stay here, but at the end of the day, history isn’t going to transform anybody. I have to be relevant, and to be relevant, it will be hard to stay in this site.”
Power
McKissick sees himself as a person of great influence. With a congregation thousands, his voice influences across the political, social and religious boundaries.
McKissick sees himself as someone who is seen to have wisdom and great integrity; someone who could give advice to any person of power and influence regarding the African-American community.
“I have a very strong voice. I have very strong values and opinions about the way things should be socially, morally, politically and spiritually and I have never been known to be one to hold my peace,” he said. “I make no bones about it. You can’t have 9,000 members and refuse to make yourself a power, and that’s the bottom line.”