Bishop Rudolph W. McKissick, Jr., is Senior Pastor of Bethel Baptist Institutional Church, located in Jacksonville, Florida. He returned to Bethel in 1995 as Assistant Pastor and has been Senior Pastor of the Bethel Church since the year 2000, sharing in that role with his father, Dr. Rudolph W. McKissick, Sr.

Since his return to Bethel in 1995, over 9,000 thousand souls have been added to the ministry, bringing the active discipleship to over 12,000. McKissick is uniquely gifted at blending styles of worship from the very contemporary and urban down to the traditional without sacrificing one for the other. It has resulted in a church that is built around a unique diversity of persons from various age groups and cultures who all gather together in celebrative worship.

The musical blessing and vision of Bishop McKissick, Jr., has resulted in the production of three Word and Worship CDs that have received both local and national critical acclaim, with the project entitled, “The Right Place” debuting at No.5 on the Billboard charts.

In addition to his musical talents, first and foremost, he is a powerful messenger of God who has established himself nationally as an outstanding preacher and teacher, with a gift and passion for the teaching of homiletics. He has been noted in The African American Pulpit as one of the “Twenty to Watch” and has had sermons published in several books and publications.

Bishop McKissick's first book entitled, "Nuggets by Day and Gems by Night" was released in April 2009. His second book "God's Got My Back: Insights I learned From Spinal Surgery" was released in August of this year.

McKissick serves as a professor at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio in the capacity of doctoral mentor, where students have been selected as McKissick Academic Fellows, sitting under his academic mentorship as they work towards their earned Doctor of Ministry degree.

In June of 2008, he was consecrated and elevated into the high office of Bishop in the Lord’s church within the Full Gospel Baptist Fellowship International, under the leadership of Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr. and serves as the Bishop of the state of Florida for the Fellowship.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Jacksonville University with a double major in the field of music: one in Opera and the other in Sacred Church Music, with a minor in pipe organ performance. He holds the Master of Divinity Degree from the Samuel Proctor School of Religion at Virginia Union University, and the Doctor of Ministry Degree from the United Theological Seminary. Dr. McKissick was awarded the honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from Bethune Cookman College. He is also a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., as well as Sigma Pi Phi Boule.

He is married to the former Kimberly Joy Nichols and they are the proud parents of three beautiful children; Jocelyn, Janai and Joshua.

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