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Reverend Jackie McCullough To hear Reverend Jackie McCullough preach is to know the voice of one who has walked through the fires of tribulation and emerged as a vessel of gold. The word she brings forth is founded in the bedrock of scripture and ignited by the Holy Spirit to enrich, challenge and inspire the hearts and souls of God's people. Rev. Jackie McCullough helped changed my life, because she let me know there was no reason to live in fear. Growing up we both suffered from the inability to communicate effectively through speech at all times, I guess that's how God allowed us to discover our literary gift of writing. She endowed upon me the scripture and sermon "Ephphatha" (which means "Be Opened") Mark 7:31-37. Jesus' Holy sigh meant that we were made to speak His word boldy without any impediment. Rev. McCullough is truly an anointed woman of God, an author, a composer, and of great accomplishment. She truly is an inspiration to my ministry and life! |
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The daughter of two native Jamaican preachers, it was not unusual that the young Jackie might someday grow up to be a preacher herself. Even at a young age Jackie found herself teaching Sunday School, and recalls frequently being called on to speak for the young people or minister from a text. But it wasn't until a church service at the age of 16 that she realized preaching might be her vocation. Her former pastor, the late Bishop Lenora Smith, had gathered the youth to the front of the church and upon laying hands on the future reverend, prayed, "You are called to be a preacher to many nations and you will speak the Gospel boldly." "That was the first time I heard the words, and even though I did not understand the implications, I wept because I knew there was something very significant and awesome happening to my life," recalls Rev. McCullough. After high school, Jackie made plans to follow her childhood dream of a medical career. While she preached a few sermons on the side, at the age of 21 she graduated from nursing school and went to work at Harlem Hospital as a registered nurse in pediatrics. After seven years and a promotion to nurse practitioner, she was making plans to leave the hospital to pursue her medical degree in pediatrics when she heard the voice of the Lord say, "Take off your lab coat, because I've called you into full-time ministry." "I thought I was hearing things, but the Lord spoke again and then confirmed with Isaiah 61," says Jackie. "I began to weep because I knew this was no joke. In fact, I wept for weeks, but I kept hearing the Lord say, 'Give Me this time of your life.'" Later on that year, she handed in her resignation and she really didn't know where she was going, since not just her job, but her whole life was in flux. The year leading up to her resignation had been filled with tragedy. Her physically abusive marriage ended in divorce, and six months before that the baby girl she had carried full-term died after only two hours of life. "The death of my baby and the death of my marriage propelled me into a deeper walk with the Lord," she recalls. "I wanted the proverbial, traditional home: a husband, a child, a house, a career, and maybe something for God," says Rev. McCullough. "I had my own agenda and all of that was disrupted." In the year that followed, Jackie moved back home with her parents in Brooklyn. It wasn't long before her weekends were devoted to ministry. On Saturdays she taught a home-based Bible study to a college-age group. On Sundays she visited various New York City prisons and hospitals, ministering to the needy by teaching from Old Sunday School manuals. "That's when the ministry started to take on a certain shape," says Rev. McCullough. "It didn't start in a pulpit or the traditional church, but rather in the streets, the prisons and in the home. It was a very wonderful experience for me because it gave me a broad exposure to what ministry is all about." After the year was over, Jackie felt a need to find a home church for herself and those she had discipled. The search ended at her present church, Elim International Fellowship, where Archbishop Wilbert F. McKinley serves as a senior pastor. Since the Lord had instructed Jackie not to return to the field of nursing, it was a welcomed opportunity when Archbishop McKinley asked Jackie to join the staff as Minister of Evangelism. The job paid a pittance, and the years that followed were ones of financial hardship. "I went through the wilderness," recalls Rev. McCullough. "A time of no money, repossession of my car, eating an egg for breakfast and an egg for dinner. But it was preparation for me and tempered me for where I had to go in the future." Finally, after five years, the Reverend McCullough found herself crying out to the Lord: "How come you've called me to preach and nobody asks me to preach? Money is scarce and people are laughing and thinking I had delusions of grandeur. Why can't I go back to nursing?" For one year, she did go back to nursing as the manager of a nurse's registry. Then the Lord said to her, "This is not what I've called you to do. Get up Sunday morning and sit in the back of Pilgrim Church." The Reverend McCullough obeyed the Lord and when Archbishop Roy E. Brown saw her sitting in the back, he invited her to come up and preach. That very night, Archbishop McKinley asked her to preach in Grand Rapids, at the Bethel Pentecostal Church, where the Bishop William Abner pastors, in his stead the next week. "That particular appointment opened the door to other appointments," says Rev. McCullough. "And it has been that way ever since." As Rev. McCullough's circuit ministry grew, she received further training at her home church. It was like the Bible School she never had. "At Elim, my pastor taught me the fine tuning of ministry," says Rev. McCullough. "How to conduct yourself on the field, how to approach a pastor, how to open up the text and stick with it, how to make the text applicable to people's pain. That's' what I learned and he taught it well. Hopefully, I've learned it well." Rev. McCullough's track record would suggest that she has. Today, Rev. McCullough preaches approximately 120 dates a year all over the nation at churches, revivals and conferences. She has been repeatedly asked to share the crusade platform with some of today's most dynamic ministries, including those of Rod Parsley and T.D. Jakes. Besides preaching, Rev. McCullough has also authored a devotional entitled Daily Moments With God: In Quietness and Confidence (Pheuma Life Publishers). As the founder and Executive Director of Daughters of Rizpah, Rev. McCullough directs the activities of this nonprofit evangelic ministry based in Brooklyn, New York. Since 1997 Rev. McCullough has spearheaded the "WordAlive Crusade Tour," a humanitarian effort in which over $500,000 worth of medicine and hospital equipment were donated to area hospitals in Jamaica. An extemporaneous singer and self -proclaimed non-singer, McCullough released her first CD This Is For You Lord in which she is both author to all of the songs and worship leader. An extemporaneous songwriter and self-proclaimed non-singer, McCullough also released her first CD, entitled This Is For You Lord (Gospo Centric, 1999), in which she is both author to all of the songs and worship leader. Gospel Today Magazine listed her as one of "The Most influential African-American Ministers In The Nation"(October/November, 1996), and in 1997 she was featured in Ebony Magazine as one of "The 15 most Influential African-American Female Ministers in the Nation". Still, amidst the hectic pace of ministry, Rev. McCullough stays focused on her mission to "clearly define the Gospel of Jesus Christ and equip the saints for living and the work of the ministry." Visit Rev. Jacquelline E. McCullough's Official Site!
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