Couple leading Florida’s oldest black church faces more than $3M in IRS liens: report

Rudolph McKissick Jr., senior pastor of Florida’s oldest black congregation, the Bethel Church, historically known as Bethel Baptist Institutional Church in Jacksonville, Florida, is facing more than $3 million in IRS tax liens along with his wife, Rev. Kimberly McKissick, the church’s executive pastor.

The liens stem from the couple’s failure to pay personal income taxes for income earned from 2006 to 2021. Records cited by Action News Jax show the couple was hit with one federal tax lien in April for more than $1.85 million covering 2010 to 2014. Additional federal income tax liens were imposed on the couple in 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2021 for unpaid taxes from 2006 through 2013, and 2016 to 2017.

Church officials were unavailable for comment Friday when contacted by The Christian Post.

In addition to being the oldest black church in Florida, the 14,000-member congregation, which was established in 1838, is also one of Florida’s oldest churches.

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