Reverend Ike, formally the Right Reverend Dr. Frederick J.
Eikerenkoetter II (June 1, 1935, Ridgeland, South Carolina - ),
Th.B., D.Sc.L., Ph.D., founder and pastor of the Christ United
Church, is an American minister and electronic evangelist based in
New York City. Reverend Ike is of African American and Indonesian
descent.
He began his career as a teenage preacher and became assistant
pastor at Bible Way Church in Ridgeland, South Carolina. After
serving a stint in the Air Force as a Chaplain Service Specialist
(a noncomissioned officer assigned to assist chaplains), he
founded, successively, the United Church of Jesus Christ for All
People in South Carolina, the United Christian Evangelistic
Association in Boston, Massachusetts (which is still his main
corporate entity), and the Christ Community United Church in New
York City.
Reverend Ike's ministry reached its peak in the mid 1970s, when
his weekly radio sermons were carried by hundreds of stations
across the United States. He is still active as of 2007, with a
presence on the Internet and a syndicated television program.
