Reverend Dr.
Julius Harrison
McAllister, Jr.
Serving the great people of Tallahassee, Florida since 2007
About
The Reverend Dr. Julius Harrison McAllister, Jr., is the 35th pastor of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Tallahassee, Florida. A fourth generation minister, he answered the call to ministry in 1992. He was licensed to preach and admitted to the Northeast Annual Conference of the Seventh Episcopal District (South Carolina) of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1993. In 1997, Reverend McAllister was ordained an elder in the Northeast Annual Conference. Prior to his appointment to the Bethel AME Church in 2008, he distinguished himself as an outstanding pastor in the Detroit and Chicago areas. He was a youth minister at Oak Grove AME Church in Detroit, Michigan. Subsequently, he served as the pastor of Payne Chapel AME Church in Chicago, Heights, Illinois and the Greater Institutional AME Church in Chicago, Illinois.
Called to minister to the moral and spiritual lives of God’s people by spreading the Good News of the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ, Reverend McAllister is recognized for his passionate and powerful preaching and teaching of God’s Word. He interprets, instructs and inspires with the hope that lives will be transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
Upon his call to Bethel, Reverend McAllister established the church theme, Called to Make a Difference, as believers are encouraged in Matthew 5:16, to let their light shine. He believes that Bethel’s ministry experiences should reflect the abiding love of Jesus Christ, as well as love for one another; and that “our focus, as we turn the proverbial pages of time, must be to show the outside world that we are on the CARING END of ministry” Owing to his persistence, Bethel became one of the first black churches in the nation to address the COVID-19 vaccine distribution disparity in underserved communities by becoming a vaccination distribution site. A variety of ministries such as the Bethel Community Development Corporation that provides affordable housing for disadvantaged families; the A Life Recovery Center that offers accessible, efficient, and cost-effective treatment to low income individuals; the Tallahassee Homeless Shelter Food Project that provides hot lunches to the homeless, and other outreach programs, bring healing and help to those in need and assist in the formation of more loving and wholesome communities. As pastor of Greater Institutional AME Church in Chicago, Illinois, Reverend McAllister’s devotion to community growth and development led to the creation of a Come Home For Christmas Ministry that serviced nearly 5,000 homeless, poor, and underprivileged adults and 2000 children and raised more than seven hundred thousand dollars to support needy families in Chicago during the Christmas season.
Throughout his ministry, Reverend McAllister has been prominently involved as a leader on all levels of the AME Church. Currently, he is the chairman of the Eleventh Episcopal District Board of Examiners, a member of the Board of Trustees of Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida, and chairperson of the finance committee for the Florida Annual Conference. He is constantly called upon to preach and teach throughout the AME Connection.
Reverend McAllister received the baccalaureate degree in criminal justice from South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, the Master of Divinity degree from the Turner Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Doctor in Ministry degree from the Chicago Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois
Reverend McAllister is the son of Bishop Julius Harrison McAllister, Sr., Presiding Prelate of the First Episcopal District of the AME Church and Mrs. Joan Marla McAllister, Episcopal Supervisor. He is married to Mrs. Deana Elizabeth Young McAllister, and they are the proud parents of three children: Julius Harrison III, Colin McKinley Young, and Dylan David Jeremiah.